Tuesday, April 12, 2022

"Hung up on a Dream"

Last night, I was thinking about "Hung up on a Dream," and I realized that the line "And turned me on to sounds unheard" bears some resemblance to part of John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn":  "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on."  Both comment on "unheard" sounds.

In Claes Johansen's Hung up on a Dream, Argent says that Shakespeare's "language spoke to me; it had an indefinable, spiritual quality."  This line in "Hung up on a Dream" may be an instance of Keats' language eliciting a similar response, or it could just be a coincidence.