From: Greg Hatmaker, gregh@mpinet.net Subject: Re: Differing Opinions Date: 2/10/2002 12:37:10 AM To: Salonen@aol.com Reprieve goes in all different directions, and I couldn't have anticipated a single one of them. Stirs my cosmic egg over easy. Pink Floyd me. Rock me. Roll me. Love it. Love it when Steve starts to really go in this song. Didn't know he had it in him, and now that I do, I can only just wonder what other surprises he has for us. Love it when the guitars freak out. Love everything about Reprieve. Makes the whole damn thing worthwhile and there you are. And that bit about watching you sleeping like a buddha...wouldn't any of you ladies want Steve peeking in on you and tucking you in after a night of too much tequila? Knowing Steve is keeping vigil has gotta be much better than worrying about whether the guy whose place you ended up at at is going to come in with a flashlight and speedos and start doing the big shoe dance. And if you're good (or even if you're not) Steve might even make you vegetarian delights for breakfast...or so I've been told. Might make the whole damn song worthwile if you try to listen to it again. Night Friends...kinda Phil Collins-ish when he was bigger than god, kinda Miami Vice Soundtrack-ish when everyone was wearing pink blazers and white t-shirts...but, you know, I don't mind that I see the Metrorail gliding on neon rails through downtown Miami in this song. I don't mind that I see Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay going at it in and out of tunnels and flourescent lights on the el in Risky Business. And then Steve does this up and down thing with his voice there in the middle, and, although I know it's been done before by someone somewhere, I know that it is just the thing I've always wanted Steve to do. Talk about your diction, why complain? What about when Steve sings, just *how* he sings "the otherworlds." Send me, Steve. Fucking send me. Damn straight I've been waiting for those otherworlds to sneak up to my own. Owwwwwnnnnn. Stretch it out. Fuck what anyone thinks. Yeah. Pianoguitarmood Slowdive me. Back to Phil Collins. So what. Love it. LOVE IT. So much that I can swallow down that friennnnnnds bit and get past it without letting it ruin the song for me, cos I know Steve's going to get back to that up and down part with his voice and that birdman nonexistent separate soul loving we've been hating part. There is not one song on this album that I want to skip over. There is no other order for me to throw these in. Song for the Asking? There's this movie I've never seen and I've forgotten its name, but I saw this interview of an actress in the movie, and she explains this part where this Irish lad and Irish lass are in a disco and they proceed to court each other. Guy goes up to the girl and asks her (imagine thick sing-songy Irish accent), "Are ya dancin'?" and the girl continues the courtship by throwing the sarcastic curve, "Well are you askin'?" which causes the guy to pause a bit but then the guy reasserts himself and insists incredulously, "Well I'm askin'" and so the girl smirks and gives in as if it was obvious all along, conceding, "Well then I'm dancin'." I think of Steve and how you might not think that he would have to ask, how the ladies backstage would fall all over themselves with their eyes and do all the work for him. But what about when Steve, all worked up from the pleasure bots goes home to the old ball and chain and really wants some? What about when Steve has to ask for it? Beg for it? I can just hear him now.... "Are ya dancin'? Cos this is a song for the askin', and I'm askin' real bad..." Love it! And I bet Marty(?) had a lot of fun doing the harmonies on this one. What a kick! I mean, on how many Church songs have they allowed themselves to do something so smooth and kitschy. But, you know what? It works. Works for me, anyway. "Yeah yeah yeah." Who'd want to get rid of that? Get rid of the dirty clothes on the bed, the covers and the sheets, and get out the oils and the candles instead. "Yeah yeah yeah." But there's an intimacy more than an urgency to this song. This is Steve asking a lover who is no stranger, whose ways are not unknown, but who still requires courtship, asking permission, and all the little details that set the mood. Didn't know that this was all taboo for a Church song... Radiance. Quintessential Church. Sing me another lullaby, Steve. So the circus drifts away, the carnival has ended. This is why I put my head into your hands again and again, album after album. Who else wants to hear the rest of that song? You know, the song that begins the Awful Ache? Yeah, that short reverb guitar intro with the violin going on. That's a song waiting to be finished. Finish it! Numbers. I'll say I was a bit perturbed when Steve tried to connect this to Sept 11th...maybe it's because he isn't American, maybe it's because I felt he had no business tying them together after the fact, maybe it's because Courtney Love was pulling the same psychic-friend shit at the same time and it was all rubbing me the wrong way. Stray allusions to cockpits and officers does not constitute a song about 19 deluded bastards flying two planes into the two tallest buildings in the world and killing off thousands of people in the process. It isn't the same as Creedence singing "It ain't me," or U2 singing "I can't believe the news today." Maybe U2 should stick to waving white flags around instead of sewing American ones to their jackets. Or maybe I've just chilled a little over the whole thing and accepted the gestures...Steve's....Bono's...for what they were, modest showings of solidarity. After all, Steve's had the incredible misfortune of having to live in New Jersey these past few years... So, anyway, I like Numbers. I know every word, and I'll sing it upon request if you require proof. Martyrs and stars. They really should've let those guitars reign at the end of Seen It Coming. Love it still, though. Another Earth was the song that desperately tried to be ringing and jangling and Church-like, where Seen It Coming does it effortlessly and newly. Lyrically Steve lets his hair down and sits on your couch. And do you really think Steve's going be smoking with Eve and Aurora coming over? No. So, hey man, what's the big deal about the "hey man" part? Tricka Tricka Boom Boom (somewhere over the rainbow). See, he told you they would make you smile. Hey man. Cheer up, man. Don't take her words to heart. I don't care what anybody says, you're a dime a *bakers* dozen. There are other fish in the sea. Next chance, though, you gotta try and be a little less of a fuckhead. How to end an album? It's not every album that we get an It Doesn't Change, or Hotel Womb, or Film. Invisible is Invisible to me no longer. It's the ending I've always wanted to hear (fade out). I don't understand why it took them however many albums to write this song. The Church have been writing this song since day one, since that moment we were all strangers. Yeah, I've left out a few. If you've been paying any attention, than you can probably just assume. That's right, loved 'em! g! At 01:05 AM 02/10/2002 EST, Salonen@aol.com wrote: >In a message dated 2/8/02 8:56:26 PM Pacific Standard Time, >jax3@earthlink.net writes: > > > .. I still cannot relate to Reprieve at all, > > > Now isn't that funny? I love that song beyond reason and who knows why. >Who knows why Jax can't relate to it. And yet, I'm not going to tell him to >clean the shit out his ears. ; ) I'm just sayin' that's cool. Jax doesn't >groove to that song like I do. I'm not yet able to groove to Night Friends. >And henceforth, there was peace on earth. > > Denise ; ) ------------------- another (cheap) box