| Author |
Message |
|
| lshap |
 Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:59 pm |
 |
|
Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4246
Location: Montreal
|
Censored is 100% right. 90% of the most memorable lyrics ever written are simple expressions of something -- love, desire, angst -- using straightforward phrasing, without fancy metaphors or poetic description. Honesty is the key, not necessarily poetry.
As for the song in question, I happen to love The Boys Are Back In Town. It's an honest slap-on-the-back set of lyrics coupled with catchy power-pop chords and a killer guitar riff.
By the way, I happen to love two major exceptions to that simple-is-good rule, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan, both brilliant lyricists. But they are exceptions. |
|
|
| Back to top |
   
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:07 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Thanks for the instruction about what makes up a good lyric. Now I know what's good and what's lousy.
The Boys Are Back In Town sucks BVC. My Boyfriend's Back makes it sound like what it is. A piece of crap.
I wonder how many women like The Boys Are Back in Town, or is it only a work of art for men? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Rod |
| Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:09 pm |
|
|
Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
|
| I think that might be making too much of a dumb anthemic rock song designed to be sung by a bunch of football players in their home bar after an away game. |
_________________
A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:02 pm |
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
Quote:
By the way, I happen to love two major exceptions to that simple-is-good rule, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan
I would add Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Drake and newcomer Craig Finnof The Hold Steady. Check this out from Finn:
Quote: Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
nelson algren came to paddy at some party at the dead end alley. he told him what to celebrate.
and i met william butler yeats. sunday nite dance party summer 1988. at first i thought it might be william blake.
we mix our own mythologies. we push them out through pa systems. we dictate our doxologies and try to get sleeping kids to sit up and listen. i'm not saying we could save you. but we could put you in a place where you could save yrself. if you don't get born again at least you'll get high as hell.
sweet saint paul. that must be the hardest luck saint of them all. we met him in some suburban saint paul mall.
when st. theresa came to holly. i wasn't even at that party. i'd already moved out to new york city. when judas went up and kissed him. i almost got sick. i guess i knew what was coming. i guess i knew it was coming.
we gather our gospels from gossip and bar talk then declare them the truth. we salvage our sermons from message boards and scene reports. we come on to the youth. we try out new testements on the guys sitting next to us in the bars with the bars in their windows. even if you don't get converted tonite you must admit that the band's pretty tight. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:05 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
some more of Craig Finn's dynamite lyrics:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sweet Payne
payne avenue lives up to its name some nights it's painful and strange. the whole city seemed sane in the day. but some nights it seems distressed and deranged. the east side is where we met with those guys that said they'd get us high but that changed. now they're down in the basement. they're bashing out his brains. kids are getting cut up with the motorcycle chains.
st. paul had it all when we called. they were maxing out on medicine. a shaved head. the blood on the bed. those guys you'd recognize. they had the same tattoos as gideon. strong stuff and she had more than enough. she was slumping over smiling and sailing off with cherubim. the cityscape skins are kinda kicking it again. they're gonna show these kids some discipline.
gideon's been living up in bay city, michigan. he's been workng at the michelin. he got messed up with some messed up magicians. we got so high some nights michigan looked just like a mitten some nights we got fried. strung out on residuals and visuals and laser shows. reach into the speaker and try to hold on to the quarter notes.
i always dream about a unified scene. there's james king and king james and james dean. at a table in the corner of my unified scene. they want a double order of love and respect. they said they just got back from up in hostile, massachussetts. girl i've seen your friend. she looks nothing like jada pinkett. i think you got something in those cigarettes.
gideon was living up in south minneapolis. he was the cowboy on the crosstown bus. all the little phillies at the yukon club are gunning for the goldrush. we got tangled in electrical fences. we got wrapped up in the indian fringes. all the little phillies at the yukon club are gunning for the goldrush. they just can't get enough. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Macca00 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:41 pm |
|
|
Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 390
Location: Liverpool/England
|
Marc, enjoyed just reading the Craig Finn lyrics. Reminded me in a way of Jesse Malin.
This October sees the first anniversary of John Peel's death. I know most posters across the pond wouldn't have heard his BBC Radio shows, but his championing of new bands became the stuff of legend. It's therefore nice to see that the BBC is marking the anniversary of his passing in a way which sums up the spirit of the man: http://www.nme.co.uk/news/113455.htm .
Meanwhile, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this story: http://www.nme.co.uk/news/113453.htm . |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Macca00 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:39 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 390
Location: Liverpool/England
|
Back in the late 70s & early 80s the British music weeklies of the time (NME, Sounds, Melody Maker) would be surprised/privileged to receive the periodical missive in the post from Elvis Costello. The letters only served to confirm his withering wit, clever wordplay & unerring choice of the bon mot.
[BTW, this was long before Morrissey began to scrawl mewling utterances of synthetic supplication to failed Manchester punk bands in the letters column of the NME.]
So it comes as something of a pleasant surprise to find that Declan has lost none of his ability to combine eloquence with excoriation: http://www.elviscostello.com/081505.html .
It is, sadly, true that Costello's work is now viewed in England with, at best, benign indifference. His mention of the set at Glastonbury partly bears that out, although it should be borne in mind that it took place the day after dreadful weather, causing the loss/damage to festival-goers' possesions. I can say, however, that Costello's Liverpool gig in February was received as rapturously as every other one I've seen here.
Hope he gets around to recording & releasing the revised version of "This Scarlet Tide". |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| ehle64 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:30 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
|
Ben Gibbard is probably my favorite current lyricist out there now. Here's a sampling of a song off of Death Cab For Cuties' "Plans":
Quote: "What Sarah Said"
And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny glance of father time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU that reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breathes as I said to myself that I'd already taken to much today
As each descending peak of the LCD took you a little farther away from me
Amongst the vending machines and year old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It's done like a violent limp that out memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds
And I knew that you were truth I would rather loved than to never lain in the sun at all
Then I looked around at all the eyes on the ground as the TV entertained it's self
Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room just nervous paces bracing for bad news
Then the nurse comes round and everyone lifts their head
And I'm thinking of what Sarah said but love is watching someone die
So who's going to watch you die?... |
_________________
It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| censored-03 |
| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:51 am |
|
|
Joined: 24 May 2004
Posts: 3058
Location: Gotham, Big Apple, The Naked City
|
| One of my all time favorites: http://tinyurl.com/bnhxn |
_________________
"Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel."
-- Horace Walpole |
|
| Back to top |
|
| tirebiter |
| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 11:00 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
|
Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta prison,
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But before I could get to the station in my pick-up truck,
She got runned over by a damned old train.
--Steve Goodman |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 11:32 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| Goodman was the guy who wrote City of New Orleans, wasn't he. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 11:46 am |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
|
| On a related theme, my favourite song title is probably Have You Ever Fallen In love With Someone You Shouldn't Have Fallen In Love With by The Buzzcocks. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| zwirnm |
| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 9:26 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 46
Location: Washington, District of Columbia
|
| The full title for the Buzzcocks' classic is "Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)"? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| ehle64 |
| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 1:58 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
|
| It's almost as though Sigur Ros is single-handedly trying to bring about world peace. Their latest album is SuperGlorious. I dare you to listen to the whole thing and come out with a weapon wielded. I dare you. I love you. Please, don't. |
_________________
It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| judithannie |
| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 2:15 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 14 Aug 2004
Posts: 224
Location: Albuquerque NM
|
Quote: Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta prison,
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But before I could get to the station in my pick-up truck,
She got runned over by a damned old train.
--Steve Goodman
Steve Gooodman is a favorite of mine. He died too young (of cancer, I think). I saw him in concert once at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. I think it was a Bread and Roses benefit concert. He was not only a talented song writer but a very funny guy. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
