Red Mosquito

warehouse wrote:

Mike wrote:I love that Amongst The Waves isn't dominated by guitars. Everything is so smooth. Well, until the solo starts.

can we say GTF is dominated by guitars and stop comparing the two?

GTF is a strange beast in that no one member or instrument is to the fore.
Everything plays along with equal importance.
Nowadays ed is always up front. GTF sounds like a real band.
And the song needs that to work and it works beautifully. Jack and Jeff work wonders here and are unsung.

VinylGuy wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:I never once since the day the single was released, ever heard even a shadow of U2 in Given to fly. On any level. And I'm a U2 fan. Big anthem, yes. There's a billion big anthems.
Force of nature is blatantly U2. Give to fly? No.

Agree.

Ditto

harmless wrote:Yeah my opinion is probably wrong.

That's because you hear music in beats rather than notes.

Mine wrote:

harmless wrote:Yeah my opinion is probably wrong.

That's because you hear music in beats rather than notes.

I see what you did there.

stip wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:I never once since the day the single was released, ever heard even a shadow of U2 in Given to fly. On any level. And I'm a U2 fan. Big anthem, yes. There's a billion big anthems.
Force of nature is blatantly U2. Give to fly? No.

the outro of FoN is the most U2 moment in the catalog.

Absolutely. Those chiming notes on the way into the chorus. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was edge playing it.

dimejinky99 wrote:

stip wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:I never once since the day the single was released, ever heard even a shadow of U2 in Given to fly. On any level. And I'm a U2 fan. Big anthem, yes. There's a billion big anthems.
Force of nature is blatantly U2. Give to fly? No.

the outro of FoN is the most U2 moment in the catalog.

Absolutely. Those chiming notes on the way into the chorus. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was edge playing it.

You're thinking entirely in terms of guitar.

No the whole thing. I can easily imagine Bono singing force of nature. Itd have a different beat if U2 were doing it but that while vocal could easily be U2, the music is there too.

No bad thing. They're a great band and FON is a great song.
It's probably eds most 'bono' lyric too, top of my head

LikeLukin wrote:

VinylGuy wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:I never once since the day the single was released, ever heard even a shadow of U2 in Given to fly. On any level. And I'm a U2 fan. Big anthem, yes. There's a billion big anthems.
Force of nature is blatantly U2. Give to fly? No.

Agree.

Ditto

You're both new here clearly. Nobody ever agrees with me.

dimejinky99 wrote:No the whole thing. I can easily imagine Bono singing force of nature. Itd have a different beat if U2 were doing it but that while vocal could easily be U2, the music is there too.

No bad thing. They're a great band and FON is a great song.
It's probably eds most 'bono' lyric too, top of my head

I have already been lectured in this thread that easily being able to imagine another artist performing a Pearl Jam song has no merit.

*Edit: I totally agree with you though

dimejinky99 wrote:No the whole thing. I can easily imagine Bono singing force of nature. Itd have a different beat if U2 were doing it but that while vocal could easily be U2, the music is there too.

No bad thing. They're a great band and FON is a great song.
It's probably eds most 'bono' lyric too, top of my head

'In the name of love, one more in the name of love' is the same kind of 'soaring' vocal as 'The waves came crashing like a fist to the jaw'. And rhythmically, the drum groove is similar in that, thanks to the guitar, it's driven by sixteenth notes rather than the normal 8th notes of other rock songs. The Edge's delay pedal accentuates that in the U2 song. In the PJ song, Stones' finger-picking early on and Jack Irons' toms later do the same kind of work.

harmless wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:

stip wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:I never once since the day the single was released, ever heard even a shadow of U2 in Given to fly. On any level. And I'm a U2 fan. Big anthem, yes. There's a billion big anthems.
Force of nature is blatantly U2. Give to fly? No.

the outro of FoN is the most U2 moment in the catalog.

Absolutely. Those chiming notes on the way into the chorus. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was edge playing it.

You're thinking entirely in terms of guitar.

that's true

LikeLukin wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:No the whole thing. I can easily imagine Bono singing force of nature. Itd have a different beat if U2 were doing it but that while vocal could easily be U2, the music is there too.

No bad thing. They're a great band and FON is a great song.
It's probably eds most 'bono' lyric too, top of my head

I have already been lectured in this thread that easily being able to imagine another artist performing a Pearl Jam song has no merit.

*Edit: I totally agree with you though

that's not true. I think what you pictured was stupid. There's nothing inherently wrong with the exercise.

I just think it has no merit in terms of a song being generic or not.

Mike wrote:I just think it has no merit in terms of a song being generic or not.

As opposed to whether or not it sounds like another band?

stip wrote:

LikeLukin wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:No the whole thing. I can easily imagine Bono singing force of nature. Itd have a different beat if U2 were doing it but that while vocal could easily be U2, the music is there too.

No bad thing. They're a great band and FON is a great song.
It's probably eds most 'bono' lyric too, top of my head

I have already been lectured in this thread that easily being able to imagine another artist performing a Pearl Jam song has no merit.

*Edit: I totally agree with you though

that's not true. I think what you pictured was stupid. There's nothing inherently wrong with the exercise.

That's subjective, something else that was pointed out to me, which I guess would deem it as not worth pointing out.

I was actually referring to Mike's comment though.

I just don't see how "I can imagine Celine Dion singing it" is an explanation for a song being generic. If you told me you think "Amongst The Waves" sounds just like a lot of Celine Dion songs or like 100 generic adult adult contemporary songs I would understand you. (But I wouldn't agree) I'm just being a bit pedantic I guess. A song could be a totally inventive power ballad and I could probably imagine Celine Dion singing it. That wouldn't make it generic just because she wrote generic music.

harmless wrote:

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:True story: ATW is only as generic as GTF. I can't believe that people won't admit this just because they like one and not the other.

um, no. i know they kinda sound alike b/c of the rise and fall, but GTF isnt generic, or bland, or boring, or any other word you wanna use. unless stealing from led zeppelin is now considered generic.

Of course it isn't, because you like it. But my initial impression of GTF, all those years ago, was that it was better when it was called 'In the Name of Love' by U2.

WHAT?!?

edit: just caught up to your explanation further down in the thread. Still, this comparison is so strange to me.

Mike wrote:I just don't see how "I can imagine Celine Dion singing it" is an explanation for a song being generic. If you told me you think "Amongst The Waves" sounds just like a lot of Celine Dion songs or like 100 generic adult adult contemporary songs I would understand you. (But I wouldn't agree) I'm just being a bit pedantic I guess. A song could be a totally inventive power ballad and I could probably imagine Celine Dion singing it. That wouldn't make it generic just because she wrote generic music.

Forgive me for assuming that the typical RM user would associate Celine Dion with generic adult contemporary music. I should have known better.

I can't say the song sounds like 100 Celine Dion or adult contemporary songs because I do not listen to Celine Dion or adult contemporary songs by choice, I just know what the genre sounds like from its presence in the mainstream and pop culture, and this involves typical standard song structures, big epic choruses with simple imagery, lyrics about souls being saved, etc. I simply thought the fact that ATW just generally sounds like this type of music spoke volumes in itself. I guess that's too subjective to be of any substance.

theplatypus wrote:

harmless wrote:

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:True story: ATW is only as generic as GTF. I can't believe that people won't admit this just because they like one and not the other.

um, no. i know they kinda sound alike b/c of the rise and fall, but GTF isnt generic, or bland, or boring, or any other word you wanna use. unless stealing from led zeppelin is now considered generic.

Of course it isn't, because you like it. But my initial impression of GTF, all those years ago, was that it was better when it was called 'In the Name of Love' by U2.

WHAT?!?

edit: just caught up to your explanation further down in the thread. Still, this comparison is so strange to me.

Welcome to my world. I'm being flippant comparing it to that song particularly, at the time I didn't have a specific song in mind, just... I knew I'd heard it before. This felt like PJ doing that type of song, rather than 'a PJ song' (whatever that is, or was at the time). And all these years later, PJ are still being accused of the same thing: attempting different styles of music using songs as a foil for that fun they're having (which they'll call 'experimenting'). Sometimes it works and other times it doesn't, but this band pilfers, you know?

LikeLukin wrote:

Mike wrote:I just don't see how "I can imagine Celine Dion singing it" is an explanation for a song being generic. If you told me you think "Amongst The Waves" sounds just like a lot of Celine Dion songs or like 100 generic adult adult contemporary songs I would understand you. (But I wouldn't agree) I'm just being a bit pedantic I guess. A song could be a totally inventive power ballad and I could probably imagine Celine Dion singing it. That wouldn't make it generic just because she wrote generic music.

Forgive me for assuming that the typical RM user would associate Celine Dion with generic adult contemporary music. I should have known better.

I can't say the song sounds like 100 Celine Dion or adult contemporary songs because I do not listen to Celine Dion or adult contemporary songs by choice, I just know what the genre sounds like from its presence in the mainstream and pop culture, and this involves typical standard song structures, big epic choruses with simple imagery, lyrics about souls being saved, etc. I simply thought the fact that ATW just generally sounds like this type of music spoke volumes in itself. I guess that's too subjective to be of any substance.

Yeah, I totally know what you mean and I do associate Celine Dion with generic adult contemporary music. I just had a problem with how Amongst The Waves is generic just because you could imagine someone that makes generic music singing it. I could imagine her singing alot of non-generic songs.
I get where you're coming from saying Amongst The Waves is generic if it sounds like all that generic crap to you.
What makes you think of Celine Dion in Amongst The Waves? Is it everything or just Eddie?