steve@devnull.mpd.tandem.COM (Steve Williams) (05/31/91)
Several months ago, back when we spent our time here in proper activities
like arguing interminably about trivial shades of meaning in song lyrics
and such, Ryan McGuire, IED and I tried to start a fight over our varying
interpretations of a line of mystery text buried within _Experiment IV_.
But the hoped-for debate never materialized. Now, thanks to John Relph's
recent article, I have an excuse to post my interpretation again. Last
time out, my posting signaled the end of the subject, either because my
transcription was so obviously definitive, or because no one gave a hoot.
So, once again: About halfway through X4, there's a choppy vocal line
buried deep beneath great amounts of wonderful noise.
(Official Love-Hounds Map to Buried Lyrics: They closely follow the line
"It could sing you to sleep" in the standard version of the song. Harder
to define the location in the extended mix, which lacks that indicator line.)
Ryan heard:
I think I must thank you for listening to my tune.
While IED heard:
I bet my mum's gonna buy me a little toy instrument.
And John Relph now hears:
I think the outline was they're making an [unphonetic] instrument.
While I continue to hear some variation on:
I've got my/mine muzzle(d) and they came in tune(d) to destruct/destroy.
I hear everything up to the word "tune" pretty clearly, at least on the CD
copy, where it's easy to play tiny fragments over and over again very
rapidly (essential in this case). It's less clear on vinyl, and even less
clear on the vinyl extended version. (In that version, the line is still
present, but easier to miss because the preceding line "It could sing you
to sleep" is missing.) The vocal IS buried beneath multiple instrument
tracks, but seems to be a single continuous vocal, not chopped up,
back-masked, pieced together or shifted about in any tricky manner. The
difficulty comes from the phrasing (slightly odd) and from the overlying
instruments. For example, Ryan mentioned:
>2. The word, "tune" doesn't quite sound right. There seems to be a ch
> sound between the t and the u, 'tchune'. Maybe this isn't even the
> the right word.
I still don't want to put words in Ryan's ears, but what I *think* he
heard over the word "tune" is part of the rhythm track. There's a
constant "tch-tch-tch-tch" throughout. That's the same reason I'm not
sure about the d on the end of "tune(d)".
The last word is more of a guess. What I hear best is "destruct", but
pronounced "dee-struct". That's less grammatically correct than "destroy"
might be, but not if the sentence is read as if "DESTRUCT" were a setting
on a device, not as part of some incorrect infinitive "to destruct".
Really, it could be another word entirely.
To complicate things further, I think there's another buried line later in
the song, and it's even harder to make out.
Let's solve this burning issue. Next opinion?...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Williams steve@mpd.tandem.com
or: cs.utexas.edu!devnull!steve
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------dll@claris.UUCP (Dan Liddell) (06/01/91)
In article <279@devnull.mpd.tandem.com> steve@devnull.mpd.tandem.com (Steve Williams) writes: > >Several months ago, back when we spent our time here in proper activities >like arguing interminably about trivial shades of meaning in song lyrics >and such, Ryan McGuire, IED and I tried to start a fight over our varying >interpretations of a line of mystery text buried within _Experiment IV_. >... >So, once again: About halfway through X4, there's a choppy vocal line >buried deep beneath great amounts of wonderful noise. >(Official Love-Hounds Map to Buried Lyrics: They closely follow the line >"It could sing you to sleep" in the standard version of the song. Harder >to define the location in the extended mix, which lacks that indicator line.) > >Ryan heard: > I think I must thank you for listening to my tune. > >While IED heard: > I bet my mum's gonna buy me a little toy instrument. > >And John Relph now hears: > I think the outline was they're making an [unphonetic] instrument. > >While I continue to hear some variation on: > I've got my/mine muzzle(d) and they came in tune(d) to destruct/destroy. > Using classic methods of discerning obscured lyrics, I hear "Back- Back- Back- Back-slapping in between the instruments." This phrase seems consistent with the chronology of the song. The words of the song at that point seem to describe "low power testing," or nonlethal operation of the machine: It could feel like falling in love. It could feel so bad. It could feel so good. It could sing you to sleep... These would be the first concrete results that the researchers had seen from their machine, and they would be quite pleased with themselves, congratulating each other amidst the instruments of their labor. I was heartened to see that two other entries (this is a contest, isn't it :) ended with the word instruments. Some of the other entries had a similar count of syllables. -- Dan Liddell UUCP decwrl!teda!dll TELEPHONE 4089805200 USA curb your dogma. The opinions and views expressed are Dan's.
cboyer@chatham.UUCP (Charles Boyer) (06/02/91)
Concering the semi-controversy regarding the spoken lyric in X4: >Ryan heard: > I think I must thank you for listening to my tune. I must agree. Using my Mac, I digitally sampled and isolated the spoken part, and that's what I thought I heard. It's very obscure to be sure, but my ears heard those words as well. Then again, I'm no audiologist. Charles