When "Don't" Becomes a Positive Imperative--the "D" Songs

      As I continued tripping through my iPod, I discovered that I currently have 117 songs loaded that begin with the letter "D." Then I noticed that 20 of those songs start with the word "don't"--that's more than 1 in 6 of the "D" songs that start with the same negative imperative.
      At first I found this really depressing. Am I that drawn to the negative? I mean, I know that I can be pretty cynical; I've often spoken with friends about my affinity for "angry artists," the sarcastic and dispossessed who rail against Fate and shake their fist at God. I still have a very fond memory from high school of a poster I saw at Spencer's Gifts in the mall. The poster had reprinted a dictionary definition of the word "defiance" along with a cartoon of two figures--a mouse and an eagle. The eagle was diving, talons outstretched, toward the mouse, who, on the verge of death and with nowhere to run, stood baring his teeth at the eagle. And giving him the finger.
      OK, posters at Spencer's don't count as art, but I still love that kind of stuff, both in pop culture and in art. Was that the kind of impulse that had led me to collect so many songs that start with the word "don't"? Am I doomed to bitter old farthood, constantly complaining about the empty half of my glass and shouting at the kids to stay the hell out of my yard?
      Well, as it turns out, I may yet be redeemable. Because when I started looking closer at my "Don't" songs, I realized that despite the first word in their titles, many of the twenty songs turn out to be quite positive, if not downright Pollyanna-ish. Oh sure, there were a few downers, like Ryan Adams's "Don't Ask for the Water." With lines like, "Don't ask her for the water, she'll teach you to cry," that one can hardly be called positive. But quite a few of them can be, and here are some of the best:

• "Don't Give Up on Me" by Solomon Burke--King Solomon is one of those 60's-era soul singers who came up through gospel, but unlike many of them, he's still going strong (I think he recently did a show in Durham). "Don't Give Up on Me," the album's title track, is the plaintive plea of a man who knows he doesn't deserve a second, or third, or fourth chance, but he ain't too proud to beg. This track would easily have won its bracket in the "C" is for Crooner competition. His voice no longer has the silky smoothness it had in youth, but like Billie Holiday at the end of her career, Burke has learned how to milk a good song with impeccable phrasing and by infusing each line with a lifetime of hard-won experience. On this album he does some powerful covers of great songwriters including Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan. And he makes them all sound like soul. Nice trick.
• "Don't Let the World Get in Your Way" by The Jayhawks--You may have noticed that The Jayhawks turn up a lot on these "best of" lists. Catchy melodies, intricate harmonies...if radio and music TV weren't such corporate, creative wastelands, and if the goddess of music were still in her heaven, these guys would be multi-platinum superstars, the American Beatles. In fact, you should click this link right now and buy one of their albums. Do it! Do it!
• "Don't Need Anything" by Glenn Phillips--Phillips is the former lead singer and main songwriter for the now-defunct Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of my favorite bands of the 90's. His solo album "Winter Pays for Summer" doesn't match his best work with Toad, but a few songs stand out, including this simple, almost naïve little melody for one voice and piano. It's essentially a list song about contentment, naming the humble collection of things the narrator has, and always returning to the refrain, "I don't need anything that I don't have." How's that for a positive use of "don't?"
• "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House--this one has already turned up in a previous iPod discussion, so I'll just say, "Don't dream it's over...when the world comes in, they come, they come, to build a wall between us; you know they won't win."
• "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel (with Kate Bush)--The most desperate and least obviously positive song on this list is rendered even more poignant by the hope it ultimately offers. Gabriel's part lays out the bleak narrative of a redundant man. Unemployed and unable to find work in hard times ("I never thought I could fail...no one wants you when you lose"), his distress grows to thoughts of suicide. But at each crucial moment of his despair, Bush's ethereal voice intrudes with her simple but fervent encouragements ("when times get rough, you can fall back on us; don't give up, please, don't give up"). Despite the song's grim portrait of a perplexed man at the end of his rope, it's Bush's voice that we hear last--"Don't give up, you know it's never been easy; don't give up because I believe there's a place, a place where we belong."