"Democracy is A shambles." "IN shambles" is one of the most misused idioms. Which I know nitpicking grammar is unpopular and that the very nature of an idiom is that once we've abuse the idiom until it morphs into something that no longer makes logical sense, we still all agree that the idiom carries it's original meaning (e.g. "I could care less"). But "a shambles" is literally a bloody butchery floor. And so in this case, getting the idiom right not only carries the idiomatic meaning that democracy is a mess, but it also literally translates as "Democracy [in 2018] is a bloody butchery floor." And that is just too accurate to miss!
Sorry but "Pretty Fly" isn't accidentally woke...at all. In 1998, black culture was considered very worthy of ridicule. And so white people who "acted black" were considered extra worthy of ridicule. It's not a statement about appropriation; making a statement about appropriation, even an accidental one, would imply a certain amount of respect for the culture being appropriate. This song does the opposite: It sets out to make fun of someone for "acting black", and so by extension, black culture is implicitly being targeted as well. Interpreted that way, the song is right at home on an album that targets and blames criminals, the mentally ill, the jobless, and so on.
Sorry, I must have missed: What did Libertarians do to get you so angry? You obviously don't like them in general, but it seems like in this instance you're responding to something specific?
+1 to all that, and I'll add: The song might not have changed the world, but the event did. Globalization is a trite buzz word today. But try to imagine it's 1967, we haven't landed on the moon yet, color TV is two years old, a literal human operator connects your calls on the telephone...and they're using fucking space ships to broadcast The Beatles all around the globe.
What all these bands--FF, Bon Iver, the XX-- that "made it" in their third album have in common is: They went off and did other things for a few years until the hype settled.
Related, sort of: A friend of mine worked for the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, which is a bus with a mobile recording studio that goes to schools. And he helps the kids write a song and then record the song in the studio on the bus, and all the kids get a CD of the song, etc. Supposed to promote music education. But another use for the bus (since they have to make money), is that huge recording artists rent the bus and have the bus and staff follow them around on tour, and serve as a mobile studio for the artist to try ideas out for the next album, while touring the current album. Huge artists like 2007-era Black Eyed Peas. So he told me that what the BEP's used to do was record ideas for their new singles, and after shows they'd have parties where they'd innocuously play these new ideas for songs, and they'd watch how people reacted. Did the party kind of pick up? Did people start kind of shimmying while they're talking? Or did the party sort of go flat? And in this way, they'd market test ideas for their new songs. This fact caused me to gain huge respect for the BEP's, not necessarily as artists, but as savvy and hard-working business-people. You made me think of it though because renting a mobile recording studio so that you can market test ideas on your target demographic is sort...the exact opposite of taking risks. But still, impressive and smart, IMHO.
With all due respect, I did address that. "It was a 400 foot tall video of Prince, played at an event that Prince is well known for, and in Prince's home town. I don't know what you could possibly do that would be a better tribute and show more respect for a man."
While you are right that Prince *said* he despised covers, it's also true that when Prince himself performed at the Super Bowl halftime (the greatest ever Super Bowl halftime performance, IMHU), four of the eight songs that Prince played were covers: We Will Rock You, Proud Mary, All Along the Watchtower, and Best of You. Also, some of Prince's biggest hits were covers too: Nothing Compares 2 U comes to mind. So Prince's relationship to cover songs was clearly quite complex. FWIW, I agree that JT's super bowl performance was a nice tribute, especially being Prince's hometown. What they showed was video of Prince being Prince. It wasn't a CGI hologram. It wasn't JT doing JT's version of a Prince song. It was a 400 foot tall video of Prince, played at an event that Prince is well known for, and in Prince's home town. I don't know what you could possibly do that would be a better tribute and show more respect for a man who said he hated covers.
Dude seriously? You're a troll. Yesterday, in another thread on this topic you literally said you "got a kick out of" the QotSA show. "Got a kick out of it". You said that! Now today you're shitposting about alcoholism and feels? And talking shit about what, some Scott Gallagher guy who goes to ugly sweater parties like all normal people around this time of year? All for the thumbs. Congrats. You got them thumbs.
Do you mean, "Until the people who are gonna get caught get caught and the people who aren't gonna get caught can rest easy," or do you mean, "Until the way men treat women fundamentally changes"?
I don't think making pun out of her name and the kind of abuse she suffered is appropriate. If her name happened to be "Alice Ape" would make a pun of that?
God do you guys remember how Shkreli promised that he would release the music from this album if Trump won the presidency...and then, when Trump won, Shkreli's "release" was a live stream of him in his bedroom listening to the fucking album? What a douche.
I do +1 you. It's very clear that most people have never really pondered what this song is about. And the most distasteful to me are all the overproduced, overtly praise-be religious versions that pop up around Christmas each year, most of which literally change the lyrics to side step the violence, sexuality, and conflict in the original. But also, a while back, stereogum had an article about how Hallelujah has become this over-covered song. And they pointed out that Cohen wrote like 80 verses, slaved over the song for a couple years, and ultimately picked the handful of verses that he did because he wanted the song's meaning to be somewhat vague so that people could find their own interpretation. And that Cohen was actually very happy in his life to see his song so frequently covered with so many different interpretations. So anyway, that information gave me some comfort and helped me accept that people are just gonna keep (mis)interpreting this song. Cohen was cool with it. I guess I can be cool with it too. Hope this information has the same effect for you.
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