‘I Hear the Sound of a Gentle Word’: Lyrical Themes and Gestures
Brian Wilson - Kirk Curnutt
Kirk Curnutt [+ ]
Troy University
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Kirk Curnutt is Professor of English at Troy University Montgomery. He is the author of a number of works of fiction and scholarly books including, most recently, Key West Hemingway (University Press of Florida, 2009), The Cambridge Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald (Cambridge University Press, 2007), A Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald (Oxford University Press, 2004) and the forthcoming Reading Hemingway's To Have and Have Not: Glossary and Commentary (Kent State University Press, 2011).
Description
In this chapter, the author explores whether Brian Wilson's songs have a deep meaning or if they are considered to be just 'pop songs'. The question discussed in this section is: what evaluative standards decide whether the words to any pop song are good or bad, profound or shallow?