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I just listened to this song for the first time a few nights ago. Really, how could Brian or his wifeandmanager, or anybody in his "camp" think that this song was good enough to get past the demo stage, much less good enough to make the cut on a commercially released record? Brian's vocal performance is so bad that I actually don't know whether to take it as a joke or not. Don't even get me started on the lyrics.  ::)

Yeah, that and Fairy Tale are the vocal clunkers on the album.   "Bee  BOP buh DURRR" on The Waltz and "and the flowers DIEEEEEEED" where his voice cracks and the auto-tune makes it sound *worse* on Fairy Tale...


and yet both are still better than Speed Turtle ^_^

I didn't notice the auto-tune on Fairy Tale. But then again, as soon as I heard just a breif second of the note, I just it off and put the cd back on the shelf. 


long live speed turtle!  ;D

Fairy Tale is indeed poor. The Walz is an amusing tune, not meant to be taken too seriously.

I think the backgrounds on Make A Wish sound terrible too.  I can only really listen to the first 6 songs and SMITC, but I don't really listen to any of it often.

it's one of those mysteries of the universe...words by VDP?!?!?

It is a "throwback" tune...I find those songs very sweet... probably sort of "girlie"...words like "cotillion" have not been used in about 50 years...and not unlike Gershwin...it was not promoted...some of these great songs are "targeted" to the female psyche...does any one not get that...the guys got the car songs and the girls get something, too!  "A love song to a car..." (Ballad of Ole Betsy)
A love song to a girl!   

And, I think also that "How Can We Still Be Dancin'?" should have been the "hook" single for the title...Elton's people would have bought anything that he put out, as many of us do with BW/BB and it was a pretty snappy song, IMHO...

Naming the album "Gettin" In Over My Head" makes the album lose some of the "upbeat" quality...it has a "drowning" connotation...even though it is a nice song, too...everyone seems to get "in over their heads" from time to time, in life...but we want to "still be dancing" through it, and victoriously come out the other side!

Under-promoted...and released too close in time to SMiLE...it is not his strongest but there are some nice songs...

And I wonder if it had been named "How Could We Still Be Dancin'?" - if it might have been a stronger strategy...Brian and Elton, working on promotion together might have been a blockbuster...Who would not go to see Brian and Elton (even a cameo) on the same stage?  or even the just for the TV promotion...

 ;)

I know this a dumb question, but I'm confused by the lyrics on "The Waltz".  The last line that goes "the first dance is just for her father".  Doe's this mean the singer is the father or has he been refused the dance because he's not the father.
 
 All in all not a bad song .One of the few highlights for me on the record.

I always took it to mean the former.

I took it to mean that the singer lost out on his chance with this beautiful creature back when they were in high school. But it could mean they got together just once, and that he is the father of her son....but that he's not her husband...

An amusing song.

He is not Longfellow...you can get the lyrics on lyricstime.com...look at the end-rhyme construction. He needed a word to rhyme with bother...father is close...and the first word "mater" - alma "mater" means mother...er at the end rhyme scheme.  Probably not a lot to "read into..."   

I agree with you that it is a cute little ditty...perhaps not "heady enough" for the pseudo intellectuals!  ;)

A truly wretched song. Musically old and tired, Lyrically dire and vocally painful to hear.

Just to add a non-conformist note to this thread... I generally prefer Brian's better vocals, venerate his 'Blue Christmas'-era voice and the SMiLE and Friends era, and rate these way higher generally than material in his post-'Love You'-era voice onwards, whatever apologists might say about his more 'manly' tones from that time. And sure, I can hear that many of the vocals on Getting In Over My Head are seriously sub-par (my pet hates are the wonky harmonies on the intro to You've Touched Me, which could have been lovely but aren't, and well, ALL of Fairy Tale).

But *despite* all of the above, I really, truly, honestly like The Waltz. I think it's great. And that's not out of misplaced love of Van Dyke Parks, either - it's pretty obvious that these are not exactly his most poetic or most beautifully realised lyrics. And yet... I *still* love The Waltz. There is no escaping it. And, it would seem, no accounting for taste. I sort of like it in spite of my general preferences in BW-land.

Weird, huh?

In fact, I gave Getting Way Out Of My Range a spin the other day, and I honestly think some tracks are OK. Not Brian Douglas's masterpieces, but they're OK. I can hack a decent EP out of the album, no problem. For me, The Waltz would be the only survivor from Side 2, though. Throw in the opening track, Soul Searching, the title track, Desert Drive... and the Waltz. Maybe You've Touched Me (minus the bloody awful intro) and A Friend Like You, which I also have an inexplicable weakness for, and you have a CATP-style mini-album!

It's got a bum rap, I tells ya.

MattB

Matt - Don't be intimidated. 

If I had to choose a Side A and Side B for a single (old-fashioned 45 rpm style) it would be "How Can We Still Be Dancin'?" for Side A and for Side B - it would be "The Waltz." 

To Thine Own Self Be True...

Don't listen to the critics!  ;)

Bring it on!!!!  :lol :lol :lol

Single? What's that?

Put me down as one who really likes "The Waltz". Brian's sloppy vocal is actually perfect for this "down-from-the-mountain"- style number, and I believe Parks' lyrics are intentionally ambiguous. It's really one of the best marriages of music, arrangement, lyrics and vocals of Brian's recent output. I'm not saying it's one of his best recordings of late, but all of the parts work well with each other which is something that can't be said of most of the IMAGINATION album for instance.

Oh yeah, and "Fairy Tale" is pretty awful.

An unmarried person. It can be either one who's not willing to marry, or one who's not eligible enough. Sad, that. It can also be a so-called 'swinging single', i.e. a person who listens to bachelor-pad space-age music all day long, whose source of income is mysterious, and whose sexual appetite is, shall we say, around force 13 'auf der nach oben offenen Richter-Skala'.

I hope this helps.

A "hypothetical" 45 rpm pie-in-the-sky "single" - not in the sense of marital status "single" unmarried, unwilling, unable to commit to a monogamous, etc., etc.,etc., - cannot sprechen sie deutsche...you are  multilingual marvel!

You are Waltzing-ly hilarious!  ;)

Danke schön, Tochter des Strandes. Ich habe die Ehre Ihnen kundig zu machen von meiner tiefen Bewunderung bezüglich Ihrer eleganten und aufschlußreichen Postings auf dieser Web-Adresse. Ich werde heut'abend einen guten Rotwein auf Ihre Gesundheit trinken!

I think VDP's contribution to this "song" was the word catilion, and, possibly, angora sweater.  ;D

You know what...? I'm going to do something I never thought I'd do again. I'm going to listen to GIOMH in its entirety, on headphones.  First time in years. The alternate Imagination mixes made me appreciate the original album a bit more, although the mix made me cry bloody tears. Let's see what time does to this one...


Essay coming later in the albums section ^_^

Bravo!  You are open minded!   :happydance :-*

You think he'll return in any human-like shape?

Whoh there Mr Castillo... I'm not sure I would go as far as listening to GIOMH unedited in one go. I can stand my cut-down mini-album version just fine. But if you're trying to sit through the whole thing 'neat and uncut', as it were, I predict you'll start to tremble around 'Make A Wish', shake seriously by 'Saturday Morning In The City', and crack completely... around the time Brian's voice does in 'Fairy Tale'.

Let us know how it goes, though!

MattB

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,48.msg161947.html#msg161947

:D