Posted on 03/17/2002 11:56:23 AM PST by Lebowski
Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
All around that dull gray world
From Moscow to Berlin
People storm the barricades
Walls go tumbling inThe counter-revolution
People smiling through their tears
Who can give them back their lives
And all those wasted years?
All those precious wasted years --
Who will pay?All around that dull gray world
Of ideology
People storm the marketplace
And buy up fantasyThe counter-revolution
At the counter of a store
People buy the things they want
And borrow for a little more
All those wasted years
All those precious wasted years
Who will pay?Do we have to be forgiving at last?
What else can we do?
Do we have to say goodbye to the past?
Yes I guess we doAll around this great big world
All the crap we had to take
Bombs and basement fallout shelters
All our lives at stakeThe bloody revolution
All the warheads in its wake
All the fear and suffering
All a big mistake
All those wasted years
All those precious wasted years
Who will pay?
How can there be gun violence against kids in Canada? They have registration and prohibition of some guns. That will stop all bad things with guns... (/sarcasm)
The opening generic blues 'My Sunday Feeling' is quite fine, but the main thing which makes it memorable is its weird 'stuttering', broken rhythm and not the flute. This speaks in favour of the band - they were trying to do something creative to the blues formula from the very beginning - but 'stuttering' is not really sufficient to make a masterpiece out of an ordinary blues tune. It would take one more album to demonstrate the real wonders Tull could work with the blues. (* - see below)
Not so, however, with the absolutely incredible workout on 'Beggar's Farm': the flute totally makes this song, from the raving riff in the intro to the furious solo and to the splendid ending (by the way, early Tull codas are yet another of their trademarks - in the early years, Ian took special care not to let the song just pull to a stop in one-two seconds), not to mention the thoughtful lyrics, typically illustrating Ian's untraditional approach to 'lost love' thematics: 'Oh, you don't fool me/Cos I know what you feel/When you go out I ask you why/And I won't worry when I see you lying down on Beggar's Farm...' And, of course, nobody should ever forget the cover of Roland Kirk's 'Serenade To A Cuckoo': it would be very convenient to say that it paves the road to the superior 'Bouree', but it is just as well a terrific piece of music in its own right. Mick Abrahams contributes a decent jazz guitar solo, and at six minutes' length it's still way too short for me. He was a good guy. Pity he left right after this album. Must have been too freedom-loving. Well, he just had to 'Move On Alone' (his finest composition on the album, if I might make such an ambivalent remark). As for Ian, he is as of yet very careful and somewhat shy about his flute playing, but he's already able of putting out some superb and subtle dynamics by means of the instrument.
What about the easy-to-chew pop hits now? Sorry, generally that's not to be expected from a Tull album, but the closest thing to a pop hit here is the funny harmonica-driven 'Song For Jeffrey' with Ian apparently singing through some kind of gadget so that the vocals are hardly decipherable. (To decode them, use the live version on the Stones' 'Rock And Roll Circus'). For some, this is a major highlight, and it's indeed one of the catchiest ditties the band ever did: the interplay between the bloozy guitar and the poppy harmonica is amazing and promptly digs itself into your memory.
So just concentrate on more blues stuff, and don't you worry about its overabundance - they did it good, and they wouldn't be doing it at all in just a couple of years. Catch it while it's young, especially since they try to do lots of cool things to vary things a bit - unlike, say, contemporary Fleetwood Mac! 'It's Breaking Me Up' is so 'clumsied' up you won't even realize it's blues until you've heard it all way through! And 'Someday The Sun Won't Shine For You' is just a cozy, warm song, despite the menacing lyrics. 'In the morning I'll be leaving/I'll leave your mother too'. Well, well, well...
'This was' how we played then', said Ian. This Was good.
* - Jethro Tull's 'A New Day Yesterday' from their second album, Stand Up , is the only blues number on that record, but's it's an all time Tull classic. Why? Because of it's great double descending guitar riff which you don't hear that often on a generic blues number. On 'A New Day Yesterday' the band sounds like a rip roarin' blues tank with skillful mastery of overdubs, a steady twin-guitar-flute attack and Clive Bunker's perfected drumming style.
'Song For Jeffrey' - Top of the Pops TV Clip - 1969
I've seen the new album but haven't heard it. I read or saw an interview with Joey after the band ended where he talked about watching some of the women on cable. I thought that he had said something about a girl from the Weather Channel. It must have been something about that financial show.
That said, I love Ronnie Van Zant's brother's (Donnie) band, and their name, .38 Special. But dogonne it, I was gonna call my band .45 ACP...
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
really conservative: Rahowa...but I don't think thats what you're looking for. Its not my cup of tea.
I saw john tesh selling some kind of inspirational cd of his music too.
Donnie Iris (Ierace, to those who knew him from the Jaggerz) is a good friend of B.E.'s and often plays in Pittsburgh with him.
Note: I've redacted profanity from the lyrics but left the rest. It's a somewhat graphic description from the fetus' perspective. Certainly doesn't hold to the "a fetus is not a life" perspective.
BODIES
She was a girl from Birmingham
She just had an abortion
She was case of insanity
Her name was Pauline she lived in a tree
She was a no one who killed her baby
She sent her letter from the country
She was an animal
She was a bloody disgrace
Bodies I'm not an animal
Bodies I'm not an animal
Dragged on a table in factory
Illegitimate place to be
In a packet in a lavatory
Die little baby screaming
Body screaming ****ing bloody mess
Not an animal
It's an abortion
Bodies I'm not animal
Mummy I'm not an abortion
Throbbing squirm,
gurgling bloody mess
I'm not an discharge
I'm not a loss in protein
I'm not a throbbing squirm>
**** this and **** that
**** it all and **** the ****ing brat
She don't wanna baby that looks like that
I don't wanna baby that looks like that
Body I'm not an animal
Body an abortion
Bodies I'm not an animal
Bodies I'm not an abortion
I'm not an animal..... Mummy!
I checked Lydon's autobiography. Not much in it about this song (just saying that Pauline was a demented fan). The full text from the passage in the book appears in his article but it has been cut and pasted to appear to be longer than it is (or maybe to give the impression that it says things that aren't there). Nothing written by the Sex Pistols in that passage defends or condemns her abortion but I think that the lyrics are quite damning.
John Lydon's politics are hard to pin down. He puts the blame for the violence in Ireland on both sides feeling that neither side ever wants it to end (it is not about concessions). He disliked the Clash and digs at them for Marxist politics in some of their early songs. He even disliked hippies (even though he roadied for Hawkwind). I wouldn't classify him as a conservative but we've got some common ground at least with some of the songs.
Heck, "we" cast the monarchy aside, God Save The Queen, Johnny.
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I was just getting ready to post about "Bodies," thanks.
I've always thought of John Lydon as being an independent--not a fence-sitter or a Jim Jeffords type, per se, but a person who doesn't like to be neatly placed into one particular political box. I'm like that in a lot of ways, even though most of my politics are pretty libertarian-leaning (I vehemently disagree with the LP's pro-abortion stance, however). I've seen him on [b]Politically Incorrect[/b] quite a few times and he comes across as very intelligent and articulate while debating the issues, definitely someone who knows his sh**. He has excellent wit too.
As for Lydon's distaste for hippies, that's something which has more or less been a part of punk rock from the very beginning.
really conservative: Rahowa...but I don't think thats what you're looking for. Its not my cup of tea.
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Lee Ving and Fear are awesome! "You only spit as good as you suck, sh**head!" Hahahahaha!
As for RaHoWa, they're too far to the right for my taste, same with all those other neo-Nazi bands on Resistance Records.
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Bill Maher is about as libertarian as Ted Kennedy.
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Yeah, AF kick a**. Their new material on Epitaph isn't all that good, however. It's ironic how many people in the punk/hardcore scene (especially the MaximumRocknRoll twits) attacked Miret for being anti-Marxist and anti-Castro while overlooking that they'd be the first to get sent off to the gulag in a Communist society. Heck, I actually encountered these crust punk kids online who called themselves "Anarchist Communists" (an oxymoron if I've ever heard one; Lenin and the Bolsheviks killed every "counterrevolutionary" Russian anarchist they could get their hands on shortly after taking over).
Do you remember Ludichrist? They eventually evolved into the far inferior Scatterbrain. Not sure of Tommy Christ's politics but he sure was a funny guy.
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I know, but "Kill The Poor" was more of a tongue-in-cheek, purposely offensive and sarcastic song. I loved how they took swipes at certain upscale liberal hypocrites in it, though ("Jane Fonda on the screen today/Convinced the liberals it's okay"). And poking fun at Jerry Brown in "California Uber Alles," that was classic. I was bothered by how The Dead Kennedys bashed Ronald Reagan frequently in their songs, considering that their worst fears never materialized during his administration (no children were forced by law to pray in school and the Pill wasn't banned while he was President), but they had a cool name, at least.
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