Incredible new, exciting game!!

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:41 pm

LJ, I like to think of 'life shrinks' as describing the sensation to do with what he speaks of in the last few lines - of feeling disconnected as an adult as opposed to common childhood naturalness. I hadn't heard of the button war, I must look it up.

Carry on...

You Belong To Me.

King_of_Spain · Post by **King_of_Spain** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:45 pm

Obsessive chorus... as it should.

The other side of summer.

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:46 pm

Bambooneedle-That's exactly what the movie is about. Elvis wrote it for the movie but it wasn't used. I was sticking too much to the plot of the movie and not the theme.

You Belong To Me (well you don't Bambooneedle but it's the next song)

Sorry El Rey--we posted at the same time.

The Other Side of Summer

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 9:16 pm

Well, it hit me while listening to this song back during the summer (no pun intended) that it seemed to be somewhat of a slam against the words to America the Beautiful. Rather than from "sea to shining sea" he talks of "from the foaming breakers of the poisonous surf - to the burning forests in the hills of Astroturf." At least that's what I got from it.

I like the "beard years" a lot.

If you've ever seen the video you can sense even more sarcasm. He makes a lot of statements in this song about wealth and poverty within the same society and how each function in their own dysfunctional ways. A true beard years song for Elvis.

http://launch.yahoo.com/artist/videos.a ... ID=1005909

Has anyone brought up Sulky Girl yet?

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 12:52 am

Spooky,

I dunno, but I'll bite the bait...

Just listening to this tonight on the way home.....

I love this song about a woman so crafty and manipulative. About a man so rich and full of himself that he doesn't see the games and about a man watching from the outside of the game.

He'll pay for the distance between cruetly and beauty.....what a fabulous line! He'll pay for underestimating a woman that practices her blackmail faces....

God, I wish I was that woman sometimes!!

Getting the feeling that the EC character has been on the receiving end of her craft before, and that there will be another in the mix....I'm going to say something potentially unpopular here, but I think of the model girl he was a bad boy with on this one.

Ok, brain cell smokin over here...

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 7:23 pm

I'll nominate the next song: I'll Wear It Proudly

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 9:55 pm

The discovery of love that changes you, the hatred of distance and all consuming longing are so great in this song. A love that makes him glad to unhappy, so to speak and disdainful of things when they are apart. The intensity of passion when the are together and the need to never be separated again. He finds it wonderful to be vulnerable and the hunger for her completely overtakes him. Very passionate, sweet and sexual song yet anything but typical. I wish Elvis hated the buttons on my shirt.

You Left Me In The Dark

girl out of time · Post by **girl out of time** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 10:34 pm

....my favourite track on north........incredibly sad.....it just breaks my heart each time i listen to it.......

.......this is hell.......

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 10:56 pm

In the liner notes he says it's a continuing theme from 'God's Comic' and 'Damnation's Cellar'. The imagery is of jaded, decadent, indulgent people who are over taken by boredom and banality of sin. "You may know it by another name . ." Saturday night?

My Dark Life

Mr. Misery · Post by **Mr. Misery** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 11:34 pm

I was fortunate enough to see this performed in concert, LJ!

It's hard to encapsulate this complex, fascinating song. The main theme seems to be that we can't see the dark recesses and secrets behind what looks like an ordinary life: "You're a guest, you're a tourist at best." Rich imagery ("consumptive ballerinas," "the pious elite in their preening finery") is contrasted with the mundane everyday world ("The fantasy slipped as she tipped him in cigarettes") to effectively make the point. There are echoes of this in the geopolitical references to Red Armies and western goods. Everything is shrouded in mystery.

My Brave Face

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 6:45 am

This is a good song, cool bass line at the start and it sounds excellent when the opening words ''My brave, my brave face!'' are sung. The lyrics are good...

But...I think the lyrics fit uncomfortably on the song. I think it would sound a lot better in a slower tempo.

I haven't heard EC singing this, only Paul McC. Has he sung it?

Next song: Love went mad

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:37 pm

An overlooked and underated song from PTC. It has one of my favorite lines - "I wish you luck with a capital F" .... and of course this is the song from which Self Made Mug took her name. The upbeat - "happy" melody belies the bitterness and "angry young man" within.

next

Motel Matches

LessThanZero · Post by **LessThanZero** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:42 pm

How come he's singing about his Love Went Mad, and then he launches into what seems to be an attack on Reagan?

sulkygirl · Post by **sulkygirl** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:44 pm

First heard "Motel Matches" on the "Taking Liberties" LP (vinyl, mind you)...I always assumed it was the story of finding out that your significant other has been not only conspicuously absent as of late, but has also been dipping their fingers in someone else's pie. Or maybe I'm mistaken? Other interpretations, please!!

pip_52 · Post by **pip_52** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:51 pm

I always thought it had to do with love that wasnt really love but more like a one-night stand.

Falling for you without a second look
Falling out of your open pocketbook
Giving you away like motel matches

He falls for her quickly but there's no commitment. I especially like the line "though you say Im unkind, Im being as nice as I can" and the way EC sings it. I think the mood/subject matter of the song fits the musical style, EC giving us another taste of country before giving us the whole thing with Almost Blue. Anyways, thats the way I always looked at it.

Do I get to pick next? Have we done Distorted Angel?

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 12:54 am

Less than zero-Because he can.

A song about initial attraction to the opposite sex. The astonishment at the new fascination to unravel the mystery of it all. A lot of Catholic references but they are predominant throughout his work. Being the Elvis nerd I am, I love to make note of them. I think the discovery of girls happened early for Elvis and he still seems to be discovering them.

Little Atoms

Mr. Misery · Post by **Mr. Misery** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 1:52 am

sulkygirl wrote:First heard "Motel Matches" on the "Taking Liberties" LP (vinyl, mind you)

For the record, as it were, it was on 'Get Happy!!'

'Little Atoms' is another song about loss of childhood innocence and carnal desires. I love the line "false and lovely modesty" and the juxtaposition in the lines of virtue/vice and grace/price. Since the atoms of science are evoked he comments with a jaded air on "the particle of me that cares for this." The last verse is interesting as he mentions pettiness and the fun of insulting people--these are childish qualities, so we shouldn't always romanticize childhood.

My Funny Valentine

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 2:20 am

A Rodgers and Hart classic sung so inventively by Elvis. I love the minimalist Elvis and this brilliant song needs no flourishes. The song speaks loving someone who is less than perfect yet perfect to the narrator. Loving someone and their imperfections is rarely treated in song and with such tenderness but what a marvelous result. I do send this song to my mother's voice mail every Valentine's day-its her favorite version of it and mine.

The Flirting Kind

Mr. Misery · Post by **Mr. Misery** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 3:34 am

I so agree with you about 'My Funny Valentine,' LJ. He does such exquisite versions of classic songs, the most recent example is 'Smile.'

'The Flirting Kind' was left off of Punch the Clock in favor of 'Love Went Mad,' but was included in the reissues and Out of Our Idiot. It's a delicate little song about a charming and attractive girl who choses a man unworthy of her. "They say that her fate is sealed but she's much too beautiful to ever yield." She cries over someone who is out on the town and feels no remorse. Steve Nieve's cascading piano is notable, in so many songs he is the driving force.

I'm Your Toy

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 3:48 am

From 'Almost Blue' a song of deflowering and regret. The singer was the first lover she had and he pines for her as she is with another. (Hey that rhymed! Does that make me a poet?) He wants her back and offers himself to her with total surrender. Elvis does this one very beautifully and with sorrowful ardor.

Brown to Blue

Mr. Misery · Post by **Mr. Misery** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:21 am

It makes you a very rare poet in this day and age, LJ.

When I was 17 (I feel like Sinatra starting that way) this song escaped my attention. A reviewer at the time mentioned that EC takes delight in singing such "corny" lines as "They changed your name from Brown to Jones and mine from Brown to Blue."

Listening to it now from a more mature vantage in life, it's extremely moving. A man who truly loves his wife has that torn asunder by divorce proceedings initiated by her. EC agonizes over the lines about tears on the courtroom floor, and having his right to love taken away. It can seem melodramatic but it's real to the character in the song, he feels as if his life is at an end. The arrangement of this is very traditional country, with pedal steel guitars, and Elvis sings his heart out, as usual.

I'm in the Mood Again

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:52 am

He finds himself in the wonder of love wandering the streets bewildered at his feelings as if he could never conceive them. Nothing seems the same and he attribute these foreign thoughts and emotions to his new found love. He realizes 'how little we know'. Everything is strange and beautiful and he is 'in the mood for love'. It is a great closing song.

The Comedians

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 6:04 am

lapinsjolis wrote:The Comedians

Which version?

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:25 am

If 'Goodbye Cruel World' isn't at the ready. . I'll choose the demo on 'All This Useless Beauty'. It's more pleasing anyway.

sulkygirl · Post by **sulkygirl** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:55 pm

Mr. Misery wrote:
sulkygirl wrote:First heard "Motel Matches" on the "Taking Liberties" LP (vinyl, mind you)
For the record, as it were, it was on 'Get Happy!!'
[/b]

Yeah, but I coul;d've sworn I bought TL long before "Get Happy"...