Alice

Got any interesting thoughts on a set of lyrics? Any that don't involve the word "indeed"? Find yourself struggling to decipher all those obtuse references Von makes? Read "1959 And All That" and still no clearer? Nope, us neither. Postcards found lying in a skip around the back of the Chemists can be found here... Don't say you weren't warned.
aims
Overbomber
Posts: 3211
Joined: 27 Mar 2005, 13:16
Location: in between

Someone's post count whoring :roll:
User avatar
dead stars
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 777
Joined: 15 Apr 2002, 01:00
Location: Lisbon

I've become this woman. From the Tarot to the tranqs.
And I swear I didn't do it on purpose!
I would choose something closer to Anaconda. But oh well, you can't really choose, can you?
~dead stars still burn~
User avatar
eastmidswhizzkid
Faster Than The Light Of Speed
Posts: 9876
Joined: 24 Mar 2005, 00:01
Location: WhizzWorld
Contact:

dead stars wrote:I've become this woman. From the Tarot to the tranqs.
And I swear I didn't do it on purpose!
I would choose something closer to Anaconda. But oh well, you can't really choose, can you?
you don't want to be anything like anaconda - its about getting a heroin habit, losing the plot and self-respect, then biting the (brick)dust.
Well I was handsome and I was strong
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"

:bat:
nick the stripper
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1732
Joined: 16 Dec 2004, 01:02
Location: Somewhere between Athens and Jerusalem.
Contact:

eastmidswhizzkid wrote:you don't want to be anything like anaconda - its about getting a heroin habit, losing the plot and self-respect, then biting the (brick)dust.
Better than being a damned hippy like Alice. :lol:
_emma_
Overbomber
Posts: 2014
Joined: 24 Oct 2003, 10:19

dead stars wrote:I've become this woman. From the Tarot to the tranqs.
And I swear I didn't do it on purpose!
I would choose something closer to Anaconda. But oh well, you can't really choose, can you?
Indeed, seems we can't. :|
User avatar
dead stars
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 777
Joined: 15 Apr 2002, 01:00
Location: Lisbon

eastmidswhizzkid wrote:
dead stars wrote:I've become this woman. From the Tarot to the tranqs.
And I swear I didn't do it on purpose!
I would choose something closer to Anaconda. But oh well, you can't really choose, can you?
you don't want to be anything like anaconda - its about getting a heroin habit, losing the plot and self-respect, then biting the (brick)dust.
But honey, I think if we're going to be a loser anyway, better do it grand. :P
~dead stars still burn~
nick the stripper
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1732
Joined: 16 Dec 2004, 01:02
Location: Somewhere between Athens and Jerusalem.
Contact:

I just found out that Go Ask Alice was made after White Rabbit. The book used song lyrics from popular hippy bands to make the main character look hip. White Rabbit is based on Alice in Wonderland.
paint it black
Black, black, black & even blacker
Posts: 4966
Joined: 11 Jul 2002, 01:00

nick the stripper wrote:I just found out that Go Ask Alice was made after White Rabbit. The book used song lyrics from popular hippy bands to make the main character look hip. White Rabbit is based on Alice in Wonderland.
should be

I just found out that White Rabbit was made after Go Ask Alice .
:wink:
Goths have feelings too
nick the stripper
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1732
Joined: 16 Dec 2004, 01:02
Location: Somewhere between Athens and Jerusalem.
Contact:

paint it black wrote:
nick the stripper wrote:I just found out that Go Ask Alice was made after White Rabbit. The book used song lyrics from popular hippy bands to make the main character look hip. White Rabbit is based on Alice in Wonderland.
should be

I just found out that White Rabbit was made after Go Ask Alice .
:wink:
should be

I just found out that Go Ask Alice was made after White Rabbit.
:wink:

Go Ask Alice was released in 1971, White Rabbit is a song of the 60s and was released by Jefferson Airplane aroung 1967.
paint it black
Black, black, black & even blacker
Posts: 4966
Joined: 11 Jul 2002, 01:00

:P

sex and drugs as ever was
Last edited by paint it black on 30 Aug 2005, 21:23, edited 2 times in total.
Goths have feelings too
User avatar
eastmidswhizzkid
Faster Than The Light Of Speed
Posts: 9876
Joined: 24 Mar 2005, 00:01
Location: WhizzWorld
Contact:

nick hasn't got any mates....he lives in zummerrrzet...only people who owe him a drink. :wink:

edit:@PiB -do you deliberately edit your posts so that subsequent posts make no/less sense? :wink: :cry:
Well I was handsome and I was strong
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"

:bat:
User avatar
eotunun
Overbomber
Posts: 3730
Joined: 06 Aug 2005, 22:24
Location: (X,Y,Z)(t)=huh!²

:idea: Alice gets to Wonderland through a mirror. Then, mirrors and razors get used quite frequenly to consume distinct stuff? So maybe Alice uses that mirror for the first time and - Voila! Everything is interesting and new..
I could well imagine that in the original story this was an inspiration, too, for in the past centuries drugs were handled a lot more freely than today. I even once heard that upper class ladies frequently had a good bit of cocaine to powder there noses with them most of the time.
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:

eotunun wrote:I even once heard that upper class ladies frequently had a good bit of cocaine to powder there noses with them most of the time.
If you define "upper class" to mean "relatively wealthy" then I'd guess a fair proportion of British women still do.

I know for a fact that Leeds is swimming in Coke. Drug of choice for the Atkins-diet-and-St-Tropez-fake-tan set.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
User avatar
eastmidswhizzkid
Faster Than The Light Of Speed
Posts: 9876
Joined: 24 Mar 2005, 00:01
Location: WhizzWorld
Contact:

eotunun wrote::idea: Alice gets to Wonderland through a mirror. Then, mirrors and razors get used quite frequenly to consume distinct stuff? So maybe Alice uses that mirror for the first time and - Voila! Everything is interesting and new..
I could well imagine that in the original story this was an inspiration, too, for in the past centuries drugs were handled a lot more freely than today. I even once heard that upper class ladies frequently had a good bit of cocaine to powder there noses with them most of the time.
alice gets to wonderland by falling down a rabbit hole. when she goes through the mirror she enters looking-glass house.they are different books.[/alice pedant]
i doubt cocaine would have been purchased in powder form and snorted then as it was still legal and would have been easier to buy and take in solution (sherlock holmes being a valid fictional reference).
however i agree that the drugs imagery of alice in wonderland is easy to see,and as well as a rather odd fascination with other peoples children charles dodgson (lewis caroll) was fond of a bit of opium now and again.
Last edited by eastmidswhizzkid on 02 Dec 2005, 22:13, edited 1 time in total.
Well I was handsome and I was strong
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"

:bat:
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:

Don't you mean Charles Lutwidge Dodgson? :innocent:
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
User avatar
eastmidswhizzkid
Faster Than The Light Of Speed
Posts: 9876
Joined: 24 Mar 2005, 00:01
Location: WhizzWorld
Contact:

markfiend wrote:Don't you mean Charles Lutwidge Dodgson? :innocent:
:oops: him as well! :innocent: :lol:
Well I was handsome and I was strong
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"

:bat:
User avatar
James Blast
Banned
Posts: 24699
Joined: 11 Jun 2003, 18:58
Location: back from some place else

I like the guitars :D
"And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere".
~ Peter Steele
nick the stripper
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1732
Joined: 16 Dec 2004, 01:02
Location: Somewhere between Athens and Jerusalem.
Contact:

I can't believe it's taken me so long to realize this, but isn't the line "she needs you like she needs needs her pills" (and the chorus that follows it) tinged with sarcasm?

Damn you and your deadpan singing, Von! :lol:
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:

I don't know, I read it as being a needy psycho-bitch-from-hell:

But I really need my tranqs! And I really need you to stay tonight...

The crystal / tarot stuff adds into this; the vast majority of people who are "into" that kind of stuff that I have met have been frightening nutjobs. :innocent:

Edit to add:
(sighs)
Yes, Alice, you're right, you can have it all... today.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
User avatar
King of Byblos
Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 166
Joined: 21 Jun 2006, 13:53
Location: the Black Country, UK
Contact:

eastmidswhizzkid wrote:
markfiend wrote:Don't you mean Charles Lutwidge Dodgson? :innocent:
:oops: him as well! :innocent: :lol:
the guy's a dude (prediliction for the younger ladies or not)
i beleive he was a Mathematics Lecturer at oxford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Caroll#Oxford

...as well as the well documented Victorian Drugs Scene
http://www2.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall03/032545.htm

this was when multi-dimensional mathematical space was invented (to be used so effectively by Einstein 40 years later) so Dodgson and his contemporaries & students were sat round off their tits trying to work out what hyperspace looked like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hinton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Bernhard_Riemann

GOFF link... funnily enough Hinton later turns up on a reading list by Alister Crowley.
:twisted: :lol:
my other half was always an anaconda-girl, oh dear!
& my sig is currently a Looking Glass quote, oh dear oh dear
"Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas – only I don't exactly know what they are!"
User avatar
Episkopos
Road Kill
Posts: 52
Joined: 30 Oct 2006, 10:21
Contact:

dead stars wrote:Could anyone post the correct lyrics for Alice?
Alice pressed* against the wall so she can see the door
In case the laughing strangers crawl and crush the petals on the floor
Alice in her party dress, she thanks you kindly, so serene
She needs you like she needs her tranqs to tell her that the world is clean
To promise her a definition, tell her where the rain will fall
Tell her where the sun shines bright and tell her she can have it all today...

Pass the crystal, spread the Tarot, in illusion comfort lies
The safest way, the straight and narrow, no confusion, no surprise
Alice in her party dress, suppose** she thanks you, turns away
Needs you like she needs her pills to tell her that the world's okay
To promise her a definition, tell her where the rain will fall
Tell her where the sun shines bright and tell her she can have it all today...

Alice! Don't give it away...
No!


I think that's right. Couple of wobbly ones:

* - the '92 version has "she stands pressed".

** - I swear I've heard "in her party dressed to kill, she thanks you" on a couple of live versions, but I can't quite remember which.


If you want an interpretation, I think it's the flipside of Floorshow (unsurprising really): Floorshow is :von: getting all contemptous, laying into the club scene, while Alice is a more sympathetic "that poor girl" version of the same sentiment. She sounds like some kind of Scene Queen, the girl who's at all the parties and always the centre of attention, and :von:'s just watching her giving her life away with mingled contempt and pity.

It's an opinion, anyway.
Kiss me, I'm Eldritch.
nick the stripper
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1732
Joined: 16 Dec 2004, 01:02
Location: Somewhere between Athens and Jerusalem.
Contact:

markfiend wrote:I don't know, I read it as being a needy psycho-bitch-from-hell: [/i]
Really? I saw it as maybe her boyfriend is the one supplying her with drugs, and Von is sarcastically saying that she doesn't need him, nor the drugs, to get by in the world.

I always thought the second verse ("spread the tarot", etc) is implying the same thing about religion: that it is not needed to get off on the world, even though the world is tough.

Although I like your interpretation. :lol:
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:

Episkopos wrote:** - I swear I've heard "in her party dressed to kill, she thanks you" on a couple of live versions, but I can't quite remember which.
It's always "dressed to kill" isn't it?
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
nick the stripper
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1732
Joined: 16 Dec 2004, 01:02
Location: Somewhere between Athens and Jerusalem.
Contact:

markfiend wrote:
Episkopos wrote:** - I swear I've heard "in her party dressed to kill, she thanks you" on a couple of live versions, but I can't quite remember which.
It's always "dressed to kill" isn't it?
Yep. The song always changes "Alice in her party dress, thanks you kindly, so serene" to "Alice in her party, dressed to kill, she thanks you, turns away" the second time the pre-chorus kicks in.
Ahráyeph
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1272
Joined: 04 Nov 2006, 20:37
Location: Belgium
Contact:

While everyone is going on about the white rabbit and the tarot references, might I allude you to the part that follow the tarot? Because it's an interesting follow- up. 'The safest way, the straight and narrow/no confusion, no surprise' appears like it refers to the previous sentence, however, it stands on its own. Because the straight and narrow - the lives the average Joe and Jane lead - is a direct opposite from the tarot - hippie (and not hippy) scene. The straight and narrow has no illegal drugs and is appreciated by the people living it for the predictability and alleged stability it brings. You're less confused when you get out of bed at the same time everyday, go to the same job, do the same work there etc... You know what to expect and you abide by it because that way it makes you feel safe. It could be perceived as Von trying to say that both ways are a form of escapism and inbetween there is just life as it is. He could have thrown in religion for good measure, now I come to think of it. But I think it's interesting to say the least (not to mention I would agree to a large extent with that line of thinking)...
Post Reply