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Poster: SomeDarkHollow Date: Jun 8, 2010 10:36am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

No amount of drugs could make that palatable.

Same goes for "Street cats making love."

Might be a good thread: Worst Lyrics, could open it up to any band, just to be fair.

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Poster: robthewordsmith Date: Jun 8, 2010 11:29am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Ok - since BD spoke up for Nick Cave here's another suggestion. Surely no one will defend these sanctimonious, narcissistic assholes...

I like the sound of my own voice
I didn’t give anyone else a choice
An intellectual tortoise
Racing with your bullet train

Fairly self-referential lyrics I'd have thought.

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Poster: elbow1126 Date: Jun 8, 2010 10:54am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

"Number 47 said to Number 3, you're the cutest jailbird that I ever did see."

Worse than the Shawshank Redemption imo.

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Poster: SomeDarkHollow Date: Jun 8, 2010 11:16am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

C'mon, there's no need to be homophobic. Prison love is a speacial thing. Seems very few people bothered to really check those lyrics, unless co-ed jails are were big back then.

Kind of like "Couple more shots of whiskey, women round here start looking good" always getting a big response from the crowd. Yes, folks, your female residents are so heinous that severe intoxication is required to make them remotely approachable.

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Poster: ringolevio Date: Jun 8, 2010 12:25pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Yeah that makes me wince. Little Schoolgirl is a little uncomfy, too.

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Poster: DeadRed1971 Date: Jun 8, 2010 5:53pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Anybody ever notice the Good Morning Little Schoolgirl quip in Full Metal Jacket to the Vietnamese hooker?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Ep1nmwWU0

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Poster: direwolf0701 Date: Jun 8, 2010 11:20am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

i was listening to some John Hiatt recently, and though there are some songs of his i like, there are too many lyrical sequences that made me hit the pause button and say "really?? REALLY JOHN?????"

UGH

have the same trouble with Richard Thompson. It is like the two of them attended the same course: Bad Poetry, Lame Cliche's, and You 101

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Poster: bluedevil Date: Jun 8, 2010 11:52am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

OK. Point me to some of Richard's problems; if the wordsmith won't leap to his defense, I will (although there may well be some that are beyond any straight faced attempt to defend).

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Poster: robthewordsmith Date: Jun 8, 2010 12:23pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Apologies - I was too busy stir-frying prawns to do much defensive leaping, but I knew one of us was going to pitch in on RT's behalf.

Rather like your point re Cave, with RT it's mostly in the delivery and the marriage of words and music (but honestly how many performers couldn't you say that of?). It's hard to defend

Well my head was beating like a song by the Clash
It was writing cheques that my body couldn't cash

as great poetry but it works pretty well in context.

Likewise

Says James, in my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeveses won't do
They don't have a soul like a Vincent 52
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said I've got no further use for these
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride

might not win the college poetry contest - but married to the music it is undeniably magnificent.

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Poster: bluedevil Date: Jun 8, 2010 12:34pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

A song by the Clash? Saw Lords of Dogtown last night in which Social Distortion does great cover of this tune during closing credits:

Now every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the world,
Ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl.
Love 'n hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands,
Hands that slap his kids around, 'cause they don't understand how,

Death or glory, becomes just another story.
Death or glory, becomes just another story.

'n every gimmick hungry yob digging gold from rock 'n roll,
Grabs the mike to tell us he'll die before he's sold,
But I believe in this and it's been tested by research,
He who fucks nuns will later join the church.

Death or glory, becomes just another story.
Death or glory, becomes just another story

Now I'm off to defend Robert Plant's singing about squeezing lemons til the juice runs down his leg...

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Poster: robthewordsmith Date: Jun 8, 2010 12:46pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.
Oh, oh, child, way you shake that thing, gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting.
Hey, hey, baby, when you walk that way, watch your honey drip, can't keep away.

Raunchy? Who said raunchy?


Ok - raising the tone with some of my favourite Strummer words:

Midnight to six man
For the first time from Jamaica
Dillinger and Leroy Smart
Delroy Wilson, your cool operator

Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae
With backing bands sound systems
And if they've got anything to say
There's many black ears here to listen

But it was Four Tops all night with encores from stage right
Charging from the bass knives to the treble
But onstage they ain't got no roots rock rebel
Onstage they ain't got no...roots rock rebel

Dress back jump back this is a bluebeat attack
'Cos it won't get you anywhere
Fooling with your guns
The British Army is waiting out there
An' it weighs fifteen hundred tons

White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution

Punk rockers in the UK
They won't notice anyway
They're all too busy fighting
For a good place under the lighting

The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, ha you think it's funny
Turning rebellion into money

All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They'd send a limousine anyway

I'm the all night drug-prowling wolf
Who looks so sick in the sun
I'm the white man in the Palais
Just lookin' for fun

I'm only
Looking for fun

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Poster: bluedevil Date: Jun 8, 2010 4:03pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead - or the muse jumped ship?

Evangeline
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: [7 Walkers]

One of the new songs with Robert Hunter lyrics played by 7 Walkers featuring Bill Kreutzmann and Papa Mali.

Creeping down the Bayou
Hard days and night
Leaving through the willow
Shining big and bright

Haunted witches' moon
Low on the horizon
Couldn't be a better time
To brew a lover's potion

West [?]
I met Evangeline
She was born in [Lakarus]
But raised in Sabine

I can't live without her
Don't even want to try
If she won't be my lover
I might as well die

She can make the rain cloud
Open up and pour
She can make the lightning flash
And make the thunder roar

Evangeline, you're everything
A man like me could need
I was born to love her
In thought and word and deed

She's got a mystic streak
Knows what is to come
She can stop the traffic
By sticking out her thumb

She can make my heart beat
As fast as any drum
Evangeline, Evangeline
Sweet as sugar plum

Magical positions
Of the planets and the stars
Clear to her as music
Written down in bars

Clear to her as street signs
Posted in the trees
Along the ghostly avenues
The river and the breeze

She can make the rain cloud
Open up and pour
She can make the lightning flash
And make the thunder roar

Evangeline, you're everything
A man like me could need
I was born to love her
In thought and word and deed

Welcome to my heart
Welcome to my soul
You're the kind of woman
Make a man bold

You're the kind of mama
Men grow up a boy
Changes these tears of sorrow
Into shining tears of joy

I got a little secret
To whisper in your ear
Come a little closer
So no one else can hear

I was born to love you
In rare and different ways
Going to make you happy
For the rest of my days

You can make the rain cloud
Open up and pour
You can make the lightning flash
And make the thunder roar

Evangeline, you're everything
A man like me could need
I was born to love you
Yes I was indeed

I was born to love you
Yes I was indeed
I was born to love you
You're everything I need

Recordings
Date Album Recorded By
2010 Seven Walkers Seven Walkers

looked it up b/c listening to this and was introduced as newly penned Hunter tune:
http://www.archive.org/details/PapaMali2010-04-09.flac16

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Poster: direwolf0701 Date: Jun 8, 2010 7:39pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

i cant point specifically now - i deleted all the songs i had after not being able to get through more than a dozen.

i suppose it didnt help much that his voice is as flat as a possum run over by a semi.

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Poster: bluedevil Date: Jun 8, 2010 8:08pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

"i suppose it didnt help much that his voice is as flat as a possum run over by a semi."
HA!

Yea, he's no Neil (who harmonizes with himself when he warbles - and i love it).

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Poster: direwolf0701 Date: Jun 8, 2010 8:28pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

gotta say, i really tried to give RT a chance. for whatever reason, i just don't get him. purely subjective. i simply just cannot handle a relatively consistently flat singing voice (as opposed to Vedder, who can strike the occasional flat note, but stays on key more often than not) -

not being able to carry a tune just twists the musical portion of my brain into areas that cause the "tilt" light to go on. Neil's may be quite strange, but the dude can carry a tune.

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Poster: robthewordsmith Date: Jun 8, 2010 10:51am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

My nomination goes to Nick Cave:

I don't believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you

You'll go a long way to find lyrics more pifflingly pretentious than the above.

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Poster: bluedevil Date: Jun 8, 2010 10:58am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

It's all in the delivery with Nick. Bad Seeds are one of the greatest live bands - with and without Mick Harvey and Blixa. You have to accept his over the top goth lounge act (or not).

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Poster: robthewordsmith Date: Jun 8, 2010 11:13am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Oh I'm not saying it's all bad (seeds) with Nick Cave, but in all honesty the first time I heard that I just fell about laughing.

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Poster: spacedface Date: Jun 8, 2010 6:48pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Interventional God all the way -- total subatomic control. The quantum soup and effects (consensus reality) is not the real.

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Poster: robthewordsmith Date: Jun 9, 2010 12:51am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Oh spare me. Please.

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Poster: spacedface Date: Jun 9, 2010 10:53am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

As you like it.

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Poster: direwolf0701 Date: Jun 9, 2010 11:03am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: drugs and the dead

Much Ado About Not(h)ing