Red Mosquito

harmless wrote:

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:Let's be honest. These aren't great lyrics:

"I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you all day.
I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you always."

But the superb delivery makes them work.

we could make an entire thread of so-so lyrics that sound awesome when eddie vedder sings them

Indeed. So maybe all this moaning about lyrics (on my part) is a red herring. His delivery used to be so powerful, and the problem might just be that he doesn't 'act' songs right anymore. There's a certain amount of method acting in reading poetry, and I'm sure that's true of songs as well.

WtOB? wrote:oh. i wish they were both "always".

Heathen wrote:

McParadigm wrote:

harmless wrote:To be fair, the reason I like great lyrics from PJ is that the vocals are so good. When the vocal and delivery is great but the lyrics aren't, it's pretty jarring. (And vice versa.)

Part of writing great lyrics is fitting word and phrase to the context and delivery. I think when people talk about whether or not they care about lyrics, they're talking about lyrics the way you might think of a poem...as an artfully crafted expression of thought that uses form and phrase to attempt something beyond the simple profundity of normal written communication.

The problem with this is that lyrics exist within the confines of the music...they're made to order for that purpose....and they either feed the performance or they deter from it.

Sometimes being a strong lyrical writer just means knowing that, within the context you and the band have already created, if you're going to slide your vocals down the scale a bit just before a transition into a big chorus in the hopes of "selling" that transition, a headshake of a phrase like "someone who takes the rope, and just lets go" is an affecting fit for the emotion inherent to that delivery. Or that, as the first drops of watery piano starts sprinkling over the ominous but driving bedrock already laid down, "Hurricane has the trade winds blowin'" is the kind of phrase that works to enhance that growing sense of danger. Then, with that moment laid down and a need to spike upwards lest the vocal melody become mundane, "gale force" is a wonderful phrase to yelp out for what will ultimately feel like a semi-panicky cry within the song.

At the end of the day, saying the vocal melody and performance matter but lyrics don't doesn't add up, because the lyrical construction is there to enhance both those entities. Although if I'm wrong, please say so and we can start a sign campaign on the new tour for a lyrical reworking of Even Flow into a song called "I Really Really, Really Really, Really Miss You...

Spoiler: show

....Adolf Hitler."

Nobody besides us and the band would even notice.

I'd be all for it if Ed could actually make it sound great.

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:Let's be honest. These aren't great lyrics:

"I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you all day.
I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you always."

But the superb delivery makes them work.

we could make an entire thread of so-so lyrics that sound awesome when eddie vedder sings them

Indeed. So maybe all this moaning about lyrics (on my part) is a red herring. His delivery used to be so powerful, and the problem might just be that he doesn't 'act' songs right anymore. There's a certain amount of method acting in reading poetry, and I'm sure that's true of songs as well.

honestly, i think he "acts" too much now adays w/ the hand gestures and posturing and whatnot. just sing the song and "act" how it makes you feel.

harmless wrote:

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:Let's be honest. These aren't great lyrics:

"I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you all day.
I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you always."

But the superb delivery makes them work.

we could make an entire thread of so-so lyrics that sound awesome when eddie vedder sings them

Indeed. So maybe all this moaning about lyrics (on my part) is a red herring. His delivery used to be so powerful, and the problem might just be that he doesn't 'act' songs right anymore. There's a certain amount of method acting in reading poetry, and I'm sure that's true of songs as well.

honestly, i think he "acts" too much now adays w/ the hand gestures and posturing and whatnot. just sing the song and "act" how it makes you feel.

Yup. There's definitely a lot of posturing now. Maybe that's just Old Rockstar Syndrome.

WtOB? wrote:

harmless wrote:

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:

warehouse wrote:

harmless wrote:Let's be honest. These aren't great lyrics:

"I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you all day.
I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you always."

But the superb delivery makes them work.

we could make an entire thread of so-so lyrics that sound awesome when eddie vedder sings them

Indeed. So maybe all this moaning about lyrics (on my part) is a red herring. His delivery used to be so powerful, and the problem might just be that he doesn't 'act' songs right anymore. There's a certain amount of method acting in reading poetry, and I'm sure that's true of songs as well.

honestly, i think he "acts" too much now adays w/ the hand gestures and posturing and whatnot. just sing the song and "act" how it makes you feel.

Yup. There's definitely a lot of posturing now. Maybe that's just Old Rockstar Syndrome.

there's also not much "feel" going on with any of the band members.

evenslow wrote:Guys, this isn't the Zapruder film.

harmless wrote:

evenslow wrote:Guys, this isn't the Zapruder film.

What's the Zapruder film?

evenslow wrote:

harmless wrote:

evenslow wrote:Guys, this isn't the Zapruder film.

What's the Zapruder film?

It has to do with the brain of JFK.

keeponjammin89 wrote:Hey guys any chances you think they will put out another single before the albums put out or no?

Lounge Lizard wrote:

keeponjammin89 wrote:Hey guys any chances you think they will put out another single before the albums put out or no?

Future Days