From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V5 #118 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Sunday, May 14 2000 Volume 05 : Number 118 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: Hair and art, Was:Thomas shaved *his* head... [RThurF@aol.com] Re: Alloy: SOTW - guidelines, suggestions, and intent [CJMark@aol.com] Alloy: Lyrical Interpretation [Spencer2424@aol.com] Re: Alloy: Lyrical Interpretation [RThurF@aol.com] Alloy: Bruce Woolley and the ... ["Stephen M. Tilson" ] Re: Alloy: Thomas shaved *his* head... ["Melissa R. Jordan" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 02:02:37 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: Hair and art, Was:Thomas shaved *his* head... In a message dated 5/12/00 1:30:58 PM Eastern Daylight Time, WilliamK@Castwell.CitationCorp.com writes: :: So, just like there are musicians or painters who basicaly copy others, there are those who try to match a look that others have, i.e. grunge, punk, etc. An artist is trying to express something when they create art, a feeling, a point of view, something from within themselves that they hope will connect with another person. If you accept the Person as Art concept, then what are we trying to express when we wear a goatee, or dye our hair purple, or dress in a design by a famous designer, or invent some new and unusal look that has never been seen before? :: I think one way to look at it could be through looking at the way people dress on the whole. I'm sure everyone wants to wear what they think looks best on them, and what they think expresses who they are. I've seen a lot of the fashion types you described - the 'starving artist' who can't be bothered to fuss with their appearance because they're so enthralled with their work - though they may not be literally starving. Albert Einstein was one of these (Jeff Goldblum's character in The Fly drew directly off of Einstein's method of having seven of the exact same suit in his closet, so he wouldn't have to waste any mental energy deciding what to wear) - though Einstein was a scientist, he was undeniably an artist within his discipline. The actress Isabella Rossalini is the same way with her wardrobe when she's not being fussed over as a model or actress. Identical suits which she can just reach in and grab without having to worry about it. Personally, I have three or four outfits I prefer to wear for the sake of simplicity for the same reasons. Another element of fashion for the professional artist is that of business. You have to present yourself well to gallery representatives and to the public. If you can make yourself memorable, it's part of winning the battle. You're your own walking publicity. Also, I think part of being an artist is getting involved with your surroundings, making modifications, making things your own. With ones appearance it's the same. There are always going to be fashion trends, so of course, artists don't have a corner on looking absolutely alien to one another, any more than anyone else in any other group of people does. Still, I think you may be right in that those involved in creative professions do tend to have a non-mainstream flair to them. Maybe because the arts are not looked kindly upon in our culture, especially nowadays - maybe because of this, the artist is stepping away from the mainstream deliberately or subconsciously? Perhaps a bit of rebellion is mixed in with the artistic fashion sense. But whenever anyone asks me about the way I dress, I usually just say that I wear what I like, and what I think looks good, just as they do :) Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 08:53:23 EDT From: CJMark@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: SOTW - guidelines, suggestions, and intent Hey Miles.. A couple of comments from the gallery.. I think the idea of discussing lyrics is really great. Although, at first.. I was a bit put off by it. I guess that I just felt it was a bit presumtuous to "analyze" Mr. Dolby's songs. Perhaps it's that word that made it hard to swallow. However.. after reading Beth and Craig's interpretations of "Airwaves" I found a new interest in the song and the significance of the lyrics that I really hadn't taken the time to consider before. It's strange.. although I write music and lyrics.. when I listen to a song.. I am often so swept away by the chord progression.. the melody.. the harmonies.. the aural texture.. that I forget to actually concentrate on the lyrics. That having been said.. the one artist whose lyrics always demanded my listening to have been Mr. Dolby's. They take the aural landscape of a song and paint in the weather.. the scent in the air.. and the clothes hanging on the line. Your posting and the subsequent discussion will be an enjoyable review for me. Thanks for taking the initiative to get this started. Mark ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 13:23:52 EDT From: Spencer2424@aol.com Subject: Alloy: Lyrical Interpretation Mark, I'm glad you enjoyed my (and Beth's) Airwaves ideas. And you bring up an interesting topic - pop lyric interpretation. I personally am drawn to songs with somewhat ambiguous lyrics (like Airwaves). I think it allows the listener to make the song uniquely their own, and keeps the song more fresh and interesting over time. But in addition to the interpretation of the actual lyrics, there's also the interpretation of what people THINK they are hearing. For instance, there's a song by Happy Rhodes (who generally sings about decidedly UNhappy circumstances), called "Look for the Child." And listening to the CD, I was sure that the chorus went like this: Why, are you all crying? Why, did daddy die? Does the nightmare have a home? Mommy? But according to the lyric sheet, the third line is actually: "Doesn't that man have a home?" And in this case, the words in that one line completely change the complexion of the song. Another more amusing example is Stacey Q's 1986 novelty hit "Two of Hearts." When I first heard that song, I thought she was singing "Two Adrvarks." Didn't make much sense, but I loved the weirdness of it! Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there. Thomas tends to articulate fairly well when he sings, so there aren't a whole lot of songs where you need the lyric sheet to figure things out. But there are some - like that added chorus in the long version of "Airwaves." I NEVER would have guessed the correct words for that: Control has enabled the abandoned wires again But the copper cables all rust in the acid rain That flood the subway With elements of our corrosion Cabled in to me... Cloudburst is another song that's got some tricky lyrics. You just don't hear phrases like "Private hell at turn of key" in normal conversation, which makes it hard to figure out. But I'm not knocking Thomas - I love his lyrics, and the way he uses language. I'm all for a bit of mystery and intrigue in pop music! - - Craig ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 14:14:25 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: Lyrical Interpretation In a message dated 5/13/00 1:26:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Spencer2424@aol.com writes: :: Cloudburst is another song that's got some tricky lyrics. You just don't hear phrases like "Private hell at turn of key" in normal conversation, which makes it hard to figure out. But I'm not knocking Thomas - I love his lyrics, and the way he uses language. :: "private hell at turn of key" seems to me to be about someone having to go home to some kind of hellish situation, perhaps even within himself. This is why he wishes to rush out into the cloudburst and be exposed to the wildness of the weather - because he's been hiding away in his private (but secure) hell for too long. Robin T and her two cents! :) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 17:22:37 -0400 From: "Stephen M. Tilson" Subject: Alloy: Bruce Woolley and the ... Camera Club n. - a group of people who hire models to dance and pose in various states of undress so the members may take photographs of same for private use. /\/\ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 17:22:36 -0400 From: "Stephen M. Tilson" Subject: Alloy: SOTW - guidelines, suggestions, and intent Mark "CJ" Munson offers: > A couple of comments from the gallery.. I think the idea of > discussing lyrics is really great. Although, at first.. I was a > bit put off by it. I guess that I just felt it was a bit > presumtuous to "analyze" Mr. Dolby's songs. Perhaps it's that > word that made it hard to swallow. You're absolutely right about that word, Mark. It has connotations I hadn't considered when using it in this context. "Study" is a better word. I wish to study not just people's interpretations of the various songs, but also to put the songs in context with what we know was going on in Thomas' life at the time, which isn't much I'll allow. Thanks for pointing that out. Best wishes for your cross-country jaunt, /\/\iles ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 17:43:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Cracknell Subject: Re: Alloy: Lyrical Interpretation In article , you wrote: >Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there. Thomas tends to articulate >fairly well when he sings, so there aren't a whole lot of songs where you >need the lyric sheet to figure things out. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Actually there are tonnes of Dolby mondegreens out there. Infact I don't think I've ever met a person who has listened to "Screen Kiss" and not heard "And all the Russians look the same" instead of "And all the rushes look the same." There's another mondegreen in Screen Kiss that I always thought was very deep until I realized the lyric wasn't what I thought it was. I always thought the line "and you hoped he'd say "I'm sorry" when he hits you" was... "And you're taught to say "I'm sorry" when he hits you." The mondegreen I was hearing suggested to me that the girl in the song grew up in a pattern of abuse where if she got hit, well it was because she must have done something wrong therefore it's her own fault. She brought the punishment upon herself and should apologise. Even if you don't know what it was you did wrong, if you apologise you might be able to postpone another beating. Because she grew up with such an abusive father she came to expect that must be what a normal relationship with a man was like. That's why she puts up with a man who abuses her. She doesn't really believe it can be any different and she's to scared of being alone. No doubt my own childhood demons influenced that mondegreen as that lyric really hit close to the mark for me. Infact I was almost disappointed when I read what the actual lyric really was. Of course sometimes the mondegreens just leave you wondering "What the hell did Thomas mean by that?" I was puzzled for years by the line "Knickers steaming in the chilly air of the morning" on "Flying North" until I bought the CD version of TGAOW which included lyrics and found out the line was "Lincoln steaming in the chilly air of the morning." I used to wonder how many of the lyrics Thomas throws into a song for no other purpose than to fuck with our heads. It was like when I was in a band called "Only You Can Prevent Insantiy" and none of our songs had any meaning at all. They were either very obscure in-jokes about things that happened to us (usually when we got together and got pissed) or just out and out nonsense. But we used to love listening to all the pretentious artsies come up with all these deep, meaningful interpretations of our songs. CRACKERS (And style is a word I've never even heard in your vogue Caprice from hell!!) - -- Collector of Atari 2600 carts - Accordionist - Bira Bira Devotee - Anime fan * http://www.hwcn.org/~ad329/crab.html | Crackers' Arts Base * * http://www.netway.com/~hozervideo/index.html | Hozer Video Games * Nihongo ga dekimasu - 2600 programmer - Father of 2 great kids - Canadian eh ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 18:21:27 -0400 From: "Melissa R. Jordan" Subject: Re: Alloy: Thomas shaved *his* head... Elaine Linstruth wrote: (re: freeing one's self from tress distress): > I dunno, I guess it's liberating. If I could get away with it, I might > try it myself. Certainly spends less time washing and futzing with his > 'do now. Amen, to that, Elaine! I had ultra short hair throughout college - peachfuzz in the back, bad '80's new-wave-y spiky stuff up front. It was awesome. Minimal fuss. Dried in a flash. I got it in my head to grow my hair out a couple of years ago, to well below shoulder length. But, then, in a fit of boredom, I cut my hair off last November to a short 'do again. Now, I'm growing it out again to decide which I really like better. If I had self-confidence of iron, I would shave my whole head and see how it would look as my hair grew back it's true salt-and-pepper color (pretty freaky at 34, I bet!) I saw a seriously cool-ass chick in a clothing store in Berkeley, CA last November - tall, elegant African-American woman in totally funky, batiked clothes, GORGEOUS jewelry, totally bald with an awesome swirling tattoo around her head. She was beautiful! I've always thought bald men looked great. Some of my dearest friends are in the male pattern baldness groove, and I always tell them that I adore their heads, hair or no. I buy them baseball caps from silly places in my hometown to keep their nicely shaped craniums from frying in the DC summer sun. :-) Heat index of 96 degrees today. 90% humidity. Thunderstorms on the horizon. A good day to stay at home and lounge with a big gin and tonic. Cheers, y'all, Melissa - -- Melissa R. Jordan Owner/Artist/Rubber Maven, Compass Rose Studios (http://crstudios.com) Chief Navigator, Compass Rose Consulting (http://askcrc.com) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 21:15:25 -0400 From: "Mary A. Brown" Subject: Alloy: SOTW - Airwaves Well, I guess I'll do my bit to feed the airwaves here... Several people have pretty much gotten what Thomas meant by this song, from what I remember he said in interviews way back when. Perhaps I ought to dig through the archives but those who know me know my memory is pretty good, especially for things Dolby. ;-) Thomas was trying to get across the fact that the material which gets broadcasted is highly censored, a theme he returns to again and again (see: Radio Silence, Dissidents, Eastern Bloc). He was certainly frustrated by the lack of variety of radio stations in London and found the pirate station Radio Caroline a godsend when he was young. BC, will you back me up here? My own interpretation of Airwaves (and yes, those members of Alloy from its fledgling days are cheerfully excused from reading this yet again) was that of an obsessed scientist who had found a way to change matter into energy and back again. I pictured TMDR looking as he does on the Blinded by Science EP, driving out past the edge of town where the trailer parks are, searching in the cold (hence the scales of ice crystals on the antenna) and damp (he's knee deep in water) for the perfect place for his experiment. Though he mentions Brooklyn, I always pictured the rural areas near where I grew up in the Midwest which had miles of pylons along the farmlands, a site familiar to Melissa, no doubt. Those areas, especially at twilight, often made me feel particularly lonely, which is the mood the song conjures up for me. TMDR's heartbeat slows and his breathing becomes shallow as he somehow manages to change from being a particle to being a wave as he travels to wherever his assistant is waiting. When he reverts from energy back to matter, there is a loud bang, not unlike some car backfiring. He obviously couldn't go through such an experience without some physical reactions so he's tired and itches all over. Obviously, I've taken liberties with the lyrics but that's all part of making a song your own. I've really enjoyed reading what everyone else has posted as this is a song that apparently touches folks deeply. It's always been one of my favorites as well. Just a few suggestions about the SOTW - this concept was partially inspired by what has been done on the Split Enz/Crowded House/Finn list and it seems to work best if only one song is tackled at at time. I've mentioned to Stephen that he should take note of the other songs touched on recently and to use them next since they have generated interest. I've also disagreed with him in that the songs ought *not* to go in chronological order since that seems forced. Especially when two songs are obviously linked like "Europa and the Pirate Twins" and "Eastern Bloc". Another aspect of the SOTW which I believe also deserves commentary is the accompanying video. I was very pleased to read Craig's discussion of the video and how it shaped his opinions of the song. Okay, who's next? Europa ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V5 #118 ***************************