I am just dropping in for a quick post because that is what I promised in an earlier post. All my enthusiasm to post about every single thing turned out to be ephemeral like almost every other ambition I have these days. Ephemeral. Ahh, this word wiil never leave me. The irony.
I am leaving for BITS-Pilani's cultural fest tomorrow. We were supposed to go to IIT-Kanpur's fest but things got messy and our college's music club didn't get accommodation there.
Well I am not really excited about the Pro night because it is going to be Farhan Akhtar. I am mainly excited about the Suicide at Midnight event. You are supposedly taken to a dark room at midnight duh with candles etc and made to write your own suicide note. This time they are also going to make us write a will. Other than that I've heard that they have 3 v 3 football on a field watered with soap. Well I really really really hope it is true.
Well the primary motive behind going to Oasis is for participating in the western band competition. We are performing a total of 4 songs. Others are also participating in Indian classical and other solo categories.
Even the Dance troupe of our college, Dance Coders , are coming to Pilani. The drama group is going to Kanpur. Everybody is split up. Ah, the commotion and drama.
Anyway, you should check all 4 of the songs we are performing.
Jeremy by Pearl Jam. It is about a guy named Jeremy who faces bullying. It is really a masterpiece. It is based on a real life incident. Jeremy was bullied a lot and was suppressed, and he finally speaks in front of the class by committing suicide in front of everyone. You really need to watch the video. Eddie Vedder was inspired to write this song when he read a small article about Jeremy in the local newspaper.
There is a sudden surge of Pearl Jam songs being covered in my college. What more could you want? I think every Friday Night Live has one Eddie Vedder being performed. I am really proud of DAIICT's music scene. I think I will write one post about it when I return.
Who did that to you by John Legend. This song reminds me of Jack White's cover of Love is Blindness. Ah, I just love this song. Well this song is in Django Unchained's OST.
Under the bridge by RHCP. I am sure everyone of you has heard this song.
By the sword by Slash. Well we are covering this in acoustic. More like the Myles Kennedy one and not the Stockdale one.
Introduction to the band Bastille, and also how it got its name. Also discusses the story behind the songs Flaws, Icarus and What would you do?
It's a band from London, first formed in 2010. It started out as a solo project by Dan Smith, who later decided to form a band. It has 4 members.
Why is the band named as Bastille?
Well, because Dan Smith's birthday comes on July 15th 14th which is the French National Day also know as the Bastille day. French revolution?
I had stumbled upon one of their songs before, but never really gave them much attention then until, I heard Flaws.
Flaws is a very beautiful synthesized song. It just has such a good feel. The voice is such emotive and innocent. And obviously the British accent always is an argument winner.
I love the tiny synthesized fillers in the song, they remind me of the music in Mario. This song is just too innocent and peppy.
What is the story behind the song Flaws by Bastille?
Well here is an intercept from an interview, It tells what the protagonist in the song feels.
"perplexed by, and probably a bit jealous of, some people who seem so completely confident and comfortable in their own skin"
Which does make sense too. But for me and for many other Youtubers who commented on the song, the song is more about two people in a relationship. It's about how this guy is completely amazed by his girl's way of being carefree and wearing her flaws on her sleeves. He wants to be like that and learn that. It's like two opposite people completely compatible in a relationship, both on the opposite side of the spectrum and still ending up being in the middle of the rainbow. (Oh my god, that was cheesy. Pardon me.)
Another good song by the band is Icarus. Icarus from the Greek Mythology.
What does the song Icarus by Bastille mean?
Here is what the band has to say about the song,
"Icarus’ makes it difficult to believe the band are exclusively singing about a Greek Myth: “Icarus comes from things I feel about myself and other people that I know, I generally try not to write songs that seem too personal and sometimes use characters or stories to try and move the focus away from myself and from more obvious topics."
Before you listen to the song, what exactly is the Icarus reference in the song?
Well for those who have forgotten or don't know. Icarus comes from the Greek Mythology. Icarus was the son of Daedalus the architect behind the Labyrinth. Daedalus and his son both were imprisoned by the king Minos of Crete.
To escape, Daedalus comes up with idea of making fake wings attached to his arms using wax and feathers. He and his son both get these contraptions. Daedalus warns Icarus not to go too close to the sun because it would melt the wax away and result in a tragedy. But when they begin flying Icarus gets really excited and giddy about the fact and ends up flying too close to the sun. His wax melts away and he probably ends up frantically flapping his arms for a moment or two before falling down ( Unreliable cartoon source). Anyway, he ends up falling and dying and this becomes an classic example of failed ambitions also known as Hubris which also comes from the Greek Mythology . "Hubris means extreme pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power. Hubris is usually associated with the "simple-minded"."
Anyway, here is the song, it will make way more sense now. I just love the way he says the word Icarus. Check it out on Itunes!
Another song which I really liked by them is "What would you do".
It is a cover of a pretty famous rap by City High. It has some really nice lyrics. I don't want to spoil it but it is about this girl who ends up being a stripper because she thinks that the only thing she can do to feed her baby. She tells her story and then this guy tells her to leave the job and says there are other respectable options to earn some buck. That she is not the only one with problems. I cannot decide which side to take. What would you do?
I like the cover better than the original because its more musical in a sense and I just love the reverb in the song.
I
was thinking why I have not been writing or blogging lately. Well, I had been looking at my blog completely wrong. Sorry blog
:( This blog is meant to be a blog. I was treating it as my own
magazine with all the longer articles, quality and themes. All the
expectations of getting a really good 'article' killed my enthusiasm
and I developed a lot of inertia. I have so many partially written
articles which are rotting as drafts waiting to be published into the
real world but will never end up being mouthed by other lips just
because I don't think they are good enough.
Expectations are stupid stupid stupid.
If I look back,
most of the times I have stopped writing is because of this reason.
Expectations from writing in the longer form. I used to have so many
ideas which could have been penned but I ended up tweeting about them
(shorter form with minuscule expectations) . Tweeting them gave me the
false idea that I have been 'writing' and giving justice to all the
ideas in my head which wanted to be penned but were cheated ultimately.
False advertisement. "Don't tweet about your next article's idea. Ever."
Blog V2. Macro Micro Blogging.
Anyway,
I have decided to treat this blog differently now. I am going to treat
it like twitter just in the longer form. Macro-micro blogging. Which is
um just blogging. So smart. Haha. Devolution.
So I am just going
to blog anything that comes to my mind. Anything that happens in my
day. Just about anything. No expectations. Just writing whatever catches
my mind's fancy. Anything random. There is an ant walking over the
banana resting on my desk. Probably feeling very proud.
So, yes.
I won't give a fuck about expectations. The length can be any. I will just write anything. Not falling for this trap again. Hopefully. No expectations, no disappointments. I just want to keep writing, it makes me happy. I don't want any kinds of inertia. Just free flowing writing.
The power of one-click publish on the internet gets demeaned if it takes so much courage to do it. It's supposed to give me a voice and I am reclaiming it :)
So I finished reading The Great Gatsby. I am sure you’ve
heard about it somewhere or the other. It’s written by the Scott Fitzgerald. If
you haven’t, a movie based on the book is releasing on 17th.
So I took up the book because a friend suggested it to me, and
I had almost given up on the book after a few pages, but then I saw the trailer
of the movie and I saw the book differently. I was almost subconsciously humming
the song that plays in the trailer while reading the book. I am hooked to that
song.
There are books, which leave you in the state of
incompleteness. Yearning. You end up longing for being a character in that
book. A mute character who is watching by the sidelines. You are always there
in the scene, looking at everything that is going around, feeling important as
if you have a say, but nobody ever really asks. But you are there.
There is more to the incompleteness I feel, it is the lack
of a muse. Especially after reading ‘The rule of four’ . But that deserves a
whole post in itself.
This will not be a book review, and I will not write about
the theme of the book because I don’t want to spoil it for you. I’ll keep it
pending till I watch the movie.
This post is about 2 songs which I found in the trailer of The Great Gatsby. And mostly about perspectives. How a piece of lyric can be interpreted so differently leading to different songs. Even the same interpretations can lead to different interpretations by the listeners. It is also about the circumstance in which you hear the song.
Foremost, Love is blindness by Jack White. He is the guy from White Stripes (no longer).
No? Seven Nation Army? The Bayern Munich song? GIJOE trailer song? No? Die.
So it is a cover of the song by the same name from U2. It is
a brilliant song.
Okay lets do something first. I'll just post the lyrics. While reading them, try to form a tune. Try to sing them. Imagine it is your song. Just read it in a tune. Please do it. This post is all about perspectives.
"Love is blindness,
I don't wanna see
Won't you wrap the night
Around me
Oh, my heart
Love is blindness.
I'm in a parked car
On a crowded street,
And I see my love
Made complete.
The thread is ripping
The knot is slipping.
Love is blindness.
Love is clockworks,
And it's cold steel
Fingers too numb to feel
Squeeze the handle
Blow out the candle
Blindness"
Here is the original video. I am not a vevo fan, but this video deserves to be seen.
Here is what i found on wikipedia about the song,
"Author Atara Stein wrote that the song "suggests that love can operate only through a willful self-deception, a voluntary surrender to what one knows is an illusion. The singer begs his lover to 'wrap the night' around him because, as he proclaims, 'I don't want to see.' The singer knows that the image he creates of his loved one is false, but it is the only image that can satisfy him. He must perceive his beloved in idealized terms, so she can reflect back to him the image of himself that he desires to see"
Now listen to Jack White's version. The difference is worth noting. I am in love with this song. The energy and madness is overwhelming. Especially during the end, when the guitar when the guitar starts screeching. This song is one of the reasons i am waiting so eagerly to watch the movie, and why i didn't give up on the book. Every book should come with OST's.
Both the songs are so different in a way. The U2 original is more in surrender. More like accepting something and letting it go. While the Jack White version breathes anger. It paints an image of anger and frustration. You know you've screwed and you are reveling in pain.
Its really fascinating. How a piece of lyric, for which initially you can't think of any music, has two or many more such beautiful interpretations.
Similarly, another song from the trailer is "Happy Together" , originally by the Turtles.
Here is some of the lyric. Do the same above. Just try to read them with a tune in your mind. Make something up.
Happy Together by The Turtles
"Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night, it's only right
To think about the girl you love and hold her tight
So happy together
If I should call you up, invest a dime
And you say you belong to me and ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be, so very fine
So happy together
I can't see me lovin' nobody but you
For all my life
When you're with me, baby the skies'll be blue
For all my life"
Now listen to this, i am going to skip the original, and rather show you 2 different covers.
The Simple Plan one. This was not on the trailer.
And this is the one from the trailer.
It is by a band called Filter.
This version is so powerful and different than the Simple Plan one. More serious. It paints such a strong image. When i was in school, i was hooked on to Simple Plan's version. I used to find it really catchy. But this one is so powerful. Maybe it is the circumstance in which you listen to a song for the first time that defines your relationship with the song. For me this song totally goes with the Gatsby trailer. Whoever decided all the OST's needs to be given a pat on the back.
And finally, the trailer. Don't check the other trailers of this movie. Because they have spoilers in them.
I know there are many other songs with very different covers, if you know any please comment. Please.
Also, could you please subscribe (hover your mouse to the top right of the screen), so that i don't have to post about this on facebook everyday. Please, old sport? :)
