Little Sale Tags
The more I think about songs, the more mysterious they become. They stand in our minds as spiritual histories of certain times; they represent in their lyrics and lines of melody wars and other disasters, moral process, the fruits of experience, and, like prayers, the consolations beyond loss. Peoples are brought into being by them. They are a resource both for the loyalists defending their country and the revolutionists overthrowing it. Yet they are such short and linear things. Little sale tags on life. It is essential for their effect that they not go on and on. Not only their single-mindedness but their brevity makes them instantly accessible as no other form is.
