I'm going to review this song for two reasons: 1, I LOVE IT. It's a really great song by a great band. 2, it relates to what we've been talking about in RTM, nostalgia for a time you never lived in. We've mainly talked about nostalgia for the '50s, like The Truman Show, Pleasantville, oh-things-were-so-simple type of thing. These guys take it one step further and reminisce about 1891. Yeah that's right. That's like 116 years ago.
Here are the lyrics:
Stonecutters made them from stones
Chosen especially for you and I,
w live inside.
The mountaineers gathered timber piled high,
in which to take along, traveling many miles
knowing they'd get here.
When they got here all exhausted
All the roof leaks had got started
And now when the rain comes, we can be thankful
When the mountaineers saw that everything fit
they were glad and so they took off
Thought we were due for
a change or two
around this place.
When they get back, they're so mixed up
with no one to stay with.
The village used to be all one really needs
Now it's filled with hundreds and hundreds of chemicals
That mostly surround you, you wish to flee
But it's not like you so listen to me listen to me
Oh, and when the morning comes
We will step outside
we will not find another man in sight
We like the newness, the newness of all
That has grown in our garden struggling for so long.
Whenever I was a child, I wondered what if my name had changed
into something more productive like Roscoe,
Born in 1891, waiting with my aunt Rosaline.
Thought we were due for
a change or two
around this place.
When they get back, they're so mixed up
with no one to stay with.
1891 they roamed around and foraged
They made their house from cedars
They made their house from stone.
Well they're a little like you
And they're a little like me
We have all we need.
Thought we were due for
a change or two
around this place
This place
This place
When they get back they're all mixed up
With no one to stay with
When they get back they're all mixed up
With no one to stay with
So, essentially he's pining for a time, "whenever" he was a child (what?!), when he might have been named Roscoe (awesome name) and gone foraging, building his house in the mountains, when the village was all we would need. When we were less mediated by chemicals which "surround you". When people were just glad to finish a job like roofing someone's shack in the mountains. I know there are a few grammatical mistakes in there, but who cares. The melody of this song doesn't repeat itself!!! It just keeps going!!
All in all, awesome song, and it was the first thing that popped into my mind when we were talking about nostalgia for times we never lived.
Here's the video for it, a little period piece which might help you in understanding what they're getting at.
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6 comments:
I don't like this whole lack of reply button that blogger has set up, so I'll leave a comment here.
You see, new, small, unknown bands need PUBLICITY if they're going to make any money at all, so that they can keep producting their art. That's a large part of what the record companies provide, and I think it's less likely that they'll die off completely and more likely that they'll just become advertising/distribution companies, having less of a hand in the actual making of the album.
Though I definately agree that many bands do become popular through record companies,(which is awesome) Not all artists need that. Going to Lincoln and being surronded by hipsters, we come across a lot of indie bands with large fanbases everyday. So though while record comanpies DO help artists get well known, clearly it's not a nessesicity.
Also, what about the bands that DON'T need extra publicity and are already well established? What reason do I have to buy these albums, especially if I can use the money towards say, a concert ticket or some other merchandise? And let's remember we are teenagers on a limited budget here.
Which brings me to the final topic, the album. While it is true that many songs are pieces of art on their own, and hopefully a really good album would be chock full of such songs, I really do thing that if an artist (key word) puts out an album, they do it for a reason. That's why they also put out EPs. Because they're cohesive, and have songs which wouldn't fit on the album that they're making. No, I don't think that the new Britney album is deserving of any listens at all, (not that I've heard it), and it's quite possibly that those songs don't fit together as a piece of work, most albums are sequenced, written, produced the way they are for A REASON. That's why every radiohead album sounds different. That's why good bands change their sound on each consecutive album.
OK?
Alright, I admit defeat here. I never really thought about it like that before.
if I remember correctly what you said, hipsters at lincoln had to find out about the bands they talk about somehow, and I can tell you that these "indie bands with large fanbases" of which you speak did not get that way simply by word of mouth. Publicity is key. And labels provide that.
I don't doubt that. I'm not saying labels are bad or evil, but just that they aren't ALWAYS mandatory. Advertisment can happen in many other ways.
Also, not all labels are evil.
Never said they were. I said before that it was awesome that some labels can and DO bring attention to bands that would otherwise go unheard of.
There are indie labels, which are pretty sweet, not corporate, and almost your ma-and-pa bakery of the music business. There are A LOT of them in fact.
Interesting.
And finally, it's not stealing music that I'm against. I'm fully aware of the student budget, and I steal music all the time. But I do it by checking CDs out from the library (they have a great selection) so then I have the whole album, plus album art, from one source, so all the songs are mixed at the same level with the same audio quality and everything's nice. Also, there's eMusic, which is a subscription based thing. I think they may have upped their rates since I signed up (I got to keep my rates), but I'm paying 10 bucks a month for 40 songs. Thats 25 cents a song. And it's entirely indie labels. It's still a great deal at whatever price it is now.
So there are alternatives to supporting the corporate jerks without downloading your music.
???? How is getting a C.D from the libary and copying it onto your computer any better than downloading a full album with a torrent?
Does anyone else feel like this is getting off topic...?
Ah, not quite. Many torrents will download each album in a seperate folder, and the songs will still be in the correct order. It was older torrents that did that, but it's been upgraded since then.(I believe? It might depend on the torrent.) But I can see why it would bother you if it did just download them like that, considering a lot of albums should come together as one piece of art.
Do most people really use limewire? I always thought torrents were used more often.
[In response to your comment]
I don't know why you would have. I wrote it sophomore year. Did J-Gut use is as an example for you last year?... GABE?
But i think you'll find that your common hip/hop pop fan will use limewire.
Well, pfft. Those aren't real people anyway. (I jest.
....
don'tkickmeofftheblogMr.Gplease)
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