Confessor
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Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on May 17, 2017 3:13:24 GMT -5
What the hell are the lyrics all about? Though they are rather self-consciously ambiguous, to me the lyrics are rather obviously about experiencing an acid trip while at a party, with the singer ending up in bed with someone. Given the year it was released, I've always felt that this was a fairly safe interpretation. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 17, 2017 3:42:26 GMT -5
I always thought one of the coolest things about Procul Harum was having an official member of the group whose only responsibility was writing the lyrics. And he excelled at it!
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Post by Rob Allen on May 17, 2017 12:55:27 GMT -5
In my senior year of high school, 1973-74, the school was trying to get hip, or at least hipper than they were. One of the things they did was offer a "Poetry of Rock" segment in the English department. I took that class, and one of the songs we studied was "A Whiter Shade of Pale". From what I recall, our analysis was that the first verse was about someone's first experience with alcohol, and the second was about someone's first experience with sex.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 17, 2017 14:56:53 GMT -5
My 9th grade English teacher, 1969, also wanted to be hip, and had us study the lyrics of 2 rock songs for it's poetic values. First was The Beatles "A Day In The Life". The other was Simon and Garfunkel's "Richard Cory". I recall really enjoying English classes that week
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,207
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Post by Confessor on May 17, 2017 15:15:48 GMT -5
In my senior year of high school, 1973-74, the school was trying to get hip, or at least hipper than they were. One of the things they did was offer a "Poetry of Rock" segment in the English department. I took that class, and one of the songs we studied was "A Whiter Shade of Pale". From what I recall, our analysis was that the first verse was about someone's first experience with alcohol, and the second was about someone's first experience with sex. Substitute alcohol for LSD and I think you're right on the money. By the way Rob, I saw the trailer for the soon to be released Netflix Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip the other day. Are you aware of this? Looks like it's gonna be a great documentary about the band's history. Here's the trailer... www.yahoo.com/movies/long-strange-trip-trailer-first-look-epic-grateful-dead-documentary-exclusive-160317604.html |
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Post by Rob Allen on May 17, 2017 15:55:04 GMT -5
By the way Rob, I saw the trailer for the soon to be released Netflix Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip the other day. Are you aware of this? Looks like it's gonna be a great documentary about the band's history. Oh yes, they've been hyping the movie since January in the Dead fan community. I'm on the Dead mailing list, Bob Weir's mailing list, the Terrapin Crossroads mailing list, and the Deadheadland fan site, and they've all mentioned the movie. I'm looking forward to it. PS. Robert Hunter was an official member of the Grateful Dead whose role was to write lyrics. I didn't realize that the Dead and Procol Harum had that in common. |
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Post by berkley on May 17, 2017 17:55:45 GMT -5
I didn't know about the two missing verses until very recently so while I had a vague idea it might be something about getting drunk at a party I never caught on to the rest of it (BTW, for years I thought that line referencing the Miller»'s Tale was "As the mirror told its tale" - i.e. they saw their faces in the mirror and noticed how pale they were). But yes, the last two verses make it clear there's a romantic tryst (or sexual encounter, if you prefer) of some kind involved.
A couple other writers who provided lyricis for bands: Pete Sinfield (King Crimson, ELP) and Michael Moorcock (Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult).
In I believe Grade 10 or 11 we had this English textbook called Poetry of Relevance that featured a lot of rock and pop song lyrics. Don't have a copy with me but I found this table of contents online:
General introduction: the sense of wonder --
Folk songs and blues --
Pete Seeger --
Tim Buckley --
Joni Mitchell --
John Lennon and the Beatles --
Bruce Cockburn --
William Hawkins --
Jim Morrison and the Doors --
Jerry Moore --
United States of America --
Robin Williamson --
Myth and The ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest --
Buffy Sainte-Marie. v. 2. General introduction: the logic of literary explanation --
Bukka White and traditional blues --
John KaSandra and urban blues --
Woody Guthrie --
Ewan MacColl --
Phil Ochs --
David Ackles --
Jacques Brel --
Malvina Reynolds --
Bruce MacKay --
David Crosby --
Stephen Stills --
Paul Simon --
Mick Jagger --
The Cream --
Harry Nilsson --
Bob Lind --
Leonard Cohen --
The Rev. F.D. Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.
But I wonder if this is the same book I remember because I was sure we had Jim Morrison's The End and something by Pink Floyd in one book we studied.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 18, 2017 3:49:31 GMT -5
Time to step back a month 50 years ago and look at some of the songs that didn't quite get regular airplay on Top 40 radio. This is my favorite part of the 50 year Ago review as I unearth neglected gems or just some weird stuff from the dusty past
Odds And Sods Of April 1967
Otis Redding was one of the great neglected soul singer/songwriter of the 1960's. Not until his tragic death did one of his recordings break in to the Top 20. He wrote and originally recorded the classic "Respect" but it was Aretha Franklin's version that topped the charts. Here is his soul ballad that was released just before his team-up with Carla Thomas and appearance at the Monterrey Festival
How can I fail to post a single from an album titled The Electric Comic Book? The Blues Magoos had a big #5 hit in 1966, "We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet". That was more than they would ever get later. This song never got past #81
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was a long-running American country rock band whose members included Jackson Browne at the beginning. They're biggest successes came in the 1970's but here was their first single which got up to #45. An early music video that aired during the 1st season of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
Cannonball Adderley was a favorite jazz saxophonist of mine and just had his biggest commercial hit with "Mercy Mercy Mercy". His followup single was also from a live performance edited down to 3 minutes. Here's the full length album version
A great song from neglected soul artist William Bell. "Everybody Loves A Winner" barely cracked the Top 100 but would get public attention in the 1970's from Linda Ronstadt's version. Bell co-wrote this with Booker T
More April Odds and Sods to come
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 18, 2017 5:04:40 GMT -5
Chris Cornell, former lead singer for Soundgarden, dead at age 52 Chris Cornell |
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Confessor
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Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,207
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Post by Confessor on May 18, 2017 6:42:46 GMT -5
Chris Cornell, former lead singer for Soundgarden, dead at age 52 Chris Cornell Oh, what a shame. I'm not a huge fan of Soundgarden or anything, but their song "Black Hole Sun", along with "Hunger Strike", which Cornell did with Temple of the Dog, are both '90s rock classics. Absolute classics. |
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Confessor
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Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on May 18, 2017 8:54:41 GMT -5
I love The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Buy For Me the Rain". In fact, I much prefer their mid-60s stuff like this to their much better known '70s recordings.
Also, I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but the awesome Grass Roots' song "Let's Live for Today" was released on May 13th, 1967. Though it's chorus is *a-hem* slightly ripped off of the Drifters' "I Count the Tears", the song is a brilliant pop tune with an infectiously sing-along refrain. It climbed to #8 on the Billboard charts and became something a Sixties classic in the United States. Over here in the UK though, the song failed to chart and as a result is virtually unknown nowadays.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 18, 2017 10:44:09 GMT -5
Also, I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but the awesome Grass Roots' song "Let's Live for Today" was released on May 13th, 1967. Though it's chorus is *a-hem* slightly ripped off of the Drifters' "I Count the Tears", the song is a brilliant pop tune with an infectiously sing-along refrain. It climbed to #8 on the Billboard charts and became something a Sixties classic in the United States. Over here in the UK though, the song failed to chart and as a result is virtually unknown nowadays. if you were just patient with me, I would have posted it for Week 1 June, the anniversary of breaking into the US Top 40 and getting airplay. And I still will do so, hopefully in a different video clip for varieties sake. I agree, a great song Which brings me to a question I sometimes ponder when choosing a video clip to post. At times there are several and it comes down to this choice: Do I post a clip with great quality audio but just rudimentary images? or...
Do I post a clip of a live performance but the sound quality is shoddy?I go back and forth trying to choose and usually favor the audio. Thoughts? |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on May 18, 2017 18:39:19 GMT -5
if you were just patient with me, I would have posted it for Week 1 June, the anniversary of breaking into the US Top 40 and getting airplay. And I still will do so, hopefully in a different video clip for varieties sake. I agree, a great song Apologies. I thought we were mentioning songs or albums on the 50th anniversary of their release. Which brings me to a question I sometimes ponder when choosing a video clip to post. At times there are several and it comes down to this choice: Do I post a clip with great quality audio but just rudimentary images? or...
Do I post a clip of a live performance but the sound quality is shoddy?I go back and forth trying to choose and usually favor the audio. Thoughts? Myself, whether I'm posting music clips on here or on Facebook, I ideally like to post a colour clip of the song's promotional video or the band/artist lip-syncing the song in question on a TV show. My rationale being that I want folks to hear the studio recording that the band and their producer would've slaved over and still have some entertaining images to watch. For '60s acts, most of who didn't make promotional films, a clip of the band lip-syncing on TV is a cool way to get a period clip of the act, as they were at that time. However, if the visual or audio quality of a clip is not up to scratch (and it needs to be pretty good for me), I will then post a clip of the song with "rudimentary images", as you call it, instead, but I'll use the clip with the best sound quality that I can find. For me, the studio recording of a particular song is absolutely the definitive version -- that's just the sort of music fan I am, I guess. So, I will only ever post a live concert clip if it is an exceptionally good performance, as far as musicianship goes, and of very high audio/visual quality...unless I'm specifically referring to a live version of the song at the time, of course. That's my tuppence worth on the subject. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 18, 2017 23:22:25 GMT -5
Our song posting preferences are similar Confessor. Good to know, thanks
Please feel free with any observations you care to make. just wanted you to not feel I forgot something and understand my timing as in the case of the Grass Roots song or berkeley's Whiter Shade Of Pale post. I chose the anniversary of attaining Top 40 as when to start the song post for 2 reasons:
To give a sense of what folks were actually hearing on the radio 50 years ago during that week
Each week there could have been 15-20 making their debut. I try to keep the song posts in groups of 5. The Top 40 criteria helps to filter.
The exception comes with a song that hits #1.Generally, I only want to post a song once. So with those #1 songs, I delay the post until the week it did so. it's so dramatic that way. Wish I could include curtains parting and a fanfare for that occasion
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Post by berkley on May 20, 2017 12:18:30 GMT -5
I agree with Confessor on the live performances: I almost always prefer the studio version that's been put together with so much more care.
There are exceptions though - one of the most obvious would be, conicidentally, a Procol Harum song. I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about: their live version of Conquistador from the Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra record is far superior to the studio version that originally appeared on their first album.
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