Tagged: story telling lyrics

Insane Clown Posse – Bang! Pow! Boom! – free associating

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Among the many aspects of ICP that I enjoy, their tendency to ramble off into a list of related items, one after another, seems worthy of mention. It’s particularly pervasive in Bang! Pow! Boom! – let’s take a look at my favorite track off the album: Fonz Pond

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We’re running along, learning about consequences of navigating cursed locales (fight for air!) when Violent Jay recites: (at 1:53)

  1. missing children
  2. swampy depths
  3. mysteries are secrets kept
  4. Staring owls
  5. snakes
  6. frogs
  7. leeches living off hollow logs

Next, another standout track: Vultures

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Starting at 1:47, the boys rattle off:

  1. lizards
  2. bugs
  3. flies
  4. mosquitoes
  5. hookers with drugs
  6. dirty-ass needles
  7. alley way cats
  8. possums
  9. rats
  10. killers with gats (attack you with bats)

There are a few reasons I find these lists intriguing. It establishes an interesting sort of environment for the song to place in, populated by a familiar cast of genre-appropriate flora and fauna. A vocabulary is being established, a laundry list of familiars and haunts that dark carnival minions can add to their deck of tricks. It highlights the simple (nearing children’s rhyme territory) structure and flow of the lyrics. As usual, I’m not sure if ICP knows what they’re doing, but I hope it’s all intentional.

The next example is too easy: Miracles

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First up, at :30

  1. the mountains
  2. trees
  3. the seven seas
  4. everything chilling underwater
  5. hot lava
  6. snow
  7. rain
  8. fog
  9. long neck giraffes
  10. pet cats
  11. dogs

And then at :50

  1. the sun
  2. the moon
  3. Mars
  4. the Milky Way
  5. fucking shooting stars
  6. UFOs
  7. a river
    ( Plant a little seed and nature grows )
  8. Niagara falls
  9. the pyramids
  10. everything you believed in as kids
  11. fucking rainbows after it rains

And then at 1:50

  1. water
  2. fire
  3. air
  4. dirt
  5. fucking magnets (how do they work?)
  6. solar eclipse
  7. vicious weather
  8. fifteen thousand Juggalos together

Then my favorite: (2:40)

  1. crows
  2. ghosts
  3. the midnight coast
  4. the wonders of the world
  5. (mysteries the most!)

“Crows, ghosts, the midnight coast.” That phrasing is so alluring, verging on nursery rhymes circa Grim’s Fairy Tales – it’s simple and it’s scary. And there’s a tangible sense of atmosphere.

Finally, on the Nuclear Edition of Bang! Pow! Boom! we wander into what I’ve now started fantasizing is ICP’s attempt to release their own list of a few of their favorite things – their Triple Threat Mix track is an impressive slurry of three tracks off the album’s initial release (Beautiful Doom, Creepy Freak Show, and The Clowns Are Back.)

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“Everybody dies, gargoyle skies” is another killer line – it drops you right into the graveyard on the outskirts of the dark carnival, ‘Admit One’ ticket clenched in your hand. “Time catches all of us, surpassing everything” follows suit.

And then, these are a few of their fav-or-ite things (1:59)

  1. blood that oozes slow
  2. sickos
  3. creeps
  4. carnival
  5. screams that shiver your spine
  6. the hatchet that hacks the meat out the swine
  7.  the spiders
  8. the axe still stuck in the head
  9. two dead bodies (fucking)
  10. that paint for the smile we wear
  11. (we caught a witch and cut off her hair)
  12. gloves that choke the neck
  13. the joker’s deck
  14. drums
  15. demonic guitar
  16. your last breath in a jar
  17. killers who stalk you down

et cetera, et cetera. Welcome to the dark carnival, to help newcomers get acquainted with the scenery we encourage you to participate in this wicked scavenger hunt.

Here are a few more things to keep an eye out for (3:32)

  1. the big top
  2. the crowd
  3. cannon blasts
  4. the tightrope
  5. lions
  6. acrobatics (flying)
  7. babies (crying)
  8. spectators (scared)
  9. ape boy
  10. jugglas
  11. lady with a beard

and

  1. the freak show
  2. house of mirrors
  3. maze of amazement (gone for years)
  4. the dunk tank
  5. guess your size
  6. the serpent lady’s lies
  7. tigers (let loose into the crowd)

And who is responsible for all this, you might ask? Well, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce: (4:26)

  1. the throat chokers
  2. cut-throat jokers
  3. ‘juggalotus’ (and you know this)
  4. most hated band on the planet
  5. so fresh they can’t stand it
  6. dark carnival minions
  7. the duke of the wicked
  8. the southwest-side ‘stranglord’ himself

They’ve got a litany of titles and everything.

So you’ve got your map, your compass, your guidebook, they’ve packed you a lunch, bought you a new pair of boots, and given you a ride to the trailhead. You know enough (hopefully) to stay away from Fonz Pond, you’re excited about matching wits with the Serpent Lady, and experiencing all the miracles of nature. You are on a fuckin’ journey, homey! Whoop whoop!

… right?

The Decemeberists – The Hazards of Love, 2009

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My next project is going to be an ambitious one, to be sure. But I think it’ll pay off. The Decemberists have known for writing amazingly good songs, all of which usually tell a story of some sort. With the realease of The Craine Wife, we saw them move closer to a concept album. And finally, with the release of The Hazards of Love, they’ve done it. So what is my task, you might ask? I’m going to go through each song, track by track, and try and figure out: 1) How many story lines there actually are, and 2) How they are arranged cronologically, acording to the stories. Ambitious and Daunting, but ultimatly, will pay off. I’m going to try and fit it all into one giant post, but it might need to be broken up. We’ll see. Also, I’ll be focusing mostly on lyrical content, and very little on the actual musical side of things.

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I’ve started off by rolling the prelude and second track (hazards of love 1) all into one, through the magic of FL Studio. Since it’s goning to save us a lot of space, I’m just going to link you to the lyrics, and we’ll talk about them in dept.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-hazards-of-love-1-lyrics-decemberists.html

So the album starts off with the singer’s true love riding out, and coming upon a a wounded fawn. She, being full of charity, tries to set the fawn’s legs. But then, the taiga starts to change, and so does the fawn. This next verse is the one that is kinda vague and confusing. We find out that the subject of the song is Margeret (a major player in this story), and that she makes love to the fawn (hopefully in a human shape, although, once again, it’s not really clear on this point)

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/a-bower-scene-lyrics-decemberists.html

So later, I’m going to guess a good 7 or 8 months, Margeret is being chastized by her sister. And  she’s actually starting to show that she’s preggers. So she returns to the taiga, to find her lover.

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/wont-want-for-love-lyrics-decemberists.html

This one is pretty simple. Margeret is setting out to find her love, in the taiga.

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-hazards-of-love-2-lyrics-decemberists.html

This one is a bit vauge too. But I’m going to go ahead and guess that this is Margeret’s lover (who is still unnamed, and, as mentioned in the first song, used to be a fawn) who’s waiting for her, in the taiga (I’m really milking that word for all it’s worth)

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/isnt-it-a-lovely-night-lyrics-decemberists.html

The next song, The Queen’s Approach, is an instruamental, so I’ll roll it into the next one, Isn’t it a Lovely night.

Once again, I think this is about Margeret and her lover. Pretty simple song.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-wanting-comes-in-waves-lyrics-decemberists.html

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This one is one of my more favorite ones. Once again, there is very little naming, in this story, but I think that it’s a conversation between Margeret’s lover, and his mother (who’s called The Queen). So basically he’s trying to convince her to let him go and see Margeret. And then she’s trying to guilt trip him into not going. Finally she agrees to let him go, if he promises to come back at dawn, and then give his life to her.

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-rakes-song-lyrics-decemberists.html

The next part is a little musical interlude, and then The Rake’s Song. The Rake’s song is a fairly innocolated song (as far as I can tell) because it has no bearing on the rest of the story line. It’s only mentioned again, in a later song, in a reprise. But We’ll get to that later. It’s about this guy that get’s married to a rich woman. Then when she starts having babies, he becomes dissilutioned with the idea. She dies in child birth, and not wanting to deal with the kids, he kills them off in various fashions.

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-abduction-of-margaret-lyrics-decemberists.html

For some reason or annother, Margeret gets captured, and her captor has to now cross the river.

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-queens-rebuke-lyrics-decemberists.html

Now we find that it’s by the Queen’s command that Margeret has been captured. This song is adressed to Margeret’s captor, sung by the Queen. We learn that it was through the Queen’s power that Margeret’s lover is changed into a fawn, durning the day time.

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/annan-water-lyrics-decemberists.html

This one is also a bit tricky. It could be about a few things. It, once again, could be totally isolated from the main story line. Or, it could be sung by Margeret’s captor, who, is crossing the sea, with Margeret in tow, on the Queen’s request.

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/margaret-in-captivity-lyrics-decemberists.html

This one is a bit more stright forward. It’s sung by Margeret’s captor. Margeret calls out to her love, but it seems to be in vain.

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http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-hazards-of-love-3-lyrics-decemberists.html

This is a reprise of The Rake’s Song, sung from the point of veiw of his children.

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The Next one, is simply a reprise of The Wanting Comes in Waves

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.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-hazards-of-love-4-lyrics-decemberists.html

Once again, this one throws me for a loop. Obviously it’s about Margeret, who’s on the ocean, if you remember. But last time that I checked, she was with her captor. Maybe, he’s really in love with her. And that’s why he complied with the Queen’s request? And so, as the ship is going down, he finally confesses is love for her.

PHEW. And there you have it folks. A comprihensive interpertation of the story. Any comments or suggestions are very much welcome.

-James Out

Owl City – Super Honeymoon (Maybe I’m Dreaming, 2008)

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This is my first post. A daunting thing to be sure. I was concidering maybe going with a strng classic track. Something that lots of people would see and be like “OH yeah. James really knows his music” But then I considered that the whole point of this blog is for people to discover new music. And so, with that in mind, I’ve settled on this amazing song, by Owl City.

There are tons of reasons I love this song, the least of which is the awesome job of instrumentation, and really good synth choice. Imagine this, if you will: if Colin Malloy (of The Decemberists) wrote a crazy sci-fi song, and it was performed by The Postal Service. In essence, that’s what this song is. I know that’s a pretty ambitious description, but it’s the truth.

Before we even jump into the lyrics of the song, let me take a second to talk about the opening section. It starts off with a cool little metallic bit and some basic syth percussion. Then, wasting no time, you get this really cool little bouncy synth lead part, back by a pretty simple bass syth. It’s very strikingly Postal Service-esc. Especially the drum parts remind me of Jimmy Tamborello (the other half of The Postal Service. Part of Dntel and The Figurines) Anyway, lets not get bogged down. Moving on.

This song is formatted really well. Starting out, like a story, with the background. Cool and very image invoking disctiptions of life in Denver.

Glamour and fashion
Models and magazines… a striking runway entrance
Beauty and passion
Stardust and high class scenes of popular teens

Then we move quickly on to the meat and subject of the song.

When I lived in Denver, I met a millionaire
With ribbons in her blonde hair
I still remember
She was like a princess straight from a dreamy castle in the air

Man. All I can say, is what a solid opening for a song. We move back to the little opening lick, and then power stright into the chorus. Which I absolutely love. Because before we were talking about just normal stuff. Meeting girls, and falling in love. But then we hit,

We played golf on the moon
And tennis on the sun
Like athletes of the afternoon
The solar flares burned my arms
And made her makeup run
On our super lunar honeymoon

Whoa, what? Now we’ve totally moved on into some crazy sci-fi universe, where there are sports happening on the moon and sun! Awsome!

Finally, the last verse gives you a little bit more description. But what I really like are the lines

I was the youngest son of a congressman
And everything was my fault…
She was a gymnast, happily swinging
On the uneven bars, tucked in a somersault

I don’t know why. But for some reason, those are both really simple, but really amazingly descriptive. And then it just falls back into the chorus, and repeats the opening synth lick a few more times.

All in all, one of my favorite songs that I’ve recently heard, by far.

-James out

 

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