Conor Oberst, uno de los poetas desencantados predilectos de su generación, ha tejido sus letras en un universo en el que la melancolía, la rabia y la ternura coexisten en equilibrio frágil. Sus canciones han sido para muchos un refugio ante el caos, ya sea en solitario o con sus mútiples proyectos musiclaes (Bright Eyes el más destacado). El cantautor de Nebraska no solo cuenta historias, sino que despliega manifiestos que desgarran, confrontan y reconfortan a la vez. Sus palabras siguen doliendo y salvando a través del tiempo, y acá vamos a hacer un recorrido a través de sus mejores frases, llenas de crudeza y belleza, esas que nos ayudan a no sentirnos tan solos en el mundo:
1.- I believe that lovers should be chained together and thrown into a fire with their songs and letters, and left there to burn… Left there to burn in their arrogance.
A Perfect Sonnet/ Every Day and Every night EP/ 1999 – Bright Eyes)
2.- And your eyes must do some raining if you’re ever gonna grow. When crying don’t help, you can’t compose yourself, it’s best to compose a poem, an honest verse of longing or a simple song of hope.
Bowl of Oranges/ Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground LP/ 2002 – Bright Eyes
3.- You write such pretty words but life’s no story book. Love’s an excuse to get hurt and to hurt. Do you like to hurt? Then hurt me.
Lover I Don’t Have to Love/ Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground LP/ 2002 – Bright Eyes
4.- When the president talks to God, does he fake that drawl or merely nod? Agree which convicts should be killed? Where prisons should be built and filled? Which voter fraud must be concealed? When the president talks to God.
When the President Talks to God/ Motion Sickenss: Live Recordings LP/ 2005 – Bright Eyes
5.- Well ABC, NBC, CBS: Bullshit. They give us fact or fiction? I guess an even split. And each new act of war is tonight’s entertainment. We’re still the pawns in their game. As they take eye for an eye until no one can see, we must stumble blindly forward, repeating history.
Let’s No Shit Ourselves (To Love and Be Loved)/ Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground LP/ 2002 – Bright Eyes
6.- I wanna walk in that howling wind ‘til it scatters all my thoughts, sit all alone on the river bank ‘til I forget that I can talk
Just listen.
Time Forgot/ Upside Down Moountain LP/ 2014- Conor Oberst
7.- And me I’m in my bedroom drawing in my notebook ‘cause my hand thinks I’m an artist but my heart knows I’m a poet. It’s just words, they mean so little to me.
Saturday As Usual /A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995–1997 COMP/ 1998 – Bright Eyes