Two main versions:
* "Full Version" (1981) - Chemical Playschool 2 (11:27)
* "Edited Version" (1981) - Kleine Krieg (6:40)
The Edited Version ends abruptly after the "Phallus Dei" section but is otherwise identical to the Full Version.
The Full Version is 6 sections mixed together:
1. 0:00 - 3:48 "Stars on Sunday." Discordant keyboard melody, sequenced squeaky synth, and Ka-Spel howling improvised lyrics in the background (something about dancing with a woman in a church, something about heaven). A segment of this appeared in "Break Down."
2. 3:48 - 3:48 The sped-up Russian chanting from the end of Mpnmep Cptaha crossfades between sections 1 and 3.
3. 3:58 - 6:07 A heavily-distorted drum pattern is played with lots of glitches, with a discordant improvised melody played over top and a buzzing-fly synth sound. More incomprehensible vocals; sections 1 and 3 may in fact be from the same recording session, with section 2 inserted to fill a quiet portion. Cuts off suddenly, and after a second of silence:
4. 6:07 - 6:50 A heavily-distorted section from "Phallus Dei" with lots of tremolo. Suddenly replaced by:
5. 6:50 - 9:20 A likewise distorted section from "Before the End," lyrics replaced by more improvised and impossible-to-hear vocals and an insectoid synth melody. The synth crossfades with...
6. 9:20 - 11:27 The Mpnmep Cptaha chanting, quiet vocals (something about "dancing shoes") that are impossible to hear, keyboard booping, and erratic snatches from "Before the End."
Why You Should Care:
Lyrics about a bride and groom being "stars on Sunday" appear in "The Wedding."
Showing posts with label Before the End. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Before the End. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Break Down
Two Main Versions
* "Full Version" (1981) - Chemical Playschool 1 (9:11)
* "Edited Version" (1981) - Prayer for Aradia Bonus Tracks (1:43)
The Edited Version starts in the same way, then fades out slowly. It is incorrectly referred to as "Fin" on the Prayer for Aradia CD.
AKA "Shit, It's Raining." Really two instrumental songs, both similar but with a distinct division between the two.
Unavailable elsewhere.
Instruments: Discordant sequenced keyboard playing repetative pattern. Three sequenced keyboards, one taking the lead and modulating in various ways, another quacking in a way that Ka-Spel uses during "Inferno/Illusion," a third playing a primitive four-note bassline; snatches of indecipherable sped-up vocals; backwards snippets from "Before the End"; the backwards guitar solo from the beginning of the Throbbing Keyboard version of "Thursday Night Fever; snippet from the beginning of "Stars on Sunday."
Why You Should Care:
Seems a bit like a prototypical "Premonition" song, being a long, listenable experiment that stays more-or-less within a single theme and uses elements from previous songs.
* "Full Version" (1981) - Chemical Playschool 1 (9:11)
* "Edited Version" (1981) - Prayer for Aradia Bonus Tracks (1:43)
The Edited Version starts in the same way, then fades out slowly. It is incorrectly referred to as "Fin" on the Prayer for Aradia CD.
AKA "Shit, It's Raining." Really two instrumental songs, both similar but with a distinct division between the two.
Unavailable elsewhere.
Instruments: Discordant sequenced keyboard playing repetative pattern. Three sequenced keyboards, one taking the lead and modulating in various ways, another quacking in a way that Ka-Spel uses during "Inferno/Illusion," a third playing a primitive four-note bassline; snatches of indecipherable sped-up vocals; backwards snippets from "Before the End"; the backwards guitar solo from the beginning of the Throbbing Keyboard version of "Thursday Night Fever; snippet from the beginning of "Stars on Sunday."
Why You Should Care:
Seems a bit like a prototypical "Premonition" song, being a long, listenable experiment that stays more-or-less within a single theme and uses elements from previous songs.
Brill
One main version:
* (1981) - Chemical Playschool 1 (5:53), Kleine Krieg (6:06), Prayer for Aradia Bonus Tracks (5:55)
The song fades in, contains samples from several other LPD songs in the middle, and then fades out at the end. Totally random and discordant. On Kleine Krieg it cross-fades at the end with a small suffix.
Instruments: Choppy keyboard melody; single drum machine pattern that is not followed by the other instruments; two vocal tracks; brief sped-up backwards chanting; snippets from other songs from Chemical Playschool 1 (see below for a list); sequenced keyboard melody fades in and out; sequenced keyboard with wildly oscillating pitch; occasional vocoder interjections with heavy distortion near the end.
Suffix "Choir" (0:22):
On Kleine Krieg the end of the song crossfades with a recording of what sounds like a cathedral choir, with organ synths and effects in the background. It cuts off abruptly.
What It's About:
My guess is that the lyrics are largely improvised. They're mostly patronizing statements about a "clever boy's" intelligence. Apparently this clever boy won a prize but he'd better run quick if he wants to escape with it.
Lyrics (adapted from the Cloud-Zero archive):
You won the star prize, surprise surprise.
Clever boy, lucky boy. Take the money and run.
Run, run before we change our minds.
Us widows are fickle. Run, run, run, run.
[The Christ of Jesus was ?]
Run, run, run. Run, run.
Run. Run. Run. Run.
[Snippets from the Full Band version of "Waiting for the Call / You 'n Me", "Phallus Dei," "Before the End," "Guess the Politician," and the Boopy Keyboards suffix from "Apocalypse Then"]
Oh you're such a clever boy,
Get out 'for the going's good, I told you.
Such a clever boy, your cranium's so wide, your forehead is so high.
You clever boy.
[?]
What a man, a born winner!
A winner!
And you've got such a good job in an office or a [?].
Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir, more bags, five bags, eighty bags alike!
[?]
Clever boy. Clever boy! [?]
[?] sonny [?]
Mom's little lad's a clever boy!
[The Christ of Jesus was ?]
Why You Should Care:
You shouldn't. This is the most annoying Legendary Pink Dots song ever...and yet they must have liked it because they also put it on "Kleine Kreig."
* (1981) - Chemical Playschool 1 (5:53), Kleine Krieg (6:06), Prayer for Aradia Bonus Tracks (5:55)
The song fades in, contains samples from several other LPD songs in the middle, and then fades out at the end. Totally random and discordant. On Kleine Krieg it cross-fades at the end with a small suffix.
Instruments: Choppy keyboard melody; single drum machine pattern that is not followed by the other instruments; two vocal tracks; brief sped-up backwards chanting; snippets from other songs from Chemical Playschool 1 (see below for a list); sequenced keyboard melody fades in and out; sequenced keyboard with wildly oscillating pitch; occasional vocoder interjections with heavy distortion near the end.
Suffix "Choir" (0:22):
On Kleine Krieg the end of the song crossfades with a recording of what sounds like a cathedral choir, with organ synths and effects in the background. It cuts off abruptly.
What It's About:
My guess is that the lyrics are largely improvised. They're mostly patronizing statements about a "clever boy's" intelligence. Apparently this clever boy won a prize but he'd better run quick if he wants to escape with it.
Lyrics (adapted from the Cloud-Zero archive):
You won the star prize, surprise surprise.
Clever boy, lucky boy. Take the money and run.
Run, run before we change our minds.
Us widows are fickle. Run, run, run, run.
[The Christ of Jesus was ?]
Run, run, run. Run, run.
Run. Run. Run. Run.
[Snippets from the Full Band version of "Waiting for the Call / You 'n Me", "Phallus Dei," "Before the End," "Guess the Politician," and the Boopy Keyboards suffix from "Apocalypse Then"]
Oh you're such a clever boy,
Get out 'for the going's good, I told you.
Such a clever boy, your cranium's so wide, your forehead is so high.
You clever boy.
[?]
What a man, a born winner!
A winner!
And you've got such a good job in an office or a [?].
Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir, more bags, five bags, eighty bags alike!
[?]
Clever boy. Clever boy! [?]
[?] sonny [?]
Mom's little lad's a clever boy!
[The Christ of Jesus was ?]
Why You Should Care:
You shouldn't. This is the most annoying Legendary Pink Dots song ever...and yet they must have liked it because they also put it on "Kleine Kreig."
Monday, February 11, 2008
Before the End
One main version:
* (1981) - Only Dreaming (4:06), Chemical Playschool Volume 2 (3:42), Prayer for Aradia CD Bonus Track (3:48).
Quick fade in. Near the end the effects and playing get chaotic, turning into static and feedback.
The "Only Dreaming" mix is different from the others (it's slowed down and the chaotic ending stops abruptly, like the master tape itself was stopped). The other mixes are identical except that the song fades out during the ending static on "Prayer for Aradia."
Instruments: Flanged bass guitar; vocals; occasional backup vocals, sometimes with heavy chorus ("Normal!"); organ chords possibly chopped up with tremolo and sometimes interspersed with chirpy keyboard; occasional quiet "fairytale" keyboard.
What it's about:
Through an increasingly unpleasant series of small-town archetypes, the narrator looks nostalgically back at life "before the end." We never find out what "the end" was, but when it came it brought mass panic and caused people to "all fall down" (a plague?) The real point of the song seems to be the flexible definition of "normal," which in this case includes shoplifting, suicide, and the behaviour of a "dial-a-prophet."
Lyrics (adapted from the Cloud-Zero archive):
Before the end the town was calm,
no cold panic, no alarm.
The pubs rang out with "Auld Lang Syne"
as a politician tossed a coin.
It was normal (normal).
Normal.
Before the end the children played
while old men watched them from the shade.
Bemoaned the heat, the price of tea,
discussed perverse psychology.
Normal (normal).
A-OK.
Before the end, in a darkened room
Tom waited for his best girl June.
Fingers crossed, he quietly prayed.
"Lie down," he whispered. She obeyed.
It was normal. Normal.
Ring a ring of roses, a pocket full of poseys.
A-tish-oo, a-tish-oo, all fall down.
'Cos we're normal. Normal (normal).
Before the end, in a crowded store,
Miss Demeanor broke the law.
Shifty eyes and sleight of hand,
slipped up a sleeve a sardine can.
Naughty -- tsk tsk -- but normal.
Before the end, in a cramped bedsit,
George slid a razor 'cross his wrist.
Bloody jeans, tearful eyes.
Unhooked the phone. Fed the mice.
Nasty.
Before the end, in a cushioned pod
Mr. Dial-a-Prophet looked for God.
Flaming throne to slice the sky
for mankind's last united cry:
"We're normal! We're normal!" (normal)
Can't happen to us. We're normal.
Normal. We're normal.
Why you should care:
It's one of many early-dots "chugging tremolo keyboard" songs, but the clever lyrics make up for it. It is all so deceptively cheerful.
* (1981) - Only Dreaming (4:06), Chemical Playschool Volume 2 (3:42), Prayer for Aradia CD Bonus Track (3:48).
Quick fade in. Near the end the effects and playing get chaotic, turning into static and feedback.
The "Only Dreaming" mix is different from the others (it's slowed down and the chaotic ending stops abruptly, like the master tape itself was stopped). The other mixes are identical except that the song fades out during the ending static on "Prayer for Aradia."
Instruments: Flanged bass guitar; vocals; occasional backup vocals, sometimes with heavy chorus ("Normal!"); organ chords possibly chopped up with tremolo and sometimes interspersed with chirpy keyboard; occasional quiet "fairytale" keyboard.
What it's about:
Through an increasingly unpleasant series of small-town archetypes, the narrator looks nostalgically back at life "before the end." We never find out what "the end" was, but when it came it brought mass panic and caused people to "all fall down" (a plague?) The real point of the song seems to be the flexible definition of "normal," which in this case includes shoplifting, suicide, and the behaviour of a "dial-a-prophet."
Lyrics (adapted from the Cloud-Zero archive):
Before the end the town was calm,
no cold panic, no alarm.
The pubs rang out with "Auld Lang Syne"
as a politician tossed a coin.
It was normal (normal).
Normal.
Before the end the children played
while old men watched them from the shade.
Bemoaned the heat, the price of tea,
discussed perverse psychology.
Normal (normal).
A-OK.
Before the end, in a darkened room
Tom waited for his best girl June.
Fingers crossed, he quietly prayed.
"Lie down," he whispered. She obeyed.
It was normal. Normal.
Ring a ring of roses, a pocket full of poseys.
A-tish-oo, a-tish-oo, all fall down.
'Cos we're normal. Normal (normal).
Before the end, in a crowded store,
Miss Demeanor broke the law.
Shifty eyes and sleight of hand,
slipped up a sleeve a sardine can.
Naughty -- tsk tsk -- but normal.
Before the end, in a cramped bedsit,
George slid a razor 'cross his wrist.
Bloody jeans, tearful eyes.
Unhooked the phone. Fed the mice.
Nasty.
Before the end, in a cushioned pod
Mr. Dial-a-Prophet looked for God.
Flaming throne to slice the sky
for mankind's last united cry:
"We're normal! We're normal!" (normal)
Can't happen to us. We're normal.
Normal. We're normal.
Why you should care:
It's one of many early-dots "chugging tremolo keyboard" songs, but the clever lyrics make up for it. It is all so deceptively cheerful.
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