"My idea about songs is that once you write them, you have very little say in their life afterward. It’s a lot like having a baby. You conceive a song, deliver it, and then give it as good a start as you can. After that, it’s on its own. People will take it any way they want to take it."
— Folk singer Melanie explaining the defining principles of New Criticism far better and far more succinctly than any critical theorist I know, including myself.
(Source: superseventies.com)
