| Bob Dylan – Tell Me That It Isn't True Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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A lovely song ruined by Dylan's, for once, clumsy lyrics. Look at the first two lines: "I have heard rumors all over town They say that you're planning to put me down" Planning to put me down? It scans and rhymes, but makes no sense. It could only make sense in the following tortuous scenario: Girl having troubles with Bob. She doesn't actually tell anyone where the source of Bob's awfulness lies. She instead tells people that, on a future date yet to be decided, she will divulge why Bob is such a terrible boyfriend. Then these people tell their friends that Bob's girlfriend will, sometime in the near future, tell an expectant township just why Bob is such a terrible boyfriend. This has never happened in the history of human relationships. |
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| The Beatles – Yesterday Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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C'mon Miss Stake, what would you rather read? A posting that simply reads "One of the best songs ever" or an intelligent, well-written contentious slating of a much-loved song. The whole purpose of a site like this is to indulge in analysis and/or criticism of songs. By stating that I shouldn't have written my genuine feelings about Yesterday you imply that this whole site should consist of people writing "I liked/loved this song" over and over until the crack of doom. You're quite right: you can't change someone's opinion by such a post. But you can certainly inspire in people the thought which runs along the lines of "Yes,I don't like Yesterday either but faced with its critical approbation I've never dared voice my dissenting opinion but certainly will do so in future." When I was in my late teens there were many books, films, records I pretended to like simply because I didn't want to look foolish. If my posting helps one other person come out and admit that they actually rather hate song X (or, conversely, actually like song Y) my work here will have been done. |
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| The Beatles – Yesterday Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| For the record I, mikeymike111, hereby deny that Elton John is a musical genius. He's done some quite nice stuff (Daniel) but then he's also perpetrated some horrors (Goodbye England's Rose). The word genius is used far too often - in terms of rock I'd use it to describe Dylan, the Stones (69-72), Velvet Underground and maybe a handful of others. But certainly not Mr John. | |
| The Magnetic Fields – Sweet-Lovin' Man Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think that this could have been one of the greatest songs of all time. Truly beautiful melody and and a simple yet emotional lyric (the line 'some have turned to dust inside' is the bit where I usually start to blub). However, the song is all but ruined (and now I can hardly listen to it) due to the lame, second-hand campy/bitchy/childish rubbish of the line "but keep your paws off mine". My heart sinks every time I hear this piece of cultural vandalism committed by the writer himself. | |
| The Rolling Stones – Memo From Turner Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Perhaps Jagger's finest song, but what does it all mean? Looking round the net it seems that for some prayer rituals orthodox Jews wear a religious garment which can be described as a sleevless shirt. The writer goes on to say that describing the man as 'Spanish speaking' is a reference to the Jews' exile from Spain in, I think, the middle ages. Though why he has a German-sounding name like Kurt isn't explained. The dominant theme is, of course, one of homosexuality. I think it may be the first time in popular culture where gayness is linked not with effeminacy but with an overt masculine sexuality. For examply the same year that Performance was released The Boys in the Band showed us a selection of campy self-hating drama queens. Also the line "the young girls eat their mother's meat from tubes of plasticon" is the kind of queasily sexual/violent image you'd find in William Burroughs. Also, just remembered that there is indeed a Burrough's book called The Soft Machine. I suppose the song, and the film Performance, were informed at some level by the fact of Reggie Kray's sexuality and the fact that an incredibly masculine (in fact psychotic) man could be gay. |
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| Chris De Burgh – A Spaceman Came Travelling Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"He followed a light and came down to a shed, Where a mother and child were lying there on a bed" is worthy of the great McGonagall. The whole lyric is so portentious and so deeply dreadful it brought me out in a thin sweat of embarassment. Also betrays basic ignorance of writer as a light year is a measurement of distance, not time. |
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| The Beatles – Yesterday Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Although anodyne and uninspired it would be hard to classify Yesterday as at terrible song. What is terrible, however, is the legion of people who proclaim it as their favourite or perhaps even the greatest song ever written. It's a bit like being asked to choose your favourite food from all the great dishes the world has to offer and settling on poached egg on toast. Nothing wrong with poached egg but to choose it as your favourite dish would seem to suggest such a person with no real love or appreciation of food. The story goes that when McCartney started writing the song it came so easily to him he felt sure it must already exist and was mildly surprised when he found out it didn't. Not every song written has to break new ground or be startlingly complex but, my God, just listen to the tune in your head. It sounds like an exercise for kids learning to play an instrument. Then there's the words. Hard to think of a lyric so completely devoid of poetry. "Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away now it looks as though they're here to stay" is fine for a bit of dialogue in a soap opera but to say this belongs to the greatest song of all time hints at madness. The nearest the song gets to using some kind of imagination is the line "love was such an easy game to play" which, although nothing to write home about, is at least not dreadful cliche like "there's a shadow hanging over me". To recap: Yesterday is a perfectly bland and inoffensive song made offensive, and perhaps grotesque, by those who believe it a work of genius or even perfection. |
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| The Beatles – Yesterday Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Although anodyne and uninspired it would be hard to classify Yesterday as at terrible song. What is terrible, however, is the legion of people who proclaim it as their favourite or perhaps even the greatest song ever written. It's a bit like being asked to choose your favourite food from all the great dishes the world has to offer and settling on poached egg on toast. Nothing wrong with poached egg but to choose it as your favourite dish would seem to suggest such a person with no real love or appreciation of food. The story goes that when McCartney started writing the song it came so easily to him he felt sure it must already exist and was mildly surprised when he found out it didn't. Not every song written has to break new ground or be startlingly complex but, my God, just listen to the tune in your head. It sounds like an exercise for kids learning to play an instrument. Then there's the words. Hard to think of a lyric so completely devoid of poetry. "Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away now it looks as though they're here to stay" is fine for a bit of dialogue in a soap opera but to say this belongs to the greatest song of all time hints at madness. The nearest the song gets to using some kind of imagination is the line "love was such an easy game to play" which, although nothing to write home about, is at least not dreadful cliche like "there's a shadow hanging over me". To recap: Yesterday is a perfectly bland and inoffensive song made offensive, and perhaps grotesque, by those who believe it a work of genius or even perfection. |
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