Burn

[paint it black]

How can Burn be a seething political commentary? All the song says- again, and again- is set fire to the reptile house. And some kissing and crashing colours.

If you try hard enough, you can dust down a couple of literary references off the shelf in any song, but it doesn't make the song particularly seething or much of a commentary.

AE- Good for a few one liners, and the odd disjointed literary reference. And not a whole lot more. Discuss....but don't disagree, b/c you'll be wrong.

it's unusual for me to agree with the 1959 site's take on a set of lyrics, but this time i do. in part anyway.

given that the rest of the reptile house ep concerns itself with politics and "stateof the nation" type stuff, albeit shrouded in goth vagueries, obscurities, and a handful of standard eldritch drug references, it fits that the reptile house that needs burning down is the houses of parliament... to me anyway



but, yeah, i agree. you can read anything to anything if you try hard enough

though i disagree with the comment on von's literary prowess. i think his lyrics work on a lot of different levels. most of them anyway. there are a few turkeys in there...

yeah, the reference to Catharine wheel

sort of points to martyrdom and more obviously to the gunpowder plot. Just a thought

[Master Margarita]

The way I see it, AE was the boy at school who was never quite good enough to do anything really original himself, but sharp enough to put down other people's work / take the good bits from them and add a little from elsewhere.

Press forward on the eight track a few years, and you get A level English writing jazzed up with political, literary or other cultural / druggy references to make the words sound that bit cleverer and grown up. And, when challenged along the lines of "yes, but they don't really add up, do they?", a hasty retreat along the lines of "of course, we're taking the p*ss and the joke is on you because you don't understand".

This shuts most people up because, let's face it, compared to most pop music, AE's ramblings are Wittgenstein suffused with Dickens skating on a thin, but very, very, hard layer of pure Ellmore Leonard ice (or some other such tosh). But not this spanked monkey.

I like the Sisters muzak, and I respect the fact that AE has made the most of his talents to set himself up in a lifestyle he feels happy in, but I don't think he'll be winning any prizes in the village fair for creative writing. Or, for that matter, anywhere else. I hear he cooks a mean Turkey tho'.

[paint it black]

and the fact that the key part is played backwards (something very topical at that time)

IMHO suggests subversive activity, collusion with the devil and so on

[paint it black]

The way I see it, AE was the boy at school who was never quite good enough to do anything really original himself, but sharp enough to put down other people's work / take the good bits from them and add a little from elsewhere.

Press forward on the eight track a few years, and you get A level English writing jazzed up with political, literary or other cultural / druggy references to make the words sound that bit cleverer and grown up. And, when challenged along the lines of "yes, but they don't really add up, do they?", a hasty retreat along the lines of "of course, we're taking the p*ss and the joke is on you because you don't understand".

This shuts most people up because, let's face it, compared to most pop music, AE's ramblings are Wittgenstein suffused with Dickens skating on a thin, but very, very, hard layer of pure Ellmore Leonard ice (or some other such tosh). But not this spanked monkey.

I like the Sisters muzak, and I respect the fact that AE has made the most of his talents to set himself up in a lifestyle he feels happy in, but I don't think he'll be winning any prizes in the village fair for creative writing. Or, for that matter, anywhere else. I hear he cooks a mean Turkey tho'.

just because you can't see the joke, doesn't mean its not funny

[Quiff Boy]

The way I see it, AE was the boy at school who was never quite good enough to do anything really original himself, but sharp enough to put down other people's work / take the good bits from them and add a little from elsewhere.

Press forward on the eight track a few years, and you get A level English writing jazzed up with political, literary or other cultural / druggy references to make the words sound that bit cleverer and grown up. And, when challenged along the lines of "yes, but they don't really add up, do they?", a hasty retreat along the lines of "of course, we're taking the p*ss and the joke is on you because you don't understand".

i think you are being a tad overly harsh on the boy, but yes, i do agree with most of what you say

what you call

A level English writing jazzed up with political, literary or other cultural / druggy references to make the words sound that bit cleverer and grown up

is what i think of as eldritch-ims - the kind of twists of the english language that he peppers most of his songs with (see the last half of "under the gun" for a clear example of this) - stuff that sounds very cool but is in fact devoid of much substance...

rampant punning, even self-referencial at points, sentences re-ordered purely for the aesthetic value.

he has always had a habit/knack of taking a commonly used phrase and changing the order/structure around, swap a couple of verbs and nouns around and hey! you have yet another "eldritch" lyric... all thats left is to insert a few literary references...

but isn't there a saying about it being the clever chap that creates and the genious that steals?

either way, he's still a very cool chap isn't he?

utterly bastard groovy

[paint it black]

anyway this thread is all bolloxed up

it has aspirations beyond its station.

Bring back the valentine thread

[nearmethexperience]

[quote="Quiff Boy]is what i think of as eldritch-ims - the kind of twists of the english language that he peppers most of his songs with (see the last half of "under the gun" for a clear example of this) - stuff that sounds very cool but is in fact devoid of much substance...

rampant punning, even self-referencial at points, sentences re-ordered purely for the aesthetic value.

he has always had a habit/knack of taking a commonly used phrase and changing the order/structure around, swap a couple of verbs and nouns around and hey! you have yet another "eldritch" lyric... all thats left is to insert a few literary references...
[/quote]

call me wrong, but wasn't it david bowie that started that in the 70's?¿?

[Master Margarita]

Indeed. To all of that.

[Quiff Boy]

call me wrong, but wasn't it david bowie that started that in the 70's?¿?

obsolutely... the thin white duke v the thin white puke

[Izzy HaveMercy]

Hey! This ain't half as boring as the Valentine thread!
Pleased I've started this one!

Indeed!

[zigeunerweisen]

I'll say

[Ed Rhombus]

Are we having a serious chat about the lyrics this time so as Quiffy keeps his wig on?

(BTW shouldn't it be Sort of Spikey on the Top Boy?)

[Quiff Boy]

"Sort of Spikey on the Top Boy"

strictly speaking, yes. but that's not half as catchy is it?

as the memory of my quiff fades further into the sunset i sometimes think about changing my name. for a time it seemed highly appropriate...

hmmm

[Ed Rhombus]

Did you loose a fight to the guy on the door at the Royal park?

"I am the Quiff of Leeds, fight me with spoons"

And now he has sole rights to be bequiffed in the Yorkshire area

[Quiff Boy]

Did you loose a fight to the guy on the door at the Royal park?

"I am the Quiff of Leeds, fight me with spoons"

And now he has sole rights to be bequiffed in the Yorkshire area

in all honesty, the guy on the door, martin, has long since been the primary quiff wearer of leeds...

he's an occaisional voyeur on here too.

aren't you?

[eastmidswhizzkid]

Burn me a fire in The Reptile House
Reptile refers to the elemental evil present in every human mind. "The Reptile House" is a building common in zoos where, obviously, the Reptiles are housed. I would like to think that this is a metaphor for the Houses of Parliament; given the extreme political nature of Valentine and Fix, torching the Palace of Westminster would seem a suitable conclusion.

now i thought i'd actually read/heard von say in an interview (ages and ages ago) that the reptile house was a metaphor for the houses of parliament but bugger me if i can find the actual interview...however it definitely is .

How can Burn be a seething political commentary? All the song says- again, and again- is set fire to the reptile house. And some kissing and crashing colours.

although this irritating member has left to be a twit elsewhere i would like to reply that burning down/blowing up/bombarding from orbit the houses of parliament would sufficiently suggest to the cunts who inhabit it an indication of the feelings of the perpetrators for it to qualify as "political comment".

[eastmidswhizzkid]

"The Catherine wheel around on fire
We will burn this circus down
The wheel goes round and the friends get higher
For the juggling men and the idiot clown"

Juggling with the ring of fire[/i]The bullets blow holes and the flames go higher
Chase the yellow, chase the gold
The orange and the white lie in the stones

The juggling men and the idiot clowns
We will burn this circus down to the ground

Because some day I hope to turn and
Stand and watch this city burning down

Chase the yellow, chase the gold
The orange and the white lie in the stones

Burning, burning, burning, burning down

which i realised today are the lyrics to "burn it down" -the similarly tilted and identically drum-intro'd but musically different forerunner to burn.

[Dark]

Still not convinced it's about anything but starting a fire in a zoo.

[eastmidswhizzkid]

zoo's are bollocks as well.

[aims]

Still not convinced it's about anything but starting a fire in a zoo.

f**king hell :lol:

[Dan]

{After we complete the ring of fire,

"The Catherine wheel around on fire

The catherine wheel a ring of fire.

[Debi]

i love ths song. i listened to it yesterday in the car and the scary lyric bit really spooked me!!!!

[Being645]

This songs evokes always the same sad dream inside of me, the dream of a reptile house in the
park of a mansion ... Plenty wonderful reptiles were held in there, in wonderful environments
and dearly cared for by an otherwise rather unhappy boy. To him these reptiles meant
everything, his only comfort and relieve for years, until ...

[eotunun]

I had to think of that song when seing the hotel lounge scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas..

[stufarq]

How can Burn be a seething political commentary? All the song says- again, and again- is set fire to the reptile house. And some kissing and crashing colours.

although this irritating member has left to be a tw*t elsewhere i would like to reply that burning down/blowing up/bombarding from orbit the houses of parliament would sufficiently suggest to the cunts who inhabit it an indication of the feelings of the perpetrators for it to qualify as "political comment".

To be fair, I think the point is that the lyrics really just consist of a couple of phrases repeated over and over again. Political commentary it may be but it doesn't actually say all that much. What few lyrics and images there are are very evocative and the music is brilliant but it's not so much a "seething political commentary" as a couple of quick jibes.