From: Level42-request @ worldmachine.com (Level42 Digest) Subject: Level42 Digest V2001 #210 _ ____ _ ____ _ _ ___ // //__ // / //__ // /__// __// //__ //__ \\_/ //__ //__ // /__ D I G E S T Level42 Digest Volume 2001 : Issue 210 1259 subscribers Today's topics: Don's silly comments - hahaha Winston Walker Bass Players and the Rippingtons John F. Moore RE: Level42 Digest V2001 #208 Paul Clifton RE: Level42 Digest V2001 #208 -reply Paul Clifton ------------------------------ Subject: Don's silly comments - hahaha From: "Winston Walker" Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 08:28:44 -0400 Ok, i couldn't resist some of Don's points about some of Phil's lyrics. 1. Phil obviously didnt write KC mIlkman for the usa alone, but where I grew up we had home milk delivery until 1980. We had that little metal box on the porch, for that reason. 2. FYI, Boon was writing Level 42 lyrics since the first album, and even before that. 3. These would be great questions for Phil, via his website. Maybe he can give a brief explanation for some of the lyrics, assuming he still recalls why he wrote what he did 20 years later. :-) Win ------------------------------ Subject: Bass Players and the Rippingtons From: "John F. Moore" Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 01:08:25 -0700 Winston: Another wonderful CD produced by Jeff Lorber is "West Side Stories." My favorite tunes are "Grasshopper," "Let the River Run," "Road Song" and "Tour's End." I find that Let The River Run very hypnotic, very much in the same vein as Sleep Walkers by Level 42. On West Side Stories, Jeff Lorber uses the bass talents of Alec Milstein and Nate Phillips. Another excellent band you should check out is The Rippingtons. I had the pleasure in seeing them live here in Las Vegas. It was in a small room, seating no more that 1,100 people and the place was packed. Most of the songs that they performed was from their Life in The Tropics cd. They did play some of their past hits such as Aspen, Black Diamond, Miles Away. Their encore piece was Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix. It was amazing. After the show, I had a chance to meet the band. Russ Freedom was nice and I chatted up the bass player, Kim Stone. I found out that he played for Spyra Gryra before joining the Rippingtons. The nice thing about Kim is that is in awe of Mark King and had good things to say about his playing and song writing ability. I like Kim's style of bass playing and I love his 5 stringed bass. I had a damn, good time!!!!!!!! If you have a chance to see the band, go see them. Thanks for your time. John in Las Vegas, NV 89145 ------------------------------ Subject: RE: Level42 Digest V2001 #208 From: Paul Clifton Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 09:55:08 +0100 What a rant. Have been practising your insult skills, have you? Ohh, I especially like that bit about you being so grown up that you think all "sulky lost-love stories" are stupid and pointless. May I ask if you like Level2 at all and what you are doing here? Stardream42 Sadly I think you are missing my point, which given your narrow point of view doesn't surprise me. On the macro side, I DO like Level 42, just not particularly for the lyrics, which are pretty crappy if you bother to stop and think about it. As I freely admitted, I was a devotee of the deepest kind in my teen years, but life moves on, and world-view matures, and experience gathers, and suddenly all those lyrics start to read a little tritely. I would suggest that if this level of wordsmithery still hits the mark with you, you are lucky - for ignorance is bliss, and i myself would love to still find other stuff i found impressive in my teens still shone for me:- perhaps i should attempt to read penthouse forum again and see if it still seems exciting, mysterious and true-to-life? Or maybe I should slap on that kids from fame record that always seemed so cool. I stretch the point but only because you labour it; unless you are suggesting an apartheid within this digest that prohibits any criticism of any part of the band i suggest you rethink your reactionary standpoint. or would you leap to the defence of every aspect? how about the clothes they wore on the fait accompli tour? didn't think so lol. some things can't be justified or defended. i am as big a fan of "sulky love songs" as anyone, i just like them written better. oh, by the way, i think you will find that phil gould left the band before world machine due to the increasing tensions in the band. he rejoined twice but the group was operating on a fractured basis from at least 1984 onward. that is well over the half the lifetime of the band, and by all accounts things hadn't been too friendly between he and mark for some time before that. ------------------------------ Subject: RE: Level42 Digest V2001 #208 -reply From: Paul Clifton Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 10:05:54 +0100 sorry to write twice (would have written three times but alex's wasn't really worth a reply since it was just a pompous piece of posturing which needed no undermining - hilarious), but just on the subject of: "The artist who creates the lyrics is really the only one who knows what inspired or what was intended. I like as much insight as possible too and speculation is fun, but cannot seem to get my thoughts to flow just like a golden stream as some of you are able. Just take what you want from it and try not to get caught in a web you spun yourself." i have to contend that actually meaning lies in the mind of the listener, and the lyricist, much as it might upset them, is cut off from authorial control as soon as the work enters general circulation. this would explain why so many of you read such vast, deep meanings in such shallow, hastily constructed pieces (after all, let's not forget that the lyrics are written around vowel-sounds and non-articulated noises that mark supplies as melody). fine; each to their own. i think it gloriously postmodernist of you all to take a piece of dirt and see it as gold dust, but please, don't be affronted when i point out to you that it is just dirt when you show it to me. oh and i write in lower case because we are on the net; have you NO decorum? :oP catch up on your cultural studies - welcome to post-postmodernism.