What is this song about? My powers of interpretation (which, frankly, I had believed to be considerable) were shown to be feeble in the face of the obscurity of Prekop's song.
Is it about apathy? About having a gift and not wanting to use it? Is it about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? About social disease?
I don't know.
Sometimes, though, I've been up at night when everyone else in the world is sleeping (I know, it's surprising) and the song has meant something to me. I have known that it's true.
The words, the warmth of the guitar, the fragile harmonies, and above all, the tom hits (here's a drummer who knows how to tune his drums! He knows melody!). The song is simple; it never opens up. It's private; not for us. It comes in unassumingly and is gently ushered out by the high hat (are the cymbals made of brushes?).
It should be noted that this song is voodoo. Whatever favours Prekop believes should be rained on, my attempts at writing about "On Such Favours" were repeatedly poured upon. This morning, I left the cd in a computer lab at school and then had to convince a curmudgeonly (model-like) lady to give it back to me (she hated me). And then I missed my bus and was forced to sit around moping for twenty minutes and now it's quarter to one in the morning. So, I don't know, but... [Buy]
***
Young Marble Giants - "Brand-New Life"
This song was recorded in the Young Marble Giants' living room.
Two of the band members are brothers (as I am your brother (except more consanguineal)).
"Brand-New Life" was later rerecorded as "Brand-New-Life" and released on the YMG's only official album, Colossal Youth.
It's about pain and loss.
That's all you're getting. [Buy]
Posted by Jordan at September 30, 2004 1:42 AMwhat does "hermeneutical" mean?
Posted by george at September 30, 2004 9:17 AM"what does "hermeneutical" mean?"
Posted by momo at September 30, 2004 9:26 AMOh, don't be such an intellectual snob. Why would you go out of your way to make somebody feel like an idiot, like that? It's people like you that stop other people from learning new things, because they're too terrified to ask a question in case some vainglorious wonk jumps down their throat. I'm sure you weren't born knowing what 'hermeneutical' means...
Posted by Andrew at September 30, 2004 9:50 AMwell said, andrew!
Posted by ben at September 30, 2004 10:14 AMBy the way, lest we forget the point of this thread: 'hermeneutical' means "explanatory", or "interpretative".
Posted by Andrew at September 30, 2004 11:44 AMthanks, but in momo's defense, he probably wasn't trying to be a snob. he was probably just saying "don't be a lazy bastard, look it up yourself".
Posted by george at September 30, 2004 12:54 PMSorry. My fault. I had already stopped myself from using the word once and so decided to go ahead and indulge. Anyway, it's corrected now.
I'm not sure that anyone was trying to be mean or snobbish.
As an interesting side note: I was actually born knowing the word "hermeneutical".
Posted by Jordan at September 30, 2004 1:33 PMyou're filling sean's shoes well! keep up the great work!
Posted by dana at September 30, 2004 2:23 PMahhh, now i feel bad. don't dumb things down on my account.
Posted by george at September 30, 2004 3:18 PMDana - Thanks.
George - Don't feel bad. It was a silly word to use and I wanted to shift the focus back to the music.
Any thoughts about the music?
Posted by Jordan at September 30, 2004 3:50 PMwell this may sound odd, but i just read this site. i can't download music here at work, and i don't have an internet connection at home.
Posted by george at September 30, 2004 4:03 PMComplete this lyric:
"It's hermeneutical
tutti-fruttical..."
pooptical like Sam Prekpoop... whatever happenned to the Sea & Cake? those guys altogether made some great tunes. they, particularly mr. Sam Pre-poop, do have this way of writing songs that never "open up"... mysterious.
Posted by su at October 1, 2004 2:55 AMi think on such favours is about wishing that it would rain on someone else's parade, or, more specifically, i picture the rain falling on someone's special picnic. the church ladies planned a do and sam prekop wishes it would rain on such (false) favours these gossips have done for him. or perhaps a modernday version of the church picnic scenario, with the same underlying theme of revenge.
I think this is maybe what you were trying to get at with the road to hell question, but I wanted to expand upon that theme a little bit.
thanks. everything good is up.
rodii -
"It's Edmund Husserl
on pharmaceuticals?"
Max - You only write truths. Which is notable. Everything good -is- up. And that is something like what I was getting at with the road to hell question (without the specific church lady/picnic storm connotations).
Posted by Jordan at October 1, 2004 2:23 PM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
