Words & Music by Mike Power

“Brevity is the soul of lingerie” – Dorothy Parker

Although this blog is called Words & Music there are situations that call for economy in the use of words. 

The longest song The Beatles ever released (except for the experimental Revolution 9) is “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” which clocks in at 7 minutes 47 seconds. It contains 12 words:

            I want you so bad it’s driving me mad

            She’s so heavy

But you wouldn’t know it listening to the song. It sounds like it’s full of words because John keeps repeating them in slightly different form:

            I want you

            I want you so bad, babe

            I want you so bad it’s driving me mad

            It’s driving me mad

That’s 22 words, but it’s really only 9 words that are mixed around a bit.

It’s about lust, of course. A feeling that can tie the tongue of the best of us. Words can seem maddeningly ineffective in the face of such naked passion. So you try to get by with the fewest you can. It’s not the size that matters anyway; it’s what you do with it.