Marian

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.
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andymackem
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Hi guys,

I'm new so I'm probably asking a really dull, old-hat question, but try not to flame me yet :D

Just wondering if anyone could post the German verse of Marian, ideally with a translation.

Cheers,
Andy.
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andymackem
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Thanks
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Loki
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Great link Mark. I was gonna print something but then I cancelled. 30 mins later a member of staff shout's out 'Who's just printed 51 pages of Sisters Of Mercy lyrics ..?'
:eek: :oops: :oops:
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markfiend
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Johnny Boy wrote:'Who's just printed 51 pages of Sisters Of Mercy lyrics ..?'
:oops: I know that feeling.

I'm sure I bookmarked the lyrics link off someone else's recommendation on HL somewhere *shrug*
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khepri II
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Johnny Boy wrote:Great link Mark. I was gonna print something but then I cancelled. 30 mins later a member of staff shout's out 'Who's just printed 51 pages of Sisters Of Mercy lyrics ..?'
:eek: :oops: :oops:
:lol: :lol: :lol:

LMAO :notworthy: :notworthy:
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Dave R
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Cool, i'm not the only one then, banged mine out of a canon by mistake, set to auto repeat....

Might put it up on Trading..."for sale 14 bound b/w copies of complete sisters lyrics..."

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Loki
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doktor wolf wrote: Might put it up on Trading..."for sale 14 bound b/w copies of complete sisters lyrics..."
Don't forget 'Fan Club Limited Edition ...' :wink:
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Once I printed more than 70 pages of Joy Division stuff :oops:
Of course, by mistake :innocent:
Fortunately it was summertime and most colleagues where on vacation. Yeah, hot summer... And the printer was hot too ;D
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Johnny Boy wrote:
doktor wolf wrote: Might put it up on Trading..."for sale 14 bound b/w copies of complete sisters lyrics..."
Don't forget 'Fan Club Limited Edition ...' :wink:
If you need a cover designed for that..... :D
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Thanks for the link. I guess the key is, look at the lyrics, but don't print anything out!

Now for the real question: exactly who is this Marian ?
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the name "marian" was used by gary marx in a set of lyrics he'd put forward for another track around the same time. eldritch had dismissed marx's words as being too morose... then he came up with the words to marian :roll: :lol:

the original inspiration for the name probably came from leonard cohen's song "so long, marianne". i doubt it has any real significance other than sounding nice and fitting the meter of the song ;)
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Quiff Boy wrote:i doubt it has any real significance other than sounding nice and fitting the meter of the song ;)
Songwriters routinely pen works where names and details are chosen because they fit the meter of the composition. Although the song itself could be the catharsis of deeply-felt personal angst expressed as a specific (yet completely fictional) outpouring, or could be an actual chronicle of a hurtful experience endured, it does not necessarily follow that the gal who stirred up those feelings in real life would be given the same name in the song. Autobiography only goes so far -- if the meter is not right, the name goes.
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Well, I guess the song needed to come with the usual disclaimer of "... similarities to anyone living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintended, et al...."

Sometimes you can read too much into a song or artist (indeed, some artists probably want this to happen) and, other times, artists complain that the depth or significance of their work goes unappreciated.

I like the way Sisters songs seemed to have a totally different feel when compared to the studio versions. But my fave era of the band has always been FALAA and earlier.
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pikkrong wrote:Once I printed more than 70 pages of Joy Division stuff :oops:
Of course, by mistake :innocent:
Fortunately it was summertime and most colleagues where on vacation. Yeah, hot summer... And the printer was hot too ;D


Some Printers Print By Mistake - The Booklet.

Sounds nice.


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Black Biscuit wrote:Thanks for the link. I guess the key is, look at the lyrics, but don't print anything out!

Now for the real question: exactly who is this Marian ?
in an article i have somewhere, von said marian was from hamburg and it got embarassing cos her boyfriend was in the audience with her

well looky here. part of my ongoing project

http://www.lak.co.za/pib/identifier180485.html :eek:

edit : a verse was in german so marian could understand, she wasn't very good with english /edit
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sinclair
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In a conversation i had with Dave Allen, the subject of marian came up. He said that there was alot of awkwardness about it in the studio because Von was in love with this girl in Germany and that he was torn between her and his partner in the uk.This is what Marian was about. It was apparently awkward because the lyrics were transparent to the english girl and the band!
Im not sure if this includes marian, but also the lyrics on the album were different to start with. One night Eldrich was up as usual on amps and rewrote the lyrics to most of the songs which really irked the other band members in the morning. apparently there was a chalk board in the studio that had the lyrics and song structures on. when the band came in the next morning he had wiped everything and the band and Mr Allen didnt know what was where.
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MrChris
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Am I dreaming, or is someone discussing lyrics again?

Interesting anecdote - Keep up the good work!
Chris

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spartacus mills
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Sinclair's post is the most interesting thing I've read on these boards for years...
Btw, I posted my interpretation of 'Marian' on the Dominion list a long time ago. It didn't go down very well with the gothy type people...
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There are certainly different lyrics to "Walk Away" on a live bootleg I got via weeding recently (Paard Van Troje, the Hague, 1984), and on a demo version of "No Time to Cry" which features several overlayed voices.

I presume these were the original versions before Von's all-night session in the studio...
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sinclair
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Im not sure of the degree of changes that were made only that they were made. They may not have been drastic (although i was lead to believe they were) but they were certainly large enough to provoke some hostilities bettween the members.
:von: Vons excessive drug intake was also part of the problem because he was also reported to be doing weird things! On enquiry i found out that apart from sleeping odd hours as one would expect, lol, :von: Von would never remove his hat, leather jacket or shades when retiring in his shared hotel room. It was not a stage thing! Apparently :von: Von was the stangest, generaly weird and most unoproachable person Dave had produced which considering his production catalogue is quite astounding. Thats all for now.
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MrChris
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Some of the lyrics in Some Kind of Stranger annoyed Gary Marx, he thought they were criticisms of him (i've seen the way that careful lingers undecided at the door) although I always thought he was being very touchy there. Now Walk Away, that's always seemed to me to be addressed to Marx, but who knows? Anyway Gary's certainly on record as saying Stranger was supposed to be a love song, whereas Eldritch's lyrics make it a basically anti-love song...You could certainly call that a radical change in direction.
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http://www.myheartland.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2140
HL) There’s a “story� that says that “Walk Away� was about you – did you know that? And if so, how did you feel about it?

GM) When we were making ‘First And Last And Always’ Andrew was effectively splitting with his long-term girlfriend and I was close to leaving the band. The two things led to a number of references in the lyrics which seemed to cover his farewells to us both. ‘Walk Away’ may or may not be about me, I don’t care because I don’t particularly like the song – the one lyric which always bugs me is the line from ‘Some Kind Of Stranger’ which says ‘..careful lingers undecided at the door’ which I definitely took as a shot at me.
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MrChris
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Exactly. But the Stranger line would have to be taken completely out of context to be a dig at Marx, no? That's what I've wondered about, since the verse goes on to make it clear that Von's talking about the meaninglessness of words when compared to physical contact, sex or whatever. I mean, there's nothing else in the song, to me, that refers to anything other than a boy meets girl situation, is there?
Chris

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Quiff Boy
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MrChris wrote:Exactly. But the Stranger line would have to be taken completely out of context to be a dig at Marx, no? That's what I've wondered about, since the verse goes on to make it clear that Von's talking about the meaninglessness of words when compared to physical contact, sex or whatever. I mean, there's nothing else in the song, to me, that refers to anything other than a boy meets girl situation, is there?
i'm guessing the line corresponds with something that had already been said between the two - maybe in the context of an arguement?

in which case, eldritch then slipping the comment into a song, seemingly innocently, could well have been taken as a rather cheeky little dig :?
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