My OperaYeah but - What's the point of understanding anything?
Thursday, May 3, 2007 4:41:08 PM
Songs. They're a part of everyone's life, especially if you're of that other sex that I'm not one of. Apparently girlies listen to the lyrics far more than men, I must remember that next time I write a lyric...
It's true. I only needed to think about it for around two minutes to realise that the only lyrics I know are the ones that I sing, and I'm not really too sure what they're actually about.
The fact is that the only song lyrics which stick with me are the weird ones. Anyone remember Angie Baby? What did happen to the evil wannabe molester? We don't know, it's a weird song, I can still remember it all the way through. Same with Ode to Billy Joe (Or Billie Jo as one of the cover versions would have it...). I've never seen the movie, I suspect it gives an answer and I don't want an answer, I like all the unanswered questions that the song leaves dangling.
Now don't confuse weird with... well, weird. Bob Dylan wrote a lot of strange stuff, but it wasn't so much weird as a stream of consciousness. The only really weird song he ever wrote was Ballad of a thin man. "You know that something's happening here and you don't know what it is. Do you, Mister Jones?" Well I sure don't, but if you do, don't tell me, I don't want to spoil the mood.
Leonard Cohen is another writer who sometimes ventures into the realms of the strange, but I can only think of two occasions when he's actually crossed the barrier into weirdworld. I didn't even know that First we take Manhatten was a Cohen number when I first heard it. The singer was Jennifer Warnes and the song just struck me as so weird that I was able to sing it right the way through after that one listening. Of course what I didn't know back then was that Warnes only sang a part of the song. It's actually 3 times as long as her radio-friendly single, way beyond the capacity of my memory. I think I may now have a vague idea of what it was actually about, but I don't like to think about it too much in case I'm right.
Cohen's other foray into the world of weird songwriting was Tower of song which I saw him perform at a charity function. He accompanied himself on a small Casio keyboard and aside from that had just two girl backing singers doing the rather incongruous 'Shoo bom-boms' in the background. Now that was weird, so although I'm not certain that the song isn't really just a stream of conscious vehicle it still remains a satisfyingly weird song to me.
There's one record that isn't even really a song, or even a tune, that nonetheless resides firmly within this canon. The walker by Duane Eddy. The 'Melody' is a guitar riff, and the vocals consist of a group singing 'Aaaaaaaaah-ah' at various points in the song. I have no idea what was going through Hazelwood or Eddy's mind at the time but the record is strangely evocative of...
...something.
One song which I still maintain is a little on the weird side against argument from all sides is Sally go 'round the roses by The Jaynettes. Many people have tried to tell me that it's just a love song about a girl who saw her guy with another girl, and most of those people seem to know the song from the Pentangle's version, which as far as I can tell uses the same lyrics and yet, somehow, somewhere, is missing something. There's something about the original version that leads me to believe that there's more to it than girl-loses-boy. Don't ask me what it is. It's just weird is what it is, ipso facto it doesn't have to make any sense. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
But the weirdest of all songs is one that you may not have heard of. Written by members of Brit-pop band (Now there's an understatement) 10cc, and recorded at their Stockport based Strawberry studios, it's a song called Umbopo, recorded by Dr. Father. It opens with the lines:
He parks his car on the edge of a forest of Borneo
and says goodbye to the world on his short wave radio
He steps inside without a map to guide him
Says he'll travel by the stars and leave the day behind him.
And slowly builds up to climax nearly 5 minutes later:
A voice called out to guide him.
The jungle closed behind him,
and he was never, ever seen again.
After all, we all know that 'There ain't no Umbopo', right? It's just one of those 'Jungle' words invented for stuff like King Soloman's Mines. The song was on pretty heavy rotation on Radio Northsea, but despite that I never did quite work out what happened to the guy.
And I guess it would spoil it if I did.
It's true. I only needed to think about it for around two minutes to realise that the only lyrics I know are the ones that I sing, and I'm not really too sure what they're actually about.
The fact is that the only song lyrics which stick with me are the weird ones. Anyone remember Angie Baby? What did happen to the evil wannabe molester? We don't know, it's a weird song, I can still remember it all the way through. Same with Ode to Billy Joe (Or Billie Jo as one of the cover versions would have it...). I've never seen the movie, I suspect it gives an answer and I don't want an answer, I like all the unanswered questions that the song leaves dangling.
Now don't confuse weird with... well, weird. Bob Dylan wrote a lot of strange stuff, but it wasn't so much weird as a stream of consciousness. The only really weird song he ever wrote was Ballad of a thin man. "You know that something's happening here and you don't know what it is. Do you, Mister Jones?" Well I sure don't, but if you do, don't tell me, I don't want to spoil the mood.
Leonard Cohen is another writer who sometimes ventures into the realms of the strange, but I can only think of two occasions when he's actually crossed the barrier into weirdworld. I didn't even know that First we take Manhatten was a Cohen number when I first heard it. The singer was Jennifer Warnes and the song just struck me as so weird that I was able to sing it right the way through after that one listening. Of course what I didn't know back then was that Warnes only sang a part of the song. It's actually 3 times as long as her radio-friendly single, way beyond the capacity of my memory. I think I may now have a vague idea of what it was actually about, but I don't like to think about it too much in case I'm right.
Cohen's other foray into the world of weird songwriting was Tower of song which I saw him perform at a charity function. He accompanied himself on a small Casio keyboard and aside from that had just two girl backing singers doing the rather incongruous 'Shoo bom-boms' in the background. Now that was weird, so although I'm not certain that the song isn't really just a stream of conscious vehicle it still remains a satisfyingly weird song to me.
There's one record that isn't even really a song, or even a tune, that nonetheless resides firmly within this canon. The walker by Duane Eddy. The 'Melody' is a guitar riff, and the vocals consist of a group singing 'Aaaaaaaaah-ah' at various points in the song. I have no idea what was going through Hazelwood or Eddy's mind at the time but the record is strangely evocative of...
...something.
One song which I still maintain is a little on the weird side against argument from all sides is Sally go 'round the roses by The Jaynettes. Many people have tried to tell me that it's just a love song about a girl who saw her guy with another girl, and most of those people seem to know the song from the Pentangle's version, which as far as I can tell uses the same lyrics and yet, somehow, somewhere, is missing something. There's something about the original version that leads me to believe that there's more to it than girl-loses-boy. Don't ask me what it is. It's just weird is what it is, ipso facto it doesn't have to make any sense. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
But the weirdest of all songs is one that you may not have heard of. Written by members of Brit-pop band (Now there's an understatement) 10cc, and recorded at their Stockport based Strawberry studios, it's a song called Umbopo, recorded by Dr. Father. It opens with the lines:
He parks his car on the edge of a forest of Borneo
and says goodbye to the world on his short wave radio
He steps inside without a map to guide him
Says he'll travel by the stars and leave the day behind him.
And slowly builds up to climax nearly 5 minutes later:
A voice called out to guide him.
The jungle closed behind him,
and he was never, ever seen again.
After all, we all know that 'There ain't no Umbopo', right? It's just one of those 'Jungle' words invented for stuff like King Soloman's Mines. The song was on pretty heavy rotation on Radio Northsea, but despite that I never did quite work out what happened to the guy.
And I guess it would spoil it if I did.
Philphiznlil # Thursday, May 3, 2007 10:48:56 PM
gold, local stocks, type, food, wild, national, lake, flag,
valve, gyroscope, sect
heat, helium, lead, bare, state, invention, medieval
refraction, faction, ultra-action,
hunter, interest, bullet, market...
Philphiznlil # Thursday, May 3, 2007 10:52:51 PM
Now we checked out this duck quack
Who laid a big egg, oh so black
It shone just like gold.
And the kids from the city,
Finding it pretty, took it home,
And there it was sold.
It was changing hands for weeks till someone left it by their fire
And it melted to a puddle on the floor:
For it was only a candle, a Roman scandal oh oh oh,
Now it's a pool.