Has The Light Gone Out For You?

If you've never listened to Thom Yorke and his band before, then you may need to start somewhere prior to this jam to understand (or not understand, but accept) the sometimes dysfunctional, melodic journey that is Radiohead.  If you're a fan, you're on the right side of the fence - and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  In my experience, you either get them or you don't.  To say this is one of the greatest experimental bands of our times is an understatement.

Bodysnatchers comes to us off the band's seventh album, In Rainbows, released in 2007.  This song jumped off the album at me immediately - I didn't have to listen twice to get it.  It grabs you with Radiohead's proven ability to write incredible, driving guitar songs that take you in and don't let you go until the final note.  It's the most rocking track on the album and as you continue through the tune, it just gets better and better - driven by Yorke's incredibly melodic voice and lyrics and some amazing lead guitar parts by the multi-talented Jonny Greenwood .

I love Radiohead for too many reasons to name - but one of them is for their lyrics.  If the songs makes sense to you - go for it.  If it doesn't - go for it anyway.  Some notable lyrics from some classics by the band:

"Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head."

 "In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe."

"We've got heads on sticks.  You've got ventriloquists."

Bodysnatchers does not disappoint on the lyrical side either.  The song could have many interpretations, but for me, its about "abduction" - but not in the physical sense.  It's about take-over through manipulation.  You can plug in just about anything for the lead "character" of the story - corporate politics, insensible rules, relationships, government, niche industry - it all works.  At the end of the song, the lead just gets fed up when he realizes he's become someone he doesn't even recognize or understand anymore.  It's as if his body was snatched by an alien, reprogrammed, and then left for eternal disappointment.  The song is the main character's self evaluation after realizing what he's become.

One of my favorite performance's of the tune is from the In Rainbows - From the Basement live video album release.  Sit back and enjoy the always-entertaining Thom Yorke and Radiohead rock out another classic:

Lyrics:

I do not
Understand
What it is
I've done wrong

Full of holes
Check for pulse
Blink your eyes
One for yes
Two for no

I have no idea what I am talking about
I am trapped in this body and can't get out
Oh

You killed the sound
Removed backbone
A pale imitation
With the edges sawn off

I have no idea what you are talking about
Your mouth moves only with someone's hand up your ass
Oh

Has the light gone out for you?
'Cause the light's gone for me
It is the 21st century
It is the 21st century
It can follow you like a dog
It brought me to my knees
They got a skin and they put me in
They got a skin and they put me in
All the lines wrapped around my face
All the lines wrapped around my face
And for anyone else to see
And for anyone else to see

I'm a lie

I've seen it coming
I've seen it coming
I've seen it coming
I've seen it coming

A Ballad For Me?

So it's been some time since my last post - err...like a few months shy of two years. Let's just say I've taken a little journey. Yeah, yeah - that's it. A journey...

OK. Off the top, the lyrics grabbed me first on this one.  It's funny how some songs grab your attention for different reasons - but it always comes back to the music in the end.  Deep, relevant lyrics that you can connect to on some level are just a plus.  Anyway, I connected with this one for one reason or another.

Riot Act by Pearl Jam

"All or None" is the dark, moody ballad that closes up Pearl Jam's seventh studio album "Riot Act". As music and songs are always open to different interpretations by every new person who listens, here is my take on this one:  life is cyclical.  Sometimes you feel like you just move in circles - never really getting anywhere.  It's about frustration.  Getting caught up. 

Eddie Vedder's melodic voice over-top Stone Gossard's cyclical (there's that word again), musical arrangement brings the lyrics to life and ties the whole song together.  This is one of those Pearl Jam songs that is filled with hidden energy that becomes unlocked when you listen through your headphones.  It's pretty fun to play on an acoustic as well...

By the way, the answer to fixing the cyclical problem in life - it's in the song.  For me, it's about this verse:

"To myself I surrender,
To the one I'll never please."

Anyway, if you haven't heard this tune, give it a listen:

All or None Lyrics:

It's a hopeless... situation
And I'm starting to believe
That this hopeless... situation
Is what I'm trying to achieve

But I try
To run on
Is all or none,... all or none

Here's the selfless confession
Leading me back to war
Can we help that,.. our destinations
Are the ones we've been before

I still try
To run on
But is all or none,... all or none

To myself I... surrender
To the one I'll never please

But I still try to run on
Oh I still try to run on
But it's all or none, all or none

I'll Kill You In My Dreams

Come on, we've all been there.  You go to sleep at night and are magically transported into a dream world where you, ruler of the free-world, single-handedly inflict a Mike-Tyson-like-ass-beating on your arch-enemy until, finally, it ends with their bloody annihilation.  I'm talking about the decapitated, mutilation and gutting of that person you hate most in life...

OK.  Maybe not everyone has been there...er, uh...hmmmm.

Well, the point is, when I listen to Heropschycodreamer (through my headphones), off of Live's Secret Samadhi album, it affects me.  Not exactly like that, but there are a few songs that do (more on those later).

Ed Kowalczyk, as is pretty common for him, puts together some intensely cryptic lyrics atop Patrick Dahlheimer's driving bass that take you on a dark journey through the psyche of a tormented spirit.  Marry that with some powerful guitar undertones from Chad Taylor and you get one bad-ass tune.

The song flow is a bit unpredictable as the lyrics provide transition in and out of sporadic hooks as it builds intensity.  Ed's voice is perfectly matched with the aggression and discomfort of the story told by the lyrics - however you choose to interpret them.



Heropsychodreamer Lyrics:

I'll kill you in my dreams
I turn the other cheek during the day
I'll kill you all

the subculture of my dreams
is waiting for me to fall asleep
I know you're scared, you should be
I know you're scared

Hero

this attic of my mind
these feelings i can't hide
I can't share
I feel alone, ah yeah
the subconscious keeps me here
I fell in love with a balladeer
I saw your tongue, it licked my heart
they called you queer

Hero
Dreamer
Hero

Becoming A Transcendental Lobot

According to Wookiepedia.com, "Lobot was the chief administrative aide to Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian on Cloud City over the planet Bespin. His brain was connected to the city's central computer which allowed him to communicate directly with the city's computer network. In this capacity, he served as the city's first and only computer-liaison officer."

What the wiki doesn't 't tell you is that his electronic ear covers that connected him to the network also doubled as the most bad-ass set of headphones ever created...

The majority of Lobot's time was spent listening to future sounds -- Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Billy Joel, Sara Brightman, Eddie Vedder, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Queen, Styx, Kanye, Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin.  And when he went home at night, his mind was taken to a different place - transcended - all because of the deep musical tones in his headphones.

Welcome to my blog.

This is an opinionated journey through your inner-ear aboard the magical tone-ship that is your music library.  Dissect, discover and connect with music on a different level.  Agree.  Agree to Disagree.  It's my belief that a person can not say for certain that they like or dislike a song until they've listened to it - from start to finish - through a pair of noise-canceling headphones.

Hopefully, from time to time, my blog can open your ears to some new music, introduce you to a new band or maybe just a new song from a band you already know.  I intend to update the blog at least once a week - hopefully more.  We'll see how it goes...

Would love to hear feedback, suggestions, ideas.  I'm also always looking to check out new music / new bands.  If you have someone you like, drop me a line.