Monday, May 16, 2011

After A Request From Several Readers...

Helplessness Blues
Fleet Foxes


9 comments:

  1. I'm torn about this tune, although it certainly is pretty.

    I often think of the great Cobain line, "Here we are now, entertain us" as the calling card of my students - although they come from a younger generation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's pretty, and sounds like every other song on this album, which in turn sounds like every song on their first album. Which I suppose makes the "snowflake" thing mildly ironic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No to pee on the parade, but the listed lyrics don't match the song completely: the men are in "dimly-lit", not "depleted" halls; "....is that everything I see is so inconceivable, often I barely can speak" instead of "....is that everything I see is full of such wonder that often, I barely can speak"; "...you will keep me on the shelf" instead of "...you keep me..."; "And you would wait tables and soon run the store" instead of "And you would wait table..."; the "golden hair" line is missing; the last line "Someday I'll be like the man on the screen..." is not even there.

    Are there two versions of this song? Some bands do that, so there is a "music video" version and the original album or single track and sometimes they differ greatly (Laibach does that - A LOT.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Strelly:

    Every minute you've wasted on Laibach is a minute you won't get back upon sweet death.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm confused. Didn't I just post this?

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Greta: for a while, the post included the words, but they seem to have disappeared, perhaps because they weren't accurate, as mentioned above? Or maybe the copyright police descended?

    The song seems to me to capture generation snowflake, raised in the wash of the helicopter blades, pretty well. They are, in my experience, pretty idealistic, but also convinced that they must do big, showy, unique things to be useful, which keeps them from actually being as useful as they might be. And they really want someone to tell them exactly how to be admirably unique, which is oxymoronic. If they're beginning to realize that the expectations with which they've grown up are completely unrealistic, that strikes me as a good thing. Many of them are actually quite pleasant and cooperative, and might fit in pretty well if their, and their parents', expectations were lowered a bit.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Wisconsin Will
    I'm taking about early Laibach, before "Jesus Christ Superstars" and two of the members dropped out because they were addicted to horse.

    Who do you listen to, Mr. Pitchfork Man?

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Greta

    It's all my fault. A couple of readers sent me lyrics to the song, and asked that I post them fresh or add them to earlier posting. Since your posting was at the bottom of the page, I just chose to post them fresh.

    Then Strelnikov noted that the lyrics I was sent weren't accurate, and I was embarrassed about it so I cut them. Had I had the time I would have transcribed them from scratch, but I just couldn't get to it today.

    Apologies.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Fab my dear, no apologies are necessary. I was just confused. I thought that maybe people couldn't open what I posted.

    You've got to take me at my word. When I say I'm confused, I am. Frankly, that's fairly often.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.