BOC; I'd Like To, and other stuff

[Jon Jarrett]

        Dear all,
                  long time since I posted, so I'm going to have to do an
AB style digest reply: probably keep me from running on so much anyway.

        Topics therefore: 1), I'd Like to See You in Black: well, having
only heard it once, I could easily have condemned it too quickly, but it
still strikes me as uninspired, especially compared to Harvest Moon,
which is a top track and no mistake. Reasons for my opinions ( oh yes, I
have heard and taken note ) are that while Harvest Moon is a lyrically and
musically adventurous track that has several different moods in it, the
way I heard it anyway ( which was live immediately before ILtSYiB ), the
latter struck me as no more than a riff and a line over and over: now,
okay, some damn good tunes have been written on not much else ( Silver
Machine for one, although the lyrics there are kind of cool too ) but
until I hear ILtSYiB without all the extra electricity of a live
performance I can't say I saw much of a song behind Eric going bananas
with the chorus...

2) Astronomy: I heard the SEE version first ( my first BOC tape! happy
days, though not as happy as they will be when I get my last, or finally
get CD )and I still like this best: I feel the slow falls in the soloes
right down in the guts, and compared to it I don't think the ST version
goes as far or as hard. It's not normal BOC output really, is it: only
one I can think of like it is Last Days of May, although gaps in my
knowledge may fail me here. Imaginos version by contrast is not the same
song really, the atmosphere is totally changed, and I love it: gives the
song a framework that it doesn't need in SEE because that's live and you
expect a bit of playing about, but which the ST version doesn't have, and
doesn't really fill in the gap with the soloes. So, my order would be
SEE, Imaginos, ST.

3) A tBS version of `I am the One you warned me of' would, in my own
unworthy opinion, kick so much ass it would leave a permanent stain on
its own boot. I would pay lots to see this, although unfortunately not
enough to get me to the USA to do so. My favourite Imaginos song, with
Frost vocals? Mama buy me that...

4) John Swartz: I'm taking my head in my hands and offering it for you to
kick here, but I don't agree with you on this point: music is good and
bad, it's just that people don't always like the good stuff. I mean, sure,
`good' is relative, i.e. good for what, but you've got to agree that a
piece that took effort and skill to compose and play is better,
intrinsically, than something jammed together in five minutes by a
would-be-but-never-will punk band. You may not like it, but that's not
the same. Otherwise there'd be no point in getting CDs: it sounds
`better', but that just means you can hear the sound more clearly, yes?
I've not met anyone yet who said,"Well I think it sounds better muffled
and scratchy _actually_"... but as usual this is just my opinion, crafted
after years to trying to defend Steely Dan to some very bored friends,
so what do I know? Interested in your comments though.

5) Translated titles ( Andy Gilham's thread ): did you know that 'Le
Rouge et le Noir' is the title of a famous book by Stendhal about life
during the French Revolution? The name relates to the two political
groups whose mobs ruled Paris at the time: like the Sharks and the Jets
but bigtime... I've often wondered if this was being referred to in the
song, esp. since Canada is 49.1% French anyway ( according to the
referendum... ), and also since the line appears also in `Golden Age of
Leather'. But if it was, I can't think what it would mean...

6) `proper rock intonation': this sounds a lot like Eliot's idea of the
`objective correlative', a set of words which would convey exactly the
same image to anyone who heard them. I don't think it's possible, even
within one language, but he did and was quite prepared to sacrifice sense
to the search for it. Never heard it applied to music before, but agree
with the example. A crescendo on the word `eighteen-twenty-nine' has no
business being such a gut-tugger: I'm a historian, and I don't find
dates *that* exciting... but it works dunnit? Could this be something to
do with natural frequencies of vibration, or sequences of major chords,
or what? There must be some scientific reasons if all of BOC-L who've
commented on this can all agree that the phrase is good, we never manage
it on anything else!

        Anyway, I have been at the comp. for too long and written too
much: catch you all some other time, hope this wasn't too much of a strain
to read, haven't quite got the hang of digest style yet...
                                                           Jazza

          /----------------------------------------------------------\
          |    "So, Penfold, what did you think of Popacatepetl?"    |
          |       "Er, not yet chief, but I will as soon as we       |
          |                  get to the kitchen."                    |
          |==========================================================|
          |Jonathan Jarrett ( History ) |    Ext. Tel. 01223 460728  |
          | ( Pembroke College,         |    Int. Tel. 39082         |
          |   Cambridge CB2 1RF ) or    |    E-MAIL:                 |
          |     2 Selwyn Gardens (7),   |    jaj20 at hermes.cam.ac.uk  |
          |       Cambridge CB2 1NG.    |                            |
          \__________________________________________________________/