#18: He has always had the VOICE! But, boy has he ever learned to use his instrument!

duckyvee · October 9, 2007

FWIW I don't find the spinning balls and fighting angels of ATD overly trite or banal. I think there is some pretty insipid stuff out there that towers over anything Clay has sung.

I don't know if I'd use those adjectives, either, and I agree that there's worse out there. But, those lyrics just make me giggle. I'm a lyrics processor, I can't help it, it just happens automatically. Different brains do different things without intention. The thing is, when I hear those words, I get mental pictures that just crack me up. Sort of ruins the song for me.

:cryingwlaughter:

Couch Tomato · October 9, 2007

Wow, I hadn't checked the chat suggestion thread lately..hmmm fifty lashes with the wet noodle for not actually reading but I do use VIEW NEW POSTS religiously. :cryingwlaughter: . I guess kum ba ya is out for the next chat. Lots of interesting meaty subjects. We may need one or two more so if you have ideas please add and we'll schedule something for this month. Also in the thread can you add whether you liked the one hour over two nights or just get it all out in 2 hours. People are busy which is why we shortened it so we wouldn't take up your whole night but one hour felt really really short... please post your opinion on that..>And did week nights work out better for you than weekends.

cindilu2 · October 9, 2007

banal and trite are really kinda true to some and that's ok...It's not saying you have no taste for liking them. And Clay didn't write them (thank god...remember when many thought he did)... he just sang 'em.
True, it's not saying I have no taste for liking them, it's just saying my tastes are banal and trite.

really? Then that online chat topic might prove interesting cuz that would seem to make communication difficult if I took a description of a song, book, movie that I loved to heart as an indictment on my tastes I'd be pissy all the time. I'm going to add this to the chat discussion with the other side of the coin that Play mentioned above. No more schmoopie chats

Okay last comment - I promise to save them for chats. If I read 'banal and trite' in a review, by some unknown-to-me critic speaking to a general population - nope, wouldn't take it personally in the slightest. But if I post that I looooooove something, and it's special to me, and then somebody responds by saying they find it banal and trite? I have to admit that I take it differently. Yes I do. Does that mean that they meant it personally? Probably not, but it still feels like an insult just the same.

liney23 · October 9, 2007

Yep, now those are some memorable words there. Especially when I'm riding on the bus at 7:15am on the way to work and some kid wearing pants with the waistband around the tops of his knees sits next to me with his iPod blaring. Earphones? You betcha! But I also betcha the person at the other end of the bus can still bask in the glory of hearing about "jocking on yo bitch ass" just as clearly as I can. And a "Good Morning!" to us all!

Bolding mine... muski... I :lmaosmiley-1: when I read this part. I have a 16 yr old grandson... luckily he's not into rap, but I sometimes marvel how he manages to keep his pants up when they are just sitting on his hips... barely... and seems like it would just take a slight breeze to have them around his ankles. I don't laugh at him to his face, but to myself I just shake my head.

Cindilu... that banner is AMAZING! Thanks for the beauty! This one HAS to stay up more than a week, please! It's just sooo gorgeous!!!! Or, is there a banner thread where it will be stored for gazing and appreciation after the fact?

Jaycee... I wrote a welcoming post last night and made some amazingly witty remarks to something someone had said <grin>, but the board locked up on me and I lost it and couldn't get back on for some reason. So.... WELCOME! Please post your little heart out... it helps you feel at home!

Lyrics... as long as they are not nasty, I don't really care too much as long as they are simple enough for me to learn and sing along with at the top of my lungs. Did ya' all know that I can hold a note just as long as Clay? :cryingwlaughter: Course, I take a big breath before starting and then have to pant a few seconds afterwards, but so what???

Fifth Grader... no one knew what the fourth celebrity did, so we don't know yet if Clay won the most. He beat Regis by one question and we won't even talk about Kellie... so, we'll have to wait and see. I hope the 4th celebrity guy did well!

keepingfaith · October 9, 2007

Since I just realized it's October 9 -- John Lennon's birthday -- here are some Lennon lyrics that have never stopped speaking to me -- and especially ring true right now:

***************************

I'm sick and tired of hearing things

From uptight, short sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites

All I want is the truth

Just give me some truth

I've had enough of reading things

By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians

All I want is the truth

Just give me some truth

I'm sick to death of seeing things

From tight-lipped, condescending, mommie's little chauvinists

All I want is the truth

Just gimme some truth now

I've had enough of watching scenes

Of schizophrenic, egocentric, paranoic, prima-donnas

All I want is the truth now

Just gimme some truth

***************************

Ev'rybody's talkin' bout

Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation,

Flagellation, Regulation, Integration,

Meditation, United Nations -

Congratulations!

All we are saying is give peace a chance

***************************

As soon as you're born they make you feel small

By giving you no time instead of it all

Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all

A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school

They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool

Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules

A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years

Then they expect you to pick a career

When you can't really function you're so full of fear

A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV

And you think you're so clever and classless and free

But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see

A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill

If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be

***************************

Yeah, baby!

cindilu2 · October 9, 2007

Heheh, in some bizarro case of serendipity - this article is one of the headlines on my home page this afternoon. Kinda glad I'm not a Sting fan at the moment. :imgtongue: BWAH!! Everything's subjective!

Sting Tops List of Worst Lyricists...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Maybe Sting should start writing more instrumentals. The school teacher-turned-rock star topped Blender's list of the worst lyricists, thanks to lines that betray "mountainous pomposity (and) cloying spirituality," the music magazine said.
The survey, contained in the November issue that hits newsstands next week, placed Rush drummer Neil Peart at No. 2, Creed frontman Scott Stapp at No. 3, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher at No. 4, and soft-rocker Dan Fogelberg at No. 5.
Blender assailed Sting for such alleged sins as name-dropping Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov in the Police tune "Don't Stand So Close to Me," quoting a Volvo bumper sticker ("If You Love Someone Set Them Free"), and co-opting the works of Chaucer, St. Augustine and Shakespeare.
A spokeswoman for the English rocker, who is currently in Belgium on the Police's reunion world tour, did not respond to a request for comment.
Blender described Canadian rocker Peart's lyrics as "richly awful tapestries of fantasy and science," and said Gallagher "seemed incapable of following a metaphor through a single line, let alone a whole verse."
Further down the ranks, Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant (No. 23) was derided for his Tolkienesque musings on Gollum and Mordor in "Ramble On."
Carly Simon (No. 31) was mocked for rhyming "yacht," "apricot" and "gavotte" in "You're So Vain."
Paul McCartney made No. 38, thanks in part to "Ebony and Ivory," his socially conscious duet with Stevie Wonder.
Reuters/Nielsen

liney23 · October 9, 2007

Keepingfaith, those are great! Did he record this? What is the name of the song if he did? I'd like to listen. He was such a loss to the world! Thanks! Wish we could get these lyrics to Clay. I bet he would appreciate them.

ialreadyam · October 9, 2007

As usual, I am the odd woman out. Lyrics are the least important part of music to me. Music that touches my soul, that is the be all end all for me. How does it make me feel? Does it make me feel?

This You Tube Pavorotti/James Brown offering gets me on all levels.

Clay's voice does the same, no matter what he sings.

Couch Tomato · October 9, 2007

No more schmoopie chats? Kewl! Can I get the concession on items to fling at each other? Nerf items, I swear!

heeee -- thank you..nerf items will be cool... or some

fair enough Cindilu but then you have to think about the second part of the chat question that Play brought up -- should people change or should people grow thicker skins because there are all sorts of tolerance levels that must be taken into consideration.

It would never occur to me that slob is a word that would offend anyone cuz well I'm kinda one. I have to work so hard at home and work to keep things in order and well sometimes I fail. Hi Fear LOL. Hey LdyJocelyn can you get to work on setting up next chat please, pretty please. I want it to be more generalized discussion rather than chatter about these two specific words.

Jamar meant to comment on your walk all over me lyrics post. Well I simply wanted to LOL and I so agree. I love Purple Rain the album so muc...but I have to completely separate it frm the movie which I hated with a white hot passion.

Muski...yep I hate most rap lyrics... but the attitude and situations do appeal to a whole group of others. I would say, that's unfortunate. They would say, I'm sheltered and that may be putting it quite nicely. heh.

Scarlett....

Claygasm · October 9, 2007

banal and trite are really kinda true to some and that's ok...It's not saying you have no taste for liking them. And Clay didn't write them (thank god...remember when many thought he did)... he just sang 'em.
True, it's not saying I have no taste for liking them, it's just saying my tastes are banal and trite.

really? Then that online chat topic might prove interesting cuz that would seem to make communication difficult if I took a description of a song, book, movie that I loved to heart as an indictment on my tastes I'd be pissy all the time. I'm going to add this to the chat discussion with the other side of the coin that Play mentioned above. No more schmoopie chats

Okay last comment - I promise to save them for chats. If I read 'banal and trite' in a review, by some unknown-to-me critic speaking to a general population - nope, wouldn't take it personally in the slightest. But if I post that I looooooove something, and it's special to me, and then somebody responds by saying they find it banal and trite? I have to admit that I take it differently. Yes I do. Does that mean that they meant it personally? Probably not, but it still feels like an insult just the same.

Soooooo, does this mean if you say you love something no one can say they think differently than you so you don't get your feelings hurt?????

A different opinion is just that - a different opinion. It is never personal unless someone says something like "You are stupid for thinking that." But just expressing a differing opinion and stating that differing opinion as just that - an opinion - should never hurt anyone's feelings. Not everyone thinks alike you. But to make a federal case out of the difference of opinions on song lyrics and to lay the "my feelings get hurt" card on the table if someone disagrees with you......

Well, to me, that IS wrong. And unfair to anyone who wants to express a different opinion. You get to state your opinion. Others should get to do the same - without worrying about whether or not someone's feelings will get hurt.

I stated from my first post about ATD that it was JMO. That is all it ever was. No more. No less.

For the record - I never said ATD was the worst song ever. I have heard many, many, many, many, many, many, many worse songs. Still don't like those lyrics, though.

No offense to ANYONE who loves them.

I have to go back and read Scarlett's post again. It seemed very intellectual when I skimmed it!

But first I have to get back to work before anyone sees what I am doing.......

luckiest1 · October 9, 2007

Keepingfaith, those are great! Did he record this? What is the name of the song if he did? I'd like to listen. He was such a loss to the world! Thanks! Wish we could get these lyrics to Clay. I bet he would appreciate them.

The first is Gimme Some Truth, the second is Give Peace A Chance, and the third is Working Class Hero. I love John Lennon's music. I was a basket case when he died, I had just bought Double Fantasy and was actually up in my room listening to it when my dad knocked on my door to give me the news.

:F_05BL17blowkiss: to KF for posting them today.

Soooooo, does this mean if you say you love something no one can say they think differently than you so you don't get your feelings hurt?????

Of course not, but if it were me, and someone says they love something that I dislike, I would try to keep their feelings in mind when I made my post, and not use words that are going to push their buttons. There's a way to say you disagree with someone, or have a different opinion than they do, without being nasty about it. And here we are back to "hot button" words again. JMO and of course it sounds like this could be a very heated topic in chat.

ETA that sometimes the best thing you can do is to just offer up your opinion once and then walk away from the subject. Hee, that is a hard lesson to learn, though!

Couch Tomato · October 9, 2007

OK I saw this whole thing coming... so much for trying to talk out the specifics in chat. :cryingwlaughter: If you want to thrash it out now, fine but let's not make things personal. That will take some effort from everyone.

For the record I can pretty much handle anybody's opinion on anything. I can disagree and keep on going and have a very short memory. I can deal with loud opinionated opinion because I'm that way (but yes with a filter) but have a harder time with passive agressive. I do self censor so understand where Play is coming from with her sister. But not all the time because without variety, without honesty, without differences, what is the point. I do a lot of teasing and sometimes worry that people don't know me well enough to take it so do a lot of..I hope you know I was just teasing PMs. :cryingwlaughter: . It's a learning process and we all have to deal.

Going back to work.

muskifest · October 9, 2007

Thanks, muski! You are not the first person to ask me that question. I love that people look closely enough at it to figure that out!!! The concept of the banner is 'looking forward, looking back'

cindilu, I'm glad you said this :clap: (especially the underlined part) When I write a story, I also love that people find a line or a phrase or a turn of plot or character revelation to comment on. It means a lot that someone is appreciating another's attempt at creativity. To me, it lets the author (or photoshop creator) know that the efforts put INto a piece are actually WORKING!

I'm sure some lyrics to rap songs DO resonate with some people. Obviously they do or the radio and CD shelves wouldn't be full of them. (I guess)..Since I can't relate personally to a lot of the apparent subject matter (although to be honest, I'm not always certain what the topics ARE ), unfortunately any 'worth' of the words is lost to the profanity or anatomy grabbing "OPP" antics that go hand-in-balls with them. heh.

Of course, THIS kind of anatomy grabbing does me just fine: (I chose a pic from long ago since we're reminiscing here... :F_05BL17blowkiss: )

muskifest · October 9, 2007

Just because.... :hubbahubba:

saltwaterdog · October 9, 2007

I find it really interesting to read the original lyrics for ATD, and also for TOA, and then listen to the lyrics that Clay sings. I wonder if he is the one who wrote the revised lyrics? I think there are a few songs where he has substituted words and yet not taken credit for them. It's intriguing to me.

Interesting - where do I find these?

The otehr side to this discussion is - should we alter any phrasing in consideration of other's feelings. Maybe it is because we have to deal with each other, but out of consideration for my sister, I have stopped using the word slob in places where she can read it on-line or where she can hear me say it. So I have altered my behavior, but is it good for anyone else, or do we all need to develop a thicker skin?

Words have incredible power. They create images and impressions of ourselves and others. For example, myself: If I say "I'm Bipolar" another person would probably have a stronger reaction than if I said, "I have difficulty regulating my moods." I think the discussion would be fascinating.

My current favorite lyricist is Jon Foreman, of Switchfoot. I like the subjects he writes about and the way he uses images and the sounds of words.

A couple of favorite lines that come to mind:

"The future is a question mark

of kerosene and electric sparks.

There's still fire in you."

"Last star I saw last night was a headlight of a man made sky

But man made never made our dreams collide."

I would love, love, LOVE to hear Clay sing some of their songs!

~

cindilu 2 Awesome banner! Thank you. I can't imagine the work you did. I know nothing about layers - it just sounds so time consuming! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

cindilu2 · October 9, 2007

Just because....

Now there's plot development I can get into. :hubbahubba:

duckyvee · October 9, 2007

Okay last comment - I promise to save them for chats. If I read 'banal and trite' in a review, by some unknown-to-me critic speaking to a general population - nope, wouldn't take it personally in the slightest. But if I post that I looooooove something, and it's special to me, and then somebody responds by saying they find it banal and trite? I have to admit that I take it differently. Yes I do. Does that mean that they meant it personally? Probably not, but it still feels like an insult just the same.

I really didn't want to get into this, but I like a good discussion, and this one fits the bill. I like it as a chat topic. I totally see your point, cindilu, and I've been there. But I've also been on the other side. It can feel really like a slap when someone (OK, me, but not here, at least not yet) posts that they don't like something for whatever reason, and then there are what feel like a zillion responses about how wonderful that thing is and exactly why. It can make me feel hypercritical, and I'm really not. I just like what I like. I know it's not meant as a slap, but just reflects what people think, which is sometimes very different from what I think. It's almost seems as though people are saying I'm wrong, when I know that's not what they're saying at all. I've had a good friend think that I am commenting on her personal tastes when I say I don't like something she likes for specific reasons. I'm learning to temper my wording because I really never meant anything judgemental at all, just stating my personal opinion. It's just hard to divorce emotion from opinion.

luckiest1 · October 9, 2007

I find it really interesting to read the original lyrics for ATD, and also for TOA, and then listen to the lyrics that Clay sings. I wonder if he is the one who wrote the revised lyrics? I think there are a few songs where he has substituted words and yet not taken credit for them. It's intriguing to me.
Interesting - where do I find these?

The lyrics for ATD were posted a few pages back, here:

http://findingclayaiken.invisionzone.com/i...ost&p=46423

I'll have to see if I can dig up the Bon Jovi lyrics to TOA.....

ETA I googled and found these:

What if everything you always took for granted, was gone?

And everything you ever thought was right, was wrong?

And what if everyone you ever loved was torn, from the pages of your life?

Would you reach out for tomorrow, or try to turn back time?