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Songs of Love and Horror: Collected Lyrics of Will Oldham

Songs of Love and Horror: Collected Lyrics of Will Oldham

Current price: $26.95
Publication Date: October 9th, 2018
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN:
9780393651201
Pages:
304

Description

The definitive collection of lyrics from three decades of songwriting.

As a performer, songwriter, and actor, Will Oldham has carved a singular path through the worlds of indie folk and cinema. Now the critically acclaimed, enigmatic artist presents his life’s work: the lyrics to more than two hundred songs spanning the 1980s to the present, each with annotations that impart new meaning to his music.

Oldham’s aphoristic meditations—on death, patience, and turning carelessness into a virtue—are, like his lyrics, profound, earthy, and often funny. They reveal flashes of Oldham’s philosophy, the sources and circumstances that inspired his lyrics, and the literary ambition of his songwriting. Separated from their aural form, Oldham’s lyrics become a new kind of poetry—candid, awkward, and wise—with influences as diverse as Rabindranath Tagore and The Mekons.

A book that will delight his longtime fans and inspire young songwriters, Songs of Love and Horror reveals an artist who has captured extraordinary poetry in music despite being "a stranger among my own language."

About the Author

Performing as himself, Palace Brothers, or Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Will Oldham has released more than twenty studio albums, along with EPs, singles, and music for film and television. He is a longtime denizen of Louisville, Kentucky.

Praise for Songs of Love and Horror: Collected Lyrics of Will Oldham

Illustrates, among other things, the impressive breadth of [Oldham's] work, and its distinctive jumble of off-color imagery.
— Rolling Stone