Walrus Returns... Again!

Arghus

In Ninth Place with Six Points is JP Liz V1 with Wintertime Love by The Doors.

https://youtu.be/pqpUwR84Nmg?si=b4IUaPKsZRWQEpH2

Is this a bit of a bad joke on my part I wonder, a dereliction of good taste.

After damning a song concerned with the battle against misogyny with some watery faint praise, I then go right ahead and rate a song sung by the absolute crown prince of dinosaur cock-rock himself - who is blatantly angling for a shag throughout - immediately above it?

Ah, well, guilty as charged I guess.

I have a bit of a soft spot for The Doors, always have done since the teenage years of being stoned out of my mind on a semi-regular basis. Don't get me wrong I do cringe a bit - okay, a lot - when I look back and my days of thinking The End actually spoke to me in some way are long gone - and thank god they're gone, Jesus Christ! - and they are in a lot of ways extremely dated and of their time sounding - even by the standards of Sixties acts, but I still find they have a lot of absolutely killer songs.

They were a damn good band, even if it was kinda despite themselves: Five To One, When The Music's Over(possibly my favourite tune of theirs), People Are Strange, The Unknown Soldier, LA Woman, Hello I Love You.... There's a long list of great stuff. They were great, instinctive musicians, and, like or loathe him, Jim was a very charismatic vocalist.

Is this particular song absolutely up there with their best, to my ears? Probably not. It's a bit old fashioned. It's a bit slow, it's essentially a waltz. It falls into that mini-genre of doors songs that sound like Germanic show tunes and it's a bit unthreatening and the best Doors always has a bit of the darkness about it, and it is very short. But I still find it enjoyable enough. I like the faux harpsichord stuff in it and that - very brief - bridge before the final chorus is cool, with the bass being played under those awesome sounding chords, as Jim vocalises vaporously and wordlessly on top, it's a pretty cool sounding passage.

Arghus

In Eighth Place with Seven Points is StrawbsM with My Lover's Gone by Dido.

https://youtu.be/Libbd7BCBHE?si=8GsbqhWzO9ilbgr0

Dido... now that's a name I hadn't come across in a while. I hadn't heard this song before and when it first came on in the playlist that I had made the first thing that struck me immediately was its - to my ears - Irish folk influence. Particularly in the first part of the song, it sounds very reminiscent of a traditional lamenting ballad. I was taken by surprise when I realised that this was the Dido song among the bunch. AFAIK the Dido family had a bit of Irish heritage - they must have picked up a bit of musical inspiration from the oul sod somewhere down along the line. 

Did it blow my mind entirely? Maybe not, but it's pretty decent and achieves what it sets out to do. The first half of the song, with the chords, her ethereal voice and the atmospherics ebbing and flowing is undeniably alluring, even if it's a classically depressing story of a dead lover. The second half is moderately effective I think - her voice takes a back seat and it becomes more about the instrumental textures. It's not uninteresting, but it's not totally unexpected: it's all very downtempo and turn of the century. Reminds me of Portishead a bit, but less alien and icy.

It's an attempt to give a contemporary twist - drum machines, reverbed arrangements - to something with its roots in the past- the lament. An experimental tune in its own way really. But I'm not sure if I really felt it big time in the emotion department: the lyrics are the same few lines repeated and the self-consciously "hip" outro kind of takes away from its actual emotional impact - but I still found the first half very intriguing and I kinda admire the attempt to do something interesting with the form, even if it didn't entirely work for me.

SineadSpears

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123277074#Comment_123277074

I had a little essay typed out but came to my senses & realised it's best if I keep my thoughts to myself with this one 😆 very, very unlike me.

I will simply say - I really like her voice. & I love the video too, that's what made me click on the video the first time.

Reading through the comments & there's loads of references in there that I hadn't noticed until they were pointed out.

cdeb

I wonder is Arghus snowed under again?

(Which is no problems of course - there's a serious amount of work gone into this; can only imagine how much time it's taken…)

Irish Aris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386983#Comment_123386983

Yeah, I have done one before and it definitely requires quite a bit of time.

I'm considering doing one after Arghus, have found the categories and all. Just need to find the right window were I will have time to listen to the submissions properly

Arghus

And we're back….

Yeah, I was a bit busy again, at the end of last month and the beginning of April and it was a bit hard to get back into the swing of things… But, just like I said last time, this time it won't happen again.

In Seventh Place with Eight Points is cdeb with A Better Place to Be by Harry Chapin.

https://youtu.be/MazXSlekckI?si=g_fLpJUg5ef4eGbi

This song is A LOT.

Its quality of letting it all hang out is kind of part of its charm, but also, why I find the whole thing just a teeny bit exhausting all at the same time.   

US Seventies singer-songwriter, giving us lots of details - it made me think a bit of Billy Joel: if he was a bit more focused on the broken-down and a less nauseatingly slick individual.

I do enjoy that the song is a warts and all shaggy dog (no pun intended) story that isn't all that bothered about taking its time, in taking its time, and taking us on a small-scale odyssey.   

We get a lot of states of existence over the course of eight minutes: depressive, melancholy(they're not the same), cynical, love-struck, lustful, hopeful... drunk. And I have to give a song that tries to cram in every kaleidoscopic facet of a particular station in this life a thumbs up at a basic level.

And the lyrics are pretty good. Lots of little literary flourishes and some hilarious imagery - "The waitress took her bar rag and she wiped it across her eyes" - and Harry Chapin's got an endearing nice, aw shucks, shat upon, honesty to his voice.

But, yet, we do get a lot here. It goes on for a long time. It does sound to me sometimes like a story you'd get into with a randomer at a bar, which may be intermittently funny or endearing, even wise, but it can be hard to hang onto with rapt interest from start to finish. I do like a lot about the song, but I do think, for all the good things, it lacks a bit of depth.

It's a bit of a craic and it doesn't really fill me with a surfeit of pathos, or, despite some definitely funny lines, hit me squarely in the funny bone. And at the end of it all, despite all the dotted and, in their own way diverting details, is it that amazing of a story? Was it simply dying to be told... I'm not sure. Over the entire course of its run, it doesn't really grab me by the shorts and curlies and damn well force me to bend to its will and pay it attention, whether I had planned to or not. My attention wanders, even though when I zone back in again, I find wherever I am at the time to be an enjoyable enough thread in the tapestry in its own right.

I endorse it overall though. It's got personality. A whole eight minutes worth of personality. Do I always find that personality absolutely scorching to be around? Ah, maybe not entirely... but at least it's something. 

nachouser

….

Declan A Walsh

@Arghus I just saw a post from you today on another forum in Boards. That reminded me of this thread. I am looking forward to hearing further entries.

Arghus

I have good news for you @Declan A Walsh…

In Sixth Place with Nine Points is Deja Boo with Melancholy Christmas by Amy Grant.

https://youtu.be/3LOqLV6Om4A?si=lXxSOhdcnDhk-hf3

I remember when I started this Walrus. 

It got dark early. The nights were long. They were cold and walking around in the frosty air to the sounds of this tune, in particular, felt about right. 

That was six months ago.

I realise that it's kind of embarrassing that I still haven't finished this damn thing after all this time. My internal critic lambasts:You're finally getting around to the Christmas song, when it's practically August already?

Look, I've only myself to blame by deciding to write piles of extraneous detail for each entry... I  really underestimated that.

I've still been on boards throughout and I find it easy enough to fire off reams of texts about certain things, but, for some reason these Walrus entries require more thought and care, so, as a result, it takes longer and I've had a lot going on outside of boards, so it's been hard to sit down and put in the hard yards.

And, also, boards has continued its slow painful decline.... the fcking hopping screen issue still hasn't been fixed - it's never going to be fixed is it? - So sometimes, in the more mournful moments, one could be forgiven for thinking what's the point of writing all this shyte? 

But, I'll be damned if this is being left unfinished... so we are back. 

In terms of the overall incongruity of listening to Wintery songs when you're (optimistically) putting your seasonal clothes back into storage... I'll go easy on myself there on that front, as some out there say that Christmas isn't just a particular time of year; that it actually lives in the heart all year round…

 
Do I believe them? I'm not sure about that.... I don't know if I'm that inclined really towards hearing John & Yoko in August. But maybe some facets of Christmas persist throughout the year. One thing that can definitely persist for some and it doesn't get enough coverage, is the damn melancholy of it all.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. You get time off. You get family. You get food and drink. And, if you've been especially good, you might also get presents too.

I fell out of the local pub here on Christmas Eve last, on the verge of maudlin tears, overcome with the generosity of spirit and general soundness of everyone in there; pure alcohol fueled Dickensian sentimentality had struck again. So, yeah, Christmas is a-okay in my book.

But underneath all the consumerist frenzy and the mawkishness there's a strong dash of sadness and the bittersweet. We all know people who, for whatever reason, don't enjoy the trappings of it. They've lost someone, they miss family that can't be with them - whatever it may be. Perhaps it's a facile observation, but as the years go on, I think a lot about the transience of things at Christmas: what's changed in the last year, who's been born, who is no longer with us and how quickly the time seems to fly by... another year gone so fast and they seem to just get faster and faster... It is a beautiful time, but there's a seam of wistfulness running through it. 

I think that's why the hype and capitalistic frenzy in the build up feels so oppressive and so, well, inhumane. It's like there's no permission given to stop and listen to the blueness of it all and there has to be this layer of white noise, as soon as Halloween ends, of more, more, more  - laid on thick, from seemingly everywhere.... Jesus Christ, give us a break you pricks!

Which is why I have a deep-hearted gra for songs like this, which are pristine and soulful and focus on what I think Christmas is really all about: generosity, connection and empathy. And the fact that, above all other times of the year, it really does suck to be alone at Christmas.    

The lyrics are simplicity itself and the sentiments are as pure as undriven snow. There's no need to overdo it when you are trying to be as sincere and universalist as this. I really do get a lump in my throat when I think of the motivating meaning behind telling someone: don't worry 'bout presents, I saved you a place. I appreciate how that it's one lonely person, singing to another lonely person, with no romantic intentions.

And musically the song is equally graceful. She's got a nice, slightly husky voice, with zero extraneous fake emotion. And there's a shimmering layered quality to the arrangement - I like the distinct, but really warmly sweet bass playing that anchors everything - which manages to sound unmistakably Christmassey, but without sounding cheesy. I also think it's cool how it gets increasingly reverbed and blissed out of clear definition, before the sudden full stop. This should really be on rotation come December each year. And I don't really have a problem listening to this one, even in July.         

Arghus

In Fifth Place with Ten Points is Declan A Walsh with The Eternal by Joy Division

https://youtu.be/pFDBqPugrrk?si=RKz9PBaXhsV7B9SJ

Brrrrrr.... What a chilling, terrifying song... hmmm... I don't know if I've got the right adjectives here. Maybe, trying to be more precise, it's beyond chilling, even beyond terrifying: it's sepulchral. Nullifying.

I remember back to when I was an angst sodden teenager. What I really sought out and responded to in music back then, above anything else, was authenticity. And, because I was super, super, teeange-y depressed at the time I really gravitated to music where a genuinely fcked up singer sang about being genuinely fcked up: Nirvana, Elliott Smith, etc, etc. 

Joy Division were the alpha and omega of all that in my eyes at the time, even if I hadn't really listened to them, just heard about them: which was a frequent thing in the days before downloading and then streaming, that phenomenon of reading about bands for ages before you'd actually get the chance to hear them. Ah, those were the days…  

I'd read about this album called Closer that was super dark and depressing and supposedly as bleak as fck.... and to top it all off your man had killed himself before it was even released.... couldn't get realer than that! So, I dutifully bought Closer when I had the chance and listened and listened.... and was left a bit nonplussed.

If you take something like Nirvana, or someone like Elliot Smith - the torment at the heart of the music is there, it's the emotional driver of everything, but there's still a life force that comes through the sound. Nirvana rock really hard. Elliot Smith is incredibly beautiful. That's what stops me regarding them as being actually depressing, there's still a vitality in their work that exhilarates. 

Joy Division is different. There's a genuine flat, all encompassing, darkness to their music. Right at the core of it is a depersonalised vortex of utter blackness. It's real: you stare at the abyss and the abyss stares back kind of thing, you know?

It's a pretty frank and sobering trip. And, obviously, my teenage mind, when first encountering it, just couldn't get that. I wasn't mature enough. It was beyond my comprehension. It has a quality of the beyond to it, in its desperate bleakness.

Self-hatred and loathing can be easy thematic concepts to grasp, particularly when young. It was harder for my young mind to grasp the concept of being beyond any hope of redemption for oneself. That you weren't just beyond raging against something. That there was music, art, that came from an acceptance of being part of nothing. Of being nothing and being tired and bored by that opinion. The universe was cold and indifferent, but suffering was real, even if it had no significance. Transcendence can be a scary thought sometimes.  

Well, thankfully, I wasn't able to internalise that message when I was fifteen. I wasn't able to be scared sensible by the miasmac matter of factness of Joy Divisions laying bare Ian Curtis and his despair. Nowadays, yeah, I get it. I'm not saying that I get it in the sense that I identify with it. I don't acutely identify with Ian Curtis. I think he was a tormented individual, but someone who managed to use the framework of rock music to illustrate his own struggle in a sincere and unique way. Yes, indeed, it doesn't get realer than that.

And while I think a lot of rock music, almost despite itself at times, still functions as a celebration of life, even if it's angry or nihilistic, Joy Division's music functions, for me, as an opposite to that impulse - an acknowledgment of death and of the end.

And that's an uncomfortable thing that many don't want to listen to. And that's fair enough. But that doesn't mean it's not real. So, Joy Division have that - an unimpeachable realness. And particularly on Closer, more so than on Unknown Pleasures, where the entire thing almost functions as a memorial service in advance. This track epitomises that more than any other on the record, probably more than anything else in their entire catalogue. Does that mean I want to listen to it all the time? No. Does that mean that it grabs me in the same visceral way that some other JD songs do? No. But, I do respect it immensely as a work of art, as a statement.