As a teacher I must say that one of the greatest satisfactions in seeing ex-students succeed professionally. Of course, ex-students who succeed in one’s own academic professional field elicit a little (or much…) envy, but that is truly fine: a healthy reminder of one’s limitations and even mediocrity, to which honest teachers must always be reconciled. A different type of satisfaction, more relaxed, is afforded by ex-students who do well elsewhere. Recently, I found myself writing a fan email message to one of them, Joan Enric Barceló. If you live in Catalonia you may have heard of him as one of the members of perhaps the most charming pop band ever: Els Amics de les Arts (http://elsamicsdelesarts.cat/).
Years ago, many of them, a young Joan Enric recorded a CD with his band of the moment, Toadstools, titled Syncopated People. I still keep the copy which I got as the reward for revising the lyrics, written in outstanding student’s English. He then graduated after many comings and goings, became briefly an actor and next thing I knew, he had made it to the modest Catalan top ten with the Amics. They are part of the exciting new wave of Catalan pop and rock, with Manel at the forefront. These bands are characterised by a wholesome approach to what they do, and by their avoiding the rarefied atmosphere of other Catalan bands of the past that seemed political projects rather than gatherings of musicians. What gives Els Amics de les Arts their own singular personality is, in any case, the sheer wit of the lyrics.
Lyrics are peculiar type of (literary) writing. They’re not poetry, they needn’t make sense and they’re often pure cliché of the trite ‘I love you, I need you, I want you’ kind. This is why when I found myself LISTENING as I smiled to the very witty lyrics of Els Amics I simply loved it: finally someone was working hard on the writing that goes into songwriting. Mostly narrative, the songs by Els Amics capture everyday anecdotes in a language that is elegant and that does not shy away from making cultural allusions (or, rather, making fun of them). Check the very popular “Jean Luc” at the Amics’ website, it is perfect to illustrate my point, and it is simply delicious.
Joan Enric did answer my fan message, which made me teen-style happy. He explained in it about the band member’s difficulties to become professional musicians in such a small market as the one in Catalan –isn’t it funny how one tends to think that popular people always have it easy? He also explained that he found much satisfaction in being qualified by his English Philology degree to discuss the band’s lyrics in depth. Hey, I thought, this is what we, academics do, not pop stars! I realised then that was the novelty that had actually attracted me to Els Amics: they are capable not just of writing well but also of understanding the very mechanisms of good writing from a proficient academic point of view. A nice application to pop culture of the (English) Literature classes, as Joan Enric himself concluded.
I couldn’t be happier!