Pretty sure he was responsible for designing the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" live sound system.
Song Meanings Thread
- Thread starter Meats Lab
- Start date
Lennon wrote the song during the Beatles' stay in India in response to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's alleged sexual advance on actress Mia Farrow.
Nice one and that is my understanding as well. Great tune.
The whole White Album was written during that trip. Dear Prudence was about Mia's sister.
I lived in Beam and my roommate once bought a new stereo set and tested the speakers by placing them next to my head while I slumbered unawares. He liked Blue Oyster Cult.Pretty sure he was responsible for designing the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" live sound system.
+1. Apparently Mia's sister wouldn't come out of her Bungalo, she wanted to achieve spiritual awareness before anyone else. LOL.
I always thought the White Album was one good editing away from being their best. George Martin let them get away with a little too much.
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I also lived in Beam when they had an Arts and Architecture interest house. One of the best dorms. The first 2 floors were co-ed.
Yes, coed. You know the Mendoza Line in baseball? There was a LionJim line in Beam Hall, smh.
Idle curiosity: can you name a Beatles album you think is particularly well edited?
I'm thinking he meant that Martin should have made them cut a few songs (Little Piggies and Revolution #9 for example) from this album.
The Beatles and Martin were beyond innovative in the studio.
Sure Sgt. Peppers and Abbey Road are the first 2 that come to mind, especially the 2nd side of Abbey Road.
Revolver and Rubber Soul are my 2 favorites.
Yes there were a lot of "takes" that should have stayed on the cutting room floor.
for instance (the 2 that Grant named) and Wild Honey Pie, Mother Natures Son, Good Night are a few more.
Filter: Hey Man, Nice Shot is about Pa State Treasurer, R Budd Dwyer, who committed suicide by handgun on live TV due to a plethora of illegal activities.
Such an underrated group. I got into them near the end of high school right after Natalie had left. I always hoped that she'd get back together with them some day and go on tour but seems that it will never happen.
I know one of the trumpet players who played on Wake of the Flood and he played in front of wall of sound a couple times and he said was really unpleasant there was so much sound coming off main stacks. The whole idea was no stage monitors, so the band heard, was immersed in the true main mix. Some how would lead them to a better sound. That's why they needed the special out of phase micro phones. Dead apparently hated playing in front of it as well.Pretty sure he was responsible for designing the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" live sound system.
"Is there gas in the car? Yes, there's gas in the car..." Terrific song. Only the Dan could turn a lyric like that into solid gold.
"Just When I Needed You Most" by Randy Van Warmer is a fantastic song. It is said to be about a devastating breakup with his girlfriend (or possibly a breakdown of his car that he owned at the time), but I've also read that it is about the loss of his father in an automobile accident, when Van Warmer was a teenager. Certainly the lyrics suggest a girlfriend leaving, but they also make you consider the possibility of a young man whose father might be leaving home in a big hurry and he doesn't know (at the time) that it'll be the last time he sees him alive. I think of it this way mostly because of a friend who told me about his father killed in a truck accident on I-95 between Baltimore and Philadelphia, but I also think of a young man needing his father and having him leave, permanently, just when he needed him most - completing the journey into manhood.
Abbey Road is The Beatles best, IMO. If not for Sticky Fingers, then I’d say it’s the best album ever.
This is a cool thread.
This is almost certainly about Kurt Cobain; no one sings 'I wish I would have met you...' about a state treasurer. I think Richard Patrick was trying to be clever here but yeah - no way.
This is almost certainly about Kurt Cobain; no one sings 'I wish I would have met you...' about a state treasurer. I think Richard Patrick was trying to be clever here but yeah - no way.
One of my favorite songs from the 90's is Shawn Colvin's 'Sunny Came Home.' It's an innocuous tune told in narrative form about a woman who comes back to her small town and burns it down. Either people never bothered to listen to the lyrics or just sang along because it's imminently hummable, but it's dark as f*ck.
Excerpt
Sunny came home with a list of names
She didn't believe in transcendence
"And it's time for a few small repairs", she said
Sunny came home with a vengeance
She says, "Days go by, I don't know why
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire"
Get the kids and bring a sweater
Dry is good and wind is better
Count the years, you always knew it
Strike a match, go on and do it
"Oh, days go by, I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire"
Excerpt
Sunny came home with a list of names
She didn't believe in transcendence
"And it's time for a few small repairs", she said
Sunny came home with a vengeance
She says, "Days go by, I don't know why
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire"
Get the kids and bring a sweater
Dry is good and wind is better
Count the years, you always knew it
Strike a match, go on and do it
"Oh, days go by, I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire"
The song was written about the public suicide of Pennsylvania state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer on January 22, 1987, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Dwyer had been convicted of bribery charges in December 1986, and was expected to receive a lengthy sentence from U.S. District Court JudgeMalcolm Muir. Professing his innocence and decrying the legal system, Dwyer shot and killed himself with a .357 Magnum revolver during a live televised press conference.[7]
The bridge of Marilyn Manson's "Get Your Gunn" (1994) includes audio from the press conference where Dwyer shot himself, including the sound of the gunshot that killed him.[8][9] When Marilyn Manson sampled the audio of Dwyer's suicide, Filter's Richard Patrick heard the sample and was excited by it; Manson believes that this interaction inspired Patrick to write "Hey Man Nice Shot." Reflecting on the sample, Manson said "He wouldn't have even heard it if I didn't play it.... I don't like him very much. He bothers me."[8]
Although Patrick frequently clarified this in interviews, as well as the fact that he had first written the song in 1991 before the band even had a record deal, the song's popularity was augmented by a widespread perception that it was about the 1994 suicide of Kurt Cobain.[7][10][11]
Yeah, I know all this - but, don't believe it
. Additional fun fact - Marilyn Manson's 'Get Your Gunn' is about the murder of Dr. David Gunn, who was an abortion provider, by an anti-abortion activist.
This song is about a young lady who was known about town for being old fashioned.
Soul Man - the song by Sam and Dave and later popularized by The Blues Brothers - is about some of the racial issues in Memphis in the late 1960s.
Soul was a term written on a paper and hung on a window to indicate a business was sympathetic to the issues and to keep from having their business attacked in the event of a riot. From that- Isaac Hayes wrote Soul Man
Soul was a term written on a paper and hung on a window to indicate a business was sympathetic to the issues and to keep from having their business attacked in the event of a riot. From that- Isaac Hayes wrote Soul Man
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Boomtown Rats - "I don't like Mondays." About a youg female shooter who shot up a playgound in California. When asked why, she told the police, "I don't like Mondays."
Kurt fascinates me
In a 1992 interview with California fanzine Flipside, Cobain explained that the song was a fictionalized account of a man who "turned to religion as a last resort to keep himself alive" after the death of his girlfriend, "to keep him from suicide."
In a 1992 interview with California fanzine Flipside, Cobain explained that the song was a fictionalized account of a man who "turned to religion as a last resort to keep himself alive" after the death of his girlfriend, "to keep him from suicide."
This is a beautiful song but the lyrics have puzzled me for years. What is the Ripple? 'Ripple in still water, where there is no pebble tossed, nor wind to blow'. If the ripple is not caused by a physical object like a rock nor a form of energy like the wind what causes it? It has to be a supernatural force. Then it occurred to me, the singer is the ripple, perhaps a person who has passed away singing to someone in the real world. When the ripple appears it is a sign that I am here watching over you. And while there are messages I can share like that of a higher power 'Let it be known, there is a fountain that was not made by the hands of man', in the end I can only do so much because your life and your decisions are yours alone to make 'And if you go no one may follow, That path is for your steps alone'.
At least that's what I got out of it.
If my words did glow
With the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played
On the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice
Come through the music?
Would you hold it near
As it were your own?
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
It's a hand-me-down
The thoughts are broken
Perhaps they're better left unsung
I don't know, don't really care
Let there be songs to fill the air
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall, you fall alone
If you should stand then who's to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home
there is a defunct site on the old internet now only available through way back machine that had in depth analyses of Grateful Dead songs, hosted on UC Santa Cruz library web site. Here is their analysis of Ripple. Also a nostalgic look at what the internet and interfaces used to look like!!
The Annotated "Ripple"
wayback.archive-it.org