Songs About Art

Modern Art by Art Brut

Modern art
Makes me
Want to rock out
(x4)
So I'm in the Tate
And I'm looking at Hockney
And oh sweet Jesus
There's something about that blue
It touches me deep inside
Amazes me when I step outside
I'm sweating
I'm sweating
I'm beginning to palpitate
I can't help myself
I just can't help myself

Modern art
Makes me
Want to rock out
(x4)

So I'm in the Pompidou
In Paris
And they're more laid back about their art galleries
There's little children running around
I see a piece on Matisse
Take three steps back
Take a long run up
And I jump at it!

Modern art
Makes me
Want to rock out

Songs About Art

Recently I've noticed that there are a ton of songs about art and artists, so I've decided to post them occasionally. Most youtube videos about artists come with a cheesy montage; I've opted to start this series with one of the classier montage free options, Nat King Cole "Mona Lisa".

Songs About Art

"My Funny Valentine" by Chet Baker

Not explicitly about art, but such beautiful lyrics about aesthetics; this will always be one of my all time favorite songs.

Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable
Yet youre my favourite work of art

Is your figure less than greek
Is your mouth a little weak
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?

Songs About Art

Art School by The Jam

Anything that you wanna do, anyplace that you wanna go
Don't need permission for everything that you want
Any taste that you feel is right
Wear any clothes just as long as they're bright
Say what you want, 'cos this is a new art school
Do what you want if it takes your mind
Better do it now, 'cos you won't have time
And never worry if people laugh at you
The fools only laugh 'cos they envy you
Time is motion and the hands are fast
Young words are mumbled, they don't always last
It's up to us to be sure they understand
Who makes the rules that make people select
Who is to judge that your ways are correct
The media as watchdog is absolute shit
The TV telling you what to think
Anything that you wanna do, anyplace that you wanna go
Don't need permission for everything that you want
Any taste that you feel is right
Wear any clothes just as long as they're bright
Say what you want, 'cos this is a new art school
Do what you want, 'cos this is the new art school

Andrea Dorfman

Originally I was introduced to Andrea Dorfman's work by my friend Katie, through a Facebook post of her video "Art." I was going to post it as a "Songs About Art" post, but then I started looking through her website; I was entranced. Her videos are beautiful, not sophisticated, but genuine and worth an exploration. Here is "Art," written by Tanya Davis and filmed by Andrea Dorfman:

This next video is also filmed and illustrated by Andrea and features a poem by Tanya Davis.


Check out her stuff though, it made me smile.

Songs About Art

"The Art Teacher" by Rufus Wainwright

Songs About Art

Deer Tick "Art Isn't Real (City of Sin)"


And I know that I could never afford a taste,
Of anything that your lovely hands make,
It eats away before the soul brake.
Just because it brings a smile to my face,
such a bad memory, you just can't erase.

Songs About Art

Art Snob Solutions by Of Montreal
What’s up directors? Grab your knives!
It’s time to take all all of the lives
Of the people who cannot see the somnolent genius of Tarkovsky

Come on authors grab your guns!
It’s time to murder everyone who has never heard of Apollinaire
Send them all to hell it’s only fair

Cast them all into the flames if they don’t know any names
Of the principles of Arte Povera
Or are unfamiliar with le serpent mascara
That’s right mascara snake!!!

Come on painters alive or dead
Give all the cretins a boot to the head
If they don’t extoll convincingly
Tempered Elan era Kandinsky

Throw them all into a well if they cannot tell
An Arto Parv feast of repitition from a Schoenburg 12 tone composition

Come on artists the day is here
And your mission is very clear
Put an end to the bourgoussie
And death to everyone who’s never heard of me

Songs About Art

This is the first song released from Regina Spektor's upcoming album, 'What We Saw From the Cheap Seats.' I am a huge Regina fan, and when I heard this on NPR's All Songs Considered, it gave me goosebumps.



All the Rowboats By Regina Spektor

All the rowboats in the paintings
They keep trying to row away
And the captains’ worried faces
Stay contorted and staring at the waves
They’ll keep hanging in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away

Hear them whispering french and german
Dutch, italian, and latin
When no one’s looking i fetch a sculpture
Marble, cold, and soft as satin
But the most special are the most lonely
God, i pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price you pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
Here’s your ticket, welcome to the tombs
They’re just public mausoleums
The living dead fill every room
But the most special are the most lonely
God, i pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing

They will hang there in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away

Songs About Art

'Andy Warhol' by David Bowie

Songs About Art

Is it lazy to just post a video? Yes, but it's better than nothing isn't it?

 Kodachome by Paul Simon

When I think back On all the crap

I learned in high school

It's a wonder I can think at all

And though my lack of education

Hasn't hurt me none I can read the writing

on the wall Kodachrome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world's a

sunny day I got a Nikon camera I love to

take a photograph

So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

If you took all the girls I knew

When I was single

And brought them all together for one night

I know they'd never match my sweet imagination

Everything looks worse in black and white

Songs About Art

"Painting by Chagall" by The Weepies
Thunder rumbles in the distance, a quiet intensity
I am willful, your insistence is tugging at the best of me
You're the moon, I'm the water
You're Mars, calling up Neptune's daughter

Sometimes rain that's needed falls
We float like two lovers in a painting by Chagall
All around is sky and blue town
Holding these flowers for a wedding gown
We live so high above the ground, satellites surround us.

I am humbled in this city
There seems to be an endless sea of people like us
Wakeful dreamers, I pass them on the sunlit streets
In our rooms filled with laughter
We make hope from every small disaster

Everybody says "you can't, you can't, you can't, don't try."
Still everybody says that if they had the chance they'd fly like we do.

Songs About Art

"So Long Frank Lloyd Wright" by Simon and Garfunkel


"So Long Frank Lloyd Wright"
by Simon and Garfunkel

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright.
I can't believe your song is gone so soon.
I barely learned the tune
So soon
So soon.

I'll remember Frank Lloyd Wright.
All of the nights we'd harmonize till dawn.
I never laughed so long
So long
So long.

CHORUS
Architects may come and
Architects may go and
Never change your point of view.
When I run dry
I stop awhile and think of you

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright
All of the nights we'd harmonize till dawn.
I never laughed so long
So long
So long.

Songs About Art

It has been WAY too long since I posted one of these.

Mona Lisa by Grant Lee Phillips

You're the last of your kind, Mona Lisa
With a wink of your eye,
Ya make it all right
Oh there's more left to life, Mona Lisa
Let me take you along for the ride

Aint nothin’ that stays the same
Won't ask it a’ you
Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday
Say ya won’t ever lose

I been down, I been worse
Mona Lisa
Came in last, came in first
But it all gathers dirt, Mona Lisa
‘Fore ya bathe in the light

Aint nothin’ that stays the same
Won't ask it a’ you
Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday
Say ya won't ever lose

Oh ya taught me this much, Mona Lisa
I done set it aside
For when you need the same magic touch
For for when you need remindin’

Aint nothin’ that stays the same
Won't ask it a’ you
Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday
Say ya won't ever lose
Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday
Say ya won't ever lose

Songs About Art

"Sensitive Artist" by King Missile

Songs About Art

'Painter in Your Pocket' by Detroyer
"...where did you get that line
where did you get that look
where did you get that penchant for destruction in the way you talk

where did you get that ride
where did you get that rocket
where did you get that painter in your pocket..."

Songs About Art

Sadly, I couldn't find this song in English, so those who don't speak French will have to read the English lyrics posted bellow.
"Pavement Artist" from Mary Poppins

Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey
Chim chim cher-oo!
I does what I likes and I likes what I do

Today I'm a screever and as you can see
A screever's an artist of 'ighest degree
And it's all me own work
From me own memory

Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey
Chim chim cher-oo!
I draws what I likes and I likes what I drew
No remuneration do I ask of you
But me cap would be glad of a copper or two

Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey
Chim chim cher-oo!
La dum, de da dum
da da da da dum
Mmm hmm...

Songs About Art

"Air Painter" by Cansei de Ser Sexy

It would take more than a day to change.
It would take more than a thousand pens and papers
to let go, to grow, so much crap.

Tell me a story, write down a secret,
Buy me a sandwich, get me some hot tea,
Speak in your language, turn off the t.v.,
Make me a drawing, …..
Send me a postcard, write me a letter
And sing this song as loud as you can be

I’m a black eyed raccoon working from the moon
I look back and all I did was blank
Not there never there

It was all dream of gray fantasy
To much hope tricking me
Draw the smiles on my face
Draw your face on my face
I miss you

Songs About Art

"Comic Strip" by Serge Gainsbourg

Songs About Art

Norah Jones "Painter Song"