And I didn't say it wasn't a good song. But I will if you want.
How many times did you listen to it?
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 12:09:13 AM
Does it improve with age?
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 12:13:12 AM
Some parts are loud and it took ages to like those parts. I like the whole song now. But the chorus was always beautiful, right from the first listening.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 12:29:52 AM
It may take me a little longer.
Now, if you really want a contrast to that guy on the piano with the cap, here's a guy...on a piano...with a cap...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iEbw972so5M
Unpretentiously beautiful song.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 12:34:56 AM
This is just the wombles in human form. There was one part where I thought they were going to sing "Grandad, we love you!".
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 12:46:38 AM
There was another song by this guy that someone else posted. I liked that one. I can't remember either this guy's name or the name of the song.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 12:55:56 AM
It's Gilbert O'Sullivan, and the other song was this one...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqc_MS8j3_I
I admit his lyrics may not have quite the same depth and...er..depth, as "I don't think you trust in my self-righteous suicide - I cry when angels deserve to die", but then what does? ..0
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: The Peepmaster on January 19, 2009, 02:14:04 AM
What was wrong with The Wombles? (I've correctly capitalised the name.) Mike Batt was/is one of the genius songwriters of these times. More than that, he's the guy behind the stunningly beautiful Katie Melua, and he deserves my eternal admiration for that alone.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: The Peepmaster on January 19, 2009, 02:20:19 AM
Here's another of Mike Batt's songs.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: The Peepmaster on January 19, 2009, 02:31:55 AM
And another...
And some info from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Batt
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Vulture on January 19, 2009, 08:08:09 AM
It's not just noise, it's pretentious twaddle as well.
What he said. Nothing like throwing in a few quotes from Jesus to get the old feet tapping.
The song was nominated for a Grammy Award and is listed in the The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born.
As for Gilbert's "and eating snow flakes as opposed to those flakes", what is he on about? Cornflakes? Flakes of skin?
And as for "hands up those who do hands up those who don't I see well in that case", I'd comment on them if I hadn't actually fallen asleep by that point.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 12:48:41 PM
Well there you go then - you don't get any chance to fall asleep during your Grammy Award winning song. So, what number did it come in on the 'The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born' list, and just how many kindergartens were surveyed for that one?
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 01:04:59 PM
Well there you go then - you don't get any chance to fall asleep during your Grammy Award winning song.
I didn't say it won. I said it was nominated. The band did not win until a few years later with another song. And is that how you like your songs? You want them to give you a chance to fall asleep.
So, what number did it come in on the 'The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born' list, and just how many kindergartens were surveyed for that one?
Nice straw man. I'm sure Gilbert was in the top 500 when you were in kindergarten, and I'm sure Johnny Ray and Frankie Laine wrote songs to fall asleep to at that time. Kindergartens are needed if only so we don't spend eternity listening to Gilbert.
;D
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Roger Kettle on January 19, 2009, 01:06:40 PM
As always with these things, we get back to the old cliche about personal taste. Actually, Mince, there were parts of your song that I quite liked but I simply couldn't get past the laughable lyrics. I hate when pseudo-religious tosh is stuck into pop songs in an attempt to lend some seriousness. Maybe it's all meant to be tongue in cheek but, if so, I don't get the joke either.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 01:21:19 PM
but I simply couldn't get past the laughable lyrics.
I guess my mistake was presenting a video in which the lyrics are written down, rather than the performance video.
In the performance video your focus is less on the words, which I must say sound pretentious even with the explanation (that we are judged when we die on who we are or what we do and not on what we have done before or would do after if we had not died).
So here it is (and you have to double click and go to YouTube):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mdRd3k4CIAg
I first heard the song through this stupid video that features two clearly bored teenagers with too much time on their hands. I found the video funny and the song annoyingly loud, but at 1:00 in the song, when the chorus comes in, I was actually listening to the song and liking it.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HBRChmQtM-w
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 01:26:43 PM
I am not a fan of the band and have none of their albums. As I said, I got into that one song through that silly video.
Not all their songs are loud, such as this one which I would like more if it did not have the double superlative "most loneliest", which really irritates me.
(Again you need to double click and go to YouTube.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YS6VA96yLJg
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 01:37:34 PM
I hate when pseudo-religious tosh is stuck into pop songs in an attempt to lend some seriousness.
Oooh, you've got me going now!
I would say the same about Gilbert's cliched "When I'm drinking my Bonaparte Shandy Eating more than enough apple pies Will I glance at my screen and see real human beings starve to death Right in front of my eyes".
I got into that song on this site. The first listening left me distinctly unimpressed, but by the third, I had to admit I liked it.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 01:46:38 PM
I hate when pseudo-religious tosh is stuck into pop songs in an attempt to lend some seriousness.
Oooh, you've got me going now!
I would say the same about Gilbert's cliched "When I'm drinking my Bonaparte Shandy Eating more than enough apple pies Will I glance at my screen and see real human beings starve to death Right in front of my eyes".
I got into that song on this site. The first listening left me distinctly unimpressed, but by the third, I had to admit I liked it.
I don't see nuthin' pseudo-religious about them lyrics what you quoted from Gilbert, but I is now seeing why you dislike 'em so much.
By the way, Gilbert has had at least four Grammy nominations, including three for one song alone (again, naturally). :\
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 02:00:46 PM
Has he won any of the nominations?
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 02:07:54 PM
Like he's bothered! :\
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 02:11:26 PM
Naturally he's not.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 02:20:54 PM
Nor I, but it seems important to you. Why? Does a 'good song' need credentials?
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Vulture on January 19, 2009, 02:24:18 PM
<< y a w n >>
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 02:25:32 PM
You need to listen to Mince's song, Vult.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 02:26:22 PM
You're the one who came marching in with your Top Trumps Grammies. I spoke of my song's nomination to point out how not everyone dismissed the song as noise.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 19, 2009, 02:45:19 PM
Not just noise - pretentious twaddle too. Credit where it's due.
I think the fact you mentioned the Grammy nominations twice, following it up with a Grammy win, then inferring that Gilby was somehow inferior becasue he hadn't actually won one trumps any one-upmanship you accuse me of. I didn't march in - I was already here.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Vulture on January 19, 2009, 02:49:05 PM
I think the fact you mentioned the Grammy nominations twice, following it up with a Grammy win, then inferring that Gilby was somehow inferior becasue he hadn't actually won one trumps any one-upmanship you accuse me of.
Yeah, you forgot the off-hand nonchalance of "by the way" and the strutting behind the "at least four".
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: The Peepmaster on January 19, 2009, 06:21:52 PM
Of course he doesn't show this board to his students. Do you really think he wants a whole school to discover his nickname's Pilchard?
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Roger Kettle on January 19, 2009, 08:12:00 PM
Funnily enough, Mince, that Gilbert O' Sullivan line you quoted is one of my favourite lyrics and I certainly don't see it as cliched. Remember, this was written nearly 40 years ago. I think it neatly describes the guilt of being able to eat and drink comfortably at home while T.V. news brings us the horror of Third World famines. More than a decade later, that scenario was to eventually make Bob Geldof a knight! As I said earlier, I genuinely liked aspects of that song you posted but it just tried too hard for me. The tempo-changes are a gimmick used to give a mock-opera feel. (As perfected by Queen in Bohemian Rhapsody, complete with pretentious lyrics). The best example of this genre is Macarthur Park---but this was done entirely as a send-up. Legend has it that the composer (whose name escapes me) and the actor, Richard Harris, combined to try and produce the most ludicrous song to hit the top of the charts. They succeeded. My work here is done.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Vulture on January 19, 2009, 09:08:32 PM
Funnily enough, Mince, that Gilbert O' Sullivan line you quoted is one of my favourite lyrics and I certainly don't see it as cliched. Remember, this was written nearly 40 years ago. I think it neatly describes the guilt of being able to eat and drink comfortably at home while T.V. news brings us the horror of Third World famines. More than a decade later, that scenario was to eventually make Bob Geldof a knight!
And it was also used in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
It's the contrast that is cliched. We should feel sympathy for those who are starving and poor anyway. The eating of more than enough apple pies is merely the gimmick of contrast used for sentimentality through guilt rather than any real exploration of the subject of starving children.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Roger Kettle on January 19, 2009, 09:47:17 PM
Oh, come on! You're wanting a "real exploration of of the subject of starving children" in a 3-minute pop song? I think we're going to have to accept a difference of opinion here. "Nothing Rhymed", for me, is a haunting, melodic song with some thoughtful, clever lyrics. I appreciate that you see it differently.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 09:55:12 PM
I think we're going to have to accept a difference of opinion here. "Nothing Rhymed", for me, is a haunting, melodic song with some thoughtful, clever lyrics. I appreciate that you see it differently.
The lyrics are clever in their English, I agree. He has a way with words. But I don't know the lyrics well enough to comment further.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 10:34:29 PM
His cap gets on my nerves as well.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Roger Kettle on January 19, 2009, 10:57:25 PM
The cap was dumped within a year or so. I'm not sure what "the look" was supposed to be---a 1920's street urchin? I can't imagine what kind of idiot would have bought a ridiculous cap like that.
Okay, I had one.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 19, 2009, 11:06:24 PM
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: The Peepmaster on January 20, 2009, 12:28:51 AM
It was just a coincidence that the Bay City Rollers had tartan trousers too, wasn't it, Roger?
The contrast between over eating and starving kids isn't necessarily a sentimental ploy, Mince. It's an emphasis on an unequality, no more no less. Being aware that one has plenty while others have nowt, isn't a bad thing. Drawing attention to that contrast isn't either. The whole song is about imbalances, and that's why it's called "Nothing Rhymed". It's always been one of my favourite songs too.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Roger Kettle on January 20, 2009, 09:29:35 AM
I always did this. It caused a few tricky moments during my Doris Day phase.
That was more your Dead Wood Stage.
A few years back I had a boyfriend who was obsessed by Doris Day, but especially in "Calamity Jane." Why I could not say because he was 36 at the time and would have been a small child at the time of Doris' heyday. He used to sing the Howard Keel songs to me. Uck. If that wasn't a bad enough memory, I now have "Oh the deadwood stage is a-rollin' along the plains.......Whip crack away, whip crack away, whip crack away" playing in my head. Thanks for the (unfortunate) memories.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: The Peepmaster on January 20, 2009, 12:58:04 PM
Calamity Jane was one of the first films I ever saw. I love the songs from it.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Feather on January 20, 2009, 01:02:45 PM
Is that you, Dan? My, how you have changed over the years.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 20, 2009, 01:15:26 PM
By the way, I think it might be "purty" instead of "pretty," Mince.
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Mince on January 20, 2009, 02:14:20 PM
Yay! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
Title: Re: Fantastic Song
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on January 20, 2009, 03:36:05 PM
I dunno - the finding of the last Golden Ticket is merely the gimmick of contrast used for instant fortune without guilt rather than any real exploration of the subject of starving children with no regular access to chocolate.