In class on Wednesday, August 28th, we talked about how lyric and narrative are different.  Lyric is more about emotion and narrative is plot-driven.  We were taught that lyric contains the germ of a story, but it is more feeling than plot.

I wasn’t sure what song to pick, but this new song from AFI seems to fit the bill well enough. That same day in class we also talked about Epithalamiums, which are marriage poems but tend to have thinly veiled sexual content.  This song seems to be a little sexy in a way. The lyrics show a dark and sexy side. Davey, the singer and lyricist of AFI, says in an interview about their upcoming album (link below), that the lyrics are very personal to him compared to all of their other albums.  The only way he was really able to create the new album was by bearing his soul this time around.  I believe that this song fits in with the idea of an epithalamium.  It also seems to be more lyrical, but there is a little bit of a narrative tone to some of the lines (the references to being seventeen, for example).  The song is not specific to Davey, even though it comes from his experiences and feelings in some way; it is universal to people listening to it, which makes it lyrical.

Interview with AFI — “17 Crimes” Lyrics