The Tale of Jenny & Screech | Grammy Member Reacts to Ren's Shakespearean Tragedy

Comments · 977

• LI

  @Listenincolourwithrachel · 8 months ago · pinned

  If this tragedy left you speechless, you are not alone. 💔<br>🌻 To see the story continue: The tale isn&apos;t over. Watch what happens next in &quot;Sunflowers&quot; here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArXPQAlbg9A">https://youtu.be/ArXPQAlbg9A?si=gNBntoYcuhoNDgcR</a><br>🎸 New to Ren? If this was your first time hearing him, you HAVE to see the masterpiece that started it all. Watch &quot;Hi Ren&quot; here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuLXOV49Cv4">https://youtu.be/uuLXOV49Cv4?si=0TzYpgS4nATOF2-d</a><br>As a songwriter, I&apos;ve never seen storytelling like this. Let me know—did you spot the twist before the end? 👇

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• RA

  @randyr5546 · 8 months ago (edited)

  Rachel: &quot;I love how Ren uses his guitar to knock on the door, using his instrument as part of the story.&quot;<br>Ren: &quot;Hold my beer.&quot;

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• EN

  @Entropy72 · 8 months ago

  You were talking about Ren&apos;s medieval style of story-telling. We Renegades refer to this as &quot;Bardcore&quot;

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• RO

  @romazone101 · 8 months ago

  If no one has mentioned it, Jenny and James is the name given to wards of the state. Like Jane Doe, John Doe.<br>Another great reaction

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• RM

  @rmc7836 · 8 months ago

  It is so powerful, so horrific. There’s no actual violence, no blood, no patient on a hospital bed, no operation, and yet, and yet, and yet we wince, we gasp, we groan, we weep, we sob uncontrollably. This is truly theatre of the mind channeling Loach, Brecht, Miller, Sondheim, Dickens and Shakespeare. Ren is a genius.

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• LI

  @lisamarie79 · 8 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLLv346vX2Y&amp;t=27">0:27</a> “obsessed in a slightly unhealthy way” … lol I think we’ve all been there with Ren and his incredible work.

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• RA

  @raygoodspeed2382 · 8 months ago

  These tales are set in 2019. But Violet&apos;s Tale is 2005. 14 years earlier

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• LO

  @Lowandslowrider · 8 months ago

  Most guitarists don&apos;t carry around a guitar and play in the streets like Ren.<br>His busking has given him many skills not many have.

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• CA

  @caladonn2659 · 8 months ago (edited)

  &quot;Hi Ren&quot; and the &quot;Jenny, Screech, and Violet&apos;s Tale&quot; should be Required Study in Many Different Fields. From Music, to Acting, To Directing, To Psychology, It Touches on Many Different Levels. Ren is a Master at making people both Think and Feel, And in This World We NEED to BOTH &quot;Think&quot; AND &quot;Feel&quot;! Feeling without Thinking Leads to Chaos, while Thinking without Feeling Leads to Stagnation! Only a Balance of Both will Lead to Survival in the Dance of the Pendulum!

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• KA

  @Kasartigan · 8 months ago

  Hey Rachel, what a warm and caring reaction to such a gruesome subject matter❤ Ren got the idea for this track from a newspaper article about a teen streetwalker who was murdered and the headline was &quot;It&apos;s such a shame&quot;. Also, you weren&apos;t meant to notice this, but Violet&apos;s identity was actually teased long before the reveal at the end. In Jenny&apos;s Tale, Ren wears a red jacket, and in Screech&apos;s Tale, a blue one. What do you get when those two colours are mixed? Yup. Ren is one of those artists who transcend boxes, always authentic, always unflinching and always ready to challenge his listeners. And really, isn&apos;t that what great art is supposed to do? The thrill is like you said that we never know what&apos;s coming next. You referred to him as a balladeer and Ren has, in fact, half-jokingly, referred to his style as Bardcore, which is a clever catch-all term for his output. You also asked about Awards. His album Sick Boi went to #1 in the UK in October 2023 ahead of Rick Astley after a significant online campaign. Dont forget, he&apos;s as independent as they come, with no financial backing from a record company to help boost sales. Truly a historic achievement! This meant that his next video, Money Game part 3, got an increased budget, as you saw. It went on to win him Best Music Video and Best Director at the International Music Video Awards in 2024. So there you go. This was a long post, hope you got through it😊 Oh and if you didn&apos;t know, Ren&apos;s brand new video premiers Thursday on YT so you might wanna rearrange your reaction queue a bit. I for one can&apos;t wait!

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• AJ

  @ajitterbug · 8 months ago (edited)

  Packing shelves at Tesco&apos;s<br>Stacking jars like pickled bricks<br><br>These lines seem pedestrian, even throwaway. &nbsp;But aren&apos;t these stacked &quot;jars like pickled bricks&quot; a perfect simile for the tormented women in these tales? An armour of silence and passivity grows around these poor entombed people. Violet&apos;s mother is a &quot;drinker&quot; (ie permanently pickled) to numb the pain. Violet is a mute witness to unspeakable horror. Her daughter Jenny is a &quot;lady shaped stalactite&quot; whose veins fill with &quot;liquid nitrogen&quot;. She becomes a &quot;statue in high heeled shoes&quot;. &nbsp;Consider how this stalactite forms -- the drip-drip of accreted pain coalescing over decades. These stacks of pickled bricks form a tower of unending generational trauma... It&apos;s absolutely heartbreaking, but you can&apos;t deny the genius of Ren&apos;s lyricism.

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• EX

  @expLaura84 · 8 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLLv346vX2Y&amp;t=599">9:59</a> she melted like butter, he melted like snow...

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