Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (10/06/89)
Really-From: Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu > pwoodruf's theory about _Walk_Straight_Down_the_Middle_ Come on, let's have some more theories about what the songs mean/are about/are based on. (Could it just possibly be that noone is speaking up yet because hardly anyone has heard the album?) I'd really like to know what's behind _WSDTM_. Also _Heads_ we're_Dancing_. Also all the rest, for that matter. IED? Is the line in _HWD_ really "it was a picture of Hitler"? > the show "Hair" used a passage from Shakespeare as the lyrics > for the song "What a Piece of Work is Man". And the Byrds(?) adapted > a passage from Ecclesiastes for one of their songs (I'm not sure what > the actual title was, but the chorus starts with "To everything, turn, turn, > turn, there is a season, turn, turn turn"). Good work. I have heard both; they slipped my mind. I am particularly surprised that I didn't remember the piece from "Hair" because I have discussed its unusual nature with friends on several occasions. >>" The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. " >> attribution, anyone? > L. P. Hartley, of course. Hasn't every Love-Hound read _The Go-Between_? > (Or at least seen Harold Pinter's great screenplay) Surely you didn't expect > that one to stump us! :) :) > Jimmy Liberato Actually, I asked because I didn't know! So evidently _not_ every Love-Hound has read _The_Go-Between_. I guess I will. I got the quotation from the side of a bag from Sherratt & Hughes bookshops when I was in Britain this summer. I just dug out the bag and noticed that in smaller print it says "opening of the go-between by l p hartley". But I still wouldn't know this if you hadn't replied! Again, good work. This sets a frightening precedent. Whenever I don't know something, I can just post the question to love-hounds! Actually, I have this thesis problem ... > Why does anyone assume the phrase "Nice To Swallow" refers to oral sex? > Would you have made the same assumption if the speaker had been a man? I am a heterosexual male. If I had thought of calling "Night of the Swallow" "Nice to Swallow" (actually, I sort of wish I had) my friends would correctly assume that I meant it as a sexual joke. >> origin, why it's "ied", you name it. [...] > You mean to say it's not 'In Excelsior Deus'?! Or just possibly "in excelsis deo" >_Just_Like_a_Prayer_ are considered "subversive". That song is titled _Like_a_Prayer_. (Big whoop.) > Could someone change the 'official' description to something more > generic (ie: remove Kate Bush)? Is this hoser serious? I can't tell. Do you want to cuss him out or should I? --------------------------------------Julian----------------- "the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there" -- l p hartley ------------------------------------------------------------
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (10/06/89)
Really-From: Jon Drukman <jsd@GAFFA.MIT.EDU> >Really-From: Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu > >> pwoodruf's theory about _Walk_Straight_Down_the_Middle_ > >Come on, let's have some more theories about what the songs >mean/are about/are based on. (Could it just possibly be that noone >is speaking up yet because hardly anyone has heard the album?) >I'd really like to know what's behind _WSDTM_. Also _Heads_ >we're_Dancing_. Also all the rest, for that matter. IED? >Is the line in _HWD_ really "it was a picture of Hitler"? I love that WSDTM theory. And IED's addendum about the bird noises being a horde of crazed Hitchockian birds attacking makes PERFECT SENSE! I realize IED was being tongue in cheek, but it WORKS, doesn't it? It's a song about SHEER URBAN HELL! BRILLIANT! Who woulda thought? Heads We're Dancing is a mystery still. Since Julian has supported my half-assed theory that the line is "it's a picture of Hitler" (a theory I have only confided to Ed Suranyi), then I guess we must be right. There seems to be a line where Kate says "It was 1939 before the music started" as well. 1939, is of course, the year in which Adolf invaded Czechoslovakia. The rest of the song makes no sense to me yet. I can't understand what happens if the coin toss comes up tails. Does he annex Poland right away or something? I really think _Rocket's_Tail_ is about suicide. The opening a-capella bits feature lines where Kate talks about dressing up like a rocket, standing on the edge of a bridge, and plunging into the night. Sadly, once all the raucous guitar stuff starts, I can't understand a word she says, except for the unbelievably soulful cries of "Take a little fire!" which is a terribly ambiguous phrase... _Deeper_Understanding_ is pretty self-evident. The only question that lingers is: who is talking at the end of the song? |>oug and I have been fighting about this one. I say that the narrator has been forcibly ripped away from the only thing in the world that ever gave her love and understood where she was coming from, so she sits alone, crying softly to herself: "I hate to leave you." |>oug thinks that the computer is saying this. Well, here's three big tunes to discuss. I've started "rolling the ball," so why don't you people jump in? Come on, you won't look completely foolish until the lyrics sheets come out anyway... "Do you wanna dance?" -- +---------------------- Is there any ESCAPE from NOISE? --------------------+ | | |\ | jsd@gaffa.mit.edu | "A man's home is his coffin." | | \|on |/rukman | jsd@umass.bitnet | - Al Bundy | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+