Writing prose would also mean having to drop what is probably the essential part of Mann’s art, the music. You have to make a lifetime habit of observing people in that way.” It took me a long time to become familiar with the form of songwriting. “Every now and then, I think about that,” said the 45-year-old, who first gained notice in the mid-’80s with the band ‘Til Tuesday and the hit song “Voices Carry.” “Then I think that writing an e-mail is really tough. But there’s a story that holds it together, these two people getting together and running away.”And Mann has never tried writing outside the song format. Mann says that “The Forgotten Arm,” for all its specificity and linear flow, is “not really a story. But she sees herself as far removed from that, and probably not even suited to writing precise narratives. Hollywood Jr., 1947” last year.) Given that interest, it’s easy to envision Mann actually switching gears and writing prose. Her husband, songwriter Michael Penn, released his own concept album, “Mr. It’s all or nothing with me.” (Mann is not the only one in the family to feel that way. If I’m interested enough in a character to write a song about him, he’s dynamic enough to write a whole record about. There are a lot of viewpoints, if I’m interested in a character. It’s nice to explore characters over more than one song. “I treated it like they were songs for a soundtrack, like this song would go with a scene where they separate.”It’s nice to have a story. at Belly Up in the Aspen Writers’ Foundation’s Lyrically Speaking series. The songs are listed as “chapters.” “I did try to keep them about the same characters,” said Mann, who appears tonight at 7 p.m. The liner notes open like a book, with a table of contents and an advisory that all characters portrayed are fictitious. The story ends on an uplifting note, with the song “Beautiful.” It is, thematically, a fairly direct continuation of the songs from “Magnolia,” but culminating in a semblance of narrative writing, akin to a novella.
Lyrics magnolia soundtrack series#
Through a series of poetic, downcast songs, the two grapple with emotional issues, stemming both from the fragility of their relationship and from their own delicate personalities. In the opening song, “Dear John,” John and Caroline meet at a carnival in Richmond, Va. There were themes I was writing about.”There’s nothing “kind of” about the concept behind “The Forgotten Arm.” The 2005 album tells the story of a pair of troubled lovers in the ’70s. Mann says the album was “kind of conceptual. “Lost in Space,” from 2000, Mann’s second release on her own SuperEgo Records, was a tentative step into a more extended form. “I thought, why not? I didn’t answer to anyone,” she said. For several years, she had been at odds with the major-label realm her divorce from Geffen, which had released two of her solo albums, was documented in Mann’s song, “Calling It Quits.” She decided to celebrate her independence. I thought, I’d really like to keep writing about these characters.”Eventually, Mann saw no reason not to. “As I started writing songs, I found myself wishing I didn’t have to try to make songs that completely didn’t relate to each other at all. “I sort of was thinking about it vaguely,” she said. “It was the first time having songs be almost an adjunct to a story line.”The possibility of thinking beyond the confines of a single song got lodged in Mann’s mind following the “Magnolia” experience. Listen to the “Magnolia” soundtrack – which opens with Mann covering Three Dog Night’s “One,” and features a few songs by other artists, but is built around Mann’s original works – and there is a coherent emotional, if not literal, story being told.”It’s the first time I’d thought of writing songs for a movie,” said Mann, by phone from her home in Los Angeles. Mann, long seen as an underappreciated talent, earned an Oscar nomination for best original song, for “Save Me,” a four-and-a-half minute piece that encapsulated a story that ran three hours and wove together multiple narratives.Beyond the individual songs that Mann contributed to “Magnolia,” there was a sense that the body of work she created for the film could almost tell a story on its own.
Anderson was so taken with the lyrics, that they influenced the characters and stories. It was, as with all aspects of the film, a spot-on choice: Mann’s songs – haunted, complex and wise – matched the tone of the film.
(Sheryl Nields)įor “Magnolia,” the ambitious and accomplished 1999 film of grief and redemption, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson enlisted Aimee Mann to construct the majority of the soundtrack.
tonight at Belly Up as part of the Aspen Writers' Foundation Lyrically Speaking series. Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann appears at 7 p.m.
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