| LIZ PHAIR ESSAY |
| The following is an analysis I wrote on the changing relationship between Liz Phair's use of words and her persona with each album. Write me what you think and any comments you may have on my interpretations. |
| Liz Phair: An Examination of Raw Language Use And Its Effects On A Musician�s Persona by Jeff Gibson Many musicians have used language to accomplish everything from rebellion to shock-value. But no other musician has used language quite like Liz Phair. With her first independent release, Exile In Guyville, Phair took the independent scene by storm, writing frankly about relationships and her sexuality. In one song, she declared herself the Blowjob Queen, which became an epithet that exemplified her persona. It wasn�t just her blunt vulgarity that people found incredible. Phair had a way of creating imagery in her language with such clarity that made their intentions unmistakable. She also had an original use of wordplay, using unfamiliar meanings or contexts of words, occasionally as seemingly obsolete slang terms. All of the rawness in Phair�s lyrics has grown less blunt with each album. Her second album, Whip-Smart, sustained some of Guyville�s rawness, but seemed to rely on it a little less. Phair recorded her latest album, whitechocolatespaceegg, after her marriage and the birth of her son. Like her post-adolescent days in Guyville, motherhood and marriage are key elements to whitechocolatespaceegg, and she seems to leave the Blowjob Queen persona behind for a more mature, grown-up persona. Phair also replaces vulgarity with other words to get her equally blunt messages across, and she replaces wordplay with writing from the male�s perspective. In this paper, I will try to examine Phair�s use of language in her lyrics of each album and see how each shapes her persona as a musician. Exile In Guyville Liz Phair litters her first album with broken relationships and the disintegration of love with jaw-dropping, confessional lyrics. She boasts such words as fuck and come. Probably the best example of Phair�s sexual rawness is the song Flower. The song starts out with "Every time I see your face/ I get all wet between my legs," and continues with phrases like "I want to fuck you like a dog/ I�ll take you home and make you like it." Phair best demonstrates the song�s theme on raw lust with "You�re probably shy and introspective/ That�s not part of my objective/ I just want your fresh young jimmy/ Cramming, slamming, ramming in me." Then concludes the song with "I�ll fuck you �till your dick is blue." It is this blunt, confessional use of language, which will be clearly seen throughout this examination, that helps create Phair�s ingenue persona as the Blowjob Queen. Notice also her use of words to create a raw imagery, and emphasize the point: "fuck you like a dog" and "Cramming, slamming, ramming in me" all create one unmistakable image for each phrase, thus also adhering to the sense of raw lust. None of these images invoke a feeling of romanticism. In the song Stratford-On-Guy, Phair creates imagery to describe details of a plane flight: "Watching the lake turn the sky into blue-green smoke/ The sun was setting to the left of the plane/ And the cabin was filled with an unearthly glow." This imagery helps create a sense of conscious observation that leads to an awakening of sorts (It took an hour, maybe a day/ But once I really listened, the noise/ Just went away). Another aspect of Liz�s songs that helped characterize her persona is her wordplay. In the song Canary, Phair writes "I come when called/ I come, that�s all." The first use of the word come seems to be in an obedient context, while the second use seems to be in a sexual context. In Divorce Song, Liz writes "And when I asked for a separate room/ it was late at night/ and we�d been driving since noon." It seems when she uses the word driving, Phair�s referring to intercourse. It is possible Phair and her partner were in the middle of a road trip somewhere in a car when she asked for a separate room, but since she then says "but if I�d known/ How that would sound to you/ I would have stayed in your bed," and later "� it�s harder to be friends than lovers" it seems most likely that the couple was in bed. Phair also plays with the words dead and death, namely with a reference to the wedding vow "Till death do us part." In Divorce Song, Liz writes, "And the license said/ you had to stick around until I was dead/ But if you�re tired of looking at my face I guess I already am." Clearly, she doesn�t use the word dead literally, rather figuratively, in accordance to the wedding vow. In Dance of the Seven Veils, Phair writes "So, Johnny, my love, we got us a witness/ Now all we gotta do is get a preacher/ He can probably skip the "until death" part/ Cause Johnny, my love, you�re already dead." Again, she uses the word death figuratively, this time possibly referring to Johnny�s personality or lifestyle. |
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