It's My Life vs the Riddle
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=87545
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Topic: It's My Life vs the Riddle
Posted By: Icarium
Subject: It's My Life vs the Riddle
Date Posted: June 12 2012 at 14:49
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two of the alltimes classics of 80s pop/new wave scene and two of the most distinct songs, who is a bit different, wiht a intellegent theme, lyrics to the song, not only random words, true meaning is convayed also what is the best video -------------  
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Replies:
Posted By: Fox On The Rocks
Date Posted: June 12 2012 at 15:05
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Talk Talk by quite a bit. ------------- 
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Posted By: lucas
Date Posted: June 12 2012 at 15:41
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I prefer the talk talk song. ------------- "Magma was the very first gothic rock band" (Didier Lockwood) |
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: June 13 2012 at 18:04
| Talk Talk easily, though the Kershaw is still a decent song. |
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: June 13 2012 at 18:08
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Also, this is quite amusing (it's Nik Kershaw himself): "What's the answer to "The Riddle"?
It amazes me that people are still asking me this question. I spilled the beans a few years ago now so this isn't exactly news. My producer (Peter Collins) came over to my house just before we commenced recording on the second album to hear how I was getting on with the writing. He went away saying he thought it sounded great but didn't think I had the first single. Incensed by this, I went straight up to the spare room and got the chords and melody together for the Riddle. This must've taken all of twenty minutes. Knowing time was short before we started recording I jotted down some jibberish with the intention of writing the real lyric as we were recording it. About a week later we started recording and I threw a rough guide vocal down using the jibberish lyrics. As the album progressed, I tried various different lyric ideas but nothing seemed to fit as well as the guide lyric. So we decided to stick with what we had. "Let's call it the Riddle", I thought. Then people would think it was actually about something. I had completely underestimated the fuss this would cause and, to make matters worse, the marketing and promotions people at MCA decided to make a competition out of it (without telling me). The response was unbelievable. We got sack loads of mail with elaborate and detailed analysis of the song. Line by line, word by word. Some were the size of small novels. Some even made sense!! People stopped me in the street to give me their thoughts and theories. On one occasion I arrived to do a live Radio 1 interview with a certain DJ only to find he'd told the great British public that I would be "revealing all" on his show. He was most put out when I wouldn't (couldn't) co-operate. It all got a bit out of hand and, very quickly, passed the point at which I could come clean without pissing off a lot of people. In short, "The Riddle" is nonsense, rubbish, bollocks, the confused ramblings of an 80's popstar. Please forgive me. I knew not what I did." |
Posted By: Icarium
Date Posted: June 14 2012 at 11:39
I still like the meaning the lyrics give me, even if it is totaly bullocks   i like bullocks lyrics which can give a meaning different from all who hear/read it, to me it have a fantasy/adventure, + midleeastern flavour and a certain celtic flavour to it, both melodic vice and song vice, the chords on the song is mxing midleeastern, arabic melodies merging with celtic, old traditional english melodies, to a nice crossover melodie of both -------------
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Posted By: The Dude
Date Posted: June 15 2012 at 08:43
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Second post! Please forgive my intrusion. I loved 'The Riddle' when I was a kid and recently picked up the album, which is a pretty good slice of 80s pop. Talk Talk, however, is a cut above IMO. Their material and execution is very strong throughout all their albums and this song is no exception.
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