The Playlist of Life --- Trollheart's resurrected Journal - Music Banter Music Banter

Go Back   Music Banter > The MB Reader > Members Journal
Register Blogging Today's Posts
Welcome to Music Banter Forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with over 70,000 other registered members. After you create your free account, you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 1,100,000 posts.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-12-2014, 05:53 PM   #2571 (permalink)
Born to be mild
 
Trollheart's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: 404 Not Found
Posts: 26,992
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mordwyr View Post
Absolutely brilliant review! I've now added Born to Run to my queue.
Hey, thanks! I did work a little on that one, it means so much to me. Your praise is probably not that deserved, but sure I'll take it anyway. Cheers!
__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
Trollheart is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-12-2014, 05:57 PM   #2572 (permalink)
A Jew on a motorbike!
 
Josef K's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posts: 800
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mordwyr View Post
Absolutely brilliant review! I've now added Born to Run to my queue.
You should add Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska, and maybe The River as well.

I'll second (third?) what the others have said - great review, of an album I love.
Josef K is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-12-2014, 06:26 PM   #2573 (permalink)
Born to be mild
 
Trollheart's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: 404 Not Found
Posts: 26,992
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Josef K View Post
You should add Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska, and maybe The River as well.

I'll second (third?) what the others have said - great review, of an album I love.
Thanks man! Have to get this door widened so I can get my head through!
If anyone's interested I also reviewed Darkness and Nebraska in this journal. Just hit "search this thread" and pop the names in.
__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
Trollheart is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-12-2014, 09:37 PM   #2574 (permalink)
Key
.
 
Key's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 13,153
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Trollheart View Post

Since we're now less than two weeks from the big day, I think it might be appropriate to review some Christmas albums. First up, an album I did not even realise exist (though I'm tickled to discover it does) and was only alerted to thanks to Ki...

Death Metal Christmas --- J.J. Hrubovcak --- 2013 (Independent)
Very happy to see this become a part of your journal as well. I have to agree that it would have been a bit cooler for them to choose more well known songs, but it's still perfect for those people who are just not into Christmas, like myself.
Key is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-13-2014, 12:20 PM   #2575 (permalink)
Born to be mild
 
Trollheart's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: 404 Not Found
Posts: 26,992
Default


Greg Lake: The man who would be Grinch?

I've never had much time for ELP as you probably know (hold those gasps of surprise!) but one thing that has always annoyed me is the success, and therefore constant rotation every Christmas, of Greg Lake's “I believe in Father Christmas”. I've read the backstory and yes, I can see how it was written as a protest song, but for me it just seems the most bitter and pessimistic Christmas song ever. In it, Lake talks about “being sold a dream of Christmas” and waiting to see Santa on Christmas Eve, then realising it was his father all along. Sure, we all went through that, but the heavy sarcasm and contempt that drips from this song like drops of poisoned punch makes me wonder how it was ever a hit. Though Lake himself professes that it was a backlash against the commercialisation of the holiday season, with a dash of anti-war rhetoric thrown in for good measure, it always seems to me to be totally anachronistic to have it follow something like “Merry Xmas everybody” on one of those Christmas albums we all moan about but which we all have one of (mine are “Santa's Greatest Hits” and “The Phil Spector Christmas Album”); a happy, upbeat song that celebrates Christmas (as does just about every other Christmas song) succeeded by a moany, downbeat, sarcastic swipe at the festive season.

I know he says all that stuff at the end about “wishing you a joyful Christmas”, but to be honest, after what he's written prior all of that rings a little hollow to me, and the end impression I've always been left with is the ambiguous ending, which can really be interpreted however you want, but for me is always something of a parting shot: “The Christmas you get you deserve?” Apart from being a badly-constructed phrase (should be “You get the Christmas you deserve”, and it would still have scanned with the rest of the lyric) it always sounds negative to me.

And he also had the gall to base much of the melody on Prokofiev's “Troika” from Lieutenant Kije. Every time I hear this at Christmas it depresses and annoys me, and to be honest, I think I'd rather listen to Carey's vacuous bleating on “All I want for Christmas is you” than this. At least that's cheerful, even if it makes you want to smash your head against the wall till your brains leak out. Lake's effort just makes me want to go find the nearest gunshop.

Lucky I live in Ireland, where there are no such things.

Merry Christmas Greg, you contemptuous old fart! To quote an old Blackadder curse, May your skin turn orange in hue, and your head drop off at an awkward moment. Perhaps you need a visit from a certain three ghosts...


”They said there'll be snow at Christmas;
They said there'll be peace on Earth.
But instead it just kept on raining,
A veil of tears for the Virgin's birth.
I remember one Christmas morning,
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire.

They sold me a dream of Christmas;
They sold me a silent night
And they told me a fairy story
'till I believed in the Israelite.
And I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked at the sky with excited eyes
'till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise.
I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year.
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear.
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth.
Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas you get you deserve.”
__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
Trollheart is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-13-2014, 02:37 PM   #2576 (permalink)
Born to be mild
 
Trollheart's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: 404 Not Found
Posts: 26,992
Default

Coming for 2015...
__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
Trollheart is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-13-2014, 06:38 PM   #2577 (permalink)
Mord
 
Zhanteimi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Tokyo
Posts: 4,873
Default

Wow! Good luck. I perused that list sometime this year and got all the albums that interested me. It's a great list!
Zhanteimi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-13-2014, 06:53 PM   #2578 (permalink)
Born to be mild
 
Trollheart's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: 404 Not Found
Posts: 26,992
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mordwyr View Post
Wow! Good luck. I perused that list sometime this year and got all the albums that interested me. It's a great list!
Yeah. I'm gonna attempt to listen to them all. I figure if I manage one a day I'll be through in three years... I hope not to die before then.
__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
Trollheart is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-13-2014, 07:04 PM   #2579 (permalink)
county fair energy
 
WWWP's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 4,773
Default

Awesome, that will certainly keep you busy. I'm interested to see what turns up!
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord View Post
I know what real life is, I've been living in it for well over a decade
Quote:
Originally Posted by jadis View Post
WWWP is pretty but should be cancelled (digital blackface)

#DEMODFROWNLAND
#TERMLIMITSFORMODERATORS
WWWP is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-13-2014, 07:12 PM   #2580 (permalink)
Caesar is home.
 
Thelonious Monkey's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 876
Default

That's quite an undertaking. That blows Metal Mania out of the water. I'm going to go bigge...No no no Justin, calm your tits.

Anyway, can't wait to see what pops up. Brilliant idea dude.
Thelonious Monkey is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Similar Threads



© 2003-2024 Advameg, Inc.