In Horse 3179 when I wrote about every song in the world, I touched upon "I Am A Man" by Bo Diddley. I do not think that this was the progenitor of the "dner-dner", IV-I-III-I chord structure, but it is what I consider to be the ur-example.
Dner-Dner songs more than any other are likely to be songs of straight up complaint more than anything else. Yes the blues is perfect for songs of lament and loss but Dner-Dner songs tend to be more straightforward, veering into economy of purpose.
Even just the mere mention of the musical phrase "dner-dner" is enough to make the blues positively run through your head. To wit..
dner-dner - I woke up this morning.
dner-dner - And I didn't feel good.
dner-dner - Said, I woke up this morning.
dner-dner - And I didn't feel good.
Right now, I bet that you have your own personal version of this riff running through your head, even though you have probably never heard "I Am A Man" by Bo Diddley. Recently though, I was listening to ABC Triple J when a listener requested "The Nature Of Reality" by Oasis.
dner-dner - WAH!
Beneath every guitar being tortured to within an inch of it's life, lies an insanely simple blues arrangement and quite possibly the most solipsistic set of lyrics ever written. This sounds like the blues but this is not simple complaint. This song denies the existence of reality in the first place.
The nature of reality,
Is pure subjective fantasy.
Space and time and here and now,
Are only in your mind.
Forget any notion of epistemology here. This song is not interested. Far beneath the question of what can be known, is the question of how it can be known. Solipsism argues that not even what can be assumed to be known can be taken as true. Solipsism taken to its logical endpoint would suggest that literally everything is ultimately unknowable because every knowable input is ultimately unreliable. This song by Oasis would have you believe that reality itself exists only in one's mind and even then, the belief that there even is a world outside is itself unknowable because every knowable input is ultimately unreliable.
Consider the classic example of the brain in a jar. Provided you could keep up an unlimited supply of reasonable inputs to it, it would have no reason to consider the possibility that literally everything in its world have been constructed for it. Not only would it have no idea that the world which was invented and fed to it wasn't real, but it would have no reason to question it. The beginning of The Matrix might hint at a world like this. However this song by Oasis would have you believe that it wouldn't matter if you took either the red pill or the blue pill because in either case, the world which you would see, wouldn't be real to begin with.
Machine of god and devil too.
With no weapons, just the truth.
Belief does not existence make.
It's only in your mind.
Perhaps one of the most famous phrases in continental philosophy is that of René Descartes from his "Discourse on the Method" (1637) which in Latin was rendered "Cogito, Ergo Sum", or in English "I Think, Therefore I am." The most reasonable way to interpret this idea from within the passage in which it exists, was that because Descartes couldn't actually prove the existence of anything and had to assume that even his own senses were lying to him about the world, then the only reliable point within is conception of the world was the fact that he could think about his conception of the world. At very least the fact that there was a thought which was conscious of itself meant that there must have been some ego to think the thought. It is not "I think, therefore my existence is consequent" but rather "I think, therefore even if all else is void, at least I exist."
There is a distinct problem with this line "Belief does not existence make" as well. Granted that you can not will physical objects into existence but you absolutely can will and believe some abstract things and products into existence. The value of One Dollar only really exists because we all collectively believe, hope, and trust in the fact that we can buy goods and services with it. Collective fidus in action as well as the collective fidus in the power and authority which issued it, actually causes that One Dollar to have any value at all. If someone says "I love you" and then believes that, then this is going to result in a practical demonstration of that love. That belief definitely does existence make and indeed is the underlying basis for why families, communities and even nations exist.
The biggest problem with Solipsism in principle is that even if we were to take the assumption that nothing actually exists, the reality has done a fantastically amazing job at collectively convincing us otherwise. I can be reasonably sure that my big tin of Nescafe Blend 43 which sits next to a bottle OFoods Gojujang Sauce will still be there when I get back home. I can be reasonably sure that the train that I am on, as it hurtles past Pendle Hill Station at 105km/h will eventually go over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I can be reasonably sure that everyone else on the train and everyone who crosses the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be convinced of the bridge's existence. People can be made to believe a lie if the lie is convincing enough but if the existence of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a lie, then this is a massive collective conspiracy which we've all involuntarily signed up for.
If the nature of reality is pure subjective fantasy, it has done such an amazing job at convincing literally everyone who has ever lived that reality is real, that even if it actually is objectively void then we've all joined the massive collective conspiracy and belief has existence made. Or else the more reasonable position is that the nature of reality is not pure subjective fantasy, that absolute Solipsism is functionally bunk, and that it is reasonably reasonable to believe that reality is real.
dner-dner - WAH!
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