rayc
retroreprobate
Sheer pandamonium!
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Ray, is this one in 3/4 {or what I call waltz} time ?
Is this really a lyric ? It's actually psychologically deep !
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
Ray, is this one in 3/4 {or what I call waltz} time ?
~ WOOF ~
Armistice
Son of Yoda
Never knew you were an Aussie Ray... I'll head over to your myspace and have a listen...
I'm sure there are pubs in Sydney where you'd fit right in!
rayc
retroreprobate
Armistice,
Yep, a stray yan moit!
in the early 80's I was in a band (the Talented Few) who played student parties in MSW Sydney, then (The Teutonics) that just played parties in the same region, the mid 80's I was in a band (the Naked Igwanaz) that played the likes of the Lismore Hotel in Pitt Street, parties, weddings etc.
Since then NADA!
You'd be better off trying soundclick if you want to listen. I've not upfated the stuff on Mspace since they allowed more songs - must do that soon.
Yep, a stray yan moit!
in the early 80's I was in a band (the Talented Few) who played student parties in MSW Sydney, then (The Teutonics) that just played parties in the same region, the mid 80's I was in a band (the Naked Igwanaz) that played the likes of the Lismore Hotel in Pitt Street, parties, weddings etc.
Since then NADA!
You'd be better off trying soundclick if you want to listen. I've not upfated the stuff on Mspace since they allowed more songs - must do that soon.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
OK, this is somewhat left field and esoteric, but bear with me.....
When the Beatles recorded their three mid 60s blockbusters, "Rubber soul", "Revolver" and "Sergeant Pepper" {and you could add 'Magical mystery tour' to that}, each of the sessions proper began with John Lennon songs ("Run for your life", "Tomorrow never knows", "A day in the life" ~ which was mainly Lennon's~ and "I am the walrus), each of which had lyrics that were heavilly drawn from other outside sources. For example, the opening lines of "Run for your life" came from an old song that Elvis covered ['Baby, let's play house'], the opening lines of "Tomorrow never knows" came from a portion of Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert's translation of the Tibetan book of the dead and "A day in the life" {Lennon's section, including the first line} was culled from stories in the newspaper he was reading at the time.
That's trivia !
But it did get me to thinking about the lines of songs I've written that came from other sources, be it other songs, the bible, news reports, TV shows, phrases in books, things people have said......I'm always co~opting 'found objects' into lyrics. Most of the time they are by no means important to the song and much of the time, my lines are so much better. I don't rate myself as a good lyricist, but I can say that with a little confidence ! But I was surprized at how many opening lines were culled from other sources. Maybe subconsciously, I just wanted to get them out of the way !
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be...."
{Yadah, yadah, yadah}
"You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw/But I said 'I waste away, I waste away...."
{Mara}
"The joy of the Lord is our strength/Remember in times of strife..."
{Nehemiah says it, straight}
Those three came from the bible, which, as Dylan showed, is a treasure trove of psychedelic poetry !
"Even the priests were flipped out way back when..."
{Purgatory for beginners}
which came from a review on a really weird LP {Prayers for a noonday church} by one Father Pat Berkery from this great rare records review site The acid archives, that is sadly a shadow of it's former self.
"Hiding in plain sight, eschewing statistics
Alarmingly masculine, tasteful in lipstick"
{Ghehuzi the mystic}
I got the "Hiding in plain sight" from this groovy book on the input of Jewish artists into the rock canon.
"Tell me today what you told me before..."
{Tell me today}
This one comes from what I thought I heard in Lovesculpture's hit, "Land of the few", while
"If somebody up there likes me, if somebody up there cares....."
{Bread alone}
is a direct lift from Sting's "St Augustine in hell". I always loved those lines, I always loved the song. As with all pilfered lines, I took the song nowhere near the original source. During the difficult days of summer '96, it was one of my lighthearted jests with God.
"Flying with one wing, running with one foot/speaking with no voice, writing with no pen"
{Foolchild}
I was walking past a tube station one day and outside was a guy selling books on the pavement. One of them was called "Flying with one wing". I haven't a clue what it was about, but it struck me as such a strange line. The song itself is about people who make life difficult for themselves.
"Rub-a-dub dub, 3 men in a tub
and who do you think they were ?"
{Risky pathways}
and
"Old mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her poor doggie a bone"
{Fractured fairy tales}
both come from nursery rhymes that I remembered from childhood. The latter song mixes up the various rhymes though, hence them being fractured.
"If a carnival of crude delights is all the world to me,
then put me on your threshing floor and tell me what you see...."
{Beth in left hand}
I got the 'carnival of crude delights' from the NME encyclopaedia of rock. I can't remember who or which record it was in reference to, but it stuck in my head from the age of 17. In one of the stories about bands that I used to write as a teenager, that was going to be the name of one of the albums. And believe it or not, I've just noticed that "Tell me what you see" is the title of a Beatle song. Pure coincidence.
"Agamemnon was one such as you
Agamemnon caused havoc in the zoo"
{Agamemnon}
Any Trekkies out there ? In the original series there's one episode where the crew runs into this guy who claims to be a Greek god. When Captain Kirk gets all shirty with him, he bellows "Agamemnon was one such as you !". To this day I haven't a clue who Agamemnon was. The song is ostensibly about a kangaroo but is really about troublemakers that don't weigh up the possible consequences of their selfishness.
"I used to think I knew what life was/now I know who life is"
{The bizarre dance of the enchanted fieldmice}
I lifted that from the sleeve notes of Don Francisco's "Brother of the son" LP, a seminal piece of hard edged mid 70s country rock. The title is a throwaway line that was uttered sarcastically by the sleazy cop Mike Roberts, in NYPD Blue. I think it was a play his daughter was appearing in at school which he now had time to reluctantly see as he was "thrown off" the force.
And finally, for those of you still with us....
"Sometimes, there’s a long time between fish bites
Sometimes there’s a long time between respite"
{Get it and go}
My kids wrote this wicked little chorus with these chords I'd taught my older son, then 8. So I said I'd incorporate the chorus into a song. The first line came from our very own Professor Gregory L. Underscore;