loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,815
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Post by loveless on Jan 19, 2023 19:27:49 GMT
Can still think of a couple major ones not mentioned at all, but...yeah, "Emily" is a biggie. Lucifer Sam or Astronomy Domine would of worked too. Piper is assuredly "my shit" (ditto 'Arnold Layne'), but 'Emily' REALLY packs a lot of "oh, my!" into a very small space. And, yes, as Dougie suggests - the fact that the milkman was once whistling it is evidence of something major.
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Post by davey on Jan 19, 2023 20:31:15 GMT
It’s interesting. Piper really isn’t my shit. Nor is Love, or The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - though there is stuff I like/love by all. Maybe 1967 is where I hit my first big musical fork in the road. Up till now, almost everything posted on any given year is something I can feel some level of connection to. But As great and interesting and varied as this year is… some of this isn’t MY shit.
“Emily” is a great example. It’s objectively a brilliant record. Anyone with an ounce of sense could see that. But it’s kind of a “head” record too. It lacks the kind of longing quality that something like “Pretty Ballerina” has. It evokes childhood, but kind of through an acid trip - and without much of the bittersweet quality it’s title suggests.
I really think that 1967 created a few new identity lines that might not have been as prevalent before. Suddenly, the kind of person who likes The Doors and Hendrix and the kind of person who likes The Rascals and The Supremes might not actually be the same person.
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Post by oh oooh on Jan 19, 2023 20:34:45 GMT
Yes!
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fange
god
Listening to long jazz tracks
Posts: 4,559
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Post by fange on Jan 19, 2023 20:42:44 GMT
It’s interesting. Piper really isn’t my shit. Nor is Love, or The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - though there is stuff I like/love by all. Maybe 1967 is where I hit my first big musical fork in the road. Up till now, almost everything posted on any given year is something I can feel some level of connection to. But As great and interesting and varied as this year is… some of this isn’t MY shit. “Emily” is a great example. It’s objectively a brilliant record. Anyone with an ounce of sense could see that. But it’s kind of a “head” record too. It lacks the kind of longing quality that something like “Pretty Ballerina” has. It evokes childhood, but kind of through an acid trip - and without much of the bittersweet quality it’s title suggests.I really think that 1967 created a few new identity lines that might not have been as prevalent before. Suddenly, the kind of person who likes The Doors and Hendrix and the kind of person who likes The Rascals and The Supremes might not actually be the same person. Not necessarily a bad thing though; it's that mixture of light and darkness, as GB notes, which can become magical in some instances, and for mine this definitely is one. Someone surely must pick something off The Doors and Are You Experienced?, or this exercise will feel very incomplete for me. oh, and 'Reflections' please too.
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toomanyhatz
god
I've met him/her. He/she's great!!
Posts: 3,243
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Post by toomanyhatz on Jan 19, 2023 21:20:49 GMT
And the Moby Grape debut. And Surrealistic Pillow. And Buffalo Springfield Again.
And we're still leaving out the biggest commercial and critical success of the year entirely (though its status has diminished slightly in favor of the albums before it and after).
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loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,815
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Post by loveless on Jan 19, 2023 21:29:46 GMT
“Emily” is a great example. It’s objectively a brilliant record. Anyone with an ounce of sense could see that. But it’s kind of a “head” record too. It lacks the kind of longing quality that something like “Pretty Ballerina” has. It evokes childhood, but kind of through an acid trip - and without much of the bittersweet quality it’s title suggests. See, that's interesting that you would say that. Maybe a real "eye of the beholder" thing. While I DO come to praise "Emily from a million angles, abso-fucking-lutely chief among them is the longing quality and the bittersweet emotional melancholy. I think it has depths of feeling (as I would say about the Left Banke, whose work often also has an oddly dark shadow). If you picture the melody to which the lines are sung, lines like "Gazing through trees in sorrow", "Soon after dark, Emily cries", and the sort of hopeful redemption of the final verse "Put on a gown that touches the ground. Float on a river forever and ever" are all kind of (for me, at any rate) devastating (mind you, I think "The Crystal Ship" and "You're Lost Little Girl" are also a little more sweetly sad than they might appear from a distance). I do very much agree with the general "fork in the road" premise that follows.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Jan 20, 2023 13:45:53 GMT
Have you seen the photo of what is supposed to be the actual Emily? Oooooft! There's definitely a bittersweet quality to it but there's also something celebratory and triumphant in there too of course. The light and shade dichotomy, the lyrics and general childhood atmosphere/vibe manages to communicate something abstract, yet lucid and powerful. " Float on a river for ever and ever" is the key line, suggesting something incantational and transcendent where the material world dissolves in a psychedelic dream and Emily becomes somehow eternal. In doing so it also suggests something on a deeper emotional level that elevates the record into something more reflective and yearning; a kind of wish fulfilment and a very human desire to maintain the dream/trip forever that we all experience during certain heightened moments in our life. Or, in this case, childhood itself. Given Syd's other songs that clearly relate to childhood experiences I don't think this interpretation is that wild. The "bittersweet emotional melancholy" that hangs over the record is therefore a reminder of the real world itself and the ghost grey spectre of adulthood. It also serves as a reminder of the ephemeral nature of such moments and ultimately childhood itself. In this way "float on a river...." feels not just like postponement but almost like a victory of sorts which of course just adds to the records emotional punch.
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loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,815
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Post by loveless on Jan 20, 2023 14:43:40 GMT
All of that, and...at the risk of idealizing Syd...if "Emily" is to represent some "highest high" (for me it does, certainly in his work, in theirs, in the world's ALIGNMENT with that work, in a certain summit of the form), some peak experience (creatively, emotionally, musically, in terms of success), the comedown (obviously, his was more dramatic and precipitous than most...though to make a comparison with which I'm fully comfortable, is the world really any worse off for he/they not making The Pink Floyd Love You with Eugene Landy ten years later?) is also a) viewed in the context of this peak, and b) also throws its own considerable shadows on this all too brief moment. I can't experience one without the impact of the other. You hear him getting too close to the sun. That so much of the myth (the insensitive and frequent doorstepping of a recluse, etc.) rests on some segment of the fandom who would have done ANYTHING for MORE of this magic - I'm 100% sympathetic to the withdrawals of people who only got a morsel but found it so compelling that they had trouble letting go.
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Post by davey on Jan 20, 2023 22:34:55 GMT
The last thing I want to do is tear down “Emily” or try and paint it as deficient in some way. This all may be about me and not about “Emily” at all.
So…you want to tell me that it has its own brand of bittersweet. Sure. I can get to that. But “Emily” is still an example of a thing that on paper SHOULD be my thing, but somehow just isn’t. It’s good…even great. But not mine. I’ve never been able to make it be mine, and I can’t put my finger on exactly why.
Which brings us back to 1967 and the fork in the road. I suddenly start to feel that a lot here. It only intensifies going forward. But this is the first year it really happens.
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Sneelock
god
Better than Washington...
Posts: 8,592
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Post by Sneelock on Jan 20, 2023 22:36:28 GMT
the list of things that you can't get behind?
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Jan 20, 2023 23:24:18 GMT
The last thing I want to do is tear down “Emily” or try and paint it as deficient in some way. This all may be about me and not about “Emily” at all. So…you want to tell me that it has its own brand of bittersweet. Sure. I can get to that. But “Emily” is still an example of a thing that on paper SHOULD be my thing, but somehow just isn’t. It’s good…even great. But not mine. I’ve never been able to make it be mine, and I can’t put my finger on exactly why. Which brings us back to 1967 and the fork in the road. I suddenly start to feel that a lot here. It only intensifies going forward. But this is the first year it really happens. The looming division between underground and pop perhaps? Although I love 'Emily' myself, I do know what you mean. There's a certain.., not innocence, but maybe naturalness about the first ten years of pop that gives it a universal quality. I've been enjoying the consensus amongst us this produces, but yeah..that will come to an end soon enough (I'd probably put the break a bit later, around 69/70, but we can all agree it happened).
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Post by osgood on Jan 21, 2023 12:42:49 GMT
The last thing I want to do is tear down “Emily” or try and paint it as deficient in some way. This all may be about me and not about “Emily” at all. So…you want to tell me that it has its own brand of bittersweet. Sure. I can get to that. But “Emily” is still an example of a thing that on paper SHOULD be my thing, but somehow just isn’t. It’s good…even great. But not mine. I’ve never been able to make it be mine, and I can’t put my finger on exactly why. Which brings us back to 1967 and the fork in the road. I suddenly start to feel that a lot here. It only intensifies going forward. But this is the first year it really happens. The looming division between underground and pop perhaps? Although I love 'Emily' myself, I do know what you mean. There's a certain.., not innocence, but maybe naturalness about the first ten years of pop that gives it a universal quality. I've been enjoying the consensus amongst us this produces, but yeah..that will come to an end soon enough (I'd probably put the break a bit later, around 69/70, but we can all agree it happened). Yep. In my view, 1968 was the time when most pop started to suck, at least in my neck of woods charts were filled with stinkers for the next decade. I am debating with myself about picking a rock or a pop tune for 1968, probably it will be the latter, but most certainly I will go all the way rock for the following 10 years, which include my teens.
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Post by A.R. Parsons on Jan 21, 2023 12:44:07 GMT
I'm ready for '68...
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loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,815
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Post by loveless on Jan 21, 2023 12:54:15 GMT
I'm fairly positive we've gotten as many '67 votes as we're gonna get. I say bring it on.
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Post by neige on Jan 21, 2023 14:07:14 GMT
I'm fairly positive we've gotten as many '67 votes as we're gonna get. Oi!!
I'm still thinking!!!
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