Re: Babylon

[TotalInformation]

The Byrds were recording several Dylan songs in the summer of 65, most of which weren't released. The CD release of Turn!x3 has a version from June 28. Harriso'ns shout-out to this lyric is primarily evococative, of course, of what was going on when they was fab (ie before sept. 66). I doubt Dylan's lyrics have anything about the Beatles.

-------------------------------------------------

Again, I see you've posted another song devoid of context. Who sang "Junior's Farm"? Who wrote it? When was it released? What album? What connection to the Beatles did anyone involved with the song have?

[TotalInformation]

byrds - i agree those songs are important, but for totally different reasons. I'm convinced Elton and/or Taupin was/were FAUL ghostwriters.

These aren't really songs about other people. Like most songs it's autobiographcal. Get yourself into the head of Elton John. You're someone who sold himself to fame and fortune by participating in this FAUL project. Was it greed or idealism (All You Need is Love), or both?

So that's what these songs are about, his feelings on his role in this. Elton didn't know JPM or Sylvie and doesn't have anything that personal to say about them.

Yellow Brick Road is Elton's goodbye song to FAUL. Oz imagery has long been associated with the Beatles, even before JPM died -- dating back to their (literally?) magical appearance on Sullivan. So here Elton is saying goodbye to his Oz sugardaddy FAUL.

So look at it from that POV. The Kinks "Sleepwalker" is similar, an "I-was-FAUL's-ghost-writer" album.

[TotalInformation]

byrdsmaniac said:

totalinformation said:

Elton didn't know JPM or Sylvie and doesn't have anything that personal to say about them.

I'd have to disagree with the last statement, though I can't prove otherwise.

No one's asking you to "prove" anything, just lay out the thinking/logical processes that lead you to this conclusion. Lay out the historical and textual elements behind this conclusion. Without that, it just seems you're going through non-Bealte songs and pulling things out of your ass.

[defhermit]

byrds, my initial reaction to your "broken arrow" interpretation is that it's quite a stretch in my opinion... I might have to hear the song?

[defhermit]

I thought everyone knew that "American Pie" was about the day that the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and the La Bamba kid died in a plane crash....

[TotalInformation]

The middle part of American Pie is definitely PID stuff check the search engine for my previous comments on this.

[Perplexed]

Tulsa?


Paul went to Tulsa?

Well, that just ruins it ALL for me. Goodbye.

[Perplexed]

byrdsmaniac said:

perplexed said:

Tulsa? Paul went to Tulsa?
Well, that just ruins it ALL for me. Goodbye.

(Sigh)
"Come on, I mean, that's stupid! [etc.]"
OK then, would Omaha work better?

OMAHA
(Moby Grape)

(Listen, my friends) You thought never but
(Listen, my friends) I'm your's forever
(Listen, my friends) Won't leave you ever

Now my friends
What's gone down behind
No more rain
From where we came

(Listen my love) Get under the covers, yeah
(Squeeze me real tight) All of your lovin'
(Into the light) Beneath and above ya
(So out of sight) Bein' in love!
(end)

"OM" + "Aha!"
I admit there's not much here, but what does this song mean? Is it part of the picture?
I would think not, but something tells me it is.....
"From where we came" - yeh, there it is.
"Beneath and above ya" could mean more than positions in bed, now couldn't it.
It could mean in an Octopus's Garden, or in the sky, for instance.

A whole new destination of inquiry.

Tulsa is fine, I was kiddin.'

This lyrics stuff can get addicting. Omaha was pretty "hot" it sounds like to me.
Which leads one to Wichita for more research:


WICHITA lyrics (The Jayhawks)


(Olson/Louris/Perlman)
come to Wichita
won't be there in forty days
this is an evil land
brings a devil's cloud
take a message
to abide in what you own
and there'll be no more
no more people singing
la la la
in one morning you will be mine
where the fields are smiling
no more people singing
la la la
in one morning you will be mine
where the fields are smiling
where the fields are smiling
there by crook and fire
and the squatter's rights
don't your cheek get sore
and your mouth get dry
sevens on your sleeve
haven't counted days
then he slouches home
to your loved ones gates
la la la
in one morning you will be mine
where the fields are smiling
no more people singing
la la la
in one morning you will be mine
where the fields are smiling
where the fields are smiling
with my pockets torn
by a whirlwind
man takes what it needs
turns you inside out
come to Wichita
won't be there in forty days
this is an evil land
brings a devil's cloud
la la la
in one morning you will be mine
where the fields are smiling
no more people singing
la la la
in one morning you will be mine
where the fields are smiling
where the fields are smiling.
END OF LYRICS


What in tarnation could be in store for us in Sioux City?........

[beatled]

This is more a song about being someone you're not supposed to be..Not especially significant perhaps, except that the song is on the new Rusty Anderson cd. (Rusty is a member of Bill's band)

Damaged Goods

Damaged Goods

She makes me feel like all of the walls up have crumbled
Somehow I just must have stumbled
On something I don't deserve
Lately it seems like all of my dreams are unfolding
But I still feel like I'm holding
A card that says "do not pass go"
Sometimes I feel like I'm living someone else's life
Cause this one ain't mine
I used to have one that I left behind

Last thing I knew my ship ran aground and was sinking
Destined to drown in my thinking
How long can she keep it at bay
Sometimes I feel like I'm living someone else's life
Cause this one ain't mine
I used to have one that I left behind
Damaged goods on borrowed time
There's something wrong here cause this one ain't mine

Sometimes I feel like I'm living someone else's life
Cause this one ain't mine
I used to have one that I left behind
Damaged goods on borrowed time
There's something wrong here cause this one ain't mine

[TotalInformation]

This song is an update of "Sunshine Superman" (aka "John and Paul") for the second generation of disillusioned PID rockstars.

A love song from a rockstar Nietzchean Superman to his girl. But the context has changed. Whereas Donovan's ditty was confident, "Kryptonite" expresses despair and hopelessness at his knowledge (like the verses of AYNIL), and the fear that he may go insane (a la syd barrett etc).

Anyway, you have the backwards groove wrong. It's "I will love you like a Superman." (Note also the record Sunshine Superman is featured in the ADITL film, ADITL fading to the groove of course.)

byrdsmaniac said:

KRYPTONITE
(Three Doors Down)***

I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind
I left my body lying somewhere in the sands of time
I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon
I feel there is nothing I can do... Yeah

I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon
After all I knew it had to be something to do with you
I really don't mind what happens now and then
As long as you'll be my friend at the end

If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?
If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand?
I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might
Kryptonite

You called me strong, you called me weak but still your secrets I will keep
You took for granted all the times I never let you down
You stumbled in and bumped your head, if not for me then you'd be dead
I picked you up and put you back on solid ground

If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?
If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand?
I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might
Kryptonite


If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?
If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand?
I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might
Kryptonite
Yeeaah!!

If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?
If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand?
I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might
Kryptonite
(end)

Remember the little ditty at the end of the British version of Sgt. Pepper: "I never could see any other way."
Reversed it says,"Will Paul be back? He's Superman."
It amazes me that the clues are still being put in songs.
This song really rocks, btw.
Here is the biography of 3 Doors Down:

music.aol.com/artist/main.adp?tab=bio&artistid=410430

Look at the titles of their songs!
It looks like ALL of their songs tie in to PID!

www.3doorsdown.com/disco.asp


***"New York, February 3, 2006 - Brad Arnold the lead singer of the 12x Platinum rock band 3 Doors Down was injured in a one-vehicle automobile accident the evening of February 1st.

Although Arnold was riding in the passenger seat in a heavy downpour on a rural MS highway, he sustained several severe lacerations and bruises to his face requiring stitches in several locations. He is currently home and expected to make a full recovery.

However, due to this accident the band's show this evening at Mount Pleasant, MI has been postponed and their performance at the Bud Bowl show at Old Tiger Stadium around the Super Bowl has been cancelled.

Details about the rescheduling of the Mount Pleasant, MI show will be made public as soon as they are available."
www.3doorsdown.com/

[Perplexed]

That's a lot to take in, byrds. Nicely composed.

[TotalInformation]

The inner groove message has sounded both ways to me, but most often I hear it as "Will Paul be back? He's Superman."

Well, stop hearing it wrong, then.

That's one reason I have a problem with your focus on the Nietzchean "superman". My understanding of the Nietzchean superman is that he isn't necessarily of a humane disposition.

Which is why John and Paul were more specifically Sunshine Supermen, sunshine being Love.

It is this "Superman" that is shown driving the bus in the Magical Mystery Tour comic, not the Nietzchean version of a powerful, but not necessarily moral, being.

Of course they were aware of the comic-book Superman. Donovan's song about John and Paul, "Sunshine Superman" references "Superman and Green Lantern," casting John & Paul as even greater heroes.

The Superman in this song is like a guardian angel to the person he's singing to. He's a "good guy".

Yes, a rockstar superman singing to a girl, like "Sunshine Superman" and "I Want to Tell You."

And what's the Beatle connection, other than a tenuous relation to a reversed message

"Dark Side of the Moon" is Pink Floyd's PID album. If you get that and understand how the concept of the superman influenced "Sunshine Superman," you see how the song is informed by the PID milieu that is the backdrop and fabric of major-label rock music even forty years later.

... and the connection isn't tenuous, it's made clear in the ADITL video featuring the "Sunshine Superman" record.

about (you) being loved as if by a superman?

////

he calls the person he's looking out for
"Kryptonite", suggesting that he's standing by to help even though the person causes him to be weak.
That person could be his girl friend, or it could be you.
You, hearing the song.

Exactly, good point, the three songs are all about you, the listener/fan as much as they are a young lady.

[beatled]

Bill (not that Bill) in the movie "Kill Bill" made an interesting observation: Superman was alone and unique among the superheroes for one reason.. His secret identity was the human one, Clark Kent. While the other ones such as Spiderman, or the Green Lantern were humans who were secretly superheroes, Superman was passing himself off as a human, when in fact he was an alien.

To shape and form this secret identity, Superman used his observations of humanity, and what he came up with was: unsure of himself, awkward, assorted human weaknesses; this way, he was able to sucessfully blend in.

[TotalInformation]

Superman was passing himself off as a human, when in fact he was an alien.

Like Gort and Valentine Michael Smith, two other figures JPM is associated with in rock texts. He (and Lennon) were/are truly venerated by rockstars who are in turn venerated by the masses.

[unrepentant]

what happened to the run off the road by the bad guys/abducted/dying from a medical attack of some kind scenario?

[LUCY]

byrdsmaniac said:

On page 4 of the "Paul Is Found Where?" thread, Selmolina Pilchard posted the lyrics
of David Bowie's "Cygnet Committee", and in those lyrics the Dylan song "Desolation Row" is alluded to.
They are quite extensive, so I won't post them; just the link:

www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob-dylan/21424.html

Reading through them, one gets a sense of having the gist of who was behind Paul being replaced, but,
as Dylan mentions at the end of the song, he's changed the names and given them titles.
If we knew who was who, we'd know exactly what went down.
I'm guessing "Einstein" is Faul; the "phantom of the opera" Paul.
Anyone who could decipher this song could explain a lot.

Einstein, disguised as robin hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On desolation row

Interesting lyrics.
I think Einstein is actually Paul, and the lyrics are alluding that he "dropped out" from the mainstream and is yes, alive and well but perhaps not fully mentally competent.

Also interesting to ponder, given other Bob Dylan discussions in this forum..........is that this song was "ghost written" by Lucifer himself, and NOT Bobby Z.

[unrepentant]

maybe the "beaches of spain" comment references sylvie vartan, and where her body was found??

i'd like to know what else neil young said during that concert [wasn't it held on brian jones' birthday BTW??]. there may be code words in the on stage banter....for example, the phrase "beaches in spain" JUST HAPPENS to contain the words ACHES and PAIN.....not much by itself, but if taken along with the rest of what he said it could reveal a lot more.

[Perplexed]

byrdsmaniac said:

I read on another site some speculation that this
song might be about the whole Paul-in-a-car-crash scenario.
I don't know if it is, but here are the lyrics for your consideration:

"SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT
(John/Taupin)

When I think of those East End lights, muggy nights
The curtains drawn in the little room downstairs
Prima Donna lord you really should have been there
Sitting like a princess perched in her electric chair
And it's one more beer and I don't hear you anymore
We've all gone crazy lately
My friends out there rolling round the basement floor

And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn't you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You're a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away, bye bye

I never realised the passing hours of evening showers
A slip noose hanging in my darkest dreams
I'm strangled by your haunted social scene
Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen
It's four o'clock in the morning
Damn it listen to me good
I'm sleeping with myself tonight
Saved in time, thank God my music's still alive

And I would have walked head on into the deep end of the river
Clinging to your stocks and bonds
Paying your H.P. demands forever
They're coming in the morning with a truck to take me home
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight
So save your strength and run the field you play alone."
(end)


"We've all gone crazy lately....
They're coming in the morning with a truck to take me home"
"They're coming to take me away, to the funny farm, etc."?

"Clinging to your stocks and bonds"
money issues? or S&M?

Well, I was told that it was written about when Elton almost getting married (prior to the time he actually DID get married to a lady), and being talked out of it, and how relieved he was that he didn't go thru with it!

Thank God his music's still alive.......

I think this has come up before.....

I understand that he is happily in a relationship today, married to David...... who's last name eludes me at this hour......ah yes, Furnish.



OK I googled I googled. I am the Googler. (sung to the tune of "The Wanderer")

[plastic paul]

Thats a very intriguing supposition.

[Ludwig]

Video clip ca. 1970
Sylvie Vartan - La Maritza
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2NnSZHdYdk&search=vartan

[JamesPaul & Brian]

Here is another....Melissa

by The Allman Brothers Band


Crossroads, seem to come and go, yeah.
The gypsy flies from coast to coast,
Knowing many, loving none,
Bearing sorrow, having fun.
But, back home he'll always run,
To sweet Melissa.
Mmmm-hmmm.

Freight train, each car looks the same, all the same.
And no one knows the gypsy's name,
And no one hears his lonely sighs,
There are no blankets where he lies.
Lord, in his deepest dreams the gypsy flies,
With sweet Melissa.
Mmmm-hmmm.

Again, the mornin's come.
Again, he's on the run.
A sunbeam's shinin through his hair.
Fear not to have a care.
Well, pick up your gear and gypsy roll on.
Roll on.

Crossroads, will you ever let him go? Lord, Lord.
Or will you hide the dead man's ghost?
Or will he lie, beneath the clay?
Or will his spirit float away?
But, I know that he won't stay,
Without Melissa.
Yes, I know that he won't stay, yeah,
Without Melissa.
Lord, Lord, it's all the same.
Mmmmm-hmmmmm.