Cocteau Twins : Classic or Dud

I thought her whole stance was "defiant iconoclast against populist expectations", she needs to take some lessons in stagecraft from Van Morrison.

maybe it someone in the band's idea to cover that, or the manager or something? if you look at the clip in that way, the "none of you know this song" and "don't worry, it'll be over in a minute" are more like her yelling at the manager onstage, like "see i told you no ones like the fucking cocteau duo"

my brain is still reverberating from "heaven or Las VEYYYgas"

Agree, would kill for a clean version of this. Goosebumps anyway - she is peerless I think. I go back quite often to her version of Say Hello to Heaven from the Chris Cornell tribute.

but maybe next time stop apologizing halfway through your decent cover version, not real flattering to the Cocteaus

Seriously. Why bother doing a cover if you're gonna spend most of your time apologizing and talking through it ? If you love the song just own it.

it's rockism that I posted this video in the Miley thread to crickets when I shoulda posted it in here

hell yeah, cocteau twins forever

if you're gonna post in here, prepare to get engulfed in a sea of gentle angelic swooning

aka the REAL music

She didnt even bother working out what the words are
She apologised and told her own fans theyve never heard of these guys

Fuck. her.

tbf asking anyone to know the exact lyrics of a Cocteau Twins song feels like a minor feat

I've been writing something about the Cocteau Twins recently so have been amused by many of the lyrics sites attempts at transcription, but the songmeanings.com attempt at the middle 8 of HoLV may be worst:

Carnivals are bluster loud
I'm dizzy so I go under the 'Big Dipper'
Cum fantasy for a carnival
How fitting before a wedding

Can't help but read it in the voice of some dapper old gent, adjusting his monocle: 'A cum fantasy? Before a wedding? Ah, how fitting!"

omg at those lyrics

Vocals, Elizabeth Fraser
Lyrics, Robin Guthrie

Due to the earnest reply, I now have no idea if “fuck Miley for getting Cocteau Twins lyrics wrong” was a joke or not

It realy wasnt, the words to that song are fairly clear and obvious (save perhaps a bit of verse 1)

This is the Genius take and as far as I'm concerned its p close to correct (and some of its been confirmed correct too). As ive said a jillion times people forget a) the scottish accent and b) the way she will way-hey-heyyyyy her scansion to turn one word into ten.

Pull him away
Too jealous so with me
Go back for new
For new things there

Singing on a famous street
I want to love, I've all the wrong glory
Am I just in Heaven or Las Vegas?
Whichever's more brighter than the sun is to me

He's a hustler
Some role he'll never make suit
Hang on to this
To stay and stay, and then fail
Pull him away
Too jealous so with me
Go back for new
For new things there

Singing on a famous street
I want to love, I've all the wrong glory
Am I just in Heaven or Las Vegas? (Heaven or Las Vegas)
Whichever's more brighter than the sun is to me
Reaching this itch in my soul (Heaven or Las Vegas)
It's like any good playing card
Must be why I'm thinking of Las Vegas (Heaven or Las Vegas)
Why it's more brighter than the sun is to me

On a relisten, I'd actually suggest she probably sings "Itching this itchy muscle" and "whichever's more brighter than this zoo is to me" cos that's more her style, and who pronounces sun "soo"?

the fact that you're second-guessing yourself just now means the lyrics are probably not "fairly clear and obvious"

fairly, not entirely.

Anyway my general point is, idgaf if people do covers, I'm not precious about it, but this one felt particularly hamfisted.

I honestly did not know most of the lyrics to this song were real words

i learned how to play that song a few weeks ago on guitar, and i was singing along for the first time, it was kind of a baffling experience. the disconnect between her words and their effect on me, i mean. i would read them, and even sing them to the song, and it was just...nothing. but when liz sings them they seem like the most powerful and important things in the world.

i recall reading her saying more than once she was "feeling the words" like, her singing is the emotion, rather than the words themselves is how I guess I took it?

forever "bituminous itchy muscle" in my brain for 30+ years

LOL I cant unhear her singing "Sinn Fein" in one song, so you know.

Just interviewed Robin Guthrie for Bandcamp. THAT was a treat. It'll be a short guide to his solo work, and I learned a heck of a lot.

Oh wow, awesome.

Look forward to reading it

yeah, so cool! and i could use a short guide to his solo work, so looking forward to reading that for sure

Did you talk about his work with Harold Budd? Would love to hear his memories of working with him.

congrats ned, that's great

Thanks all -- yes the focus was on his strictly solo stuff with one exception, namely the Budd work. It'll be a total of five or six albums out of the whole -- think of this piece of mine as a model for the format:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/a-guide-to-alessandro-cortinis-exploratory-electronic-music

I had a cocktail named "Cherry-Coloured Funk" the other day, it was fine. I'm sure it's not the first time a drink was named after that song

pic.twitter.com/RuA760P7F9

— Gabe (@gabrielszatan) February 9, 2022

It must be true

I recently got a copy of Blue Bell Knoll on vinyl. It sounds spectacular.

deciphering the lyrics to Blue Bell Knoll will lead you to a bejeweled statuette hidden in an English country field

"DRINK YOUR OVALTINE"

BE SURE TO DRINK
YOUR ATHOLL BROSE

So she really was saying "sip cherry coke" hih

I wish I'd saved the images when they were posted up on FB some years back but someone posted a letter they got from Lizzie way back in the day where I guess the band were still small enough to write back to some fans. And she wrote down all the lyrics to the Lullabies EP for this guy, when they'd just written it. It is I think a fascinating insight into how she wrangles words and scansion:

Alas Dies Laughing
Flaxen the tresses / Both
Flesh and fleshings / Tongue-
Tied and stuttering / Was
Quick take to mummering
Flaxen the tresses All
Fingers and stresses / Tongue-
tied and stuttering / Was
Quick take to mummering

like when you listen to this, I think what she ends up singing is slightly diff (she says "quick take to mummering fun" or tounge or similar). But yeah thats it.

Feathers Oar Blades
Bare in foot and hide
Barefaced bareheaded
Bare in foot and hide
Bare in foot and hide
Crestfallen, weeping
The cripples though crestless
Are crestfallen weeping
Feathers oar blades
Splitting hair feathers
Spitting out oar blades
Spitting out oar blades
Crestfallen, weeping
The cripples though crestless
Are crestfallen weeping
All in teetotum
Widdershins every’s body
Is all in teetotum
Is all in teetotum
Spitting out oar blades

She swaps the first 2 lines around on the record, maybe theyd done a few versions after she worked out the words.

Actually correction: she sings it this way on the Lullbies EP. She swaps the first 2 lines around on the Peel Session version.

But what a great play on words "Splitting hair feathers" is.

https://i.imgur.com/kqrzyJh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Mh2r6jS.jpg
holy shit - no idea these existed

oh wow i couldn’t find the scans!

so cool

Thanks for this

I've been a bit wary of knowing the exact lyrics apart from the fragments perceptible on the record covers, in the outside case they'd just turn out to be horrendous bullshit, but seeing that, I so want that complete-works volume that I cannot imagine we'll ever have.

barefaced bareheaded
bare in foot and hide

I mean

A lot of the time Lullabies is my favourite of all their stuff, so forbidding and mysterious, and as you say, knowing the lyric doesn't change that a bit.

Need to get back to that; I love Garlands and all, but the EP stuff has fallen a bit between the cracks.