Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
Society
Oh, it's a mystery to me We have a greed with which we have agreed And you think you have to want more than you need Until you have it all you won't be free
Society, you're a crazy breed Hope you're not lonely without me...
When you want more than you have You think you need... And when you think more than you want Your thoughts begin to bleed I think I need to find a bigger place Because when you have more than you think You need more space
Society, you're a crazy breed Hope you're not lonely without me... Society, crazy indeed Hope you're not lonely without me...
There's those thinking, more-or-less, less is more But if less is more, how you keeping score? Means for every point you make, your level drops Kinda like you're starting from the top You can't do that...
Society, you're a crazy breed Hope you're not lonely without me... Society, crazy indeed Hope you're not lonely without me...
Society, have mercy on me Hope you're not angry if I disagree... Society, crazy indeed Hope you're not lonely without me...
One of the things that really grabbed me about Into the Wild is that it contained the first really great vocal performances from Eddie in a long time, at least for mid tempo and slower stuff. This is not to say that there haven’t been strong songs this decade, but I personally was always wanting Eddie to give a little more of himself. And he recaptured his soaring voice on Hard Sun. He recaptured his contemplative voice on Guaranteed. And he recaptured his vulnerable voice (tempered with age) on Society.
I’m not going to comment much on the music (although Eddie plays well) and lyrics since this is a cover, but while I appreciate what they’re trying to do they are a little heavy handed in places. Eddie’s delivery, however, is stellar. His voice is a captivating mix of higher pitches and a deep, almost bottomless depth. He sounds like struggling to find his way out of a cave, with his voice echoing off the walls and coming back to him so that he can’t make any progress finding a way out. He’s trapped , and the vocals feature this sense of questing is mixed with a sad resignation/acceptance of his fate. On top of that there is an undercurrent that refuses to surrender without quite being defiant. He manages to encompass every element of the song without ever having to vary his delivery, and this is a pretty remarkable achievement.
I’m not sure he could have performed The End without Society coming first, and so for that I’m in this songs debt, but it is pretty excellent in its own right
4 stars
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
nah, we still have 10 or so (and some unreleased stuff). Parachutes is the only studio album track (not counting lost dogs) that we haven't done.
As always, if anyone wants to write up any songs that are left please let me know
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:21 am Posts: 23078 Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina Gender: Male
I agree that this song is better because of Eddie's delivery, but there's something to be said about the music. It's basically just a down-key folk song, but it sounds striking because of the way it was recorded: the rhythm guitar has an attractively clanky sound and the solo is nice and desolate. This is probably my favorite song in Into the Wild.
"Guaranteed" sucks
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Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:00 pm Posts: 19826 Location: Alone in a corridor
Easily the best song on Into the Wild and the only one I truly love. The others go from "mew" to "pretty good". I just love this one. Was very disappointed when I discovered it was a cover.
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 3:35 pm Posts: 30 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Gender: Male
I really like this one. I love eddie and an acousic guitar though so i'm easily impressed with stuff like this.
_________________ We Walk along the wire tied between horizons You close your eyes like it's nothing at all Throughout the rise and fall, everything, everything Changes, I will be here when you die. -Autumn Leaves Revisited
I think Eddie is great in this song, but the lyrics are troublesome to me. Definitely not one of my favorites.
Stip, I don't understand your comment about Ed not being able to perform The End prior to performing Society. He'd been singing this way for a long time prior to recording this track, it was just usually in live settings. What about the Man Of The Hour demo?
Outside of places where someone can actively learn something, like classical guitar or qwalli style singing, I don't really see how something like this applies to performance. It's too easy. Society does not seem to my ears, to have taught Ed to sing with feeling in this register.
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
Alessiana wrote:
I think Eddie is great in this song, but the lyrics are troublesome to me. Definitely not one of my favorites.
Stip, I don't understand your comment about Ed not being able to perform The End prior to performing Society. He'd been singing this way for a long time prior to recording this track, it was just usually in live settings. What about the Man Of The Hour demo?
Outside of places where someone can actively learn something, like classical guitar or qwalli style singing, I don't really see how something like this applies to performance. It's too easy. Society does not seem to my ears, to have taught Ed to sing with feeling in this register.
My 2 cents
.
I don't think it taught him to sing like that. I think he rediscovered that he could. Man of the hour is a beautifully written song, but even the live versions always felt like they were missing something (at least to me). Some fundamental commitment to the songs perhaps. But whatever had been missing I feel was recaptured here.
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:55 am Posts: 1776 Location: New York, NY
stip wrote:
Alessiana wrote:
I think Eddie is great in this song, but the lyrics are troublesome to me. Definitely not one of my favorites.
Stip, I don't understand your comment about Ed not being able to perform The End prior to performing Society. He'd been singing this way for a long time prior to recording this track, it was just usually in live settings. What about the Man Of The Hour demo?
Outside of places where someone can actively learn something, like classical guitar or qwalli style singing, I don't really see how something like this applies to performance. It's too easy. Society does not seem to my ears, to have taught Ed to sing with feeling in this register.
My 2 cents
.
I don't think it taught him to sing like that. I think he rediscovered that he could. Man of the hour is a beautifully written song, but even the live versions always felt like they were missing something (at least to me). Some fundamental commitment to the songs perhaps. But whatever had been missing I feel was recaptured here.
For me, at least, one of the great things about this song is the production of the vocal. He may have been able to sing like this in the past, but whatever Ed (and Adam) did during this song, and other moments during ITW allowed his lower baritone to resonate in an extremely powerful manner. I'm not well-versed in techincal jargon, but here his voice envelops you when in certain other times on past albums it doesn't achieve that feat. Maybe the trouble is trying to fit that skill on more densely populated songs.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
Angus wrote:
Easily the best song on Into the Wild and the only one I truly love. The others go from "mew" to "pretty good". I just love this one. Was very disappointed when I discovered it was a cover.
My sentiments exactly.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
Easily the best song on Into the Wild and the only one I truly love. The others go from "mew" to "pretty good". I just love this one. Was very disappointed when I discovered it was a cover.
My sentiments exactly.
Music: possible Lyrics: not possible
I postulate if he wrote this, people would be all over the lyrics on this one.
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