Hey, before you move on, I can verify that Florence, Alabama is indeed a real city. I live just about one hour's drive from there.
Now, go on to Clown Strike.
Incredible new, exciting game!!
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spooky girlfriend
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LessThanZero
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Otis Westinghouse
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A rope leash
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For no reason
The great State of Missouri has a lot of places in it.
Paris
Lebanon
(New) Madrid (pronounced MAD-RID)
Houston
Mexico
Nevada
Lousiana
California
Texas (county)
Cathage
Oregon
Florida
Cairo
(New) London
Memphis
Milan
Trenton
(New) Florence
Moscow (Mills)
Washington
Belgrade
Versailles
Vienna (pronounced VY-EENA)
Cuba
...and that's just some of the town names those Missouri ruffians stole from innocent places outside their many borders.
Funny story about California, Missouri. It seems that some settlers were headed west and discovered that they were really too lazy for such difficult traveling so they just said fuck it, this is California.
Why do I tell you this? Because you need to know.
Screw it, I'm going on strike with the other clowns...
Paris
Lebanon
(New) Madrid (pronounced MAD-RID)
Houston
Mexico
Nevada
Lousiana
California
Texas (county)
Cathage
Oregon
Florida
Cairo
(New) London
Memphis
Milan
Trenton
(New) Florence
Moscow (Mills)
Washington
Belgrade
Versailles
Vienna (pronounced VY-EENA)
Cuba
...and that's just some of the town names those Missouri ruffians stole from innocent places outside their many borders.
Funny story about California, Missouri. It seems that some settlers were headed west and discovered that they were really too lazy for such difficult traveling so they just said fuck it, this is California.
Why do I tell you this? Because you need to know.
Screw it, I'm going on strike with the other clowns...
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lapinsjolis
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so lacklustre
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lapinsjolis
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so lacklustre
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I went to school not far from Toledo, Ohio. I always sang Toledo in the car when I spotted the name on an exit sign. This soon became extremely annoying to anyone who happened to be in the car with me.
On to Clown Strike...
I *heart* the bass line on this song. It's my favorite kind of Costello love song: the female character is a flirtatious, insecure 'circus girl' without any pride, and the object of her affection is shown to be one of her trophies, praying to be abandoned as he longs to love her in his own way, instead of loving her on the terms she defines, but he also loves her, warts and all, even while she drives him insane. It's a love song that doesn't discount the difficulty of actually being in a relationship. Heart heart heart.
My Science Fiction Twin.
On to Clown Strike...
I *heart* the bass line on this song. It's my favorite kind of Costello love song: the female character is a flirtatious, insecure 'circus girl' without any pride, and the object of her affection is shown to be one of her trophies, praying to be abandoned as he longs to love her in his own way, instead of loving her on the terms she defines, but he also loves her, warts and all, even while she drives him insane. It's a love song that doesn't discount the difficulty of actually being in a relationship. Heart heart heart.
My Science Fiction Twin.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Clown Strike is a favourite of mine, it's an engaging lyric and a fabulous piece of music, and I remember being well impressed on the BY tour.
My Science Fiction Twin is less relishable. One of the weaker things on BY. Its title announces it as fun but throwaway, and it kind of stays that way. It reminds me of the extra head that grew on Richard E Grant in 'How To Get Ahead (boom boom) In Advertising' (anyone remember that? Real Thatcher era stuff, one dimensional and silly). A mutant self who is your opposite and out to betray you and thrive on your misery by being everything you're not. For anyone who remembers the hilarious Stressed Eric cartoon, this could be about Ray Perfect, Eric's perfect neighbour (bottom left on: http://www.stressederic.com/indexold.htm). Or for fans of the Mr Men, Mr Perfect! The 50 Foot Women putting the fascination back into the SFT bit is just silly.
The thing I like least about this song is its middle 8, and the way it goes off on this jaunty melody ('He'll scream and shout...)', and then can't resist going back to the goofy initial riff. Just plain annoying. I know it's meant to be humorous, but its appeal is very limited.
The two things I like most are the snare sound and the drum track in general (love this throughout BY), and, especially, the wobbly science fiction keyboard sound over the verse. So it's a song you can enjoy when it comes on, but not dwell on too much.
Can we stick with the same LP? It occurs to me I wasn't paying attentioon for the first few weeks of this thread, so this has probably been here already, but as it's next up on the LP and one of my favourites, I can't resist:
Rocking Horse Road
My Science Fiction Twin is less relishable. One of the weaker things on BY. Its title announces it as fun but throwaway, and it kind of stays that way. It reminds me of the extra head that grew on Richard E Grant in 'How To Get Ahead (boom boom) In Advertising' (anyone remember that? Real Thatcher era stuff, one dimensional and silly). A mutant self who is your opposite and out to betray you and thrive on your misery by being everything you're not. For anyone who remembers the hilarious Stressed Eric cartoon, this could be about Ray Perfect, Eric's perfect neighbour (bottom left on: http://www.stressederic.com/indexold.htm). Or for fans of the Mr Men, Mr Perfect! The 50 Foot Women putting the fascination back into the SFT bit is just silly.
The thing I like least about this song is its middle 8, and the way it goes off on this jaunty melody ('He'll scream and shout...)', and then can't resist going back to the goofy initial riff. Just plain annoying. I know it's meant to be humorous, but its appeal is very limited.
The two things I like most are the snare sound and the drum track in general (love this throughout BY), and, especially, the wobbly science fiction keyboard sound over the verse. So it's a song you can enjoy when it comes on, but not dwell on too much.
Can we stick with the same LP? It occurs to me I wasn't paying attentioon for the first few weeks of this thread, so this has probably been here already, but as it's next up on the LP and one of my favourites, I can't resist:
Rocking Horse Road
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LessThanZero
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LessThanZero
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Rocking Horse Road is kind of groovy. It has that bass line from Leaving Los Vegas, and....oops, no...I don't listen to Sheryl Crow... 
...ok, I have a couple of her CD's....but NOT THE NEW ONE.
Moving on, I listen to this song, more to get to the good parts to really listen to all of it. Do you know what I'm saying?
What am I saying? The whole song is good. Absolutely. I like it all. I thought I just liked "the good parts" near the end, but thinking through the song, I do like the whole thing.
It's about this Road called Rocking Horse. I think this is also alluded to in Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.
Miracle Man
...ok, I have a couple of her CD's....but NOT THE NEW ONE.Moving on, I listen to this song, more to get to the good parts to really listen to all of it. Do you know what I'm saying?
What am I saying? The whole song is good. Absolutely. I like it all. I thought I just liked "the good parts" near the end, but thinking through the song, I do like the whole thing.
It's about this Road called Rocking Horse. I think this is also alluded to in Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.
Miracle Man
Loving this board since before When I Was Cruel.
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laughingcrow
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LessThanZero
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laughingcrow
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LessThanZero
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lapinsjolis
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Otis Westinghouse- 'Rocking Horse Road' is so very powerful and I understand why it is a favorite. The suspension of the past and innocence represented in the movement of a the horse that is stationary. The compromise life can become as ideals are tossed aside and those broken promises half kept in your heart.
Sorry for the ramble.
Miracle Man
It is a song about the folly of trying to please and satisfy a jaded goddess. Insufficient worship and bungled words lead to the lament in the chorus. I've always seen the 'Miracle Man' as a St. Peter figure, as Peter represents frailty and his walking on water was ill fated.
Couldn't Call It Unexpected No.4
Sorry for the ramble.
Miracle Man
It is a song about the folly of trying to please and satisfy a jaded goddess. Insufficient worship and bungled words lead to the lament in the chorus. I've always seen the 'Miracle Man' as a St. Peter figure, as Peter represents frailty and his walking on water was ill fated.
Couldn't Call It Unexpected No.4
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
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A rope leash
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Lucky Goon
I think this song speaks for itself!
I saw a girl who'd found her consolation
She said "one day my prince of peace will come"
Above her head a portrait of her father
The wilted favour that he gave her still fastened to the frame
"they've got his bones and everything he owns
I've got his name"
Well you can laugh at this sentimental story
But in time you'll have to make amends
The sudden chill where lovers doubt their immortality
As the clouds cover the sky the evening ends
Describing a picture of eyes finally closing
As you sometimes glimpse terrible faces in the fire
We'll i'm the lucky goon
Who composed this tune
From birds arranged on the high wire
Who on earth is tapping at the window?
Does that face still linger at the pane?
I saw you shiver though the room was like a furnace
A shadow of regret across a young mother's face
So toll the bell or rock the cradle
Please don't let me fear anything i cannot explain
I can't believe, i'll never believe in anything again
Let's argue about it!
I saw a girl who'd found her consolation
She said "one day my prince of peace will come"
Above her head a portrait of her father
The wilted favour that he gave her still fastened to the frame
"they've got his bones and everything he owns
I've got his name"
Well you can laugh at this sentimental story
But in time you'll have to make amends
The sudden chill where lovers doubt their immortality
As the clouds cover the sky the evening ends
Describing a picture of eyes finally closing
As you sometimes glimpse terrible faces in the fire
We'll i'm the lucky goon
Who composed this tune
From birds arranged on the high wire
Who on earth is tapping at the window?
Does that face still linger at the pane?
I saw you shiver though the room was like a furnace
A shadow of regret across a young mother's face
So toll the bell or rock the cradle
Please don't let me fear anything i cannot explain
I can't believe, i'll never believe in anything again
Let's argue about it!
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LessThanZero
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lapinsjolis
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A rope leash
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Random chaos
I saw a girl who'd found her consolation
She said "one day my prince of peace will come"
Above her head a portrait of her father
The wilted favour that he gave her still fastened to the frame
"they've got his bones and everything he owns
I've got his name"
The girl has found solace in Jesus Christ, the "Prince of Peace". Her father is dead, she has a photo and perhaps a leftover flower (a wilted favor) he gave her. They (the church) has his bones in the graveyard, and he has also willed his material possessions to them (everything he owns). She is left with his name.
Well you can laugh at this sentimental story
But in time you'll have to make amends
The sudden chill where lovers doubt their immortality
As the clouds cover the sky the evening ends
Describing a picture of eyes finally closing
As you sometimes glimpse terrible faces in the fire
We'll i'm the lucky goon
Who composed this tune
From birds arranged on the high wire
We can laugh at this girl's predicament, but someday we will also have to deal with death. There is always doubt about death, because the death rate is 100%, and no one has ever returned to tell about it. But look, he wrote this tune by observing birds on a high wire, so perhaps there is something intentional about the random chaos of human existence. But, who really knows?
Who on earth is tapping at the window?
Does that face still linger at the pane?
I saw you shiver though the room was like a furnace
A shadow of regret across a young mother's face
So toll the bell or rock the cradle
Please don't let me fear anything i cannot explain
I can't believe, i'll never believe in anything again
Who's at the window? Why, it's the Boogey-man, i.e.Death. It scares us, it gives us chills. When lovers get together, and procreate, they effectively end their own lives, as in the natural cycle of birth, copulation, death. You can do what you want (toll the bell, or rock the cradle), but don't expect to frighten him into believing something that he can't possibly understand, which is the main goal of many religious organizations (churches). The idea, you see, is to extort money from people (perhaps ALL their money) by playing on their fears of death, and by getting them to believe in things that by any other standard would be considered ridiculous.
That's why he can't believe, and he'll never believe. He knows better!
Discuss, or lend another song
She said "one day my prince of peace will come"
Above her head a portrait of her father
The wilted favour that he gave her still fastened to the frame
"they've got his bones and everything he owns
I've got his name"
The girl has found solace in Jesus Christ, the "Prince of Peace". Her father is dead, she has a photo and perhaps a leftover flower (a wilted favor) he gave her. They (the church) has his bones in the graveyard, and he has also willed his material possessions to them (everything he owns). She is left with his name.
Well you can laugh at this sentimental story
But in time you'll have to make amends
The sudden chill where lovers doubt their immortality
As the clouds cover the sky the evening ends
Describing a picture of eyes finally closing
As you sometimes glimpse terrible faces in the fire
We'll i'm the lucky goon
Who composed this tune
From birds arranged on the high wire
We can laugh at this girl's predicament, but someday we will also have to deal with death. There is always doubt about death, because the death rate is 100%, and no one has ever returned to tell about it. But look, he wrote this tune by observing birds on a high wire, so perhaps there is something intentional about the random chaos of human existence. But, who really knows?
Who on earth is tapping at the window?
Does that face still linger at the pane?
I saw you shiver though the room was like a furnace
A shadow of regret across a young mother's face
So toll the bell or rock the cradle
Please don't let me fear anything i cannot explain
I can't believe, i'll never believe in anything again
Who's at the window? Why, it's the Boogey-man, i.e.Death. It scares us, it gives us chills. When lovers get together, and procreate, they effectively end their own lives, as in the natural cycle of birth, copulation, death. You can do what you want (toll the bell, or rock the cradle), but don't expect to frighten him into believing something that he can't possibly understand, which is the main goal of many religious organizations (churches). The idea, you see, is to extort money from people (perhaps ALL their money) by playing on their fears of death, and by getting them to believe in things that by any other standard would be considered ridiculous.
That's why he can't believe, and he'll never believe. He knows better!
Discuss, or lend another song
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ReadyToHearTheWorst
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Re: Random chaos
I like to think of the 'birds arranged on a high wire' as a reference to musical notation (which is also, I think, what Leonard Cohen was alluding to in 'Like a Bird on a Wire').A rope leash wrote:
We'll i'm the lucky goon
Who composed this tune
From birds arranged on the high wire
... he wrote this tune by observing birds on a high wire
"I'm the Rock and Roll Scrabble champion"
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A rope leash
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Yes
I can see that, Ready, but I am reminded of the Come Back ina Million Years tour, in which Elvis came to the Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA in support of Mighty Like a Rose.
After Elvis sang those words, "...from birds arranged on the high wire", he played an absolutely awful piano piece that sounded completely random, like we might expect something to sound that was actually composed by literally looking at birds on a wire.
It makes you think. What is the influence that makes one set of notes "music", and another set of notes "noise"?
I say it's solely the influence of human talent and skill, and we can debate exactly where talent and ability hail from. Is it God? Or is it random chance?
After Elvis sang those words, "...from birds arranged on the high wire", he played an absolutely awful piano piece that sounded completely random, like we might expect something to sound that was actually composed by literally looking at birds on a wire.
It makes you think. What is the influence that makes one set of notes "music", and another set of notes "noise"?
I say it's solely the influence of human talent and skill, and we can debate exactly where talent and ability hail from. Is it God? Or is it random chance?
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mood swung
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