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#121981 02/04/04 09:21 AM
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take one more STEP

is how it should go, but you get that

take one MORE step
[e.a.]


How so? For me that simply reinforced the meaning that there have been a lot of steps taken already but.



#121982 02/04/04 11:49 AM
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simply reinforced the meaning

I've rolled them both around on my tongue and I don't hear the McLean rhythm as being natural for the emphasis you're suggesting. I get that meaning just from the syntax of the whole statement. I stand by my analysis. Not that it's bothered me as much as it seems to bother Only Doug. Just another tick on the old why-do-they-provoke-such-visceral-reactions life list.


#121983 02/04/04 11:54 AM
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why-do-they

I heard once that fanaticism is the surest sign of doubt...



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#121984 02/04/04 11:59 AM
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the surest sign of doubt

So, cygne, get to Boston much? Know how to tell who made eye contact?


#121985 02/04/04 05:15 PM
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Just another tick on the old why-do-they-provoke-such-visceral-reactions life list.

Speaking of "but", "door step" goes up and in, "more step" comes down and out...

...talk to me...

*********

Only Doug?

It sounds like such a Lonely Doug!


#121986 02/05/04 05:03 AM
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For many other songwriters, and I have to say for artists (painters) too, my personal opinion is that quite often there isn't any "deep" [significant look e] meaning. They just put a bunch of words down that sound good together, because they sound good together.

Jackie, I have to emphatically disagree. As a songwriter the words are far too important to the telling of a story just be be some abstract collage thrown together, that's absurd. A good song always tells a story, especially in folk music, but even if it's a pop love song.
From Woody Guthrie, Bill Monroe, and Hank Williams, to George and Ira Gershwin and Cole Porter, to Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, and Joni Mitchell, et al...folk, rock, show, bluegrass, opera, country...the words *are important. There are some strange pieces that seem to make sense to the *writer (see MacArthur Park), but whose failure of imagery render them a *seeming abstraction, but no one writes lyrics without some purposeful cohesion to the words...that's what makes it a song. Even Frank Zappa's avant-garde, "abstract" lyrics were chosen to create a cohesive motion in subtext to the music.

Yes, there were the Surrealists among the poets like Rimbaud who wrote in abstract imagery...but that was a certain "school," a "movement" in writing. But to say that a songwriter 'just puts a bunch of words down together because they sound good together' just isn't true. That's not a matter of opinion, that's just not what songwriting is all about. Certain songs may sound that way to you, but those are few and in-between. The majority of songwriters care about their words very deeply, it's their poety, their literature.



#121987 02/05/04 10:27 AM
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well said.



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#121988 02/05/04 10:30 AM
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who made eye contact

I see what you're sayin'...



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#121989 02/05/04 01:56 PM
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First, I didn't say "all", I said "many". Second, I said it was my personal opinion. Third and most importantly, I certainly didn't mean that songs are written with no coherence whatsoever, like the quotes in the fool-the-spam-filter thread. Fourth, I said "deep meaning". Q.E.D.:

YUMMY YUMMY

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.
I got love in my tummy,
And I feel like a-lovin you:
Love, you're such a sweet thing,
Good enough to eat thing
And that's just a-what I'm gonna do.
Ooh love, to hold ya,
Ooh love, to kiss ya,
Ooh love, I love it so.
Ooh love, you're sweeter,
Sweeter than sugar.
Ooh love, I wont let you go.

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy,
I got love in my tummy,
And as silly as it may seem;
The lovin' that you re giving,
is what keeps me livin'
And your love is like
Peaches and cream.
Kind-a like sugar,
Kind-a like spices,
Kind-a like, like what you do.
Kind-a sounds funny.
But love,honey
Honey. I love you.

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy,
I. got love in my tummy,
That your love can satisfy;
Love, you're such a sweet thing,
Good enough to eat thing
And sweet thing, that ain't no lie.
I love to hold ya,
Oh love, to kiss ya,
Ooh love, I love it so.
Ooh love, you're sweeter,
Sweeter than sugar.
Ooh love, I wont let you go.






#121990 02/05/04 07:22 PM
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Well said Jackie.

Also, I'm pretty certain I heard somewhere (YCLIU?) that Toto claim their song 'Africa' was written purely for sound - lyrics being chucked in and so on, with no attempt at profundity. America have apparently claimed the same for 'A horse with no name'.

cheer

the sunshine warrior


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