Stranger than Fiction, Larger Than Life: the Finn Brothers song-by-song discussion thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Lance LaSalle, Jan 21, 2019.

  1. therunner

    therunner Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    If you like that trick you might want to check out the band Belle And Sebastian who are masters at it. For example they have a track entitled "Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying" that has the happiest little sunny sound you could ever wish to hear.
     
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  2. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Great band!
     
  3. therunner

    therunner Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    My next favourites after Neil, and also great live.
     
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  4. StefanWq

    StefanWq Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallentuna, Sweden
    "As Sure As I Am" was the second Woodface track I heard, as it was the B side of the "Chocolate Cake" single. I think it is a really strong and unique album track, featuring David Hidalgo's superb accordion playing, and being a waltz too. I've always interpreted the lyrics to be about the contrast between consumerism (first verse) and poverty (second verse, pitying the rhino etc), but they are a bit vague. I imagine that Neil is aware that he is living a very privileged life (as are we fans) compared to many people in Africa who are battling poverty and starvation in their lives. Neil doesn't have a solution to that dilemma, but I think the lyrics portray the complex feelings very well. The lines "I couldn't care less for what might go wrong / And I'm as happy as sin in a fear shaken world" remind me of the lines "in the paper today, tales of war and of waste / but you turn right over to the TV page" from "Don't Dream It's Over". I think a lot of people feel guilt for being that person who turns right over to the TV page and wished they were more noble, so I think it is good and brave that this is acknowledged in a song so that we listeners become more aware of it.
    As a song, I feel this is very good but maybe sounds just a tad too polished but I always like hearing it.
    4/5
     
  5. StefanWq

    StefanWq Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallentuna, Sweden
    I'm also a big fan of the group Sparks and they have a weird and wonderful track called "My Baby's Taking Me Home". Have a listen to that song and count how many times the title is sung. Answers on a postcard… :)
     
  6. jcr64

    jcr64 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    "As Sure As I Am" strikes me as a song about someone who has subsumed himself in a relationship ("I'll wear the smile on your face") but who has doubts about the wisdom of that course. "I pity the rhino" is surely an unusual line and an arresting image.

    The song is a solid album track, but I think it suffers in two respects. First, it is awkwardly placed after "All I Ask" (which I find dreary and others adore, but all of us I think have to acknowledge that it is a slow song)--there's no dynamic momentum at this time. This is the eleventh song out of fourteen (or fifteen); by this point it becomes hard to maintain interest, and the song's pace doesn't help. Second, I think it suffers from its proximity to "How Will You Go," which has the same key, meter, and tempo, but is (to my mind) a superior song.

    I do like it, but I don't seek it out.

    3/5
     
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  7. StefanWq

    StefanWq Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallentuna, Sweden
    I have a vague memory that Neil's publishers (Kobalt Music, I think) actually set up a dispute with Tim's publishers (EMI, I think, but not sure) regarding the song "All The Colours" on Everyone Is Here, assuming the song was a Finn/Finn composition and not solely written by Tim. Publishers don't give a toss about family ties and set up these kind of disputes all the time. It's quite possible that neither Tim nor Neil were even aware it was set up. In any case, it was quickly resolved (that song was written by Tim alone, "Gentle Hum" was written by Neil alone).
     
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  8. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    :tiphat:Whoa. News to me!
     
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  9. BeSteVenn

    BeSteVenn FOMO Resident

    I have several of their CDs, they're excellent!
     
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  10. DolphinsIntheJacuzzi

    DolphinsIntheJacuzzi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    "As Sure As I Am" is beautiful. I wouldn't quite give it a 5/5, but it's a strong 4. For some reason, the line "I'm as happy as sin in a fear-shaken world" resonates deeply with me. The irony, the pathos, the bruised cynicism - all wrapped up in such a beautiful line of poetry. And I love the way that the brief pause after "sin" sets you up for the dark punchline. But all in all, a beautiful, deeply affecting song. 4/5.
     
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  11. dthomas850

    dthomas850 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, Ohio
    "As Sure As I Am" is really good, but not quite up to the heights of other stellar songs here.
    4/5
     
  12. Turk Thrust

    Turk Thrust Forum Resident

    Location:
    U.K.
    When I first heard this album, I didn't know much of the back story of the group and I didn't worry too much about who was singing the lead vocals. But even back then it felt out of place on the album.

    It's still quite a good song, but rather odd to hear after Fame Is.

    3/5.
     
  13. Michael Rofkar

    Michael Rofkar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Santa Rosa, CA
    I'd hardly call that ending a "jam"... 3/5
     
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  14. factory44

    factory44 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA USA
    As Sure As I Am is gorgeous.

    4.5/5.
     
  15. factory44

    factory44 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA USA
    I wish we had more time to edit our posts! Please ignore my previous post about As Sure As I Am. I spent most of my day at a funeral home. A close relative passed away, and I’m not quite myself right now.

    ASAIA may be my favorite CH song. The “pity the rhino” line chokes me up every time I hear it or think of it. The way Neil sings “love potion” is incredibly moving. What a fantastic song.

    5/5.
     
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  16. NorthNY Mark

    NorthNY Mark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton, NY, USA
    "As Sure As I Am" is my favorite track on the album by far. It's one of those songs that just touches me in a very personal way that is hard to describe. Some of it might be that it feels like Neil at his most open and vulnerable. "I wanted everything you throw out" is a little reminiscent of the sentiments of "Fall at Your Feet," but it's sung with so much more conviction here. And when the chorus kicks in, swirling ecstatically with its accordion-accompanied "I couldn't care less! I'm happy as sin in a fear-shaken world," it just seems to convey the feeling of letting oneself go in the throes of infatuation like no other song I can think of. It's just glorious, and also feels utterly sincere, and reminds me of why I consider Neil to be among the best singer/songwriters of our era. 5/5 (and wish I could go higher).
     
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  17. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Our votes for "As Sure As I Am"

    1-0
    2-0
    3-4
    4-7
    5-6
    Average: 4.05
     
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  18. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Today's song is "Italian Plastic", written by Paul Hester with lead vocals from Neil Finn and Paul Hester.

    Italian Plastic

    "Italian Plastic" was often played by Crowded House in concert and live versions were released:

    • as a B-side to the (UK) "Four Seasons In One Day" double EP (November 1991) (UK)
    • On the 1992 Live at the Town and Country promo album (recorded November 1991) (same as above)
    • On the Farewell to the World album (recorded November 1996) (link below)
    • North American Travelogue triple CD, (recorded in Calgary, AB, 2010)
    and a host of fan club live albums.

    Finally a Neil Finn home demo was released on the Woodface Deluxe album in 2016. (link below)

    There may be another band-produced version in the vaults that sounds "like the Velvet Underground", reported in the Bourke book, recorded in Melbourne in 1990 before Tim joined.
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2019
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  19. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

  20. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Neil's home demo, recorded at the Murchison Street flat in 1989, produced and mixed by Neil Finn.

    Spotify: Italian Plastic
     
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  21. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Well, what is to be said about "Italian Plastic"? A song that, at first, seemed like a goof that didn't belong with the rest of the songs on this incredible album ended up growing on me to the point where, now, I consider it an indispensable part of Woodface. It comes at a perfect point in the track list, just after two pensive, sweeping songs of great emotion and right before two more such songs. Here we lighten the mood with this song that is about....well, I'm not quite sure, but it seems to be sung with great affection for the person who thinks the singer looks "pathetic". If this is a love song, it's one of the oddest...but most purely felt...I've ever heard. Paul and Neil's double lead vocals work quite well and the track is filled with all sorts of sounds in the rich stew of a mix. I especially love the pounded piano chords in the left channel on the final chorus. The instrumental break with the harmonium (I think?) and background vocals is gorgeously Beatlesque. I definitely think this is far and away the best song Paul Hester ever wrote (that I've heard, at least), certainly from a musical standpoint. Speaking of the Beatles, the bit after the false ending sounds like something straight out of "Strawberry Fields Forever". The high point of the track for me is the shouted set of lyrics prior to the final chorus ("your man from the moon...your soul survivor", etc.) That part provides the song with some emotional heft.

    The live version from the November '91 London T&C Club show is quite good and was released as a b-side on the UK "Four Seasons in One Day" single. It's different from the (inferior, in my opinion) live version from Sydney '92 that appeared as a b-side on the AUS/NZ "Four Seasons in One Day" single. The home demo that made an appearance as a bonus track on the Woodface DE is interesting in that I don't hear Paul on it, at least singing. Since he wrote the song, I would have thought he'd have recorded the demo rather than Neil. The demo isn't close to the final album version, which indicates how much it must have been worked on in the studio to bring it to a state where it became worthy of being included on the album.

    4.4 for the album version; 2.7 for the demo.
     
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  22. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Melodica, I think.
     
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  23. Paul H

    Paul H The fool on the hill

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    I agree with @robcar that Italian Plastic isn't throwaway: it's just a quirky take on love. In art, love is always fashioned in the most romantic of ways: it's always highly emotive, strewn with doubt and questions (does he/she, doesn't he/she) and teetering on the brink of annihilation. And yet, most romance takes place in mundane situations of immense ordinariness: I made your dinner, brought you breakfast, fixed something that was broken. These are the signals of our ordinary relationships and they're the ways we bind ourselves to our loved ones.

    And Hessie, bless him, saw that he didn't need to write about the romantic love in traditional ways: he could just talk about the normalcy of everyday actions and how they can be routinely dismissed. "I bring you rocks and flowers, you say they look pathetic". A beautiful vignette.

    The chorus is as uplifting as anything Neil ever wrote. Here, Hessie shows that love rises above all of these little put downs and the dullness. And his metaphor (I'll be your glass of water) is really insightful. Water cleanses, refreshes, reinvigorates.

    For years I'd dismissed this song as being a pleasant three minutes of filler, and yet - as Neil has said - it wasn't a token gesture Ringo Song. It earned it's place. And he's right.

    Of course, it's hard to judge this song without placing it in the context of Paul's passing. Whenever I saw it live I always felt it was 4-minutes of showtime that could have been better spent on one of Neil's songs. Now I love watching the band offer this one up.

    The presence of a Neil demo has always intrigued me, though. Even when alive, Neil would occasionally sing this song on his own. Paul was presumably flattered - who wouldn't be flattered to have Neil f-ing Finn want to sign your song over one of his? - but it still strikes me as a little unusual.

    I give this song a 4/5. That may be partly influenced by my continued sorrow at Paul's passing. My choice of online username wasn't an accident. We share first name/surname initials and, when I first joined the Frenz Forum, I did half hope that it would generate some intrigue as to whether I was actually the Paul H.
     
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  24. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    By the way, Neil apparently did a whole broadcast earlier this week, without speaking, just played demos, including a lot of fresh new (to us) stuff:

    Neil Finn - Wrinkles (demo)
    Neil Finn - Sign of Life chords (demo)
    Far Away Children (demo)
    Neil Finn - Start Of Something (demo)
    Finn Brothers - Everyday Alright (demo)
    Neil Finn - The Wind Was On The Withered Heath (Neil’s note: this is a Tolkien poem)
    Finn Brothers - Gentle Soul (demo)
    Neil Finn - Don’t Stop Now (home demo) (Team NF’s note: previously released on Time on Earth Deluxe Edition.)
    Neil Finn - Far Side Of The World (demo)
    Neil Finn & Dixie Chicks - Silent House (demo) (Neil’s note: the recording of Silent House with the Dixie Chicks was done during writing session before the lyrics were written)
    Neil Finn - Corporate Mindset (demo)
    Crowded House - Beautiful Life (studio version)
 (Team NF’s note: A live version is on the Intriguer Deluxe Edition.)
    Neil Finn - Human Kindness (demo)
    Neil Finn - Spy Theme (demo)
    Neil Finn’s Cornucopia of Flowers - Hyacinth
    Neil Finn - All God’s Children (demo)
    It’s Happening
    Neil Finn - You And I Know (Team NF’s note: this is a slightly different mix from the one on The Kitchen Sink III.)
    Elroy (demo)
    Deco 1 (demo

    Fangradio — Neil Finn
     
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  25. Paul H

    Paul H The fool on the hill

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    Wow.
     
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