Learning something about an album that completely changed the way you heard it.

"i wish i could save her in some sort of time machine"

dude, everyone knows you use the time machine to kill hitler when he was a baby! see, this is what i'm talking about when i talk about the low expectations and limited imagination of american indie rock.

anyway, it's not an album, but that time i was sitting in my brother's gremlin, either his first or his second gremlin, and yer so vain by carly came on the radio and he sez to me "you do know that mick jagger sings on this song, right?" and i listened and HOLY FUCK i had never heard mick and now everytime i hear it ALL I CAN HEAR IS MICK!! freaked me the fuck out.

Wait, Mick Jagger sings on that song? I've heard it a hundred times by now. You just passed it on to me, Scott.

Pharrell Williams shares writing credits on "Rump Shaker" (since we've already veered into songs territory.) I bet it was the "I like the way you comb your hair - UH! I like the stylish clothes you wear - UH" part.

"i wish i could save her in some sort of time machine"

how does that not imply that's what he'd do?

sheesh.

oh, and i never knew that about mick jagger on that song either. huh.

i must be like the only person in the world who doesn't know that neutral milk hotel album and i know everything says it's great but that lyric seriously makes me want to die.

I think I listen much closer, and was even more amazed when I found out the Olivia Tremor Control recorded 'Dusk at Cubist Castle' on a 4-track.

again, this is only a song, but i saw Paul Mac introduce 'Blackbird' by saying: "when i was growing up in Liverpool, we used to say 'bird' to mean 'girl' or 'woman'..."

it was a perfectly fine piece of imagery as it was - it didn't need to be broken down into such crude terms. the poetry of the song has died for me somewhat since.

I agree, that spoils the song a bit. Strange, then, that McCartney gave the title Blackbird Singing to a book of his collected lyrics.

Here's another song (rather than album) that changed for me when I learned something unexpected about it:

The verses of Prince's "1999" were originally written so that the various singers sang in harmony throughout, but after mixing it that way Prince decided to solo one singer at a time so each line of text has a different voice and melody. I think this is cool because Prince did the right thing: the harmonized version (which is easy to imagine once you know the individual parts) would have been too repetitive.

(I learned this from the liner notes Alan Leeds wrote for Prince's 1993 Hits compilation.)

"how does that not imply that's what he'd do?"

ha! you got me! apparently i'm the one with a lack of imagination.

oh, and matthew and emily, you are doomed! yer so vain is like an aural illusion. once you hear it again you are going to be shaking your heads in disbelief that you ever missed it and mick will forever be as clear as a bell.

I learned to love "There's a Riot Goin' On." First few spins all I heard was mush. Then I read about Sly's breakdown and the groupies whose backing tracks he wiped and the drugs and disillusionment. Now I hear all that stuff. Yes, I'm impressionable.

Since this thread is turning into learning something about a song, in the song "Penny Lane," a "finger pie" is not a delicious pastry, let's just say.

Alternate thread title: Ruin A Song For Someone!

Read long ago in Tape Op that there's a Can song floating underneath the Flowchart track Metro Survey. Said article didn't (as far as I can recall) identify the Can track, but mentioned that once it was pointed out to you, you couldn't miss it.

I still don't know what it is, and can't hear it, but I can't listen to the damn song without spending the entire time straining to hear...I'm guessing something later (i.e. not Yoo Doo Right) but I just don't know. It's very irritating.

holy shit. Mick Jagger won't get out of my face.

Closer, when you find out Ian Curtis killed himself after it. I mean, it's most likely not his suicide note to the world, but it's hard not to hear it as being that. His suicide makes it a lot darker than it would be had he lived through that period of time. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Amazing album, though.

A while back, someone from REM said that when you hear Dylan explain that your favorite song is about a dead dog lying in the road, you want to fucking strangle Dylan.

That's sort of what this thread is about.

this is weird. for years the mick jagger cameo has always been the go-to factoid about "you're so vain" (along with "did you know the lyrics are about ____?"). i'm pretty shocked that a group of avowed music fanatics didn't know that.

remember how a few years ago we were using the meme "use other facts please"? it's that type of fact.

one time ILM told me that it was OK to like pop music, so now I'm a big fan of Robyn and Justin and hip-hop and stuff.