...People Hear What They Want To Hear...

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 9 Jul 2003 3:38 pm

Memories and elephants are playin' in the band?

Manatees and elephants?

Mammaries of elephants? OK, I give up.

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 9 Jul 2003 4:58 pm

And here I thought I thought it was Dinosaurs a trollin, Listenin to Buck Owens...

Doot... Doot.. Doo..

I could never figure out what "Statuary High" Heels were...

EJL

Dave Boothroyd · Post by **Dave Boothroyd** » 9 Jul 2003 11:38 pm

Sometimes it's the writer who gets it wrong.
Steve Miller, The Joker.
"Some people call me Maurice,
'Cos I speak of the pomposis of love"
Not in any dictionary I know!
Cheers
Dave

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 10 Jul 2003 5:50 am

..well here's the Creedance lyrics...talk about a hashish dream!..

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>There's a giant doing cartwheels,
a statue wearin' high heels.
Look at all the happy creatures
dancing on the lawn.
A dinosaur Victrola
list'ning to Buck Owens.

Doo Doo Doo Lookin' Out My Back Door

Tambourines and elephants
are playing in the band.
Won't you take a ride
on the flyin' spoon?
Doo, doo doo.
Wond'rous apparition
provided by magician.

Doo Doo Doo Lookin' Out My Back Door<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

..Jim, since you were willing to be wrong in front of at least 3 people, you win the consolation prize...Johnny, tell 'im what he's won...

Jim, you'll soon be receiving by Fed-Ex Ground a vinyl recording of Joan Baez Greatest Hits Written By Other People, featuring such memorable hits as...

* Amazing Gladys

* Ave Martina

* Denny Boy

* If I Were A Plumber

* Me and Bubba McGee

* Moe Hill

* Please Come To Cleveland

* The Night They Drove Old Trixie To Town

* You Are Not Going To Go Anywhere

...and Eric, for baring your soul to the world, you win first prize...two vinyl copies of the "Best Of" album, personally delivered by Joan...and a rare copy of the hit single from her foray into Reggae.. "No Woman, No Cry,"...No Kiddin', she covered that one too!

Tony LaCroix · Post by **Tony LaCroix** » 10 Jul 2003 5:55 am

Tamborines and elephants?

Dinosaur victrola, listening to Buck Owens.

I didn't know what a stuckinalodi was for years...

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 10 Jul 2003 6:04 am

..Don't Go Out Tonight..It's Bound To Take Your Life...There's A Bathroom On The Right...

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 10 Jul 2003 8:04 am

The Last Waltz, it's great, but it's a doco/film of the Band's farewell by a friend of Robertson. Hence, lots of footage of a world weary Robertson expounding his views on the group and the tough old life on the road.

Sure Robertson wasn't the last to cut a solo set, and he like Danko pens a certain amount of his solo material with co-writers.

Manuel got four songs on the Band's debut (one a co-write), Danko gets one, Robbie four. But 'Chest Fever' (Robertson), Hudson doesn't get anything for that one and his intro is practically a piece on it's own.
(They don't have to have lyrics to be a song, let's not forget that)
This was the group's debut, cut after a good year of playing together and jamming.
I'm suprised that any of them could claim sole authorship of the songs.

By the second album Robertson gets his name on every song. Now does anyone who's followed the group ever recall an interview where a member has said something along the line of, "Then Robbie presented us with a song, or Robbie brought in a batch of tunes."

Besides, what's Levon up to, he's just pointed out that Robertson got his name on a lot of songs that Levon claims the whole band wrote. It's not like he's claiming sole credit on the material.
Besides, I don't see much of the poetry in his latter material that the Band had, none of the group were really strong as solo writers after the group, kinda makes you wonder if they simply wrote songs together, throwing lyrics at each other while building up the material.

It's funny though, the recorded song is really a concept of the last 100 years, well less really.
Before that songs evolved in the folk tradition, and over the years would change with the region, or new songs would evolve and so on.
In a way the recorded medium is a rather sterile way of capturing a song which is a living thing for it's duration.
In a way, a recorded song is like taking a photo of a band, then continually using that same pic over and over, despite changes and everyone aging.

Don't get me wrong, I love the way recordings date by the period they were recorded, the trends at the time, studio techniques, miking technology, drum baffling, live drummers, early electronic gear, the first hip-hop scratchers and so on.

Don't get me started on lyrics, ah what the heck.
There's a songwriter, pulling together words from their own viewpoint (making a non-sensical song is an artistic decision, thus a point), then someone hears it and makes their judgement, "oh the songs about this and that" or the singer might reveal in an interview, "oh that was about my old lady, when we met for the first time".. etc.

People superimpose their views on a song, everyone who has posted here has done it, some people hear a song and supposedly want to instigate a race war (Charles Manson with the Beatles 'Helter Skelter'), while someone else might hear the same song and think, oh wow.. that's like a kids ride from the song title.

Of course then there's the issue of translation, trying to decipher lyrics, from some nasal appalachian tune off an old 78, to people from different countries and regions, oh boy, do things start getting goofy from there.

And then you got some bloke at a gig sitting there going, it's not like the record, how crap. You want the record, go home and listen to it.

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 10 Jul 2003 8:11 am

P.S.

Of course the original post on this topic was about people hear what they want to hear, and yeah I agree.

That's how we go every day, people recall actual events differently to each other, even when they are in the same room. People personalise everything, because it's personal.
Personally I don't really pay close attention to lyrics, I have records where I know all the words, while others I honestly hardly know the chorus.
In either extreme I have had records for well over a decade and listened to them continually and still do.

I know every word to the Carpenters 'Close To You' which I've never owned, while some of my fave records remain a near mystery.

One of my fave bands the Melvins even use made up words on some of their songs.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 10 Jul 2003 8:26 am

Apparently the people on this Forum don't hear what they want to hear.

Chris Forbes · Post by **Chris Forbes** » 10 Jul 2003 9:20 am

Jason, your post is pretty much the way my conversation went with Rick Danko. He claimed not to be as bitter as Levon, but I could tell there was a deep seated frustration in him.

Dave Burr · Post by **Dave Burr** » 10 Jul 2003 10:09 am

Thank you Jason! That's great stuff!! You should consider doing a radio broadcast including great commentary like this with an occasional song appropriate with the theme. I would listen for hours. Love the history behind the music.

I can see it now: "Righteous Music and Other Things You Need To Know - by Jason Odd" syndicated worldwide.

Respectfully,
Dave Burr

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 10 Jul 2003 10:14 am

I read the posted linked article.

I think both this Robinson guy, and "The Band" would feel better about this "huge enmity" if they realised how many people had never heard of any of them.

It's not "much ado about nothing", but it is about a little less than they might think. They shouldn't feel so bad about it. I liked Up on Cripple Creek myself.

I thought General Sherman was the "railroad track" guy down there anyhow....

Shows how much I know...

EJL

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 10 Jul 2003 12:18 pm

Good Post Jason

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 10 Jul 2003 3:28 pm

Who's this"General Sherman"?Never heard of him...

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 10 Jul 2003 5:24 pm

Steve,
This should clear it up:

Larry Miller · Post by **Larry Miller** » 10 Jul 2003 5:33 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>well if it's not

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
R.E.S.P.E.C.T. take care of TCB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

which I'm not saying makes much sense to me---but if that's not it, then I'm clueless.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I always thought it was "take out the P.C.T" rese rese rese rese respect(just a little bit)

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 10 Jul 2003 7:13 pm

Bob...YOU ARE A GENIUS!

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 11 Jul 2003 3:55 pm

Hi guys, thanks for the kind words, I kind of get a little carried away sometimes.

Chris, you know I hear that people think that Levon's book was bitter, but I've read it a couple of times and found it quite interesting.
Obviously it's mainly from one viewpoint, but he discussed a lot of things that he had issues with and no doubt split the group.

The group was road weary by the time they first toured (1969), after years of working the Canadian and Southwest circuit with Ronnie and their own Stateside wanderings as their own group (Levon and the Hawks) and as Dylan's band in 1966.

After two years of jamming and hanging out in Woodstock, I got the impression that they never got the feel for touring again.

That was more of a group issue, but some things like their record deal and the amount of albums they had to cut really started to wear their relationships.

I thought it was quite a balanced book, and if anything I felt that the latter period of the group in the 1970s was overshadowed by Robertson, and as such critique seemed to be pointed at him as he guided the group into ventures where Robbie tended to get more say.
I admit that Levon was once the leader of the group, but he's leaving them in 1966 and rejoining in 1967 changed that role, but he's a key figure throughout their career.

Chris Forbes · Post by **Chris Forbes** » 14 Jul 2003 5:26 am

Jason, Rick told me himself that Levon is a bitter man (about the publishing deal, not life in general). I was also under the impression that the guys had a love/hate relationship with the road. I worked the road muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch less than any of those guys and I have a hate/hate relationship with it!! LOL!! Those guys get a ton of respect from me for doing it as long as they did. Now, maybe I need to read the book, I'm intriqued by your review, it sounds utterly fascinating.[This message was edited by Chris Forbes on 14 July 2003 at 06:28 AM.]

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 14 Jul 2003 9:01 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>...no cheating now...off the top of your head, what line follows -

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
R.E.S.P.E.C.T., Find Out What It Means To Me
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
and
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>well if it's not

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
R.E.S.P.E.C.T. take care of TCB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
That's kind of redundant.
Doesn't TCB stand for "Taking Care of Business". So the sentence would be saying "Take care of taking care of business"?

I think this is another "The Band"VS"Joan Baez" because the original doesn't have those lyrics.

Here's the Otis Redding lyrics

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Respect By Otis Redding:

What you want, honey, you got it
And what you need, baby, you’ve got it.
All I’m asking, is for a little respect
When I come home, hey now
Hey hey hey, yeah now

Do me wrong, honey, if you want to
You can do me wrong honey, while I’m gone.
All I’m asking, is for a little respect
When I come home, ooh, yeah now
Hey hey hey, yeah now

Hey little girl, you’re so sweet, little honey
And I’m about to, just give you all of my money
And all I’m asking, hey, is a little respect
When I come home, hey hey
Hey hey hey, yeah now

Hey little girl, you’re sweeter then honey
And I’m about to give you all of my money
But all I want you to do
Is just give it, give it, respect
When I come home, hey hey
Hey hey hey, yeah now, respect

It’s what I want from you
Respect is what I need
Respect is what I want
Respect is what I need

Got to, got to have it
Got to, got to have it
Got to, got to have it
Got to, got to have it<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jeremy Steele · Post by **Jeremy Steele** » 14 Jul 2003 9:13 am

What Aretha says is: "Take Care, T.C.B."

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 15 Jul 2003 7:44 am

..which I agree is redundant, saying "take care, take care of business". Of course every "sock it to me" after the first one is redundant, too..

...Alvin, "TCB" isn't the only thing in the Aretha version that was absent in the Otis Reading version that you posted (which I hadn't seen before, thanks!)...I don't see where anyone socked it to Otis even once in his version...

...the Joan Baez version says "hit me with your hosiery"...which makes as much sense as "so much cavalry"...

..Chris, whether or not Levon Helm likes or dislikes the road now I can't say, but he's on the road alot with "Levon Helm and the Barnburners", who are an asskickin' good blues band. I saw them in a small venue they play here in Jersey a couple times a year...they just played a festival near here this past weekend...he may not do it 6 days a week anymore, but he's still doing a lot of traveling..[This message was edited by Pat Burns on 15 July 2003 at 08:53 AM.]