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10-19-2014, 02:02 AM | #1 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Posts: 1,695
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is Blank Page the best song Billy ever wrote?
always liked Blank Page but it never really hit me until this week, years after i thought i had exhausted SP's every mini-masterpiece to become obsessed with. musically, the whole '48 chords' thing is interesting, because the whole song is mostly G, Dm, Am, C, and Em, with a couple appearances of Cmaj7 and Fm. otherwise, it's this weird wandering lost cycle of those first five chords being switched around really subtly. re-reading billy's confessions and how it's about his "anger" toward his ex-wife, and the whole bit about the song hitting him as he's sitting at the piano finishing tracking what would've been an instrumental piece, and urgently trying to get Brad Wood to set up the vocal mic as he lays out the lyrics line by line, and how Wood is disinterested/not on the same....page... as Billy, and that this compounds the immense loneliness and isolation of the song. vocally, i think this is without a doubt Billy's best moment. i think the consensus here is that Adore has his best singing, and not to slag the rest of the record, but however they recorded those vocals, hot damn - soul melting.
"in bed, I was half dead tired of dreaming of rest" is so heartbreaking |
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10-19-2014, 02:14 AM | #2 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Location: Pancakes in my area
Posts: 1,545
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I clicked on this post expecting a yes or no answer.
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10-19-2014, 02:17 AM | #3 |
Braindead
Posts: 18,608
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Too bad it fades out
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10-19-2014, 02:19 AM | #4 |
Braindead
Posts: 18,608
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Why the hell would Brad Wood -- the guy hired to co-produce the album -- not be interested?
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10-19-2014, 02:34 AM | #5 |
Banned
Location: I believe in the transcendental qualities of friendship.
Posts: 39,439
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no
great thread |
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10-19-2014, 02:44 AM | #6 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Posts: 1,887
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It's a great song, with some of his best lyrics and vocal performances, but it's a heavy song so it's not an easy listen for most people.
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10-19-2014, 03:15 AM | #7 | |
Apocalyptic Poster
Posts: 1,695
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Quote:
However, there were times in those first 6 weeks where the hassle was all worth it…the most magical moment of these first sessions came when we were set to record a long instrumental piece, at that time called “48 chords” (notable for the fact that the chord sequence did not uniquely repeat until 48 successive chords were played)…up until that point, I had not dealt with my divorce in any of the new songs, which I thought was odd considering the bitter fallout, but I blamed it on the fact that I was in a fairly new relationship and maybe just didn’t feel like getting into it (my girlfriend at the time forbade me to speak of my marriage)…I woke up early on a crisp, sunny morning, and reeled off a stream of consciousness type poem that seemed very much to deal with my anger towards my ex-wife…this surprised me, but I thought little more of it once I got in the shower…I typed it up, and put it in my pocket thinking I might rip off some of the better lines for a song as yet unwritten…I got to the studio, we miked up the piano, and fairly quickly nailed the long sequence of chords (I kept time by playing to a whole series of delays)…the basic concept is that I would put some guitar and strings over the top of it, creating a piece like something for a movie (one of the original ideas for Adore is that it would sound and feel more like a movie score, with instrumentals interspersed amongst the “sung” songs…) when I went into the control room, for some reason I pulled the poem out of my pocket while the boys were busy doing something technical, I started to sing the lines of the poem without much thought, and it was like something out of a dream…suddenly, the song rushed upon me, coming quicker than I could think it up…I got really excited, and ran out to a vocal microphone…”hurry, hurry, I pleaded”, fearful the feeling and the thought I was in would leave my body and never return…over the next 20 minutes, working line by line, I “laid” out the entire song…sadly, every time I asked Brad a question, he didn’t seem to have a solid answer, or feel as excited as I did about the piece…it was like I was trying to convince somebody their meal tastes better than it does…he just wasn’t “with” me, in lockstep…here I was, having one of the most exciting moments of my recording life, and I feel like I am in a boat by myself in the middle of the ocean…there was no one else to turn to at that moment (again, no band in the studio)…by the time I had finished singing all the lines, I had my mind made up…Brad would have to go… |
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10-19-2014, 03:18 AM | #8 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Posts: 1,695
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"stop sign told me to stay at home, told me you were not alone"
"the rain falls, my friends call, leaking rain on the phone" just gut-wrenching. but YES, thank you for pointing out the ridiculous fade, which ends on the word "indecision"...listening to the "early version" on the reissue going right into LMGTWTY, the latter makes so much sense as a closer...talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. |
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10-19-2014, 04:39 AM | #9 |
Socialphobic
Location: Your god damn living room
Posts: 10,000
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10-19-2014, 08:52 AM | #10 | |
dumb
Location: $8.6 million embezzled funds
Posts: 11,358
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Quote:
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10-19-2014, 09:35 AM | #11 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Location: some broken utopia
Posts: 2,055
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My ex g/f would play this song every time we had an argument or I got wasted and made a tit of myself. The good old days.
Last edited by Elijah Moon : 10-19-2014 at 02:05 PM. |
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10-19-2014, 10:25 AM | #12 |
Minion of Satan
Location: "I'm a quivering collection of the worst and least helpful emotions: fear, anxiety, terror, paranoia, indigestion, dishpan hands..."
Posts: 7,765
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this is one of those i'd usually skip back in the days.... :-/
I thought the lyrics were much better than the music or vocals. |
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10-19-2014, 10:25 AM | #13 |
Socialphobic
Posts: 11,831
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dat sadness
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10-19-2014, 10:26 AM | #14 |
Demi-God
Posts: 264
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10-19-2014, 10:26 AM | #15 |
Socialphobic
Location: montreal
Posts: 11,656
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billy shows up at the studio and quickly tells the guys he wants the piano mic'ed up for his 'idea' of the day that he's been blabbing on about for a few weeks. Brad has to sit and listen to billy ham fist his way through a directionless 48chord progression. Once that's done he' orders them to go set up the guitar amps & mics for that, it's an hour ordeal because billy wants X, X, X, X & X for today's setup. 15 mins into the setup Billy orders brad to drop everything and set up a mic for the vocal booth.... bla bla. artists can be the worst treating you like you're their slave. Imagine how you'd feel after 6 weeks of Billy bossing you! this go-nowhere piano instrumental - oh you want to add lyrics to it oh a whim - it gets done but don't expect enlightening enthusiasm.
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10-19-2014, 12:15 PM | #16 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Location: The Bay Area, CA
Posts: 2,226
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I didn't really "get" this song until very recently, either. It's certainly one of the hidden gems in the discography, (and there's a lot of those). In fact, it was after I had made a post here about "latest song obsessions" that I stumbled across a live performance and was instantly converted to the song. There's something so hypnotic about the track, and the vocals are so pleading and heart wrenching.
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10-19-2014, 01:01 PM | #17 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Location: some broken utopia
Posts: 2,055
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It's certainly one of his most consistently great lyrics.
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10-19-2014, 01:13 PM | #18 |
Pledge
Posts: 56
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It's a great song. A definite top 10 for me
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10-19-2014, 01:49 PM | #19 |
Minion of Satan
Location: "I'm a quivering collection of the worst and least helpful emotions: fear, anxiety, terror, paranoia, indigestion, dishpan hands..."
Posts: 7,765
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10-19-2014, 05:02 PM | #20 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Location: some broken utopia
Posts: 2,055
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What does he sing after, "You are a ghost of my indecision..."? I always heard it as "no more, little girl" or something but that's probably way wrong.
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10-19-2014, 05:04 PM | #21 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Location: some broken utopia
Posts: 2,055
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Oh, I just consulted Uncle Google and it seems that is what he actually sings there as it fades to nothing.
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10-19-2014, 06:19 PM | #22 |
Demi-God
Posts: 264
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10-19-2014, 07:21 PM | #23 |
Socialphobic
Location: montreal
Posts: 11,656
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i've never understood that fade out either. it's the most awkward fade out from any SP album song
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10-19-2014, 07:29 PM | #24 |
Socialphobic
Location: Your god damn living room
Posts: 10,000
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i almost get the impression that whoever was at the mixing/mastering board for that one just sort of went "okay, aaand that's enough of that" (slider fade)
that's more or less what it sounded like to me, at least on first listen like the where boys cut-off, i've just kind of become used to it by now |
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10-19-2014, 07:36 PM | #25 |
Oblivious Virgin
Posts: 41
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in 16 years i never once found the fade out awkward.
and it may not be the best song he's ever written (jesus that debate would never end), but it has remained my favorite. |
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10-19-2014, 07:41 PM | #26 |
Braindead
Posts: 18,608
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10-19-2014, 07:47 PM | #27 |
Ownz
Location: The o-board in my pants
Posts: 930
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"You are a ghost of my indecision no more little girl"
WHat a haunting way to end the album. I think the fade is absolutely spot on and emphasizes the broken and unresolved nature of the album. |
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10-19-2014, 07:48 PM | #28 | |
Braindead
Posts: 18,608
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Quote:
Actually after rifling through the Adore credits it appears that Brad Wood did do a great deal of engineering, but is credited as engineer for individual songs, whereas he is given an overall credit for "additional production". So yeah it is stupid to expect someone in that role to be enthusiastic about what you're doing, but at the same time it can be a downer when you're excited about a brain wave and no-one else seems to give a shit. |
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10-19-2014, 07:53 PM | #29 |
Braindead
Posts: 18,608
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10-20-2014, 11:39 AM | #30 | |
Demi-God
Posts: 264
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Quote:
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