From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V11 #371 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, November 14 2002 Volume 11 : Number 371 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Beefheart recommendations ["matt sewell" ] Re: I scream [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] Re: RH, Soft Boys, Beefheart ["Brian Hoare" ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V11 #369 [Michael R Godwin ] Re: Wrong Way Up [Perry Amberson ] Re: 100% Robyn or 50% Soft Boys? ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: Beefheart recommendations ["matt sewell" ] Herefore art thou, asking tree [JH3 ] Fwd: Matador Records News Update 13 November 2002 [dances with virgos ] RE: holidays ["Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" ] two slapstick replies ["Michael E. Kupietz, wearing a pointy hat" ] crap, delete [drew ] Re: autocratic pronouncements [Michael R Godwin ] hum-a-day, hum-a-day ["ross taylor" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 10:35:38 +0000 From: "matt sewell" Subject: Re: Beefheart recommendations I bow to your greater knowledge... haven't you got some work you could be getting on with? ;0) Matt >From: "Stewart C. Russell" >Reply-To: "Stewart C. Russell" >To: >Subject: Re: Beefheart recommendations >Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 13:16:46 - -0500 > >matt sewell wrote: > > > > A squid eating dough from a polyethylene bag is fast and > > bulbous. Got me? > >it's "in a polyethylene bag", as any fule kno. > >I was convinced that they said 'fast and bulbous' somewhere else on TMR, but I guess I'm wrong. > > Stewart - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 00:08:11 +1300 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: I scream >>"Banana split is a compound noun. Both components are nouns. If >>anything, 'banana' is acting adjectivally and theoretically you could >>have an apple split or a mango split, which would be compound nouns as >>well." > >this doesn't seem right, given that "split" is a verb, in the sense that >that's what happens to the banana in the process of creating this >confection! there is nothing to stop a word being both a verb and a noun in closely connected contexts. The confection is made by splitting a banana, but the name of the type of confection is a split. There is no difference between this and saying that you are going for a walk - where 'walk' is a verb, in the sense that that is what you are doing when you go for a walk. But the walk you are going on is 'a walk', and thus a noun. Feh. You seriously never had a pear split? Pear with cream, hokey pokey flavoured ice cream and chocolate sauce? Larvely it is. >For what it's worth, I decided years ago to start >filing related artists together. Since I heard the >Soft Boys before I heard Robyn solo, I file all Robyn >solo and Robyn + Egyptians discs (and my 'Bible of >Bop' 12") after The Soft Boys proper, since they can >be considered Soft Boys-related. Likewise, I have all >my Eno filed just after Roxy Music, and my John Cale >just after Velvet Underground (but before Nico and Lou >Reed). I've found it's more convenient than sticking >to a strict alphabetical-by-artist system. I take it you don't have the wonderful Eno and Cale disc "Wrong way up" then. Why not? (And where would you file it?) >Robyn solo as well as the Egyptians are together under H. Soft Boys >are under S. Robyn solo under R; The Soft Boys under T? How about filing them all by the number of tracks, from "Thorsday Afternoon" at one end to "The Residents' Commercial Album" at the other? James PS - I hope we haven't scared Greta off with all this, and the politics too... James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= .-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= You talk to me as if from a distance =-.-=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 11:31:12 +0000 From: "Brian Hoare" Subject: Re: RH, Soft Boys, Beefheart Jim: >p.s. anyone with news about Ireland, Italy? Dates are up on thesoftboys.com in the news section. Shame the Dublin show is midweek. January dates in Italy: Thursday 16 - Sarzana, Jux Tap Friday 17 - Biella, Babylonia Saturday 18 - Chiari, Teatro Toscanini Monday 20 - Bologna, Ruvido Club Ireland: Wednesday 22 - Dublin, Music Centre >From: "Maximilian Lang" > Matthew's question to Mary got me wondering. How many people file their >Soft Boys discs along with their Robyn collections? The Egyptians were >Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians so I assume this is a no brainer but what >about the Soft Boys. So NDL/Tour has passed and we fall back on linguistics, politics, music filing policies and Beefheart. I have RH and Soft Boys stored separately. Although the SB are now reformed the RH solo stuff was, to my mind, a new venture and a new musicl identity. This is generally true throughout my collection eg. Gong/Allen/Hillage, Can/Czukay, Bonzos/Stanshall, ColourField/Hall. Even XTC/Dukes and Damned/Naz Nomad are separate. I do however have some exceptions to this as that Jerry's solo stuff is lumped in the GD and the MOI run into Zappa (under Z). The later case is excused as they are all from the same reissue series and the catalogue numbers run nicely. But then I'm the only person who has to find them. From: "da9ve stovall" >A good list, there (which I've snipped), but kinda hard for someone >who's not an aficianado already go get ahold of all the things >named. I'll opine that the "best of" compilation that Warner >Archives put out last year - _The Dust Blows Forward & The Dust >Blows Back_ - is really a pretty decent representation of Beefheart. >Light on the Tragic Band lineup, diverse everywhere else. And, >I guess, it has most of the stuff named. I've just checked the track listing of this and it looks like a pretty fine collection. I haven't heard Light Reflected off the Oceands of the Moon for years - I didn't realise that it had a cd release - btw I heard it on a 12" single is the "original single mix" different than the 12" or was it only released like that? Another alternative, cheaper but less diverse would be trying the Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot 2fer. Brian, waiting for the day we hear "Mr Kimberley Rew, hit that long lunar note and let it float" np GYBE, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 12:01:29 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V11 #369 On Wed, 13 Nov 2002, Aaron Mandel wrote: > Not sure about "Commander in Chief". "Governor General" isn't a compound > noun, though; it's a phrase where a true adjective follows a noun, like > "court martial" or, as Jeffrey pointed out, "guitarist extraordinaire". The chose that these all have in common is that they are French-derived formulations: bunging the adjective after the noun is plus common en francais que in English. "In chief" looks like Norman Fr. to me; it's certainly a phrase used in heraldry. One thing that really infuriates me about the EU (just the one?) is that they keep talking about the 'High Representative' or the 'High Authority' which is just maltranslation of the adj "haut". They mean something like the 'Senior Representative' or the 'Supreme Authority'. - - MRG n.p. Stalk Forrest Group "The red and the black" ('Canadian Mounted baby, police force that works, get their man in the end') ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 05:09:27 -0800 (PST) From: Perry Amberson Subject: Re: Wrong Way Up Hi, all James said >>> I take it you don't have the wonderful Eno and Cale disc "Wrong way up" then. Why not? (And where would you file it?) <<< Of course I have 'Wrong Way Up'--bought it the week it came out. I've also got the promo interview CD, the commercially released CD single ("One Word," if memory serves), and the clear vinyl promo 45 released around the same time featuring Eno's dirge-like cover version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." (Though if anybody's got a clean digital copy of that one, let me know so we can set up a trade.) I've got 'Wrong Way Up' filed in the Eno-related subset of my Roxy-related collection. That's partly because Eno seems more prominent on the album than Cale, and partly because I like Eno more, though Cale's run of albums from 'Paris 1919' through 'Helen of Troy' is nothing to sneeze at. - --Perry Amberson, OCD ______________________________________________________ Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 8:52:32 -0500 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: 100% Robyn or 50% Soft Boys? I don't do sorted. All mixed in all everywhere, although there are small clumps of order that appear in places. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 14:24:07 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: 100% Robyn or 50% Soft Boys? On Thu, 14 Nov 2002, Stewart C. Russell wrote: > I don't do sorted. All mixed in all everywhere, although > there are small clumps of order that appear in places. Well, as my wife says, electricians' houses are wiring deathtraps, social workers' children are juvenile delinquents, chefs live on beans on toast. Now we can add: dictionary compilers file their record collections in a big mess ((-:| - - Mike "scrupulously methodical" Godwin (except for unpacking the model railway that got moved in 1999, and really sorting out all those 1950s Eagles, and throwing away those useless files from Manchester Business School, and taking that 'Electric Mistress' flanger in to be repaired and unpacking the singles that moved house in 2000 and ...) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 10:25:56 -0500 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: Beefheart recommendations matt sewell wrote: > > haven't you got some work you could be getting on with? Actually, no, I don't. I've just handed in my notice here to start a new job downtown. Less commute, more money. Possibly longer hours, tho'. But what really sucks about this continent is the holidays. I mean, I don't get any paid holidays until I've worked a full year, and then I only get two weeks. WTF is that all about? Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 15:47:30 +0000 From: "matt sewell" Subject: Re: Beefheart recommendations Two weeks after working a full year? *shudder* I couldn't do it, I'd wind up mental... thankfully Oxfam give me 25 days a year (not including our meagre bank holidays), though Chrissy has it even better with a collosal 30 days a year (plus all 8 of our bank holidays, of course). If I had as little holiday as you, well, god, I'd have to get a job I liked or something... Still, at least you have 13 (13?) bank holidays over there... I really thought we'd get an extra day when the manky-toothed old nazi parasite finally kicked the bucket, but no... No hols 'til Christmas... :0( CHeers Matt >From: "Stewart C. Russell" >Actually, no, I don't. I've just handed in my notice here to >start a new job downtown. Less commute, more money. Possibly >longer hours, tho'. > >But what really sucks about this continent is the holidays. >I mean, I don't get any paid holidays until I've worked a >full year, and then I only get two weeks. WTF is that all >about? > > Stewart - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 11:35:12 -0600 From: JH3 Subject: Herefore art thou, asking tree I don't think I've ever used the word "delurking" before, but I guess that's what I'm doing, isn't it? I think it's been almost 6 months. >... since i haven't seen a digest since i asked >about the Asking Tree, it's come back! hooray! Sorry about the downtime, folks! I finally had to move my domain, jh3.com, this week in response to an ongoing campaign of petty childishness by my soon-to-be-ex-employer. (It used to be hosted on the company server, y'see). I should have moved it weeks ago when I started to see what was coming, but I was lazy, cheap, and perhaps even guilty of some wishful thinking, which I believe to ultimately be one of the two biggest problems faced by human civilization today, blah blah blah (the other is short- term thinking, btw). But this is no time for polemics... After three days of nail-biting, the DNS stuff is all filtered down, all but the FTP files are uploaded, and the scripts seem to work, miraculously enough. I'm still working on the e-mail situation, but hopefully I can work that out too, eventually. As for actually getting the database up-to-date, well, that's a separate problem... Good luck everybody, and never build a big software system for a company that doesn't plan to use it themselves! John "THIS is why I hate the internet" Hedges http://www.jh3.com/robyn/base ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 12:28:51 -0500 From: dances with virgos Subject: Fwd: Matador Records News Update 13 November 2002 kimberley solo gig! woo! >Date: 13 Nov 2002 23:30:06 -0000 >From: mailing-list@matadorrecords.com >Subject: Matador Records News Update 13 November 2002 > >[...] > >The Soft Boys - > >If you want to check out the band's recent live broadcast on WFMU, here's >the link to the archived broadcast : http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/5540 > >There's also a new Soft Boys 7-song CD EP of outtakes from the recent >'Nextdoorland' album ; 'Side Three'. You can purchase your copy at >http://www.softboys.com. > >Soft Boys guitarist Kimberley Rew is making a rare solo appearance at >London's Spitz on November 29. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 17:30:55 +0000 From: "Montauk Daisy" Subject: 100% Robyn, 50% Soft Boys, 25% misc. limbs Max: >Matthew's question to Mary got me wondering. How many people file their >Soft Boys discs along with their Robyn collections? The Egyptians were >Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians so I assume this is a no brainer but what >about the Soft Boys. Back to filing! Greta, if you are still reading this, filing is one of our fave cool topics. Its right up there with cool grammer, cool politics and cool inside jokes. Musicians move around. This is a sad but true fact. So as I see it, there are two rational solutions. One is to have as many small categories as possible. Robyn solo vr Robyn Egyptions vr Robyn SBs vr Robyn avec Captain vr RobynEdgyptians Buck Byrds tribute albumn vr etc. Too much work for me. So what happens if I file them all under Robyn? Great ... until I get to my Katrina and the Waves EP. If I start a Kimberly category then what do I do - -- buy 2 SBs disc? (Nope. ) Cross-index?(Too much like work.) So--I choose the middle, zig-zaggy path. I use anchors. Robyn is an anchor. Everything he is romotally involved with, or that people I associate with him are involved in, goes under him. Even, at this point, the Katrina and the Waves EP. Why? Cause I have alot more Robyn than Kimberly. How do I choose anchors? They choose me, they know who they are. So what do I do for "Dark Green Energy" since REM&Co. is also an anchor. Pure gut reaction. Much as I like REM Robyn ranks just a tad higher in my listening pleasure. Therefore file under Robyn. I have a small collection compared to many of you. Maybe 400 records, 100 CDs, a few thousand tracks of downloads. And I let my feelings, not my intellect, file them(when I actually get around to filing. I also use the pile method;-) Hey --it works for me. I can usually find stuff, thou God help anyone else trying to find anything in there. In short, what Perry and Stewart said;-P Once upon a time my book collection was in chronological order by birth of author for fiction, poetry, drama, essays and letters, and time period of subject for non-fiction. This really helped me grasp how culture feeds on itself, digests, grows and occaisonly vomits. Part of me yearns to do my records like that but baulks at the mess involved. - ------------------------ James: >Pear with cream, hokey pokey flavoured ice cream and chocolate sauce? >Larvely it is. "Hokey pokey flavored ice cream"? What are you, a cannibal? - -------------------------------- Kay, you put a right foot in ... _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 21:10:25 -0800 From: "Michael E. Kupietz, wearing a pointy hat" Subject: Re: autocratic pronouncements At 2:58 PM -0800 11/13/02, drew spake thus: >1. "Banana split" is a compound noun. A "mango split" would also be >a compound noun if someone made such a freakish thing. Though I >would give partial credit for "adjective+noun" -- "noun+adjective" >might've been where it started but it's not where it is now. > http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/compounds.htm My browser can find neither that server or Robynbase. This is definitely starting to smell like a conspiracy. At 12:19 PM +1300 11/14/02, James Dignan spake thus: >>You know what really bugs me? It's this: I've always wondered, is "Banana >>Split" an noun followed by an adjective, like "Steak Tartare", or is it an >>adjective followed by a noun, like "Chocolate Brownie"? So I asked this >>local smart guy, and he says, "It's a compound noun." He totally copped >>out. That's what really bugs me. > >depends whether you prefer "bananas split" or "banana splits", I suppose. This is the most enlightening observation I've heard regarding this whole sordid affair. Thanks for being one of the good guys, James. At 6:53 PM -0500 11/13/02, Maximilian Lang spake thus: > Matthew's question to Mary got me wondering. How many people file their >Soft Boys discs along with their Robyn collections? The Egyptians were >Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians so I assume this is a no brainer but what >about the Soft Boys. I do have a friend - not a Robyn/SB fan, unfortunately - who used to be this way about his CD collection. I went to find something on his shelf, and after several puzzling minutes, asked him how the hell his CDs was sorted. He said, "Each rack represents one decade - 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, then alphabetically by artist within that, with related artists grouped together within primary associations" similar to how Perry describes his. So you'd find "The Buggles" grouped with "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" in the third rack, under "H" for Trevor Horn, or, as Perry said, John Cale under "V", in the first rack. I have no idea where he would file "The Traveling Wilburys". Perry, what would you do? ("I wouldn't own The Traveling Wilburys" doesn't count.) I myself sometimes keep the classical & jazz separated from the rock but other than that go straight alphabetical by recording artist and then title, with one notable exception: "Momentary Lapse Of Reason" goes under "G", with the rest of the Gilmour albums, where it belongs. Plus I've always wanted a separate shelf for my Jethro Tull library. Haven't done it yet, though. Mike ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 09:40:50 -0800 From: "Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" Subject: holidays From: Stewart C. Russell [mailto:scruss@sympatico.ca] > But what really sucks about this continent is the holidays. > I mean, I don't get any paid holidays until I've worked a > full year, and then I only get two weeks. WTF is that all > about? Sounds like your getting fucked! Now granted I always got paid holidays in my past government librarian jobs. But even at my current job, working for a small company that provides library services for Microsoft, I didn't get vacation for 6 months I did get paid holidays immediately. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 09:48:35 -0800 From: "Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" Subject: RE: holidays Having re-read Stewarts post I now see he was talking about vacation days not getting paid on thanksgiving. I feel like an illiterate dumb ass. - -----Original Message----- From: Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc) [mailto:v-jasobr@microsoft.com] Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 9:41 AM To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Subject: holidays From: Stewart C. Russell [mailto:scruss@sympatico.ca] > But what really sucks about this continent is the holidays. > I mean, I don't get any paid holidays until I've worked a > full year, and then I only get two weeks. WTF is that all > about? Sounds like your getting fucked! Now granted I always got paid holidays in my past government librarian jobs. But even at my current job, working for a small company that provides library services for Microsoft, I didn't get vacation for 6 months I did get paid holidays immediately. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 10:04:22 -0800 From: "Michael E. Kupietz, wearing a pointy hat" Subject: two slapstick replies At 8:52 AM -0500 11/14/02, Stewart C. Russell spake thus: >I don't do sorted. All mixed in all everywhere, although >there are small clumps of order that appear in places. Just like life. At 11:35 AM -0600 11/14/02, JH3 spake thus: >I don't think I've ever used the word "delurking" >before, Please try to be more specific. Is that a verb, as in, "I am delurking now", or a noun, as in, "You are witnessing my delurking."? Mike ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 10:12:52 -0800 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Alphaplits Max: >>How many people file their Soft Boys discs along with their Robyn collections? >>The Egyptians were Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians so I assume this is a no >>brainer but what about the Soft Boys. Totally separate. Which saved my SB's discs from being flooded along with the Robyn ones. (Much as my Kristin Hersh got soggy and my Throwing Muses didn't.) What's lame is that so far my spreadsheet alphabetizes RH separately from RH&E. Same thing with the various backing bands for Neil Young, Elvis Costello, etc. Tempts one to initiate new column for "backing band". And don't even get me started on Spencer, Jon Blues Explosion, Henrix, Jimi Experience or Twilley, Dwight Band et. al. At least PJ Harvey finally stopped pretending to be a band name and turned into a person. I pretty much alphabetize as labeled, even if the label seems alphabetically weird to me... f'rinstance Eno/Byrne should be Byrne/Eno and Reed/Cale should be Cale/Reed, and I dunno what to make of Nelson/Jennings/Cash/Kristofferson, but whatever. (One spine of Orange Crate Art reads Parks/Wilson and the other Wilson/Parks, so you can choose with that one.) _______________ Me then Jeffrey FF: >>>>there are divorces, breakups, and ideological splits. >>Who says "divorce split" or "breakup split"? Nobody... but the question was: > >>is there any other sort of split besides banana ones? Hence, a divorce or a breakup is a "sort" of split. I was being painfully literal. Seems to be a lot of that going around here! - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 10:15:46 -0800 From: drew Subject: crap, delete >From: "Carnelian Buddha" > >this doesn't seem right, given that "split" is a verb, in the sense that >that's what happens to the banana in the process of creating this confection! And once it's happened, you would use "split" as an adjective describe the state of the banana. When you serve it with ice cream you'd use the noun "split," because (credit to James for bringing this up) most people I know say "banana splits" and not "bananas split." Words in English get to play lots of different roles if they want without bothering to change costumes. It's confusing, but also glorious. Also I think "ae" can be a diphthong and can be written as a ligature, but in America at least it's usually pronounced as a single vowel (though not always the same one) and written as two letters and not a ligature. Diphthongs are phonetic and ligatures are typographical. >From: Ken Ostrander >the republicans now have control of all three branches of >government. this is not good in a pluralistic society, ie democracy. Is a democracy really pluralistic? It seems like it's just one means of reaching a single decision. I think also that whether you believe or you don't that Republicans and Democrats are essentially identical now (I suspect that they are not entirely identical if only because their fan bases are not identical), you must admit that the structural integrity of those blocs is more like a pair of football teams than a pair of homogeneous tribes. Even if people rarely switch sides there's no inherent reason why they couldn't; the divisions are more or less arbitrary. No matter what you believe about the "good" or "evil" of both sides you have to admit it's ridiculous to imagine that a binary system can ever accurately reflect a pluralistic society. Even when the control was mixed things were only "pluralistic" in the sense that these teams were rivals battling for fan loyalty, and would occasionally cock-block one another. I don't like the fact that there won't be any cock-blocking going on, but that's about it. And though I have no objections to adding more major parties to the league, I still feel as though it's not really addressing the problem. Imagine a Green legislature, President, and Supreme Court. Is that better because it would suddenly be pluralistic (uh-uh) or because it would be Green? I would love to see political parties abolished, myself. Imagine what voting would be like. Imagine candidates running on the promise that they are not shackled to any particular party, that their loyalty is to the country and not to a huge power structure with its own ends and aims. As with everything else, it's all about the marketing; I kinda think it could work, with the right candidates. > the problem lies in our flawed, winner-take-all electoral system. I can't disagree with you here. >working together for the benefit of all may sound like a utopian fantasy; >but all it takes is a slight alteration of mindset. A major alteration of mindset when it comes to capitalism, of course. Possibly an impossible one, at least in practice. >From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey > >Are such ever referred to in the singular: "the gymnast did a split"? Absolutely. Drew ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 18:35:28 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: autocratic pronouncements On Wed, 13 Nov 2002, Michael E. Kupietz, wearing a pointy hat wrote: > I have no idea where he would file "The Traveling Wilburys". Perry, what > would you do? ("I wouldn't own The Traveling Wilburys" doesn't count.) I'm not Perry, but I would file them under ELO. However, I don't have any ELO records, thank heavens. Maybe under O for Orbison, with a duplicate copy for Bob Dylan. > Plus I've always wanted a separate shelf for my Jethro Tull library. > Haven't done it yet, though. File under "Blodwyn Pig offshoots" :) - - MRG PS Costello better than the Soft Boys? I like that Lipstick Vogue, but apart from that? Clubland, OK. Pills and Soap, yes. Good version of Percy Mayfield's Danger Zone. The angels want to wear my red shoes. Accidents will happen. He's a battered old bird. Chelsea. (thinks: there's more of this stuff than I realised)... n.p. that Blodwyn Pig one that goes (6/8) Do do-do do-do do-Do, bam-bam bom bam-bam bom bam-bam bom bam. What's it called? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 13:39:04 -0500 From: "ross taylor" Subject: hum-a-day, hum-a-day Still just going from the WFMU version, I think "Narcissus" is some great song. I love the way it's so poppy and New Wave -- the echo-y guitar in the verses & particularly the "drinkin wine spodee odee" part. That guitar change on "where do you go" is classic New Wave, like Nick Lowe's "Heart of the City" & a bunch of other songs. I also love hearing Rew's high, slightly raspy backup vocals on the "hum-a-day" part. I think the lyrics are also prime Robyn, even if it's not as full of words as some of his. It seems like classic Robyn "dynamic ambivalance" this time about the beauty & stupidity of youth (sorry young folks, there are other kinds of stupidity which apply to age). It reminds me of that recent interview where he's talking about the early SBs & says something like "we were so good looking" sounding amused but sincere. "real world/real girl" -- sounds like an adolescent living in fantasy. "never seen a dead body" -- this isn't Robyn, or not the current Robyn, talking. He's seen at least two, & he wrote "Mexican God" about one & "The Yip Song" about the other. This adds to Narcissus' disconnection from the facts of life (& death) but w/ the statues, it immediately complicates things. On the one hand it makes him sound like he's attracted to lonely statues, which sounds cold, but on the other, he sees life where others wouldn't. It also sound self- referential, w/ the echo of Underwater Moonlight More complication in the next two verses: "when I tell you I love you/it means I love what you do to me/ and to my imagination/ at the real heart of me" -- that's reaching towards philosopy. Don't know if S. T. Coleridge would approve or not, but it shows Narcissus isn't an airhead. Artists, particualarly ones who focus on the imagination, have been called self- centered. The next verse also seems self-referential w/ "in your element, in the air" Airscape? Element of Light? Singing breath, imagination? The "elephant hanging there" starts to make it sound like whimsy -- what Coleridge warned poets against. In contrast, the "hum-a-day" and "wine" parts are cheeky & self-satisfied and a ton of fun and emphasize the physical joys of youth & the physical presence of the song. - --- splits-- >It's also a quaint old fashioned-way to say goodbye. So "banana split" could also be a sentance, particularly if in a telegram from Noam Chomsky. Ross Taylor time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V11 #371 ********************************