I sing and hope my song will form a rope of golden chords so that I can rescue someone else, should they fall overboard.

2005-11-27 at 11:47 p.m.

SOME PERSON:

But you have lyrics like:

you act like you’re hip to their tricks and you’re strong
but a virgin Wurlitzer heart never once had a song

which I've seen quoted in reviews of Hello Starling, and it's a really nice lyric, but the word Wurlitzer doesn't fit at all. I always wonder if I should remove the word when quoting the lyric to someone. Sometimes in order to make the flow of a song, Ritter throws out nonsense words. Nothing wrong with that, but don't say there's nothing forced about it. It's entirely forced, and yet somehow Ritter's delivery is so relaxed and so smooth that it works anyway, and you don't realize it was a nonsense word until after it's passed.

(anger)

ME:

It might just be me but I think that this line makes complete sense. The girl has never been in love, like a Wurlitzer that's never been played, so it's never had a song. In this case, I think the line wouldn't make sense if you took out the word Wurlitzer.

JOSH RITTER:

Hey All!
this is a really cool discussion and usually i don't like to butt in but what the hell, they're my lyrics...

"wurlitzer" is the name of a company that made musical instruments and muscial related equipment. When I wrote "a virgin wurlitzer heart" I was not referring to the wurlitzer organ, but to the wurlitzer jukebox.

many models of these were made between the 1930's and 1980's, but they all worked by playing a record when someone selected a tune by pressing a button. the records were placed inside the player and could be replaced.

I thought of a virgin wurlitzer as one that had no records yet, and thus no songs. a virgin wurlitzer heart is a heart that hasn't loved and thus has no song to sing...yet.

it's a little thing but it's important. i love nonsense words in songs but i never use them myself.

josh

Thank you.

speaking at length + speaking in lines