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11 November 2008

Am I the only one who loved poring over albums trying to decipher lyrics when they weren't printed in the liner notes?→[More:]The internet has taken away and given again... with the rise of the zillions of lyric sites it seemed for a time like one of my favorite pastimes was relegated to obsolescence. But now: we get torrents of albums before they actually come out officially and there are no lyrics anywhere yet, so I get to revisit my pleasant obsession.

Currently it's the new Edguy, and I'm beating my head trying to decipher Pride of Creation (got most of it but what the hell's going on in that "running in the dust" section? Argh!) and Speedhoven (which is really going to be a challenge).

Also: just go listen to Speedhoven, would you? It's all organs and big choirs and double kicks and loopy-crazy lyrics and it was the only thing that made an otherwise utterly miserable day tolerable yesterday.

post by: Wolfdog at: 08:58 | 15 comments

Oh, no no no.

As an early teen, I used to play the radio over my boom box, lying in wait for songs I really wanted to 'capture' -- often I didn't even know their names or what band recorded them. When I heard the intro notes I'd leap to the boom box and press [record + play] to catch the song. Then, I'd sit next to the boom box with a yellow legal pad, playing and transcribing one line at a time, rewinding as necessary, until I had the whole thing down.

Then I actually listened to these tapes, sloppy as they were with radio intros and outtros over the beginnings and ends of songs, smeary recording sounds, and abrupt stops. Sometimes I'd even make complilations of these tapes taped off the radio, for a second-generation fuzzy smear of a mix.

It's way too easy these days. Music is almost too cheap.

posted by Miko 11 November | 09:32

I've always taken great joy in not exactly knowing what the correct lyrics are or exactly what a song is about. When you read the lyrics it's pretty easy to get the message/story (when there is one), but when you're listening to a song you can often get caught up in the individual lines as they come and not see the lyrics as a whole. I love hearing a song after thirty or forty listens and suddenly catching a lyric or meaning that you never noticed before.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 11 November | 09:44

The internet has taken away and given again... with the rise of the zillions of lyric sites it seemed for a time like one of my favorite pastimes was relegated to obsolescence.

Yeah, if the lyrics weren't printed in the liner notes or released by the band, then those sites are usually so, so wrong.

posted by muddgirl 11 November | 10:08

Forgot to mention that I get great joy when I find an album where there's a discrepancy between the liner notes and the song. It's like a little Easter Egg just for me.

posted by muddgirl 11 November | 10:09

I've bought a few Japanese import CDs in my lifetime, esp. during the late 80s and early 90s. Apparently, (at least back then) the labels in Japan ALWAYS want there to be lyrics included, so if the band didn't provide lyrics, someone would listen to the songs and transcribe them. They were usually very, very wrong.

My Japanese version of Joy Division's "Still," which includes a live album with notoriously poor sound quality, has long stretches of lyrics represented by ellipses "..." because the transcriber just couldn't make out what Curtis was shrieking about. :)

posted by BoringPostcards 11 November | 10:22

When you read the lyrics it's pretty easy to get the message/story (when there is one)

I remember emailing back and forth with a friend trying to decrypt Judas at the Opera and we did pretty well, but certain parts of that we just had to admit defeat. When the official lyrics appeared we laughed like crazy 'cause... yeah, right! I can't say that the message/story has been enormously clarified, but I thoroughly enjoy the insanity of it.

posted by Wolfdog 11 November | 10:41

I'm with Slack...also, I can rarely hear or remember song lyrics. This makes me sad whenever my friends get drunk and sing along to all those terrible 80s songs they somehow know all the lyrics to.

It made me even more sad when the soldiers in Generation Kill (the HBO show) started singing pop songs as they drove along in their Humvee. I think they were mostly singing 90s and early 00s rock songs, but I didn't know any of them. I'd be a terrible Marine. :(

posted by mullacc 11 November | 11:16

As an early teen, I used to play the radio over my boom box, lying in wait for songs I really wanted to 'capture' -- often I didn't even know their names or what band recorded them. When I heard the intro notes I'd leap to the boom box and press [record + play] to catch the song. Then, I'd sit next to the boom box with a yellow legal pad, playing and transcribing one line at a time, rewinding as necessary, until I had the whole thing down.

Me too! Exactly!

posted by Specklet 11 November | 11:26

I did that too, Miko + Specklet.

posted by essexjan 11 November | 12:34

Oh I did that, too! A lot of them came from America's Top 40 with Casey Kasem. XM replays old Kasem shows on their 80s channel and I'm always amazed at how many of the dedications I remember...because they were the lead-in on my homebrew mix tapes.

posted by jrossi4r 11 November | 12:52

I'm going to register on the other side. All of the music I've bought in the past couple years I've bought online. You don't get liner notes when you download CDs, and I really miss them. First thing I did when buying a real, live CD was read the liner notes.

posted by mudpuppie 11 November | 13:01

Oh I did that, too! A lot of them came from America's Top 40 with Casey Kasem.

Heh me too. And dubbing before dual tapedecks by sitting two boom boxes next to each other - all the mixtapes I made for friends got Casy Kasem, the dog barking and my sister and mum yelling at each other along with the music.

posted by goo 11 November | 13:47

if the band didn't provide lyrics, someone would listen to the songs and transcribe them. They were usually very, very wrong.

And this too. My dad worked in Indonesia for a few years and got me lots of copyright-free Indo-produced tapes. I wish I still had them to quote the ridiculous lyrics, but I remember Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth to be especially nonsensical. It's not as though Debbie was a mushmouth or anything, either.

posted by goo 11 November | 14:05

mudpuppie:

First thing I did when buying a real, live CD was read the liner notes.

For the first 20 years of my record (then CD) buying life, I was reading the liner notes as the first song started. I generally read everything but the lyrics. Then for some reason about 5 or 6 years ago I didn't pay that much attention to liner notes. Now many of my recent CDs have booklets that have never been opened. I'm not sure what caused that shift in my habits, since reading the liner notes used to be such an essential part of getting a new album.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 11 November | 14:13

Then I actually listened to these tapes, sloppy as they were with radio intros and outtros over the beginnings and ends of songs, smeary recording sounds, and abrupt stops. Sometimes I'd even make complilations of these tapes taped off the radio, for a second-generation fuzzy smear of a mix.

It's way too easy these days. Music is almost too cheap.

Heh, I remember this - taping stuff from the neighbour's record player and the radio and listening to them over and over.

I hear you on the music being too cheap thing - when you have to either work forever to buy an album or spend hours waiting for Wolfman Jack to play your current favourite song and be right there to press the record button when it started, you both treasured the songs you captured and only made the effort for things you really wanted. Now, I have almost 7,000 songs in digital form and never listen to most of it.

I like buying CDs and always try to buy ones that I like a lot, because I love having the physical disk to hold and the liner notes/booklet to read.

posted by dg 11 November | 15:39

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