(no subject)
I'm finally finished school for a year or so. I'm not really sure how to react to this now that the long-awaited time is finally here. For a few days, I still felt like I was a student with a project of some kind looming over me. I'm starting to unwind, though, and I'm hoping to have some fun before I settle down to serious work.
With that in mind, anyone who wants to recommend an idea for a vacation is welcome to do so here. My budget is low, but I can manage a poor version of anything you might suggest, most likely. I'm hoping to spend about a month away, preferably out of the country and in a fairly different place.
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.
Snatches of lyrics and a bit of commentary seem to be germane additions to the idea, as those were in chibifrieza's version, so I'm going with that. I'm not tagging anybody, though. I'm mainly doing this one because the commentary angle can lead to interesting bits of information.
1. The Mountain Goats - First Few Desperate Hours
Bad luck comes in from Tampa
Bad luck comes in from Tampa
on the back of a truck
doing ninety up the interstate
We have bad dreams the night he rolls in
We have bad dreams the night he rolls in
and we try
to keep our spirits high
But they flag
and they wane
when the truck pulls out front
in the light spring rain
And they sag
like withering flowers
Let the good times roll on
through these first few desperate hours
John Darnielle, the man behind the Mountain Goats, has a thing for song series. This song, as well as all of the other songs on its album, is part of the Alpha Couple series. The Alpha Couple is a man and a woman who are married to each other and perpetually on the edge of utter collapse. All of the songs are from the point of view of one or the other. I like to play this one, though I always forget the second verse (if you've ever heard me play "No Children", you may have noticed that it's also part of this series).
2. Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Now in darkness, world stops turning
as the war machine keeps burning
No more war pigs of the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
It's easy to forget sometimes that Ozzy Osbourne shares about a quarter of the responsibility for popularizing/practically inventing an entire genre of rock music. Even though metal mostly sounds nothing like Black Sabbath most of the time nowadays, tracing the influence is trivially easy. This last verse of the song is probably the best evidence. With the phrase "Satan, laughing, spreads his wings", uncountable numbers of young people heard what they had been waiting to hear.
3. Social Distortion - Reach for the Sky
When I was young I was invincible
I found myself not thinking twice
I never thought about no future
It's just a roll of the dice
But the day may come when you got something to lose
and just when you think you're done paying dues
You say to yourself "Dear God, what have I done?"
and hope it's not too late 'cause tomorrow may never come
Reach for the sky 'cause tomorrow may never come
Reach for the sky 'cause tomorrow may never come
Social Distortion is probably the family's theme band. Their music feels more natural around us than most anything else. I can't say as the lyrics are particularly deft, but that's really part of the point. This song about as direct as a song can be. There's not much more to say.
4. The B52s - Is that you, Mo Dean?
Waiting for bus #99
Going to the store for hot dogs and wine!
When all of a sudden, I felt real cold
And wound up in the belly of a big ol' UFO
On the bus
To the plane
To the UFO and to outer space, baby
On the bus
To the plane
Baby, yeah, take me away!
I love the B52s. There has never been music that could cheer me up as easily as this. They started off with a keen talent for fun music and eventually honed it into what sounds almost like a universal party soundtrack. This song is about a guy that hitchhikes on a flying saucer on a whim, parties around the universe, and comes back home to realize that relativity makes time pass a little faster than one realizes. Do I really need to explain why I like it?
5. The Stranglers - No More Heroes
Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He caught an icepick that made his ears burn
Whatever happened to dear old Lenny
The great Elmyra and Sancho Panza?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
I had known a couple of songs from this band, but hadn't run into this one until I read that the game No More Heroes was inspired by it. It instantly reminded me of why I liked old punk. The Stranglers had a bewilderingly inconsistent public image, with the only consensus being that they were bloody nutcases, but their music was pretty incontrovertibly great. This song is maybe a bit more complex as a text than most of the others on this list. I think that's why I've been listening to it.
6. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
The rusted chains of prison moons are shattered by the sun
I walk a road, horizons change, the tournament's begun
The purple piper plays his tune, the choir softly sing
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue for the court of the Crimson King
The keeper of the city keys put shutters on the dreams
I wait outside the pilgrims' door with insufficient schemes
The black queen chants the funeral march, the cracked brass bells will ring
To summon back the fire witch to the court of the Crimson King
I'm not the biggest fan of prog, but I do like a fair bit of it, and psychedelia is the main reason why. This song is great for a number of moods, but it's particularly great for the mood that it can put you in if you really get into it. It's reflective and meditative and sort of sardonically sad, which is a fine thing for a British song to be, and it doesn't go all masturbatory with the soloing. I particularly like the way it scans in a sort of lazy, author-didn't-care-that-much-about-scanning fashion.
7. David Bowie - "Heroes"
I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them
just for one day
We can be heroes
just for one day
And you
You can be mean
And I
I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers
and that is a fact
Yes, we're lovers
and that is that
Though nothing will keep us together
We could steal time
just for one day
We can be heroes
forever and ever
What d'you say
I
I wish you could swim
Like dolphins
like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
will keep us together
We can beat them
forever and ever
We can be heroes
just for one day
I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing
will drive them away
We can be heroes
just for one day
We can be us
just for one day
I
I can remember
Standing
by the wall
And the guns
shot above our heads
And we kissed
as though nothing could fall
And the shame
was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them
Forever and ever
We can be heroes
just for one day
We can be heroes
just for one day
We're nothing
and nothing can help us
Maybe we're lying
and you'd better not stay
But we could be safer
just for one day
I put all of the lyrics down for this one because it's one of my favourite songs.
I could try to talk a lot of gibberish about this like I did for the other songs, but I'm really not sure what to say here.
You may have noticed that the title of the song is placed in quotes. This is because the title of the song actually includes those quotation marks. I think it's often rendered without them because of simplicity or that bit of trivia not being known. They're entirely appropriate, however, because this song is fundamentally about the failure of its own premise.
Have you ever done something that you were certain would fail, and that did fail, while still hoping as hard as possible that it wouldn't?
Did that failure ever turn out better than you were expecting?
With that in mind, anyone who wants to recommend an idea for a vacation is welcome to do so here. My budget is low, but I can manage a poor version of anything you might suggest, most likely. I'm hoping to spend about a month away, preferably out of the country and in a fairly different place.
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.
Snatches of lyrics and a bit of commentary seem to be germane additions to the idea, as those were in chibifrieza's version, so I'm going with that. I'm not tagging anybody, though. I'm mainly doing this one because the commentary angle can lead to interesting bits of information.
1. The Mountain Goats - First Few Desperate Hours
Bad luck comes in from Tampa
Bad luck comes in from Tampa
on the back of a truck
doing ninety up the interstate
We have bad dreams the night he rolls in
We have bad dreams the night he rolls in
and we try
to keep our spirits high
But they flag
and they wane
when the truck pulls out front
in the light spring rain
And they sag
like withering flowers
Let the good times roll on
through these first few desperate hours
John Darnielle, the man behind the Mountain Goats, has a thing for song series. This song, as well as all of the other songs on its album, is part of the Alpha Couple series. The Alpha Couple is a man and a woman who are married to each other and perpetually on the edge of utter collapse. All of the songs are from the point of view of one or the other. I like to play this one, though I always forget the second verse (if you've ever heard me play "No Children", you may have noticed that it's also part of this series).
2. Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Now in darkness, world stops turning
as the war machine keeps burning
No more war pigs of the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
It's easy to forget sometimes that Ozzy Osbourne shares about a quarter of the responsibility for popularizing/practically inventing an entire genre of rock music. Even though metal mostly sounds nothing like Black Sabbath most of the time nowadays, tracing the influence is trivially easy. This last verse of the song is probably the best evidence. With the phrase "Satan, laughing, spreads his wings", uncountable numbers of young people heard what they had been waiting to hear.
3. Social Distortion - Reach for the Sky
When I was young I was invincible
I found myself not thinking twice
I never thought about no future
It's just a roll of the dice
But the day may come when you got something to lose
and just when you think you're done paying dues
You say to yourself "Dear God, what have I done?"
and hope it's not too late 'cause tomorrow may never come
Reach for the sky 'cause tomorrow may never come
Reach for the sky 'cause tomorrow may never come
Social Distortion is probably the family's theme band. Their music feels more natural around us than most anything else. I can't say as the lyrics are particularly deft, but that's really part of the point. This song about as direct as a song can be. There's not much more to say.
4. The B52s - Is that you, Mo Dean?
Waiting for bus #99
Going to the store for hot dogs and wine!
When all of a sudden, I felt real cold
And wound up in the belly of a big ol' UFO
On the bus
To the plane
To the UFO and to outer space, baby
On the bus
To the plane
Baby, yeah, take me away!
I love the B52s. There has never been music that could cheer me up as easily as this. They started off with a keen talent for fun music and eventually honed it into what sounds almost like a universal party soundtrack. This song is about a guy that hitchhikes on a flying saucer on a whim, parties around the universe, and comes back home to realize that relativity makes time pass a little faster than one realizes. Do I really need to explain why I like it?
5. The Stranglers - No More Heroes
Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He caught an icepick that made his ears burn
Whatever happened to dear old Lenny
The great Elmyra and Sancho Panza?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
I had known a couple of songs from this band, but hadn't run into this one until I read that the game No More Heroes was inspired by it. It instantly reminded me of why I liked old punk. The Stranglers had a bewilderingly inconsistent public image, with the only consensus being that they were bloody nutcases, but their music was pretty incontrovertibly great. This song is maybe a bit more complex as a text than most of the others on this list. I think that's why I've been listening to it.
6. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
The rusted chains of prison moons are shattered by the sun
I walk a road, horizons change, the tournament's begun
The purple piper plays his tune, the choir softly sing
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue for the court of the Crimson King
The keeper of the city keys put shutters on the dreams
I wait outside the pilgrims' door with insufficient schemes
The black queen chants the funeral march, the cracked brass bells will ring
To summon back the fire witch to the court of the Crimson King
I'm not the biggest fan of prog, but I do like a fair bit of it, and psychedelia is the main reason why. This song is great for a number of moods, but it's particularly great for the mood that it can put you in if you really get into it. It's reflective and meditative and sort of sardonically sad, which is a fine thing for a British song to be, and it doesn't go all masturbatory with the soloing. I particularly like the way it scans in a sort of lazy, author-didn't-care-that-much-about-scanning fashion.
7. David Bowie - "Heroes"
I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them
just for one day
We can be heroes
just for one day
And you
You can be mean
And I
I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers
and that is a fact
Yes, we're lovers
and that is that
Though nothing will keep us together
We could steal time
just for one day
We can be heroes
forever and ever
What d'you say
I
I wish you could swim
Like dolphins
like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
will keep us together
We can beat them
forever and ever
We can be heroes
just for one day
I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing
will drive them away
We can be heroes
just for one day
We can be us
just for one day
I
I can remember
Standing
by the wall
And the guns
shot above our heads
And we kissed
as though nothing could fall
And the shame
was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them
Forever and ever
We can be heroes
just for one day
We can be heroes
just for one day
We're nothing
and nothing can help us
Maybe we're lying
and you'd better not stay
But we could be safer
just for one day
I put all of the lyrics down for this one because it's one of my favourite songs.
I could try to talk a lot of gibberish about this like I did for the other songs, but I'm really not sure what to say here.
You may have noticed that the title of the song is placed in quotes. This is because the title of the song actually includes those quotation marks. I think it's often rendered without them because of simplicity or that bit of trivia not being known. They're entirely appropriate, however, because this song is fundamentally about the failure of its own premise.
Have you ever done something that you were certain would fail, and that did fail, while still hoping as hard as possible that it wouldn't?
Did that failure ever turn out better than you were expecting?