Do you understand your favourite song?
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Category: Other music related lounges
Forum Name: General Music Discussions
Forum Description: Discuss and create polls about all types of music
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=112020
Printed Date: April 26 2024 at 08:59
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Topic: Do you understand your favourite song?
Posted By: condor
Subject: Do you understand your favourite song?
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 09:08
| And is that a good thing? |
Replies:
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 09:13
| Do people have a favorite song, just one? 'cause i don't, I have favorite songs (as in plural), I listen to a lot of genres and subgenres of music, so I can't pick just one particular song. |
Posted By: condor
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 09:17
| I guess enough people have a favourite song to make the question worthwhile, even if it's a short-term favourite. |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 09:27
I guess so, but I don't so I can't participate here :(
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condor wrote:Posted By: BaldJean
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 09:35
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understand how? lyrically or musically? -------------  A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 09:40
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Not prog, but one of my favourites is David Bowie's "Life on Mars." I understand that while it seems nonsensical and I think Bowie called it absurdist or some such thing, it's a surreal song that says something about entertainment meets life, entertainment as life, the desire for escapism, superficiality and the banality of existence. As for if understanding your favourite song is a good thing, if I am reading you correctly, well, why not? I value understanding or at least forming my own impression of something. ------------- Just a fanboy passin' through. |
Posted By: Magnum Vaeltaja
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 09:45
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Right now, my favourite song would have to be Yes' The Remembering. ------------- when i was a kid a doller was worth ten dollers - now a doller couldnt even buy you fifty cents |
Posted By: mechanicalflattery
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 09:51
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Pharoah Sander's Let Us Go Into The House of the Lord is probably my favorite piece of music, but it has no lyrics. My favorite track with lyrics is probably Joanna Newsom's Emily, followed by The Doors' The End. In both those cases, I likely understand the general gist of the song, but plenty of lyrical details elude me. I rarely pay attention to lyrics these days though, and even more rarely contemplate them separately from the music.
I'm assume by understanding, you meant lyrics.
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Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 10:28
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my favourite song is below-Lucky Girl by Triumvirat; the lyrical content is pretty average, but Helmut Koellen's lyrical delivery is stupendous, as the song is instrumentally, with a stunning synth solo courtesy of Juergen Fritz that knocks you socks off! In the lyrical content, there is not that much going on, but I sure understand why I consider it my fave song, as I have explained above, but, I am not a musician, so don't know it, technically. |
Posted By: fredyair
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 11:07
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I do, in my own limited way of course, if I have to choose just one favorite song without hesitation I take Pink Floyd's Echoes, the music is the background score of the Universe and the lyrics talk about life evolution on planet earth and the meaning of being a sentient, empathetic human being.
https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-echoes-lyrics#note-2401596" rel="nofollow - Strangers passing in the street - And I am you and what I see is me https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-echoes-lyrics#note-1271922" rel="nofollow - And do I take you by the hand https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-echoes-lyrics#note-3946595" rel="nofollow - And help me understand the best I can? ------------- Long live Progresive music! |
Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 17:19
| Hard to define "Favorite Song", since there are many reasons I like certain songs, like the memories they bring, the way I enjoy them while driving, looking at the rain, Lyrical content, etc. So I like to relate them for a particular reason, and listen/enjoy them that way. |
Posted By: Junges
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 17:27
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What do you mean by understand? How can you understand music? You enjoy it. There's nothing there to understand. ------------- 
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Posted By: Tillerman88
Date Posted: September 30 2017 at 18:14
Lyrically and/or musically? C'mon .... once I fully understand its lyrics ...that's all about it man. Now, whenever a song lasts the most as my favourite, oh boy!... I just manage to understand something freaking new every damn time I listen to it. ------------- The overwhelming amount of information on a daily basis restrains people from rewinding the news record archives to refresh their memories... |
Posted By: maryes
Date Posted: October 01 2017 at 07:10
I agree
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Posted By: progbaby
Date Posted: October 01 2017 at 07:36
| I never did understand "Suppers ready". |
Posted By: progaardvark
Date Posted: October 02 2017 at 06:42
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I don't understand anything. ------------- ---------- i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag that's a happy bag of lettuce this car smells like cartilage nothing beats a good video about fractions |
Posted By: Squonk19
Date Posted: October 23 2017 at 17:13
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Siberian Khatru - Yes! A wonderful song (not my favourite, but well up the list!) I honesty haven't a ******* clue what Jon Anderson is on about - something about nature? But somehow the sound imagery works! In fact most Yes lyrics are like that.....but I suppose that's what makes them timeless. ------------- “Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.” |
Posted By: Tillerman88
Date Posted: October 23 2017 at 18:01
Right you are about. No need to understand my love. ------------- The overwhelming amount of information on a daily basis restrains people from rewinding the news record archives to refresh their memories... |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: October 23 2017 at 19:08
| I have no idea what close to the edge is about and I don't think most fans do either. Suppers Ready seems to have some religious connotation but I don't really know what that one is about either. |
Posted By: Larkstongue41
Date Posted: October 23 2017 at 19:19
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^ Close to the Edge is about Herman Hesse's Siddartha, a buddhist story of enlightenment. ------------- "Larks' tongues. Wrens' livers. Chaffinch brains. Jaguars' earlobes. Wolf nipple chips. Get 'em while they're hot. They're lovely. Dromedary pretzels, only half a denar." |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: October 23 2017 at 19:48
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Understanding is overrated, I guess. Well I can sleep well believing that the singer doesn't understand what the lyrics say either. Neither do I understand how Jaki's drumming can make this song one of the best songs ever whereas 100% every other drummer in the world would totally ruin the magic. |
Posted By: aldri7
Date Posted: October 23 2017 at 23:07
I pretty much agree, especially with prog. But then Big Big Train wrote The Underfall Yard, an unlikely song about a civil engineer. My dad was dying at the time and he was a civil engineer too. How many songs about civil engineers do you know of? :) Anyway, since music kind of came between us when I was coming of age and adversly affected our relationship, I thought he might want to know that anyone that writes music about a civil engineer cant be all bad. So I sent him a link to the song. Predictably, it was thumbs up for the subject matter but not the music. But I think its a great piece even not knowing what it was about. Knowing the lyrics in this case was like icing on the cake, and its still about the only prog songs that I can regularly choke up on a bit. aldri7 |
Posted By: dbeckton89
Date Posted: October 24 2017 at 02:42
| Depends how deep you're looking, you can take anything from any song if you really want to. |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: October 24 2017 at 04:26
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Not a fav, but I always liked Moonlight Shadow by Oldfield. Don't have a clue to what the lyrics are about but that adds to the song's mystique I believe. ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: M27Barney
Date Posted: October 24 2017 at 04:36
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How do I 'know' that my interpretation matches any in any other consciousness. Clearly - there are people on this site that interpret their 'internal Representation' of 'More Fool me' as some monumental epic? How else can I comprehend that they actually think that track is better than their 'internal representation' of 'The Battle of Epping Forest' which is 'Soppy short love-song'......
------------- Play me my song.....Here it comes again....... |
Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: October 24 2017 at 10:55
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Probably not. ------------- |
Posted By: Cosmiclawnmower
Date Posted: October 24 2017 at 14:03
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I know what I feel when I hear it and where it will take me. Beyond that I am not interested in 'Understanding'. ------------- |
Posted By: Vompatti
Date Posted: October 24 2017 at 14:05
| Yes, I am highly intelligent. |
Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: October 26 2017 at 09:43
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Posted By: hellogoodbye
Date Posted: October 26 2017 at 14:16
| I don't understand the question, but, like Greg, probably "Life on Mars". |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: October 26 2017 at 14:32
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I'll tell you. I've seen a lot of them, and most of them were pictures on a wall... back at some place that... doesn't even exist anymore. Some of them are... right here in this room. And some of them are... they're still out there somewhere, doing what they always do. Going up each day in a hurtling piece of machinery... putting their hides out on the line... hanging it out over the edge... pushing back the outside of that envelope and hauling it back. But there was... one I once saw that I think truly did have the right... - Gordo Cooper ------------- "It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: October 27 2017 at 02:37
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I have a couple that are 'tied' Solsbury Hill Specifically about Gabriel leaving Genesis . Wider meaning - spiritual freedom Wish You Were Here Specifically Syd Barrett (of course the whole album is about him!) . Wider meaning - missing friends or loved ones not necessarily passed away but because they are just away of like Syd not themselves anymore. |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: October 30 2017 at 12:10
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I can't say I have a favorite song....quite a few ring my bell...but I think I 'get' most of them.....might be a few that are bit cryptic.......the title track from ITCOTCK is one of my faves...not sure what the mythical and stately references are all about though.....observations on life in the court and realm of a mythical magical kingdom...? ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: October 31 2017 at 05:43
Seconded. My favourite prog song is probably "And You And I" - do I understand it lyrically? Not really. Anderson has said his lyrics are written for the sound of the words rather than any deep meaning.
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Posted By: Davesax1965
Date Posted: October 31 2017 at 07:12
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"Understand" probably works if you're the original composer. It's like novels. Novelists and poets, you'd presume, "understand" what they've written, but I'm reminded that Ted Hughes famously didn't understand his poetry. He just wrote what sounded right. If you've not composed the music, well. Levels of understanding. You'll have an interpretation of it and that's fine, that's your interpretation. Works for you ? Good. I play my music to people and they say wow, that bit reminds me of...... (insert unusual situation) and I think fine, if that's how you interpret it, great. Most of the time, I don't understand what I've played or composed. I just "grok" it, really. Conclusion I've come to ? Music is subjective, not objective. ------------- |
Posted By: condor
Date Posted: October 31 2017 at 15:16
Musically. I can understand most lyrics because I'm a poet. Just don't ask me to explain them
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Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: October 31 2017 at 17:56
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Well, I still think "Dancing In The Streets" is about demonstrations, uprising citizen and all that jazz. |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: November 01 2017 at 05:13
OK, now I'm confused as to what you mean by understanding a song "musically".
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