Perhaps, but the phrase is not idiomatic and sounds a little strange. Anglophones do not describe North Korea as a place where "dictation is being forced". We call it a dictatorship.
― I Advance Masked (Vast Halo), Thursday, 8 April 2021 20:08 (three years ago) link
"What you say about his company is what you say about society" -- My interpretation was more like, whatever horrible things they would say about Jim, well, you could say the same damn things about society as a whole.
― pplains, Thursday, 8 April 2021 20:18 (three years ago) link
That would probably be a more meaningful statement. I'm just not sure it's what Peart intended.
― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Thursday, 8 April 2021 20:24 (three years ago) link
He was obsessed with themes of solitude, individualism, non-conformity, and liberty at that time, including on much of the rest of the album, and it's what comes across in his quotes about this song as well.
― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Thursday, 8 April 2021 20:30 (three years ago) link
Darren Hanlon's "Cheat the Future": "Over three hundred thousand stars make up the solar system"I saw him perform this live, and beforehand, he explained that he realized too late that the solar system has just one star (and was mixing up "galaxy" and "solar system").
― ernestp, Friday, 9 April 2021 01:57 (three years ago) link
I think a lot of "Tom Sawyer" can be explained by the fact that it was slapped together rather quickly. It doesn't make tons of sense, just sounds sorta cool.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Friday, 9 April 2021 02:00 (three years ago) link
Usually Peart's lyrics are quite transparent, but "Tom Sawyer" makes no sense to me. Unlike the New World Man or the Digital Man, I don't even know what we're supposed to think about this character.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 9 April 2021 02:04 (three years ago) link
Back to the main topic, I think Kanye does this a lot in a kind of troll-y way. The one that comes to mind is "I keep it 300, like the Romans."
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Friday, 9 April 2021 02:06 (three years ago) link
Lyrically, "Tom Sawyer" is credited to Pye Dubois and Peart, and was apparently adapted from Dubois's poem, which I can't find rn, so that's probably why it's different from Peart's usual style and may not all fully cohere. I don't think it's incomprehensible that the character is a tough-minded free thinker whom we are not supposed to put down as arrogant, though.
― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Friday, 9 April 2021 14:57 (three years ago) link
but did he con his pals into painting that damn fence?
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Friday, 9 April 2021 15:17 (three years ago) link
Ha, I think that might be what "he gets high on you/And the space he invades, he gets by on you" is getting at - he looks out for himself, even at your expense sometimes. It's about today's Tom Sawyer, so a modern-day warrior who is like Twain's hero.
― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Friday, 9 April 2021 15:26 (three years ago) link
The space he invades is clearly a reference to the popular arcade video game "Space Invaders."
However I suspect Peart was actually thinking of Frogger.
― Condé Nasty (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 9 April 2021 15:36 (three years ago) link
It doesn't make tons of sense, just sounds sorta cool.
Very willing to let this be the final word on this subject!
― pplains, Friday, 9 April 2021 19:36 (three years ago) link
In "Durham Town (The Leavin')" Roger Whittaker, when singing of the river whose banks he used to sit on as a boy, confuses the Tyne with the river that Durham actually stands on, the Wear.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 21:26 (two years ago) link
In "Lee Remick" by the Go-Betweens, Robert Forster confuses Ireland, where he claims the eponymous heroine comes from, with the USA, where she actually came from.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 21:28 (two years ago) link
Xpost I remember someone writing into Points of view about that one, after Roger Whittaker had performed it on Top of the Pops. In 1968.
To be fair, in the song he sits on the banks of the Tyne watching the ships leaving. He doesn't say they were leaving Durham. They'd be more likely leaving Jarrow, South Shields or Newcastle.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 16 June 2021 22:17 (two years ago) link
(late 1969,apparently)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 16 June 2021 22:19 (two years ago) link
Hefner's 'Mary Lee' has the line "this dear has trestles hanging from her ankles", he definitely did not mean this
Jarvis Cocker wrote the song 'Manon' for Pulp about a man, without realising it's a women's name
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 16 June 2021 23:05 (two years ago) link
TS: 'Lee Remick' by the Go-Betweens vs 'Lee Remick' by Hefner
― Fauna Sukkot (Deflatormouse), Friday, 18 June 2021 03:10 (two years ago) link
George Harrison "I want to tell you"
The middle-8 has it "But if I seem to be unkind, its only me it's not my mind that is confusing things"
A couple years later he admitted he should have had it the other way round, ie "But if I seem to be unkind, it isn't me it's just my mind that is confusing things"
I wonder if he ever sang it live with the corrected lyric?
― Mark G, Friday, 18 June 2021 06:13 (two years ago) link
In Fickle Friends’ recent song “Turns Me Bad” the vocalist sings:
“There's something about you that I'm craving forThe way that your body makes me want moreThe way that I'm losing my school of thought”
I assume she means “train of thought”, but I guess causing someone to lose an entire school of thought would be quite something.
― Tim F, Friday, 18 June 2021 08:19 (two years ago) link
Ooh, good one.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Friday, 18 June 2021 08:26 (two years ago) link
In "Down at the Arcade", Lou Reed confuses the Temptations with the Four Tops.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 14:08 (two years ago) link
I suspect the Four Tops song 'Reach Out I'll Be There' is what he had in mind, not the Temptations' 'I'll Be There'.
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 14:21 (two years ago) link
Dan Fogelberg's "Hard to Say" includes the lyric
It's never easy and it's never clearWho's to navigate and who's to steerAnd so you flounder, drifting ever near the rocks
I think he meant "founder." But is that confusion or just not-quite-right usage?
― Champagne Heathernova (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 14:36 (two years ago) link
I think "flounder" is correct, actually. One of its definitions is "to be in serious difficulty". To founder is to come to grief on the rocks, so he's not quite there yet.
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 14:42 (two years ago) link
LOL. Lou was often confused in his songs.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 15:59 (two years ago) link
Although as anagram points out, 22 years after Lou's song, the Temptations did record a song called "I'll Be There". Confusion or startling prognostication?
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:25 (two years ago) link
In the Springsteen song "Wages of Sin," he sings "We keep paying wages of sin for the wrongs that we've done." But wages of sin are something you earn, not something you pay.
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:28 (two years ago) link
Lou was often confused in his songs.
Was he? I'd love to be half that confused, lol.
One example I did uncover (which I mentioned on The Blue Mask thread): as far as I can tell, via some online research, Syracuse U. didn't play a football game on 11/22/63 – which calls into question the details of a verse in "The Day John Kennedy Died." But Lou may have be misremembering, or (of course) using poetic license.
― search term: buttrock (morrisp), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:31 (two years ago) link
(I’m also assuming “upstate in a bar” means Syracuse, but he may have been somewhere else.)
― search term: buttrock (morrisp), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:42 (two years ago) link
Have college football teams ever played early on a Friday afternoon? Maybe the day after Thanksgiving, but 11/22/63 wasn't that.
― Josefa, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:52 (two years ago) link
In "Sad Song" by the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed is confused. He claims to be in love with Mary, Queen of Scots, stating that in 1493 'everything is like it should be'. However Mary was not born until 1542. Moreover he claims Henry V would have broken his heart, yet Henry died in 1422.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:57 (two years ago) link
Maybe his European History class which covered those dates was that same afternoon.
― search term: buttrock (morrisp), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:05 (two years ago) link
tbf a lot of his study time was probably spent trying to comprehend how someone shot John Kennedy in the face.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:08 (two years ago) link
In "Sad Song", Lou did admit "how wrong (he) can be".
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:12 (two years ago) link
in that fucking journey song steve perry sings that his character was "born and raised in south detroit". there is no area in detroit referred to as south detroit, though there is a neighbourhood called southwest detroit
― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:12 (two years ago) link
Compare "Kids in America"
New York to East CaliforniaThere's a new wave coming, I warn ya
wtf is "East California"?
― Champagne Heathernova (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:15 (two years ago) link
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Eastern_California_county_map.png/250px-Eastern_California_county_map.png
I don't know either, but it looks like it has something to do with going back to Annandale.
― pplains, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:23 (two years ago) link
it's near south detroit
― the mai tai quinn (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:25 (two years ago) link
I always take a cue from Woody Guthrie and tell people that Amityville is located on the New York island.
― pplains, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:34 (two years ago) link
there’s clearly an east here where did it go
https://external-preview.redd.it/aIdezuom1VZW6iGaLAb2VJj_a276ZCpKlz0Ov7D8IV0.png?auto=webp&s=aba2c462e6853f536826cda274c4e1249e367e69
― Left, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:38 (two years ago) link
Kim Wilde was just giving a shout out to all the hip new wave kids in Death Valley
― Josefa, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:39 (two years ago) link
shoutout to Lone Pine
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:41 (two years ago) link
The west takes what the east delivers.
― pplains, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 21:06 (two years ago) link
Daddy was a cop, on the east siiide of Chicago
― Bobo Honk, real name, no gimmicks (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 23 June 2021 05:12 (two years ago) link
John Couger confused sucking with chewing in Jack & Diane.
― BrianB, Wednesday, 23 June 2021 22:45 (two years ago) link
often confused rocking with sucking in other songs
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Wednesday, 23 June 2021 23:17 (two years ago) link
Sucking in the USA
― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 23 June 2021 23:36 (two years ago) link
In "Life", Des'ree confuses a rabbit's tail with a rabbit's foot.
Doo, doot doot doo.
― Fauna Sukkot (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 24 June 2021 03:01 (two years ago) link