Diss Track by Scathing Lyric
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I read Bird by Bird when I was still in high school, without many stories of my own to tell. But Anne Lamott's book on writing certainly left an impression. Write what you know, and own it. Whether I was trying my hand at creative writing or my first lyrics, the concept that observing the smallest details can tell the largest story stuck with me.
I certainly learned that from other songwriters, but I keep going back to one of Lamott's quotes when I write autobiographically: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”
That's not to say that all dirty laundry needs its time in the air, but if apologies are never made, if accountability is never taken, I'll gladly listen to (or tell) the tale.
It's not always about airing grievances, but about reclaiming a narrative. The sick burn of some of my favorite songs is often bigger than personal catharsis and chips away at the silence surrounding bad behavior.
I think about that quote again as I rewatch the Super Bowl halftime show. The diss track to end all diss tracks being chanted by a stadium full of people. You could think it's petty, or a bridge too far, but if you didn't want someone calling you a pedo, maybe don't get in the habit of texting teenage girls when you're a grown ass man.
I love a good scathing lyric, because odds are the person on the receiving end did not act with kindness, and sometimes songs are the only healing or closure we'll ever get.
A lot of these songs are a way of saying that the bad behavior thrived in part because we let it, so that ends here with this observation that we no longer trust you, or hope you walk away and don't come back, or that you have to hear our voice on the radio forever and ever.
Sometimes anonymously screaming those chosen words along with hundreds of strangers at a show is arguably more healing than ever saying them directly to someone's face.
Check out a few of my favorites here.
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5/10 - Philadelphia, PA at Nikki Lopez (ALL AGES)
5/11 - Boston, MA at Deep Cuts (18+ / all ages with guardian)
5/13 - Brooklyn, NY at Brooklyn Made (16+ / all ages with guardian)
5/14 - Buffalo, NY at Rec Room (16+ / all ages with guardian)
5/15 - Toronto, ON at Sneaky Dees (19+)
5/16-18 - Montreal, QC at Pouzza Fest
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