Characters

OK, so I'm taking just a single break from 3 Songs posts to give a quick talk about characters. By characters, I'm referring to the people created by artists through their songs. The three which always stand out for me are Fred Jones, partially created by Ben Folds Five, Jimmy Recard, invented by Aussie rapper Drapht and finally Strickland Banks, created by the British artist Plan B.

This post is going to be rather train of thought, as I have no particular goal other than to inform and discuss the three artists and their characters. First of all, why these three characters? Ben Folds has basically created a different character for each of his songs, and Jimmy Recard is basically a Mary Sue character. Both of these facts are true, but three things set these characters apart. Firstly, the presence of both first and last names. It may sound simple, but the presence of a surname can add so much to a character. It gives a slightly better description, as in many cases it can imply the heritage of the character, where they are from as well as simply showing that the artist has fleshed out the concept enough to give them a full name, rather than just "Zak" or "Dr. Yang" or "Stan" (all Ben folds references. Pick them if you can). Secondly, all of the characters are recurring, having been featured in at least two songs. Fred Jones is from "Cigarettes" and "Fred Jones Part 2". Jimmy Recard is from "Jimmy Recard" and "R.I.P J.R". Strickland Banks is from every song of the lyrically and musically fantastic album "The Defamation Of Strickland Banks".

Now, I'd like to just briefly talk about the story ark of each character. Fred Jones is a character who was created when Ben Folds read a sentence from a newspaper he found in the trash, which discusses the somewhat fragile situation between Jones and his wife, who allowed him no peace through the illness and drug addiction. The second song entails Jones losing his job, being the last of all the people he knew at the newspaper.

Recard is a unique kind of character, by literary standards as well as lyrical. Jimmy Recard was created by Drapht taking two very popular boys names (James and Richard) and developing a persona from them. At the beginning of the first Recard song, Drapht (real name Paul Ridge) starts by discussing his own name, deciding that if he had been given a better name (such as Jimmy) he would have become a more interesting, successful individual. The rest of the song is pretty much describing how awesome Jimmy Recard is. It's a catchy, interesting song. The second reference is on the song "R.I.P J.R" (Rest In Peace, Jimmy Recard, if you didn't quite get it); although it is possible other songs on the album are about this character. Sadly, I don't have the album and can't find any of the bloody lyrics online. Anyway, "R.I.P J.R" is about the death of Jimmy Recard, (as of June 2012) the only character of the three to have been killed off by his artist. I would love to be able to track down the lyrics to discuss them, but they can be left lost, as the theme of the song is the fact that Drapht was being eclipsed by the success of "Jimmy Recard". This reflects the nature of the song, to be perfectly honest. Ask someone about "Jimmy Recard", they'd be able to recite a few lyrics. Ask the artist, you'd get a shrug. To be fair, Drapht is far from a one hit wonder, as his song "Rapunzel" is actually my favourite of his works, and at least matched the success of Recard. However, Drapht was apparently repeatedly asked if there was another "Jimmy Recard" on the new album, having Recard turn from a creation into a personal hindrance, especially judging by the nature of several songs on the new album (named "The Life Of Riley" by the way). To have a character turn from good to evil by no act of their own doing is a fascinating concept, which I'll hopefully go into soon.

Now, Strickland Banks is the protagonist from one of my top three albums of all time, so I must acknowledge any bias. I do love the work of Folds and Drapht, but I can't profess any particular affection to the songs of discussion. Plan B is very different. Plan B is not so much a one hit wonder, as much as a one hit album wonder, as he is principally a rapper (and, to be honest, a terrible rapper, wasting talent which could easily make him the most recognisable face in soul and R&B for an entire generation, instead of mixing the rage of The Clash with the song-writing prowess of a twelve year old. And not an overly talented one at that. For fuck's sake, his latest single (as far as I'm aware) contains the lines "Oi! I said oi! What you looking at little rich boy?" and "My manors ill. For real. Yeah, you know my manors ill. My manors ill." For context, both those lines are in the chorus. So they're repeated several times throughout the song. I'm pretty sure I've already posted about this, so I'll shut up now. Anyway, Banks begins as a successful R&B singer, who has two successful songs. Upon successfully reaching...some financial or sales goal... he goes on a wild night out, ignoring his girlfriend. He meets a girl in a bar and goes up to a hotel room with her, wherein she claims she's in love with him, as she loved one of his songs. Banks, rather understandably, thinks she's crazy and doesn't sleep with her. The next day he is arrested by the police, accused of rape. The hit from the album, "She Said", entails the court case, in which he is found guilty and is sent to Belmarsh (a notorious British prison). In Belmarsh, Banks initially hides in his cell, perhaps a part of a mental breakdown, but eventually emerges. The other prisoners begin beating him and, fearing for his life, he obtains a shiv. During a fight, Banks accidentally kills one of his attackers, going into a panic. Luckily for Banks, a prisoner with a life sentence takes the blame for the crime, allowing Banks to go free. Following this, Banks' girlfriend breaks up with him, a devastating blow as she is suggested as being the muse behind the two successful songs of Banks. Finally, new evidence is discovered, calling for a re-examination of the case and another court case, the album ending on the jury emerging with their verdict. You have no idea how many times I have examined and cross examined the lyrics and tone of that song attempting to work out what happened.

Now, a comparison. Jones is unique of the three characters for one key reason: he is a tragic figure. Everything attributed to him is a failure or problem. Nothing good ever happens to him. Although Banks did have a rough time in the last 10 songs of the album, he has a good life before that. Jones is shown as nothing short of miserable.

Secondly, Jones stands out because of his creator. Folds is both the only American and the only non-rapper of the selection, making the development of Jones much different. Folds is used to working with a certain amount of time and lyrics, finding the communication of emotion more important than the communication of plot or character. What I'm attempting to say is that the three characters I'm examining are the embodiments of the three most important parts of a character: Emotion (Fred Jones), Characterisation (Jimmy Recard) and Plot (Strickland Banks).

Recard does not do anything. This is a very simple point. He just walks around a casino (I think) in the song he is named for, and then dies. This does not make his existence useless, mind you, just shows that he serves a much different purpose to Banks and Jones, especially. Recard allows Drapht to explore aspects of his music that he hasn't been able to before. Hip-hop doesn't allow much room for fantasy, at least in comparison to soul and piano-pop, meaning the necessity of creating an alter-ego is certainly there. Drapht does not wish to typecast himself as a happy-go-lucky party guy, and certainly shouldn't, considering the deep and very personal content of many tracks off of his most recent album, so he created Recard to fill that role. Honestly, I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to say that Paul Ridge is two people: Drapht and Jimmy Recard. Three if you count Ridge as another character altogether, but I wouldn't make that leap. Drapht for thought, Recard for fun. Drapht, however, consumed the character of Recard as Recard proved to be someone Ridge didn't want to be, resulting in the death of Recard. Please note a complete lack of proof.

Banks is a little of emotion and characterisation, but mostly plot. To be fair, if you gave Recard or Jones an entire album, I could probably say much more about them too. The thing to remember with Banks is that he comes from a different place as Jones and Recard, as Banks was the only character actually intended to take on a life of his own. I think the simplest proof for this is that Ben Drew (a.k.a Plan B) played the role of Banks in the music videos (speaking of which, one was made for each of the songs off of the album. Watch them. Now. Really, I'm just going to talk shit for a while longer. You're missing nothing.).This shows, that unlike Drapht, Plan B had no qualms about being known only as or for Strickland Banks. The other thing to look at is how Plan B has a lot to say in regards to society. Banks can be seen as a critique of a few things, but is not portrayed as a caricature. In comparison to Jones, who at points almost becomes comedically pathetic, Banks is a fully fleshed out character, moreso even than Recard. Again, this may due to the sheer amount of time he receives, but it still cannot be argued that he is more realistic. This makes me think that Banks is not a way of protesting anything, more an actual idea of Plan B, and I cannot say enough that I truly hope Plan B returns to soul.

Anyway, I've said much more than enough, so I hope anyone with the capacity to read the entire post have at least a little food for thought.