Damien's happiest song?

[Undocorkscrew]

Figured there's not much else to post about, and since he's not really known for optimism in his music......

Making Noise?

[borneoman]

Like Damien says... "I Don't Do Happy"

can only think of Childish... Coconut Skins...

[Joyful]

I would say Childish too.

[mandarific]

Coconut Skins. So much. It puts a huge grin on my face every time I hear it.

There's also one that I heard awhile ago that I can't remember the name of (if anyone does, please tell me so I can find it again) that was really romantic/lovey-dovey that was surprisingly happy (well, compared to typical Damien) - I really liked that one, too.

[verenita]

^ i think you mean groovin´...


that´s the one that i had in mind also... along with coconut skins

[mandarific]

Originally Posted by verenita

^ i think you mean groovin´...


that´s the one that i had in mind also... along with coconut skins

It actually wasn't that one! It was something slower. Maybe I'm misremembering it, but before I heard it a few months ago I had no idea it existed.

He should really just put all these songs on an album so we have proper named recordings. I know I'd settle for an album of all old stuff.

[Shillelagh]

Boring afternoon

[Shillelagh]

Maybe toffee pop

[insanebaby]

I'd say The Professor.. at least the first part.. with the "loving is good if .." you know what follows, at least at every concert it brings a smile on everyone's faces.

[mandarific]

FOUND IT.



Okay, so Damien didn't technically write this, but I'm counting it anyway.

[verenita]

that´s so interesting... because this song is part of an argentinian album for charity... and the lyrics were writen as a wishful thinking, actually... someone wishing having a mum to sing this song, so this person can be safe by the time of sleeping (it´s a lullaby). i couldn´t say it´s a happy song because of that, but i like your perspective

[Undocorkscrew]

Originally Posted by borneoman

Like Damien says... "I Don't Do Happy"

can only think of Childish... Coconut Skins...

How about 'We've Never Been In This Place Before?' Not sure if that's the original title, but that seemed a bit optimistic.

[A Girl That Does Yoga]

Well I would say "Dogs" since it always make me happy although technically it is not happy song.

[mandarific]

Actually, I'm also going to say "Grey Room."

Okay, so it starts off depressing as all get out, but the end of it is very positive and inspiring, which makes it one of my favorites.

[Spamlet]

Bottom Shelf

[verdy]

How about Sand?

It's surprisingly upbeat for him.

[verenita]

love sand! one of my favourites... actually... i want to change my picture now

<==== done!

[verdy]

Originally Posted by verenita

love sand! one of my favourites... actually... i want to change my picture now

<==== done!

love it verenita!

[verenita]

i made it myself! i am not an artist (nor have the hability of "handcrafting") whatsoever. sadly, the t-shirt is gone but i kept that piece for my own

[verdy]

impressive!

[Shillelagh]

Sand for the win

[Spamlet]

Although it's upbeat musically (a trick borrowed from the ol' Matthew Sweet irony playbook), there is nothing remotely happy about the lyrics to "Sand". It's essentially Damo's version of "Creep" but even darker since the narrator of that song was content to watch from afar and quietly wish she'd see past his uncoolness to his sensitive heart. "Sand" is about a guy who's far more angry, obsessed, desperate and determined to force her to change the fact that she finds him disgusting and disturbed.

His frustration of being dismissed builds to the point of turning him into a child throwing a tantrum by the end shrieking "anymore" at the top of his lungs 12x in a row. When a kid acts that way and it's ignored the result is usually that they tire themselves out and eventually get tired and forget the fit. When an adult is that lacking in control of their emotions the result can be scary and violent. It's basically a song about a stalker who's dangerously on the verge of becoming a kidnapper.

I'd agree with Manda about "Grey Room" being his most optimistic but not sure it entirely qualifies as happy.

[verdy]

Perhaps.

The lyrics don't seem as aggressive to me as that necessarily, but definitely not as passive as other songs. Just feels like he still has fight left in him in Sand. There's no doubt in his voice and words about his feelings towards her, like he knows his own heart and mind. He has confidence in his feelings towards her.

Still far from happy though, still.

[Spamlet]

I just want you to pretend for a minute that these words were not written by Damo and they aren't in a song. They're from a guy you aren't interested in and you've just gotten home and opened the envelope left on your doorstep:

"You keep me in a glass jar sealed with a label.
You think you know my world.
Wake up, young girl.
You've got a lot to learn."

I'm pretty certain you'd consider that quite threatening.

[borneoman]

I disagree with your interpr too Spam really don't see it, for me it's just about a guy saying he's not just like the others...

but since we're talking about Sand and since you're the official lyrics transcriber... do you think they're correct??? I mean the part that goes "lost, cost...", cos per sonall I think he says "I'm a lost cause"... which imho makes sense... otherwise, what does it mean 'lost, cost'?

[ElephantMan]

happy songs are songs that 'sound' happy...professor, childish, fool, coconut skins and others...I dont give a shiite what the lyrics are necessarily....but none of the songs i noted are depressing lyris.....if accidental babies was about winning the lottery, it would still be depressing. their r exceptions

[verdy]

It doesn't sound threatening, at all. It just says to me that the girl doesn't understand him or his feelings for her. Almost like she doesn't understand the way he feels, so her perception of his love is not what it actually is.. Like she's made wrong assumptions about him and he's just letting her know, you're wrong, you don't know everything about everything yet.

I understand why it could be interpreted your way, of course. Everyone gets different meanings from the same song according to our own experiences and perceptions.

[borneoman]

^^for me it's the other way around... it's the lyrics that make it happy or sad... Sand for me it's upbeat but not happy

[ElephantMan]

Originally Posted by borneoman

^^for me it's the other way around... it's the lyrics that make it happy or sad... Sand for me it's upbeat but not happy

dissagree...its like the song "last kiss' by Pearl jam (well its a cover but anyway)..its about a girl who dies in car accident but the tempo is like a Dance song, the lyrics are sad, but the song makes u wanna dance lol....Not a Sad song at all IMO

[Spamlet]

With all respect, v n' b, my approach to lyrics isn't based on a subjective interpretation of any kind. My background is in a strictly text-based analysis. It's admittedly rather exhaustive since it relies on not only examination of each individual word's definitions but also on their juxtaposition, greater context and cumulative effect.

It's the difference between looking at every piece of wood that's been chosen to go into the building of a house, assessing their strength, seeing how they fit together and then frame and support to form the whole vs. someone who walks into the finished place and decides whether they like it or not. One is based on a cursory opinion and the other is rooted in the thorough accounting of fact.

The dissection of the first sentence alone would require about a page worth of explanation so I won't bore you with all that. I make the distinction to illustrate that, while i certainly can't blame them for it, the majority won't take the time and effort needed to go that deeply into the architect's process and, as a result, are bound not to see everything that's there.

Born, on the question of transcription the obvious place to start would be the absence of part of the first verse:

Take a thrust of lust
If you must now.

Doubtless, that was merely an oversight.

Now, realize that for a very long time all we had was the KCRW version and this transcription so i submit to you that for most of us we've probably taken these lyrics as gospel since this is how we've associated the two.

In other words you're on the right track. Among the other mistakes are "rock the road" whereas what Damo actually says is "rot in". There are also some variations that he alternated between in that first version before the rip it up stuff such as "whip", "rev" but not "wrap". He's largely decided upon "buy the book" being repeated all the way through in the later versions so that, as well as the numerous other differences like adding/subtracting "but" or "said", "yeah" etc, renders the issue moot.

So now we come to the main contention: I'll give you credit for thinking outside the box with "I'm a lost cause" but the word he uses is indeed "cost". Why? What does that mean? I submit to you that it's a poetic way of saying he feels spent. Which goes along with sore and bored and perhaps even cold. There's more to it, however, and you were more on the right track than you probably realized.

A big part of the confusion stems from the punctuation that Emmett assigned to this line. I can understand why he treated it that way given that Damo also wrote songs like "Face" and WLAM which feature similar laundry list type lyrics. In this case though instead of a comma I'd argue that between lost and cost there is, at most, a hyphen because these two words actually go together rather than being separate. So what about "cold"? How does that fit in?

Now for the truly revolutionary idea of this entire post. I'm prepared to offer the possibility that for many years now we've all been misinterpreting Damo as singing that word when it's likely that he's really singing "gold". Now someone saying "I'm lost-cost gold" may be an unconventional way of phrasing the sense that they don't feel as valuable as they once did because they've been carelessly tossed away but if someone has a better argument for the logic of the line as originally translated on this site I'd love to hear it.

I would also like to point out, though, that besides making perfect sense, the two words "cold" and gold" are remarkably similar in terms of the way they are formed when spoken. Indeed, in phonetics the hard "c" or "k" and hard "g" sound are what is known as paired consonants, one being "voiced" and the other "unvoiced". There's an article about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_(phonetics)

But essentially what it boils down to is that the difference between them is that one requires the voicebox to vibrate and the other does not. You can try this yourself by attempting to whisper the letter "g" without making a throat vibration. You'll find that the sound you produce without one will actually be that of a "k" because all that is needed is the same placement of the tongue and some aspiration (or breath).

Now when you add to this the word that comes before "cost" you'll see that it's very easy to substitute one for the other because the tongue in order to make a final "t" sound must aspirate and the cleaner you articulate that final consonant the more you'll notice it's like spitting the air outward and when you add the speed with which the next word comes you'll see that it's very understandable that someone might not fully voice their hard "g" sound in time and that it will sound like the "k" sound if not. It's basically like when not having time to take a breath, how your lungs will attempt to just get through on the one you have. For a demonstration, I suggest you try saying "cost gold" as a tongue twister. Say it as many times as possible as fast as you can in row and you will notice that you will appear to instead be saying "cost cold" because you aren't giving yourself enough of a chance to voice the hard "g".

To further support my claim, I'm going to suggest that you really listen to all the other times in the song, besides the first one, where he's supposedly singing "cold" and you may be surprised at what you hear. When we first learn a song's lyrics only by hearing it, we tend to listen to the first part (and especially choruses) more to decipher but then just take for granted that the rest is the repetition of the earlier part and often will listen much less closely since we believe we already know the words.

Judge for yourself armed with freshly attuned ears.