Schmoo

Okay, so, basically, we're not getting this clip, are we?

QUOTE (MiriyaB @ Mar 9 2007, 05:16 PM) Hiya, Schmoo! Hiya sweetheart! Funny, I was JUST thinking about you....

QUOTE (limeloaf @ Mar 9 2007, 05:13 PM) QUOTE (Presto-digitation @ Mar 9 2007, 04:11 PM) I feel like a Polish Jew waiting for the "shower" ya know? Oh I hope the jewish folk on this board don't see that haha. I'm not Jewish and it still offended me

There's a thread at CP following the progress on this thread, and there are 84 people online in that thread at the moment.

I think the Barry Manilow site has some stuff you can download, if anyone is interested.

Actually, that wasn't my first car. THIS was my first car. I wanted a Lamborghini, but Mom and Dad wouldn't go for it. So I settled for a stupid old Ferarri Testarosa http://www.carpages.ca/UserData/Photos/18053.1.jpg

You people are old as f**k Here's my first car....a 1985 Mazda 626 http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/5/web/2189000-2189999/2189205_10.jpg

QUOTE (Sweetmiracle @ May 24 2006, 06:43 PM) QUOTE (Schmoo @ May 24 2006, 04:13 PM) QUOTE (Sweetmiracle @ May 24 2006, 02:28 PM) QUOTE (subdivision40 @ May 24 2006, 07:58 AM) QUOTE (Trace @ May 24 2006, 07:41 AM) It would, but imagine where you'd be digging sand out of for weeks! You're absolutely right! Oh, but it would be so worth it..... Forget Alex. Think, "The Cemetery." That is all. Sorry, sweetie...I've had a serious thing for Alex since I was about 13.... No way I can forget him.... No way I'd want to!!! However, the cemetery sounds fun, too (Don't ask us to explain the cemetery...it's a bit convoluted...) cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery sementery

QUOTE (Sweetmiracle @ May 24 2006, 02:28 PM) QUOTE (subdivision40 @ May 24 2006, 07:58 AM) QUOTE (Trace @ May 24 2006, 07:41 AM) It would, but imagine where you'd be digging sand out of for weeks! You're absolutely right! Oh, but it would be so worth it..... Forget Alex. Think, "The Cemetery." That is all.

QUOTE (R.G @ May 15 2006, 10:04 PM) really interesting post schmoo, definatly put a different light on things, i didn't get the reference to the movie for example, and that really helps understanding, very clever lyrics from neil when you present it like you do. Bravo sir. Thanks!

QUOTE (GW2 @ May 15 2006, 07:32 PM) I completely understand what you are saying and where you are coming from, but wouldn't you agree that Time Stand Still says the same thing, only better? Yes, I agree with that. The lyrics of Dog Years are more clever though, in my opinion.

Hey Ghostwriter. Thanks for reading my insanely long post! I guess to each his own. I just think the lyrics are clever, and as I have gotten older, the reality of how fast time goes by, and how we waste so much of our lives doing crap we don't want to do, has really hit close to home, and maybe that's why I like this song so much.

We've had threads like this over at CP. Dog Years is one of my favorite songs off of T4E, and primarily because of the lyrics. I believe the reason that most people don't like the lyrics, or think they're corny, is because they don't really "get it." I don't mean that as an insult, I just mean that Neil makes a lot of vague references and plays on words that you have to think about in order to really grasp. In that sense, if there is anything wrong with the song, it's the obscurity of the word plays, not the lyrics themselves. For anyone who cares, I'll give the same "interpretation" of the lyrics as I once gave on a Dog Years thread over at CP. This, of course, is merely MY interpretation of the lyrics. You may think I'm full of dog shite.... ------- "In a dog's life A year is really more like seven And all too soon a canine Will be chasing cars in doggie heaven" ------- This stanza is pretty self-explanatory. It begins the extended metaphor that Neil creates in the rest of the song. I agree that "doggy heaven" kind of sucks. ------- It seems to me As we make our own few circles 'round the sun We get it backwards And our seven years go by like one ------- In this stanza, Neil is making the very real observation that our lives go by very quickly, and if we aren't careful, the years will just pass us by. ------- Dog years - It's the season of the itch Dog years - With every scratch it reappears ------- The "season of the itch" is a very obscure reference to the movie "The Seven-Year Itch", which is about the way that people tend to get the "itch" for something new in their relationships every 7 years or so. So it's an obscure reference and it plays on the 7 years/1 year "dog years" theme. "With every scratch it reappears" is simply saying that when something goes wrong in our lives (i.e. a "scratch"), it makes us itch for something new. ------- In the dog days People look to Sirius Dogs cry for the moon But those connections are mysterious ------- I love this stanza. "Sirius" is the dog star. So it's a clever reference to the dog star, which fits the "dog years" theme, and it is also a pun that sounds like "people look too serious." In other words, in these dog days, people are way too serious and don't cut loose enough, and they also "look to Sirius", meaning they look for answers in astrology and in the spirit/religion realm. ------- It seems to me While it's true that every dog will have his day When all the bones are buried There is barely time to go outside and play ------- More word plays using dog metaphors. "When all the bones are buried, there's barely time to play" is saying that by the time we've done all the crap we have to do (i.e. burying our bones), there's no time to do the things we want to do. It can also be read as a play on words...."when the bones are buried" could be a reference to when we're dead. In other words, when we're dead, we'll be sorry we spent so much of our lives working and not playing. ------- Dog years - It's the season of the itch Dog years - With every scratch it reappears Dog years - For every sad son of a bitch Dog years - With his tail between his ears ------- The "sad son of a bitch" phrase is also really clever, I think. It rhymes the word "itch", which we've already pointed out is a clever, if not obscure, reference to the 7-Year Itch, and it also is a play on words by itself, with "son of a bitch" being a reference to a dog. "Tail between his ears" is rather enigmatic and does seem to be an attempt to merely rhyme the word "reappears." However, I think it's an obscure reference to someone having his "head up his ass", as it were, which would fit with the theme of the "sad son of a bitch" who has no time to go out and play. ------- I'd rather be a tortoise from Galapagos Or a span of geological time Than be living in these dog years ------- Tortoises live extraordinarily long lives....in the news recently a tortoise just died who had been born around 1750. A span of geological time is many thousands of years. So he's saying here that he'd rather live immortally than be living this life where the years go by so quickly. ------- In a dog's brain A constant buzz of low-level static One sniff at the hydrant And the answer is automatic It seems to me As well make our own few circles 'round the block We've lost our senses For the higher-level static of talk ------- A dog doesn't have a very well-developed brain...it functions basically on instinct. Neil then goes on to say that we live like this too...running on auto-pilot, forgetting to stop and smell the roses, too busy to just sit down, face-to-face, and talk.

On All the World's A Stage, at the point when the soft, opening music transitions into the heavy, loud second half of the song....right after Alex plays the first two or three loud chords, Neil hits the high hat just once...it's something he doesn't do on the recorded version of the song. I LOVE the way it sounds. A perfect syncopated off-beat.