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Post by steelmonkey on Apr 27, 2010 15:28:36 GMT
You know what I think? I think 'Bends Like a Willow' would be vastly improved if the keyboard was completely vanquished...it's an amazing song: the Tullesque flute/guitar interplay, the delicate percussion nailing the mood/sound of a boat docked and shaking a bit in the wind, the consistent, successfully poetic lyrics...a perfect song that then loses points for the horrific, out of place, lounge-lizard/james bond soundtrack keyboards...they just don't fit and the song doesn't need them.
P.S. Later that same morning: The accordian on 'Gift of Roses' is brilliant,,,absolutely glues the tune together and fits the vibe.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2010 16:38:15 GMT
A Small Cigar would be better as an instrumental. Besides a few rushed/crammed vocals on Rupi's Dance, I'm good...oh, and Mangos, surprised, hot, or otherwise should be flushed from Dot Com.
#1 Tull fan ;D
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tullist
Master Craftsman
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Post by tullist on Apr 27, 2010 19:49:41 GMT
You know what I think? I think 'Bends Like a Willow' would be vastly improved if the keyboard was completely vanquished...it's an amazing song: the Tullesque flute/guitar interplay, the delicate percussion nailing the mood/sound of a boat docked and shaking a bit in the wind, the consistent, successfully poetic lyrics...a perfect song that then loses points for the horrific, out of place, lounge-lizard/james bond soundtrack keyboards...they just don't fit and the song doesn't need them. P.S. Later that same morning: The accordian on 'Gift of Roses' is brilliant,,,absolutely glues the tune together and fits the vibe. Love both those songs, likely both and maybe 2 others are in my Tull top 25, Dot Com, a record who's weakest tracks, (I like both mango tracks, to me its the Thinking Round Corners "outside" version of Ian) is very good, not something I would say for some of their more well known and regarded records from the seventies, stand up, totrr, sftw and stormwatch excluded. But what the heck is wrong with a good old grand piano or a hammond b3, i am not dead set against various keyboard developments, but still nothing beats the real thing. Maybe its because they are too much of a pain to tour with or arrange in each town.
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Post by steelmonkey on Apr 27, 2010 20:43:49 GMT
I'm not against all keyboards all the time...au contraire...and think/thought that John Evans' piano is an integral part of the true Tull sound...and like the majority of other keyboard parts in Tull songs...it's just sometimes...when it sounds to me like the keyboard is forced, un-natural, added-in where it isn't needed that I wish ian could let his hired tinkler stay on the clock without 'contributing' to a piece that is fine, thank you, without some keyboard riff that sounds like muzak or self-parody to my delicate ears.....Martin Allcock was just right for latter-day Tull...played the neccesary keyboard parts and grabbed an extra guitar or mandolin the rest of the time. I'm in the pro-dot com club...i think it's a great album with very few weak points...I even like both mangoes....Far Alaska gets the skip from me......Bends Like a Willow is a brilliant part2 for Seal Driver, Spiral is oddly cool, AWOL is adequate+, dot com itself is pure Tull and the last 2 songs are Benefit1999 to my ears.
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tullist
Master Craftsman
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Post by tullist on Apr 27, 2010 21:36:41 GMT
my man bernie, ditto, cha ching....Benefit 1999 but still a nicely maturing Tull, not sure if there were any lyrics as good as the bringing the fisher in one on Benefit though.
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Post by maddogfagin on Apr 28, 2010 17:28:53 GMT
I just have the suspicion that had songs such as Budapest, White Innocence and, heavens forbid, Locomotive Breath been recorded with the current lineup the haunting and keyboard layered intros to those songs, and others, would have been replaced by the horrendous scourge of the squeezy thing from hell. It has its place in the repertoire but not at the expense of an inventive use of the sounds that can be found on modern, and expensive, keyboards. Would be on a par with the news that Martin Barre had given up playing the guitar and had instead bought himself a ukulele and had taken to singing George Formby songs. If in doubt, sit back and imagine Locomotive Breath with the accordion played on the intro.
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Post by admin on Apr 29, 2010 8:28:13 GMT
A Small Cigar would be better as an instrumental. ......That's one of my all time favourite bits of IA singing! I am of the opinion (and I could get lynched for this!) that passion Play would have been much better without that squaking saxophone. Soryy guys, it just doesn't do it for me.
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Post by maddogfagin on Apr 29, 2010 18:18:46 GMT
So that's the accordion and sax slagged off. Any more? And there are some instruments which, to my recollection, haven't appeared on Tull records - Banjo? Jew's harp? Comb and tissue paper? Kazoo? Shamisen?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2010 16:23:08 GMT
A Small Cigar would be better as an instrumental. ......That's one of my all time favourite bits of IA singing! I am of the opinion (and I could get lynched for this!) that passion Play would have been much better without that squaking saxophone. Soryy guys, it just doesn't do it for me. APP is perfection for me. A Small Cigar, the song that tells me the star is just an ordinary man after all. Too bad. LOL - It's not the singing as such, much of the lyrics make me cringe. For me this Tull makes "the worst lyrics, post your best examples" thread at SHtv. (2006) www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=1975319#post1975319This Sung: "Excuse me, mine host, that I may visit a nearby tobacconist" NOooooooooooooo! HELP! And I'm into Tull because of Anderson's lyrics for the most part.
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tullist
Master Craftsman
Posts: 478
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Post by tullist on Apr 30, 2010 19:26:00 GMT
APP is perfection for me. A Small Cigar, the song that tells me the star is just an ordinary man after all. Too bad. LOL - It's not the singing as such, much of the lyrics make me cringe. For me this Tull makes "the worst lyrics, post your best examples" thread at SHtv. (2006) www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=1975319#post1975319This Sung: "Excuse me, mine host, that I may visit a nearby tobacconist" NOooooooooooooo! HELP! And I'm into Tull because of Anderson's lyrics for the most part. Agree totally about A Small Cigar, and yes, the line u cite in specific make this track for me far more embarrassing than any issues regarding his voice of the past 25 years, the last 11 of which I believe include some of the best singing of his career, (and in fairness, some of the worst) just not specifically the act you've known for all these years . I know lots of folks like this track in part because it allegedly represents the high water mark of his vocal abilities, true in some respects, but an aged voice is more of a problem for the Robert Plants and Roger Daltry's of the world, or Paul if his priceless voice ever aged.
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Post by earsoftin on May 3, 2010 14:56:27 GMT
I don't much care for 'Small Cigar' either, but to be fair I think we have to hear the lyrics in context. This seems to me to be about a man out of his time, in the context of 'Too Old... ' an agent or a manager. For him the small cigar is the currency of social exchange, to be given to cement a business relationship. He seems to me what we might call, harking back to the 1950s, a 'saloon bar' type, who would use language like 'mine host' and would address people as 'squire' - linguistic markers for a particular social group in Britain at the time. (And for him two kids and a house up on the ring road, with dos at the tennis club would be making it, not death by social convention). But he is out of his depth in Hampstead, the arty, bohemian London suburb where the cigar has been replaced by the joint as the article of symbolic exchange. He beats a retreat, back to the best drug of all, a cup of tea (which stands so often for reassuring British continuity, even when the bombs are dropping). He might as well get rid of his cigars now, for they are no use to him - but at least the drunk appreciates it and gives him the proper response.
The sentiments of the song might work in context, but the way it is sung sounds forced to me - as if the song was made to fit a purpose and to tell part of the story.
From this, as well, I don't think the song has anything to do with Ian or the way he feels about smoking or drugs - it's a character song.
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jason
Prentice Jack
Posts: 35
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Post by jason on May 4, 2010 0:10:25 GMT
Good points everyone. There are happily very few songs in the vast catalogue that I really do not like lyrically. Ok, I could seriously do without these ones (Sorry Ian & Co): Sealion Two Fingers Hot Mango Flush Birthday Card At Christmas Photo Shop Penguin Flying Over Berlin Zoo Down At The End of Your Road
There, I said it. I have never told this to anybody ...until now. Chaeers everyone!
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Aqualung1989
Journeyman
I'd give up my halo for a horn, and the horn for the hat I once had
Posts: 106
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Post by Aqualung1989 on Dec 20, 2014 13:29:54 GMT
APP is perfection for me. A Small Cigar, the song that tells me the star is just an ordinary man after all. Too bad. LOL - It's not the singing as such, much of the lyrics make me cringe. For me this Tull makes "the worst lyrics, post your best examples" thread at SHtv. (2006) www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=1975319#post1975319This Sung: "Excuse me, mine host, that I may visit a nearby tobacconist" NOooooooooooooo! HELP! And I'm into Tull because of Anderson's lyrics for the most part. I fins the lyrics in A Small Cigar hilarious... but maybe it's because of a little inside joke I have with my best friend
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