POLLercoaster Ride - ILM Artist Poll #94 - Belle and Sebastian - Discussion/Campaigning Thread

As someone said, it might just descend into 'list lots of Stevie songs' for many people. Talking of which, I have to find a way to squeeze Seymour Stein on to my ballot.

I gave "A Summer Wasting" a whole heap of points. The words are affecting and the performance on record is woozy (slack?) in the just right way. The short little tracks on TWATTYBUS that no-one much seems to talk about ("Simple Things" is another) are secretly the best bits. :)

"just the right way" rather. My typos just get odder and odder.

'He reminded you of Johnny before he went Electronic' is such a beautiful line. For all the richness of the connotations and allusions and Murdoch's ambiguous yearning, it seems to float in space, a pre-echo of the plane in the final line.

Yikes, I will log off next time I decide to get stoned and stay up late listening to B&S

Ha ha.

I had just given up working at a couple of (really) small record companies when Boy With the Arab Strap came out. "Seymour Stein" (and "Chickfator") perfectly sums up the ambivalence of involvement in the business. That line "Record company man, I won't be coming to dinner" kills me. Mentioned so sadly casual but, really, it'd be a big deal to the A&R guy or whoever. Labels and publishers taking twenty-whatever year olds out for sushi was either staggeringly complimentary or completely gross depending on the person who wielded the company credit card.

Did that Seymour Stein meeting really happen?

Wow, why didn't I notice that "I Don't Love Anyone" rips Hootie & the Blowfish?

xpost -- yeah here's Stevie and
Seymour about it

^ names are linked...

Thx

"Mornington Crescent" is their best closer imho.

i like and respect this opinion. however, it's "stay loose" and/or "the rollercoaster ride"

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, November 28, 2018 8:56 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ah, but it's a trick question, because the correct answer is actually Big John Shaft
(everyone forgets about Storytelling)

*moves judy and the dream of horses higher on ballot*

lol

i love "judy and the dream of horses" but that dual guitar line in "stay loose" is the truth

band has a lot of great moments within their songs and that is probably my favorite moment in the discog

(second fav: "when the music stops" in "like dylan in the movies")

oh yeah, one of my favorite examples of this: Songs that actually, like, stop when the singer says 'stop.'

My neighbours who just spotted me through my kitchen window dancing to "Me and the Major" have this poll to thank.

the horn solo in "judy" is maybe the single most joyous moment for me in their catalogue

was "me and the major" an explicit or implicit reference to this Major? couldn't have been a coincidence, right?

I think it was a coincidence.

Would be nice to include a worst songs top 5 in this voting (I see you, 'Funny Little Frog'...)

'funny little frog' will almost certainly be in my top 10

the contrived pronunciation of 'throat' to rhyme with 'poet' is so good

Looking forward to relistening to those old songs I used to obsess over, and giving the last two albums a go.

I suspect my tolerance for the teenage girl character songs will have dwindled.

After listening to the first three albums and EPs, this has proved the case, or, more specifically, I tend to prefer Stuart's songs when he's singing in the first and second person. I think I'm OK leaving all his early character songs about girls and women that refer to them wholly or partly in the third-person (She's Losing It, Judy and the Dream of Horses, String Bean Jean and Mary Jo) off my ballot.

Something I've never noticed till today: the title tracks of both Sinister and Arab Strap end with references to masturbation. I'm sure if Tigermilk had had a title track he's have managed it there too.

Pretty sure it would be a plushie manifesto.

'funny little frog' will almost certainly be in my top 10

― devvvine, Thursday, November 29, 2018 1:40 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm gonna vote for it too

Funny Little Frog is the Frog Chorus of Belle & Sebastian's career.

"she's losing it" is a song about me imo. also don't cut "she's losing it" my god

"She's Losing It" is a manic-pixie-dreamgirl movie in song form.

oh we can't go down the 'that one is about me' road because obviously so many people feel that these songs are about them -- it's what makes B&S songs so great!! so intensely personal and also mundane <3

i might vote in this poll. the songs i love, i love pretty fiercely.

"She's Losing It" is a manic-pixie-dreamgirl movie in song form.

― enochroot, Thursday, November 29, 2018 12:48 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is completely untrue?

two angry and sad young women with ptsd transfer to a school where everyone is gay afaict, it's a perfect narrative

is a classic but also one of the fifteen songs competing for my last five ballot places, this is impossible

well that's what i get for not paying attention to lyrics.
next you're gonna tell me "Funny Little Frog" is about jesus or something.

as they teach psalms, jesus is the funniest little frog of all

https://theredkrayola.bandcamp.com/track/baby-jesus-frog

Wow, why didn't I notice that "I Don't Love Anyone" rips Hootie & the Blowfish?

― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, November 29, 2018 5:44 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is sheer contempt of this poll.

I've cut to 30. That was painful.

Current favourite lyric: 'big pockets for the pharmaceuticals she takes to fix her brain.'

Bollocks, forgot 'I Know Where The Summer Goes'.

He's not been mentioned as an influence so far, but 'I'm Waking Up To Us' is pure Cat Stevens.

doesn't he have a song called "I love my dog" too? (Quoted in "I love my car")

Wow, why didn't I notice that "I Don't Love Anyone" rips Hootie & the Blowfish?

bbut u wrote that in your blog

I was listening to a shuffled B&S playlist on spotify and I decided to look up the lyrics of two songs: ‘Marx and Engels’ and ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane’. I thought I would get a better understanding about the girls in these two songs but there really wasn’t much more to gain from the lyrics. Then I thought maybe I’m just stupid for not getting it.

Eventually I remembered that I really don’t know what the lyrics are *all* about for a lot of good songs and that can be a good thing. Plus I really don’t need to dig deeper to enjoy a song I already enjoy. And a lot if times lyricists don’t actually write anything deeper. They might prefer to leave some things open-ended.

Re-listening to everything in preparation for my ballot and, wow, "Lord Anthony" just snuck up. Hadn't thought of it in years. What a great song!

Wow, why didn't I notice that "I Don't Love Anyone" rips Hootie & the Blowfish?

Gotta say I genuinely love "Only Wanna Be With You" *and* "I Don't Love Anyone". Sang the former to my (dearly departed) cat.

here is the great 'loneliness of the middle distance runner' tv performance mentioned upthread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_nlGHj8lKY

the future's looking colourful / it's the colour of blood, chaos, and corruption of a happy soul

Oh wow look at those cuties! Thanks for posting that: was great to see it again.

It has reminded me that I transcribed the lyrics with a few question marks ("the dog lies down?") and posted them to the Sinister mailing list. Then out of the blue I got an email from Stuart Murdoch saying yes, that's right. Sent from one of those Amstrad email phones. What a moment!

And yet you had the cheek to mock his line about his phone being "full of silicon chips"!