a present for all Cocteau Twins fans

Maybe Liz is simply really bad at enunciation.:

Some fans attempts to transcribe CT's catalogue to English

Favorite comment: such a way with words, to be writing about blowing one's nose

I don't know how well known that resource is, but they collect some fairly obscure lyric translations, Disco Inferno and the like.

Another attempt at a working link:

Some fan attempts to transcribe CT's catalogue to English

Foiled again, above link is close but this is the correct link I intended.

"Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon"

Beetles and eggs and blues and bells and eggs and then blues
Beetles and eggs and blues and pour a little everything else
You steam our unstable eyes and glass

from "half-gifts":

Intimacy is when we're in the same place at the same time
Dealing honestly with how we feel, and who we really are

That's what grown-ups do
That is mature thinking

I just have to know how to be in the process
Of creating things in a better way
And it hurts but it's a lie that I can't handle it
I still have a world of me-ness to fulfill
I still have a life, and it's a rich one even with mourning
Even with grief and sadness

...yikes

He's a hustler
It's a role, he'll never make a suit
Hang on to this
So stay and spin and fail and fail
Who'll ever win?
Gee, you're just so ephemeral
Go back for new
For new in vain, it failed

This is fun! Very similar to those paranoid Christians who listened to metal records backward and heard literal, deliberate hidden messages.

Oh my god, this stuff kills me. I mean as if we didn't know all along that she was saying "Wheezing & Sneezing". May as well admit it!!!!

But some of them are just so obviously off the mark and stupid. Didn't she specifically say in at least one interview that often her words were utter gibberish?

i don't know if anyone has seen this yet, or if it has already been posted, but:

Thank you, this is brilliant.

Jesus for the fuck of love, are you kidding? THAT IS A FUCKING AMERICAN MADE VIDEO FOR THE LOVE OF...THAT IS FUCKING ORGASMIC MAN. You don't understand. If I'd even heard the name "Cocteau Twins" on US TV when I was fucking 13 or 14 years old. Oh my god. Let's watch it again. And this is supposed to be about Newport, Illinois, right? Please someone confirm this is the town they're talking about (a town I've never even heard of). I can't even fathom it. Where is all this really happening? It wasn't in MY little US hometown at the time, I'll tell you that! Jesus H.! All I had were the odd imported MM and NME's and the local college radio station. Fucking Cocteau Twins on TV!!! PLAY THE CLIP AGAIN!!!!

lol awesome "influencing mainstream music for years to come"

WHAAT IN THE LIVING FUCK IS THAT CARDBOARD DISPLAY AT THE BEGINNING WITH LIZ FRAZER IN A FUCKING 1920'S FLAPPER HAT??? WHAT IN THE LIVING FUCK???? I DID NOT SEE THAT DISPLAY AT MY LOCAL RECORD STORE WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK

LOOK AT THE MULTIPLE COPIES OF "PEARLY DEWDROPS" 12"!!!! I never even saw that many in a store!!!

I had at least two of the haircuts featured. Newsletter! Pre-fanzine, that was.

Cocteau fever has hit!

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE GODDAMN URL FOR THAT CLIP ABOVE ON YOU TUBE TELL ME NOW NO WNO WNO WNOW WNOW NOW N GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE IF YOU DON'T SHARE THE WEALTH OH I HATE YOU RIGHT NOW

fuCK i FOUND IT IT'S UNDER COCTEAU FEVER!!!! gOD LOVES ME i"M GOING TO EAT (WATCH) IT 5 BILLION MORE TIMES TONIGHT

Poor little insignificant MBV...lived in their shadow didn't they? As of all shoegazing bands...oh so sad. You folks wanted to believe the 90's were that significant, but sorry to break it to you...

Also does anyone here remember that Offense newsletter mentioned in the clip? I remember reading about that, but never had an actual copy of it.

Okay, actually I know where I heard of the Offense newsletter, now. I posted an article about Crispy Ambulance from that publication on my blog here. I never actually saw the rest of this issue, though, only that article. Someone made me a copy of it long ago.

WOW at that video

God, god, god. If I'd only KNOWN they were playing in Ohio in September 1985 and I'd had hipper parents who knew about it then they could FLY ME THERE.

I mean if you were in Virginia, in another state miles away, how the HELL would you know that the fucking Cocteau Twins were playing dates in your country, even? Except through word of mouth if you were lucky? The internet sure flattened the globe, didn't it?

yay, that Columbus show was on my birthday!

Yay!!!!

But seriously, the black dude in the clip (last part of it) - doesn't his hair look like it's going to start spinning around and lift off like a stereotypical round UFO? I'm serious, man.

Also I tried to dress Cocteau-like back then. I had a satiny green shirt. But never mind.

great footage, really captures the befuddlement of straight media around the post-punk underground. seems like every video I see from back then has the obligatory "we're just like normal people" segment.

So, so great, thanks for posting.

What song are they playing at the 2:15 mark?

"Pale Clouded White" from Echoes In A Shallow Bay.

THAT IS ABSOLUTELY THE CRUCIAL QUESTION DUDE!!!

*HIGH FIVE*

I asked myself that same question, because of course the song was recognizable, but who can match a Cocteaus song to a song title? Anyway, it's the song where you can clearly hear her sing "Aurora Borealis" right? And I found out from flipping through my iPod that it is "PALE CLOUDED WHITE" from the fucking UNBELIEVABLY BRILLIANT "TINY DYNAMINE/ECHOES IN A SHALLOW BAY" DOUBLE EP/CD WHICH IS WHERE MOST OF MY HIGH SCHOOL MEMORIES ARE STILL STORED.

I just want to have a romantic relationship with someone who likes Cocteaus, Joy Division (or early New Order) and The Fall. That's what I want out of a partner. Please email if you fit the description, thanks. I don't care what else you listen to all day, either.

xpost

I just want to have a romantic relationship with someone who likes Cocteaus, Joy Division (or early New Order) and The Fall. That's what I want out of a partner.

Well, Bimble, if you don't mind my having a penis...

Heh, that video was fuckin hilarious. Small town news! So funny.

Well, Bimble, if you don't mind my having a penis...

Haha. Actually, I don't mind at all. :)

But going back to the clip posted above...some guy posted on my blog who remembers that gig and some of those people. He said he dated that girl you see for a sec in the middle of it. What kills me is the part where the news guy says "They say they try to look this way because it's FUN and DIFFERENT, many say they look normal during the day...".

Something about the way that guy says "FUN & DIFFERENT" just kills me.

from cocteautwins.org, here are the tour dates. note that there is a setlist for this gig, there may even be a boot.

September 15, 1985 Los Angeles, USA (Hollywood Palace)
[The Spanglemaker, Dear Heart, Aikea Guinea..........]

September 17, 1985 San Francisco, USA (Wolfgangs)

September 18, 1985 Columbus, Ohio, USA (Newport Music Hall)
[The Spangle Maker, Dear Heart, Aikea Guinea, Pale Clouded White, Lorelei, From The Flagstones, Rococo, Plain Tiger, Pearly Dewdrops' Drops, Pepper Tree, Pink Orange Red, Musette & Drums, Pink Orange Red (encore), Pearly Dewdrops' Drops (encore)]

September 21, 1985 Boston, USA The Paradise

September 23, 1985 New York, USA The Ritz

betting you that a bunch of people who drove "hundreds of miles" were from Chicago.

Duly noted, thanks very much!

Aaahhhh... the 80s... music newsletters, REEL TO REEL TAPE PLAYERS ONSTAGE (what bands did before there were laptops!), the haircuts... newsreader gets skinny leather tie to fit in at Cocteaus show? WTF? Oh dear.

this clip fills me with fuzzy joy

love the cosy vibe of that fanzine's guy flat, the typewriter, etc

REEL TO REEL TAPE PLAYERS ONSTAGE

the last time i saw this was in 2002. it was jason lescalleet and it was AWESOME.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark started that, I believe.

aw tape on stage has to be earlier than that.

i do not know however

betting you that a bunch of people who drove "hundreds of miles" were from Chicago.

also: Detroit, Ann Arbor, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton

I've seen people using reel to reel onstage as late as last year (Napoleon III uses one, I think) - but it's definitely a retro move, rather than the amazing and alternative thing it seemed in 1985.

Truly magnificent video, this.