Al Stewart is a British singer/songwriter/guitarist known particularly for exemplifying the 'confessional' school of songwriting in his early years and for his single "Year of the Cat".
Official website:
http://www.alstewart.com/
Tropes associated with Al Stewart and/or his work include:
- Been There Shaped History: Al himself is a real life example. He met Yoko Ono before any of The Beatles and shared a flat with Simon & Garfunkel (and was their roadie on their first big tour).
- Concept Album: Past, Present, and Future is a historical based album with a song for each decade of the twentieth century. Between The Wars does the same for the period 1919-1938. Down in the Cellar is a concept album inspired by wine.
- Hypocritical Humour: A darker example with "Night of the 4th of May". The narrator begins by telling his girlfriend that he wants an open relationship and goes off with another woman at a party... and then gets huffy because his girlfriend does exactly the same thing.
- Granola Girl: Heroines like these turn up in a few of his songs, including "Year of the Cat" and "In Brooklyn".
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Post World War II Blues". The tune is bouncy, the lyrics are a catalogue of almost every major tragedy of the post 1945 years.
- "Last Train To Munich". The music is catchy Django Rheinhard style jazz. The lyrics are about how the narrator is sending his best friend on an espionage mission which will almost certainly lead to his death.
- Precision F-Strike: On the song "Love Chronicles". Bonus points for using it in its literal sense as well.
- Shown Their Work: Exemplifies this trope with his historical songs which are all thoroughly researched and contain all manner of references to obscure individuals and little known historical incidents and anecdotes.
- Tyrant Takes The Helm: The song “Joe the Georgian” is actually about Joseph Stalin's rise to power, re-imagined in a naval setting. While the real life story may be subjective to some, the song definitely isn't.
We all set off together
On this sorry ship of state
When the captain took the fever
We were hijacked by the mate
And he steered us through the shadows
Upon an angry tide
And cast us one by one over the side
- Word Salad Lyrics: Generally Al works hard on the meaning of his lyrics but this trope comes into play in "Red Toupee" which was originally merely meant to be guide lyrics to a backing track from co-writer Peter White. However, they both thought the lyrics sounded so good they kept them as they were.
0 reviews