begin with these:

my aim is true
this years model
get happy
extreme honey (best of the warner years)
when i was cruel

then get the rest.   

mandisa was the best singer.

uummmmm

"dani california"

is

"mary jane's last dance"

http://www.drownedinsound.com/content/view/866392

he can write good lyrics but he aint no musician/singer.

whoa.  i didn't say that about dylan.  i just alluded that i felt him more a songwriter than a poet, which is a varying degree in itself depending on the audience.

there is NO QUESTION, however, that he is a musician/singer.  he plays music.  and he sings.

and yes, to each his/her own....however, the mountain goats are better than NMH.   

why do the lyrics have to be real?

it's a good point you make.

bob dylan's 115th dream isn't real, but it's still awesome.  i guess the difference is, one is word play, and one is nonsense.  i can understand that they asked bob for collateral so he pulls down his pants.  but i can't understand being a king of carrot flowers or rattlesnakes falling at my holy feet.

i guess real as in....not jibber jabber.  so, in conclusion, if you are able to follow this post and make any sense of it whatsoever, you'd probably like NMH.   

don't get me wrong, i think NMH is good.  and the guy could very well be a poet.  but i'd take a songwriter over a poet anyday.  i just never got poetry.  but i can get all along the watchtower.

there may be nothing flowery about those NMH lyrics...but they're dank, they're not real, and they're not fun.  how 'bout you take something real, dank...and make it fun?  like the best songwriter today, john darnielle, can do?

alright I'm on johnson avenue in san luis obispo
and I'm five years old or six maybe.
and indications there's something wrong with our new house
trip down the wire twice daily
I'm in the living room watching the watergate hearings
while my step father yells at my mother.
launches a glass across the room, straight at her head
and I dash upstairs to take cover.
lean in close to my little record player on the floor.
so this is what the volume knobs for.

I listen to dance music.
dance music.


...i guess my main issue with NMH lyrics...is they never sound like they are real.  it's like, let's try and be as obtuse and indirect and flowery....flowery as in ironic.  no one can relate to lyrics like those NMH one's you listed.  unless you were actually freezing to death together with someone.  or, you actually knew of someone burying some girl's body with a bunch of other people.  or, your skin has blended itself with someone elses.  flowery.

not bad.  just not my cup of tea.  no neutral milk, please....i take only goat milk.

from one rabid fan to another!   peace!     

For me, Jeff Mangum is second only to Dylan as far as the richness and depth his lyrics provide if you take the time to really look inside them closely.    ...man, where is the barfing smiley.

this...

When you were young
You were the king of carrot flowers
And how you built a tower tumbling through the trees
In holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your feet

...is so overdone and wimpy and flowers and just means nothing and is generally something my three year old would write, compared to The Mountain Goats...

I hope I lie
And tell everyone you were a good wife
And I hope you die
I hope we both die

...John Darnielle is the best songwriter out there today.  Simple, direct, sincere, fun and powerful.

The Mountain Goats
The Sunset Tree
We Shall All Be Healed
Tallahassee
Sweden
The Coroner's Gambit
All Hail West Texas

...and a new album is due later this year.  Get off the Neutral Milk....try some Goat Milk...better for ya.

just my opinion of course.   

xanax makes me sh*t bricks.   

makes it hard to type when you gots all your fingers two knuckles deep.   

hard to play guitar that way too...just ask tal farlow!   

i am pooo

Ping right now...

yeah.

[That also has a wicked middle.]

"lonesome tears" from beck's sea change (best album of 2002, btw)   


"I Heard Her Call My Name" by the Velvet Underground.

That also has a wicked beginning.

That also has a wicked middle.

since no one has mentioned the mountain goats as THE major talent not getting noticed today, i'm just going to have to assume that all you people are insane.     

i listed to "earthling" way back when out of the blue.  the only bowie i'd heard before that was "ziggy stardust."

with wide open ears and no prior knowledge of where bowie's been, besides the hits of course, i took to earthling like a duck to water.

this may be true for all albums, but especially for this one....you gotta listen to this one loud.

on the "outside" note?  i listened to the cassette all the way through once.  my brother made me do it.  and since i liked "earthling" i felt i had nothing to lose.  i didn't lose anything, but i didn't gain anything.

your love for "outside" over "earthling" will make me give it a second shot.  i'm off to see if the library has any tin machine.  thanks.

I agree.  Everyday posts with a married member of the opposite sex?  Even if harmless, BAD IDEA.

I agree, it was the mocking that made Laurie finally come out and tell people about everything.  Mocking.  BAD IDEA.

I agree, BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION.

You kinda have to wonder what the motivation of someone is, when they blow things out of proportion.  Other things at work.  The animosity between Jon/John/Chuck, the deal with the Prof (whatever the hell that was...you see, you don't tell people things, they give things less credence...sorry!), the blind jokes, the photoshop pics, the deleted threads.....yadda yadda

Water under the bridge as long as it's clear that Chuck didn't rape or kill or threaten anybody. 

Laurie just got mad at being mocked (if no one knew about her telling Chuck she was uncomfortable about his daily PM's to her, then who would know Chuck was mocking her?).

Nobody's fault.  Somebody started throwing around terms like "sexual harrassment" though, and that is wrong.  BAD IDEA.  Show me the money, I'll show you there was no "sexual harrassment".  Just Chuck mocking someone, not taking someone seriously, and this other person getting mad about it...and getting revenge by having it be the last straw and inviting Jon/John to start a big ruckus and try to destroy this board they hate.

THE END

What I Gathered:

Laurie was creeped out by Chuck e-mailing her everyday, and it took a while for her to get up the courage enough to tell him so.

Chuck wasn't e-mailing her everyday out of creepiness, he thought it was a mutual thing, to greet each other everyday and carry on a "behind the scenes" PM relationship.

I would imagine that Arlene suddently felt out of the blue creeped out, because she remembered she had a husband, and she shouldn't be having "behind the scenes" PM relationships with anybody.

So she stops Chuck who thought he was being harmless, by telling him he's making her uncomfortable.  Chuck is mad because he was being harmless, and he's afraid that she'll spin on everybody that the opposite is true.  So he starts mocking her in public by saying that everything is "making him uncomfortable"...because if she was PM'ing him, why wouldn't she be PM'ing others about their PM's!!!

Jesus.  Anyways, here we are today, and we can see what happened and what didn't.

THE END

i agree.  this paley/wilson thing was so secret that person number one was ONLY allowed to tell four other people.   

time will tell.  if the same thing happens again over there, we'll know what the deal is.   

electronic lynching.  best post ever.  i agree with it.  octave doctor is the doctor, and the doctor is in.

the smile shoppers up in arms are self-righteous children.

everyone else seems to be cool.  if not, prove it.  if you can't, shove it.

i'm gonna drop this now.  but we'll see if this happens again "laurie".  (i use quotes because i don't know you or jon or charles or ian or anybody, just my computer screen) 

i assume you've taken measures to assure that doesn't happen again.  as an adult, i assume you can take care of yourself.

we'll see.  glad it's a new day.

typing words to somebody i don't know, and can't even prove exists...has never seemed serious to me in the least. 

now, should that someone come up to me on the street and pinch my ass?  well then, that's cause for alarm!   

as for these letters i'm typing and words i'm forming...don't let them bother you.  not only do i mean you or anybody any harm...they can absolutely do no one any harm.  i can prove it.

anyways, i'd never side for something bad like harrassment, or self-righteousness.  nope.  not never!

no one's saying any one is a victim.  in fact, if i were to say someone were a victim, i would say it is everybody.  now we're all into the drama and looking here and looking there to see what the deal is and what side we should be on.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=victim

at any rate, i just thought this would be the right topic to "ask charles" about what he said that offended laurie arleen. 

guess not.  no biggie!  words will never make ME a victim.   

hi costly bow.  i'm mike.  charles said something inappropriate to laurie arleen whatever her name is (wasn't she in the middle of the last mess?  i'd say this is strike two!  i kid, i kid) in private pm's.  certain people know, and they are throwing stones because they are sin-less.  i'd go over to the smile shop if i were you.  that's where all the innocent freaks hang!

http://thesmileshop.phpwebhosting.com/forum/index.php

i feel for ya chuck.  everybody makes mistakes.  especially on the internet.  things surely get blown out of proportion, don't they?

seems like being inaccessbile and unapproachable at this point in time would be a bad thing.

the only recourse is to go jimmy swaggert.

"Everything that I will attempt to say to you this morning will be from my heart. I will not speak from a prepared script. Knowing the consequences of what I will say and that much of it will be taken around the world, as it should be, I am positive that all that I want to say I will not be able to articulate as I would desire. But I would pray that you will somehow feel the anguish, the pain, and the love of my heart. I have always -- every single time that I have stood before a congregation and a television camera -- I have met and faced the issues head-on. I have never sidestepped or skirted unpleasantries. I have tried to be like a man and to preach this gospel exactly as I have seen it without fear or reservation or compromise. I can do no less this morning.

I do not plan in any way to whitewash my sin. I do not call it a mistake, a mendacity; I call it sin. I would much rather, if possible -- and in my estimation it would not be possible -- to make it worse than less than it actually is. I have no one but myself to blame. I do not lay the fault or the blame of the charge at anyone else's feet. For no one is to blame but Chuck LePage. I take the responsibility. I take the blame. I take the fault."

 

ask chuck.

what did you say?