From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-moderated-digest) To: seven-seas-moderated-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #195 Reply-To: seven-seas@smoe.org Sender: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Precedence: bulk seven-seas-moderated-digest Wednesday, June 11 2003 Volume 02 : Number 195 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 23:32:26 -0400 From: "Henry Biedenkapp" Subject: seven-seas-moderated The Art of Mac aka Mac Art(hur) I've been listening repeatedly to "Slideling" and my first impression is growing stronger. I'm really enjoying this album -- groovin' to every song. In fact, I can't find a weak song in the bunch, however, by the same token, I really can't find one outstanding track when compared to the bunch. It's that good! Every song has a least one line that makes the song stand out. There is even a clunker or two -- like why is the chorus of "Love In Veins" "Can You Feel It..." and not "Early in The Morning"? I'm not a musician and i don't what a chorus,verse, bridge, or an eight, etc. Maybe someone can briefly enlighten me. I guess that the chorus is a group of lines that gets repeated and that's about it! A bridge is probably a group of lines that "bridges" or is set between 2 verses or something like that I'm amazed how good this album sounds musically and vocally even with weak lyrics. It certainly seems like a intended "pop" album like WAYGTDWYL. I know Amy had a minor problem with Mac's voice now in comparison with the Bunnymen in their prime, whereas most of us has accepted Mac's voice as "mature" and have no problem with it, although we bitch about Mac not singing most of the older bunnymen due to his being afraid to attempt singing them with his now "limited" range. I would bet that 98% of us would love to hear those golden oldies even if he sounded like Bob Dylan or maybe Cohen (ok, maybe's that's stretching it, but he no way sounds close to Dylan or Cohen -- Hey Nate, don't get upset. You know I'm getting very much into Dylan, but I'm just trying to make a point. Maybe my ability to easily accept Mac's matured vocals now should be applied to his current lyrics His lyrics for WAYGTDWYL, Flowers and Slideling seem effortless maybe even easy to be written by Ian McCulloch, who gave us the great "Killing Moon," "The Cutter," "Rescue," "A Promise," "The Disease," "Show OF Strength" and you know all the rest. So like Amy's minor vocal quibble (and I know to Amy it's not minor), this is my minor quibble. I guess as long as Mac has the music and the vocals behind him he can rewrite "Do-Ron-Ron" as many times as he desires as long as it's not "Baby Ca-Ca". i know I've been posting like a madman lately, but people like Charles and Chris should never think about unsubbing. I'll take my meds now and be good (probably not!). Henry _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 00:32:02 -0400 From: "Henry Biedenkapp" Subject: seven-seas-moderated Shorter Art Of Mac I know I just said that there was no "one" outstanding track on Slideling, but I must make two additional points. 1) Someone (or a reveiw) previosuly mentioned that "Stake Your Claim" reminds them of JAMC and I have to totally agree. Is this a new trend "Burn For Me" on Flowers and now this. Brilliant! 2) "Seasons" is one of those rare recent songs that seemingly appears to have some lyrical depth, but reading the lyrics they really don't say anything. It's one thing to create "mood" music with little lyrical depth and another to create those cinematic lyrical lines that we love so much and really don't say anything. Another odd thing that I've notice about myself (and I know this is blasphemy) but I play WAYGTDWYL, Flowers and now Slideling so much these last couple of years, that it seems like that I've "retired" the first four Bunny masterpieces. Now , i really need my med -- HUH loud and clear and in repeated doses with a sprinkle of Crocs and Porcupine on my ass (hey, Turg, not IN!). Henry _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 01:08:44 -0500 (CDT) From: Amy Moseley Rupp Subject: seven-seas-moderated Re: seven-seas The Art of Mac aka Mac Art(hur) > I've been listening repeatedly to "Slideling" and my first impression > is > growing stronger. > I'm really enjoying this album -- groovin' to every song. In fact, I can't > find a weak song > in the bunch, however, by the same token, I really can't find one > outstanding track when > compared to the bunch. Yup, it does grow on you -- and as someone else pointed out, "side two" or the latter half of the songs seem to be the best, though I love "Playgrounds...." which is on "side one." The fact that no one song really sticks out is proof that the album fits together well as a whole, which is rare in these days of albums consisting of shock-impact singles and then wet cardboard fillers. > I'm not a musician and i don't what a chorus,verse, bridge, or an > eight, > etc. Maybe someone > can briefly enlighten me. I guess that the chorus is a group of lines that > gets repeated and > that's about it! A bridge is probably a group of lines that "bridges" or is > set between 2 verses > or something like that Pretty much .... there are probably more formal definitions out there on google, but a chorus (or refrain) is indeed usually repeated with only minor variations. The verses tell a story in more narrative format, and the chorus repeats the summary or moral of the story. A bridge almost always occurs just once in a song, and provides a bit of relief from the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus. Often it's instrumental -- no vocals, but not always. One of the most famous bridges is found in the Beatles' "A Day In The Life." John and Paul had written two separate songs, each in a different key, with a different tempo and feel. John's was the more complete composition: "I read the news today oh, boy" -- though it has a very short chorus of just the line "I'd love to turn you on." There's a brief buildup of brass instruments to Paul's section: "Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head...." Then George Martin supposedly wrote / arranged the bridge back to John's work, which has no lyrics but rather just John singing "Ah...." to a series of chord changes which transition from Paul's "and I went into a dream...." back to John's gloomier existential funk. On _Slideling_, two bridges that come to mind off-hand are in "Playgrounds And City Parks" -- after a chorus, there's a brief piano solo (bridges often feature guitar solos) and then "Inside again..." bridging into the final chorus and a trademark Mac/Bunnymen repeated lyric outro, "Light up my lonely, light up my lonely, light up my lonely, light up my lonely life..." (think of the outro to "A Promise": "Light on the water/We could sail on forever/(There's) Light on the water/....") "Kansas"' bridge is more obvious; the amount of vocal effect on his singing renders the lyrics unintelligible to me, but part of it (I think) is "In the glow/shadow..." In this song Mac also blurs verse and chorus (as he often does) by using an almost-mini-bridge between verse and chorus that changes slightly lyrically: "Where I'm goin'/I can't tell/Down to heaven/Or up to hell" becomes the more definite "Where I'm going/I can't tell/(It's) Not to heaven/ (It's) Not to hell." > his now "limited" range. I would bet that 98% of us would love to hear > those > golden oldies > even if he sounded like Bob Dylan or maybe Cohen (ok, maybe's that's > stretching it, It's not just *my* quibble. To be fair, he's got to cover 25 years of singing having hit a peak before he turned 25 himself! Imagine a 25-year-old beautiful model wearing next to nothing; then imagine that same model doing it at age 43. It almost always is not going to be nearly the same; the best you can do is to be "well-preserved" and at worst people say "she really hasn't aged well." No matter how much her fans like the early outfits, wearing them at age 43 might not be the wisest thing to do -- instead, outfits that highlight her strongpoints at age *43* are the way to go. - --Amy ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #195 ******************************************