#36: It ain't my life, just my passion!

[keepingfaith]

I know I'm beating it into the ground about WPB, but I loved that show SO MUCH! I downloaded the Best Of WPB from Scruffy and Part B is something I regularly go to.

http://www.clackunlimited.com/clack/Montag..._of_SRHPT_2007/

23b_BestOf_SRHPT_2007_Banter_WPB_scruffy13_large.wmv

This cuts out most of TWYMMF, when Clay fell on his rear end jumping off the stage, but there is great clack available of Clay singing in the audience and getting back on stage and visibly mouthing to Quiana "I fell on my butt!"

Scruffy's montage highlights banter and is so wonderful. This is Cute Clay to the Max for me! There is no YouTube of Clay in the audience because Jerome made a point of letting people know later that Clay didn't want to see videos of him "showing my be-hind" on YouTube. And ... there is none. Fans are good people. But AAIT and Makinaiken have some really good TWYMMF clips from the audience ... and Clay singing ... "I've never been so ..... embarrassed before." He's such a doll! And Jerome trying to control his laughter is another good one.

Also in this montage is where Clay tells Jesse that one day they may be friends! He so CUTE!!!!

[merrieeee]

Is this Snowflake picture acceptable, merrieeee?

Oh Yesss!!!!!!

Thank you keepingfaith....see somebody loves me!!!

[Couch Tomato]

Is this Snowflake picture acceptable, merrieeee?

Oh Yesss!!!!!!

Thank you keepingfaith....see somebody loves me!!!

I'm starting to think hating the snowflake picture is a bannable offense Good thing you're so cute and give great cellcert. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

[Ansamcw]

Its been awhile since I listened to OMWH...to any music actually...

so now here I am listening to The Real Me...and I am tearing up...

Iseeme...the way he is singing in the first verse is more interpretation really, he sings it softly to convey his feelings, like he is whispering it cos it is something very personal. This is actually very difficult to do specially with these high notes...cos the notes need to be supported but with a very gentle touch. That is why I love it when he goes to the chorus the first time...But you see the real me...wow when I try that, its really hard to maintain those notes. Specially in the word Frailty...he just cuts it off and makes it sound so vulnerable...wow...goose bumps.

I have mixed feelings about the fact that for Clay...this is about God...Its great that he has such faith that he always feel confident that there is someone who loves him for who he is, that he can turn to his faith for this acceptance. On the other hand...this is the kind of relationship that we would all love to have...does not need to be with a romantic partner...but with a friend, a parent, or family...I do hope he has people that he can be totally be himself and can love and accept him for who he is.

Sonically....I love the melody...the piano is great...but I do feel that it goes a but OTT with the strings on some parts. But he really gives a fantastic vocal performance on this, he goes from this soft contemplative voice...to his booming voice...it seems very seamless...

[aikim]

Could someone define sonically for me...I know Clay used that term too and I am not sure what it means musically...all I keep thinking is sonic as in sonic boom and I know that is not right!

Kim

[Ansamcw]

Could someone define sonically for me...I know Clay used that term too and I am not sure what it means musically...all I keep thinking is sonic as in sonic boom and I know that is not right!

Kim

Sonic pertains to the sound...or vibrations, if we want to be more technical about it...so so sonically simply means the sound of the song...so it could be the melody, the production...basically it has something to do with what we can hear not the lyrical content of the song.

[liney23]

I have mixed feelings about the fact that for Clay...this is about God...Its great that he has such faith that he always feel confident that there is someone who loves him for who he is, that he can turn to his faith for this acceptance. On the other hand...this is the kind of relationship that we would all love to have...does not need to be with a romantic partner...but with a friend, a parent, or family...I do hope he has people that he can be totally be himself and can love and accept him for who he is.

Ansa... in the way beginning, in some written interview, I remember reading that he was comparing this song to being about being a celebrity and needing someone in your life who knows the real you and helps you remember in the face of all that being a celebrity means. Then later he talked about it being about God for him. It might be both, but I think God was the easier, shorter answer for him at the time and not the complete answer. JMHO

aikim... I've wondered that, too, and as near as I can figure out, it's just a fancier word for musically with the emphasis on sound (sonic). Maybe some sonically educated peeps can help us out!

ohhh... while I was typing, ansa answered! Thanks!

[keepingfaith]

Regarding The Real Me ... things haven't changed and I'm still the bitch of the bridge. The violins are killer. And those words ... JE-SUS!

Shadows of shattered dreams

They've followed me

they've haunted me

But you've taken the broken pieces

of my life

And helped me to believe

Maybe because his voice in that part is so rich and textured and GORGEOUS, and then those intense violins -- or maybe because this is the part of the song that has been rewritten from Natalie Grant's version. So, of course, I wonder ... did Clay write these words?

There's an interview out there where Clay said that when he first heard TRM he thought it was about God, Jaymes thought it was about a romantic relationship, and someone else thought it was about their mother. I just love the song, period, because Clay sings it with such heart and soul.

I remember Clay saying a few months ago that he thought he could have two or three signature songs from this album. I can't get the number below four, myself.

[aikim]

Thanks Ansa!

Okay, everyone keep your fingers and toes crossed and say a few prayers; I sent Emily the Obama montage set to Something About Us and asked her to listen and possibly consider the song for her wedding. I so want her to use this song...I keep picturing her and Mike dancing to it for their first dance.

Heck, if she doesn't want it; I'll bring the CD anyway and my hubby and I can dance to it...our anniversary is two days before her wedding.

Kim

[cindilu2]

Hey ladies! Thanks for the banner-love. He just makes it easy! The View pic is a screencap, and I know it's a little blurry but he just looked so gorgeous that day I couldn't leave him out of it.

Also can't let The Real Me go by without expressing my love for it. I want to marry it and have its little Real babies. Hands down my favorite song on the CD. The first verse he clips the words - it's almost like he's speaking them and yet there is that beautiful sound of his singing voice filling my brain, so I know he isn't. *g* Then it builds and builds and by the last note I'm a puddle on the floor every. single. time. Can't hardly listen to it while driving as it makes me close my eyes. I could listen to him sing just the word 'frailty' every day for the rest of my life. Belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve does the same thing to the hairs on the back of my neck as the 'meeeeeee' from Unchained Melody (AI2 version). To me, this is the perfect Clay Aiken song. There isn't a thing I don't love about it. The phrasing, the lyrics, the instrumentation. It is perfection.

Here's something... I listened many times to the song before reading the lyrics. I was surprised to find the line 'Shadows of shatttered dreams, they follow me.' I am certain that he sings 'shadows are shattered dreams...' It might be my ears, but I don't think so. And it might be the ARLG, but I like to think he changed it on purpose, because to me it brings a deeper meaning to the line.

[keepingfaith]

I missed the earlier convo about using SAU for the Barack and Michelle Obama video on YouTube, and my thoughts are this.... I have watched many video montages of Clay featuring non-Clay songs, many of them I know well, and some I've never heard before. Several songs I fell in love with and ended up downloading because I heard them in a Clay video on YouTube. If this Obama video turns people on to a Clay Aiken song they would otherwise have never heard and leads them to download, then I'm perfectly thrilled.

ETA: I hear "shadows of shattered dreams," Cindilu. I tend to think they weren't changed because they were already changed from the Natalie Grant version. She sang:

Foolish heart looks like we're here again

Same old game of plastic smile

Don't let anybody in

Hiding my heartache, will this glass house break

How much will they take before I'm empty

Do I let it show, does anybody know?

[Chorus:]

But you see the real me

Hiding in my skin, broken from within

Unveil me completely

I'm loosening my grasp

There's no need to mask my frailty

Cause you see the real me

Painted on, life is behind a mask

Self-inflicted circus clown

I'm tired of the song and dance

Living a charade, always on parade

What a mess I've made of my existence

But you love me even now

And still I see somehow

But you see the real me

Hiding in my skin, broken from within

Unveil me completely

I'm loosening my grasp

There's no need to mask my frailty

Cause you see the real me

Wonderful, beautiful is what you see

When you look at me

You're turning the tattered fabric of my life into

A perfect tapestry

I just wanna be me

But you see the real me

Hiding in my skin, broken from within

Unveil me completely

I'm loosening my grasp

There's no need to mask my frailty

Cause you see the real me

And you love me just as I am

Wonderful, beautiful is what you see

When you look at me

The only differences I noticed were changing "unveil" into "reveal" and then the whole bridge.

[Ansamcw]

Thanks Ansa!

Okay, everyone keep your fingers and toes crossed and say a few prayers; I sent Emily the Obama montage set to Something About Us and asked her to listen and possibly consider the song for her wedding. I so want her to use this song...I keep picturing her and Mike dancing to it for their first dance.

Heck, if she doesn't want it; I'll bring the CD anyway and my hubby and I can dance to it...our anniversary is two days before her wedding.

Kim

Hee...I will send you good vibes...hope she likes it!!!

KF... those words are very interesting. Its tough to interpret since he didn't write this song, its hard to tell how much is personal to him. But the shattered dreams is very intriguing. You would think that he is living a dream life right now. But he did say that becoming a singing superstar was not his 'dream" growing up. So I wonder if right now he is dreaming of a quiet family life of complete anonymity. I would love to ask him about those lyrics.

I really hope an autobiography is in his future....hee

[keepingfaith]

Ansa, I think also possible that the alternate lyrics came from Natalie Grant, as well. Who the heck knows? But, the important thing for me is that Clay sings it so beautifully and movingly that it's HIS song now!!!

OH NO MERRIEEEE -- DON'T LOOOOOOOOOK

I'm sorry, darlin', it was a weak moment .... will this help???

[Ansamcw]

seeing the original lyrics to the bridge...I can see why he changed it.

Ansa... in the way beginning, in some written interview, I remember reading that he was comparing this song to being about being a celebrity and needing someone in your life who knows the real you and helps you remember in the face of all that being a celebrity means. Then later he talked about it being about God for him. It might be both, but I think God was the easier, shorter answer for him at the time and not the complete answer. JMHO

Liney...I think the bolded part was how Natalie Grant explains the song in one of the you tubes that I saw. I don't know if this interpretation came from Clay, I don;t remember hearing him say this. How did he explain this song to Billy Bush?

GAH!!! Love you Merieee but I can never understand why you hate snowflake....I love his hair...and his eyes...and his stubble...and his scarf...

[keepingfaith]

I know he said that when he first heard it he thought about God. But that could be because Natalie Grant wrote it about God when she was in recovery for bulimia and from what I've read that was pretty well known and could have colored Clay's interpretation of the lyrics "when he first heard it." It could have meant something else to him by the time he recorded it -- and he's not telling.

[cindilu2]

It's funny - it never occured to me it wasn't 'are' (not of) until I read the lyrics in the CD booklet. It sounds clear to me. Haven't listened to the original and don't think I will. It's Clay's song to me.

*shrug*

That's what I sing.

[merrieeee]

You know how sometimes something that you just can't quite get, can drive you crazy?

Well I'm having one of those senior moments and I know you guys can help me out! I have a picture in my mind of Clay getting ready to start to sing a song and before he starts he holds his nose and looks down. I don't recall any more details unfortunately. This scenario just keeps haunting me and I cannot remember where it is from. I'm sure it's Clay and now I cannot get it out of my head. Does anyone have any clue what I am talking about? Bueller!!!

While I was typing this stupid post someone who used to be my friend posted a pic that shall remain nameless. (oh by the way the red bed is no more....so I don't know where you will stay if you ever come over again......just sayin' )

[Ansamcw]

You know how sometimes something that you just can't quite get, can drive you crazy?

Well I'm having one of those senior moments and I know you guys can help me out! I have a picture in my mind of Clay getting ready to start to sing a song and before he starts he holds his nose and looks down. I don't recall any more details unfortunately. This scenario just keeps haunting me and I cannot remember where it is from. I'm sure it's Clay and now I cannot get it out of my head. Does anyone have any clue what I am talking about? Bueller!!!

Was it like there was a foul smell somewhere? This scenario seems familiar...

[merrieeee]

Bwah ha!!!

[keepingfaith]

Has anybody seen VH1's I Love New Millenium 2003 today? I guess I'll have to wait until it comes up again in about an hour.

[Iseeme]

Ah Merrieeeee - I, too, would love to know where your repugnance to "snowflake Clay originated." His eyes are just so damn gorgeous in that picture and I love his hair. I think the more I see of some of the older pictures the less I like of flat-iron, over-processed blonde hair. But even at that, the pictures don't make me go eeeeyeewwwwwwwwwww or take away guest privileges from friends.

I love when he stops talking/singing the first lines of TRM and lets that voice soar! It gives me goosebumples almost every time. Oh, and I always wondered what the original lyrics were. And I DO wonder who wrote the replacement lyrics. Did Natalie Grant write them for Clay at his request or in collaboration with him? One more mystery.

[Couch Tomato]

I'm not merrieee.... but she thinks he looks sick. I hope she doesn't mind me teasing her though. She's been such a good sport for all of us. Hey there are pictures and looks others are gaga over that I'm not so I do understand.

YAY The Real Me. This is my favorite song on the album..well it now alternates between this and As Long As We're Here. But this was the first song that grabbed me by the heart and hasn't let go. Cindilu expressed everything I wanted to say about ..... Cotton, if she hasn't already, will be along shortly to explain the lyrics for us Frailty to me is just another word for vulnerability. I love the word and I love it in this song. I don't think Clay has ever clung to stereotypes. I know he didn't write it...and I don't really wonder too much how it relates to his life..it just really touches me.

[merrieeee]

I'm not merrieee.... but she thinks he looks sick.

Well they do mistake us for one another when we are together!! \

I honestly don't know what it is about that pic other than I do think he looks ill! I don't mind other pics from that same shoot but that one just sets my teeth on edge! I guess it is either you like something or you don't. Kind of like I cannot stand Tom Hanks and will not see any movie he is in and my DH thinks he is great. I love Opera but hate with a passion jazz........can't explain it just do! Come to think of it that is probably the only photo of Clay that I sincerely dislike.

(Of course now it has become a "thing" for everyone to tease me! Revenge...hmmm..never crossed my mind!

Just you wait 'enry 'iggins just you wait!!!!)

ETA: My hate started with Bosom Buddies!

[Iseeme]

OMG....Merrieee said:

Kind of like I cannot stand Tom Hanks and will not see any movie he is in

I honestly thought I was the only person in the world that couldn't stand Tom Hanks. Ever since Forrest Gump and "stupid is as stupid does" I have not been able to stomach the man. Yayyyyyyyyyy - I'm not alone. Unfreakinbelievable.

Actually there are a couple of pictures I'm not too fond of - and those seem to be the ones they publish all the time of Clay.

[bottlecap]

But, the important thing for me is that Clay sings it so beautifully and movingly that it's HIS song now!!!

I half-heard some familiar music in the supermarket a couple of weeks ago, and since I was distracted, it took me a few moments to pin down which Clay song it was. "Oh, The Real Me. Cool! But wait! Why is that girl singing Clay's song?! He just released the album - how can somebody else be covering one of his songs already?!! Ohhhhhh.... Right... It's Natalie Grant and it's actually her song in the first place. D101!" I was working up quite a little snit in the meat department let me tell you. I ended up having to an extra pint of ice cream just to console myself.