| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| 1965 |
Posted - 05/02/2007 : 07:57:35
A friend of mine (who I introduced FB & PIXIES music to years ago) said recently "FB's music is great, but I find his lyrics annoying..."
This is not my view, as I think FB is one of the greatest lyricists going around, whether in abstract mode or narrative. But it got me thinking, is there any weight to this argument..
I always assumed people who didn't get into PIXIES or FB just found the music too abrasive or not to their liking, but never thought about the lyrics or song's themes as being a key turn off.
***** |
| 35 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| soundofataris |
Posted - 10/25/2007 : 13:59:52
sometimes, yes. Often, no.
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i try to be mallory but i'm still skippy |
| mr.biscuitdoughhead |
Posted - 10/25/2007 : 13:35:00
quote:
Originally posted by Carl
Are Justin Timberlake's lyrics annoying? Yes.
"A little bit of this, and a little bit of that....trade secrets!"
what goes around goes around goes around comes all the way back around.
annoying, meaningless and cliched. he's a triple threat.
Every thought a ricochet...
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| Chip Away Boy |
Posted - 10/25/2007 : 06:18:32
quote:
Originally posted by Czar
quote:
But I can see how people could see them as annoying (the first time I heard Speedy Marie, I thought the breakdown - "juxtaposed..." part was kind of over the top - I mean who uses "juxtaposed" in a song? but now I like it).
Oh man, words like "juxtaposed", "protohuman" and "egress" in a rock song are precisely what turned me into a diehard fan.
I feel ya dude |
| Carl |
Posted - 10/25/2007 : 03:12:10
Are Justin Timberlake's lyrics annoying? Yes.
"A little bit of this, and a little bit of that....trade secrets!" |
| jackruby |
Posted - 10/24/2007 : 13:42:22
Exactly. By the way, the coolest thing happened to me today. My boss left the shop for a while, and I changed the station to the local college station. Not joking, the third song I heard was "You Ain't Me"
I was happy. The cool thing is that Frank's 1996 song didn;t sound at all out of place scrunched between a "VHS or Beta" song and a song from the latest Radiohead record.
I stressed the above was because I'm back on the shit station. |
| VoVat |
Posted - 10/24/2007 : 13:07:07
I understand the pain of being forced to listen to crappy music at work. I just recently quit a job where they played the same easy-listening stuff over and over again. Not all of it was bad, but even the good songs got a little tiring when I had to hear them every single day. The advantage was that it made me appreciate artists like Frank even more.
"If you doze much longer, then life turns to dreaming. If you doze much longer, then dreams turn to nightmares." |
| debaserrr |
Posted - 10/23/2007 : 17:32:38
i love that line "im not dead im in pittsburg". not boring. i just think of it conceptually, instead of "oh these lyrics are real pretty, how nice, blah blah blah". though, everybodies different... i might as well be all alone if im not... cause time between the obvious is so very long 
maybe hes not just trying to please everyone to the point numbness
"The arc of triumph!" |
| debaserrr |
Posted - 10/23/2007 : 17:24:24
im glad he sais "your such a wire" and im glad he pronounces things in wierd ways. you think he doesn't understand all this? i could just go on about how great his lyrics are, and why they are fantastic. but come on people, you already know it. his lyrics are not "annoying". he is a true artist
"The arc of triumph!" |
| jackruby |
Posted - 10/23/2007 : 15:39:37
I celebrate his entire catalog--every chord, every grunt, every lyric. Even when he' being super-cheesy or lame, I think he's just being facetious. Of course, I have to spend 8 hours a day listening to top 40 bullshit, so I'm not very critical--I'm happy to be listening to something that doesn't make me want to hurt somebody, or myself. Its like the difference between a spouse of 10 years and a long distance lover. I spend my days at work being pelted by the worst music imaginable, so when I go home and listen to a little Frank, I'm too busy having musical orgasms to find little things to nit-pick about.
When you have a lover who lives 3 hours away, you spend all day thinking about them and will drive all night to see them; when you are married, you hate the little sound your spouse makes when she clears her throat so much that it makes you want to leave it all and move to Micronesia.
So whether I pop in
"The King and Queen of Siam," and hear:
"I love the south part // I love the temperature // sure I want to play with you" (which is beautiful)
OR
"I don't want you to worry, I'm okay // Just didn't want you seeing me this way" from "I'm not dead I'm in Pittsburg" (which is just boring)
It is still better than 50 cent and Justin Timberlake...
She work it girl, she work the pole
She break it down, she take it low
She fine as hell, she about the dough
She doing her thing out on the floor
Her money money, she makin' makin'
Look at the way she shakin' shakin'
Make you want to touch it, make you want to taste it
Have you lustin' for her, go crazy face it
Now don't stop, get it, get it
The way she shakin' make you want to hit it
---Which is what I am subjected to all day long!!! Why ass-clowns like them are called "artists" is beyond me. |
| VoVat |
Posted - 10/23/2007 : 11:25:20
Frank's lyrics are a major part of his appeal for me. They're unusual, and work in references to a lot of different things. He's had his weaker moments, but it's amazing how clever he can be when it comes to lyrics. Just look at the acrostics he's done, and the rhyming game he plays in "True Blue." But I can see how other people might not like them, simply because they tend to be quite complex. As someone who came into Frank fandom through They Might Be Giants, though, it makes a lot of sense that Frank's nerdier lyrics would appeal to me.
"If you doze much longer, then life turns to dreaming. If you doze much longer, then dreams turn to nightmares." |
| houstonguthrie |
Posted - 10/19/2007 : 19:43:46
In the entire FB catalog I could probably find maybe a handful of lines that I thought just didn't quite fit somehow - if I really thought about it
but when I read your examples - most of them I'm like "huh??!!"
It's like the thread that was going once about the least favorite FB songs - some of the songs people were picking in there were just sooooooo sooooooooo wrong!!!
so that just goes to show you how everyone hears things differently -
I mean if the man himself were to come in here and point out some of his own personal choices for lyrics he wished he had re-written I'd venture to guess that some of them would be our favorites - "No don't change THAT one!!!!!"
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| Carl |
Posted - 10/19/2007 : 14:58:24
Frank's lyrics have generally become less wacky over the years. I suppose over time, it becomes more natural to write about personal things.
 "In six months, she'll look like Grandma Moses!" |
| lonely persuader |
Posted - 10/19/2007 : 12:46:46
quote:
Originally posted by 1965
In TBR when Black sings "I'm all killer, no filler" the next line is "Mary had a little lamb..." aka classic filler. Genius!
I have the key to #902
Hmm ok, i never really seen the "filler" irony thing with the "Mary had a little lamb etc"....
I bow to Frank's (and your) superior intellect! |
| coastline |
Posted - 10/18/2007 : 20:39:47
quote:
Originally posted by jimmy
Increasingly, since around Cult of Ray, certain lines from certain songs just bothered me.
"I'll be Blue" ...like Jesus Christ on a hill ( a little too dramatic maybe )
"My Life is in Storage" I delivered my funk
Wow. These two shock me. And not just because this is the first time I've ever seen jimmy comment outside the General Chat section. I love both of these lines -- they're from my two favorite Frank Black songs.
 Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| 1965 |
Posted - 10/18/2007 : 04:14:51
In TBR when Black sings "I'm all killer, no filler" the next line is "Mary had a little lamb..." aka classic filler. Genius!
I have the key to #902 |
| Grotesque |
Posted - 10/17/2007 : 04:42:45
The problem is that Frank never comments his lyrics, and sometimes it's like he wouldnt care about them.
I guess he's not very comfortable with that, maybe he thinks it's boring and useless to try to explain everything.
To me, an artist who comments very nicely his own lyrics is Captain Beefheart: he doesnt explain anything in a rational way, but does a very deep surrealistic comment like "this song is a dragon, a very shy female dragon that i had to seduce when I wrote it". And of course it totaly makes sense, althought it doesnt have any sense at all. That's how the surrealists named their works: just say anything, and like a tarot card it will shine on it and explain the work in a weird intuitive way. It even may be random but sometimes we need that to understand how we live. |
| lonely persuader |
Posted - 10/16/2007 : 10:19:00
"I'm all filler/ no killer"...
Im not surprised (at least in this way he is being self-deprecating)... I know he's not into heaping masses of praise on himself (there are enough of us to do that)..
I know the original line could be used to describe the drug (that TBR refers to, i.e. it is a killer, literally)...
("I'll be Blue" ...like Jesus Christ on a hill ( a little too dramatic maybe ))
I actually like this (i think it is meant to be ridiculously self-absorbing about how we often feel...as if our suffering matters that much when compared to the big picture)....
("My Life is in Storage" I delivered my funk)..
indeed, a bit weak but, that does indeed follow some of franks best lyrics....
"i had a castle,
i had no hassles,
now tears are tassels,"
Brilliant....
(sorry for ranting, im big into lyrics)
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| darwin |
Posted - 10/16/2007 : 09:52:04
For what it's worth he flipped the lyric at the Sacramento show. "I'm all filler/ no killer". |
| jimmy |
Posted - 10/16/2007 : 08:56:30
I think lonely persuader nailed it pretty well " I'm all killer/ No filler" I think that was the name of a Sum 41 record.
Increasingly, since around Cult of Ray, certain lines from certain songs just bothered me.
"The Snake" I'm a snake/ Oh yes I'm very smart
"I'll be Blue" ...like Jesus Christ on a hill ( a little too dramatic maybe )
"Hermaphroditos" Forget your ying/ And go fuck your yang
"Dance War" ( the whole song )
"Snake Oil" Society/ Is not for me
"My Life is in Storage" I delivered my funk
"Western Star" The toolman is in her dreams ( there's nothing really wrong with that line, except it makes me think of that show Home Improvement )
I'm not shaking in my boots
In most of these cases, I can't really say why these lines rub me the wrong way. They just do.
my friend posted MORE NEW paintings at http://myspace.com/landspeedsong |
| lonely persuader |
Posted - 10/16/2007 : 06:04:01
he does have a few bad lines....
2 that annoy me off bluefinger are
"Talk to the man just to get a little work,
talk to the hand just a little jerk" (just sounds juvenile, and too willing to look for the rhyme with work) from Threshold apprehension (that song has poor lyrics, really).
And the line
"Im all killer, No Filler" from Tight Black Rubber is pretty poor (seems like he just got tired of writing at that stage)... Tight black rubber actually starts wonderfully
with
"Somethings in life are beautiful,
make you make real glad and dutiful"
and on
which has a great message, I guess since he has become a dad,
but with lots of other things too...
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| lonely persuader |
Posted - 10/16/2007 : 05:55:31
how could you not enjoy
"You must see my domicile
I had it built in decastyle
The other day at the potlach
Come visiting was a sasquatch
He said although I’m a mismatch"
etc...
Even if it is a bit silly etc.. |
| trobrianders |
Posted - 10/15/2007 : 15:53:08
quote:
Originally posted by Grotesque
quote:
Originally posted by trobrianders
In the Pixies profile 'Gouge'(on their first DVD), Charles, when asked about his lyrics, said that when he started writing songs they had a lot of words in them and that meant they weren't very good ('unless you're Elvis Costello or something'). So Pixies was I guess a kind of reaction to that, being minimal and obscure or 'dadaist' as he put it. Now some of his songs have high word count again like St Francis Dam. I don't care cos they're all incredible. I'm totally at home with his vernacular. He's just an effortlessly cool and brilliant writer so if you're into that, you're gonna love it.
It can be hard I suppose getting into something if you can't make out the references cos you just haven't lived. That's too bad.
_______________
Ed is the hoo hoo
Does anybody knows what he did before the pixies? Is there anything to listen?
The closest to that could be the "FRANK BLACK FRANCIS" accoustic demo version of "here comes your man". It has a smell of classic amercian pop folk. It's like blondie before blondie, Debbie used to be a folk girl.
Here are the pre-Pixies College Demos that bumblebeeboy2 mentioned. 10MB. I just got hold of them.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/oazjo4
Keeping In Time
Draw Attention
Gemini
Silhouette
_______________
Ed is the hoo hoo |
| Idalgo Clandestino |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 05:41:20
quote:
Originally posted by coastline
Welcome to the forum, I.C.
I'm not sure he was referring to the whole world when he said "whole world" there. That's in "Go Find Your Saint." I'm pretty sure he's just referring to his own personal world. I wonder what the miracle was.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs.
one more time:
only Frank knows - and God!
BTW, Hi there coastline!
PS. What coastline do u mean?
PPS. what coastline does he mean?
and then a miracle occured: the whole world got better |
| Idalgo Clandestino |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 05:39:12
only Frank knows - and God!
BTW, Hi there coastline!
PS. What coastline do u mean?
PPS. what coastline does he mean?
quote:
Originally posted by coastline
Welcome to the forum, I.C.
I'm not sure he was referring to the whole world when he said "whole world" there. That's in "Go Find Your Saint." I'm pretty sure he's just referring to his own personal world. I wonder what the miracle was.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs.
and then a miracle occured: the whole world got better |
| phys |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 05:35:54
or what about "at the end of the world
down in Durango"? does that mean the world ends in Durango/Mexico or even funnier in Durango/Iowa. Only God knows- and Frank Black!
there is a hole for every soul |
| coastline |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 05:34:13
Welcome to the forum, I.C.
I'm not sure he was referring to the whole world when he said "whole world" there. That's in "Go Find Your Saint." I'm pretty sure he's just referring to his own personal world. I wonder what the miracle was.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| Idalgo Clandestino |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 05:02:06
me thinks his lyrics are so humorous!
just think of "and then a miracle occured the whole world got better"
is that one miracle or is that an innumerable amount of miracles?
it's like a koan - and whitty
and then a miracle occured: the whole world got better |
| trobrianders |
Posted - 05/18/2007 : 03:47:59
Thankfully I'm really low maintenance
_______________
Ed is the hoo hoo |
| floop |
Posted - 05/17/2007 : 14:34:23
quote:
Originally posted by trobrianders
Yeah high maintenance. We got one or two around here don't we?
_______________
Ed is the hoo hoo
what's it to you? |
| coastline |
Posted - 05/17/2007 : 14:32:53
I was thinking Carl, for sure.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| trobrianders |
Posted - 05/17/2007 : 14:21:43
Yeah high maintenance. We got one or two around here don't we?
_______________
Ed is the hoo hoo |
| kfs |
Posted - 05/17/2007 : 07:06:04
Hey Coastline! Good to 'see' ya!
I think a 'wire' is high-strung, difficult-to-get-along-with type of person.
______________________
I've seen blue you've never seen |
| coastline |
Posted - 05/17/2007 : 06:56:34
quote:
Originally posted by kfs
I can't generalize and say that Frank's lyrics are annoying. Literally the day before this topic appeared, I did say something about the way that sometimes small things in his songs annoy me. My example is 'You're Such a Wire.' I first time I heard this song I thought "You're such a wire? What does that mean? Who's says that?"
Whatever. It doesn't matter now. This has become one of my favorite FB songs. I've learned a lot from Frank!
______________________
I've seen blue you've never seen
What is a wire, anyway, kfs? I've never figured that out. For now, I just think it's annoying.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| kfs |
Posted - 05/17/2007 : 06:46:17
I can't generalize and say that Frank's lyrics are annoying. Literally the day before this topic appeared, I did say something about the way that sometimes small things in his songs annoy me. My example is 'You're Such a Wire.' I first time I heard this song I thought "You're such a wire? What does that mean? Who's says that?"
Whatever. It doesn't matter now. This has become one of my favorite FB songs. I've learned a lot from Frank!
______________________
I've seen blue you've never seen |
| IceCream |
Posted - 05/07/2007 : 19:11:36
quote:
Originally posted by Zsolt G.
Nobody has mentioned how Frank's lyrics have been vastly different on his adult contemporary shit lately. I don't think he has a knack for a simple rhyme like, "I found my thrill, on blueberry hill" But I think he's good with the clever cryptic stuff like "I'm a pure denizen of the citizens band".
Exactly. I appreciated him trying to do something different, but sometimes it was as if he were revoking the originality that made him so great in the first place. |
