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

I’m awfully sorry to hear this. I hope you and your husband can find some peace & comfort through such a tough time. At the very least I wish you strength, and please do look after yourselves.

 

I feel weird about rating "Every Good Boy" because it's so clearly unfinished and I don't want to remark on a "concept" as if it were a "song." I wasn't blown away by it, so I'm not sure where it would have gone if it were finished up more.

Overall, he did fine, but I don't know if he deserves fudge.

NR/5

 

“Every Good Boy” - A decent sketch with some pretty obscure lyrics for a Tim song of this era. The verses are a bit forgettable to me, but I do kinda like the chorus, especially the way the vocals are layered. Not bad, but nothing amazing.

2.8/5

 

Oh, @dthomas850 - I am very sorry to read your news. That's devastating. I wish I had the right words to give you and your husband strength during this time. That's just terrible news and know that we will all be waiting for you when you are ready to come back. I hope that at some point the music you love will bring comfort to you.

 

“Every Good Boy” is hard to rate because it's so unfinished-sounding. As it is, it doesn't impress me. 2.4/5

 

I am so sorry to hear this. I am sending you and your husband good wishes and thoughts. I hope we can provide a tiny bit of relief from the awful circumstances you are in. Take good care of yourself.

 

Our votes for "Every Good Boy", either version:

1-0
2-3
3-3
4-1
5-0
average: 2.8142

 

Today's song is "Who Owns the Song?", written by Tim Finn.

Another song released on MySpace in circa 2008-2009. This song, unlike yesterday's, really doesn't stream.

When you let yourself surrender
To the workings of a song
And you listen for a moment,
You'll be gladly dragged alonng

Who owns the song?
The ones who strings the guitar?
The one who gets to strum?

Cause they tried to tell us music
Could be owned exclusively
Now every song's been written
Can be listened to for free

Who owns the song?
Please be careful with them
Don't you do them wrong

the first time you remember
really listening to a song
Were you taken to a place
Where people stay forever young?

Who owns the song?
The whose name is on it?
The one who sings along?

 

Today, by the way is important for two reasons. No, not the fact that He Whose Name Must Not Be Uttered might be leaving the headlines (fat chance) as he leaves office; but no: Its My birthday! And I'm 50! I will celebrate it by working almost non-stop from 7.30-6.15 pm.

But it's also significant because today is the 731st day of this thread. Why is that significant? Because it's the last day of the second year of this thread. Time flies! Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the day this thread was started.

I was thinking about dthomas' sad news yesterday and realized how much all of the users of this thread mean to me: I truly look forward to coming here everyday and reading your thoughts on this music. Over the years I feel we have formed a little club here. There are a lot of things that I hate about the internet and the way it's changed culture and society, but there are aspects of it that are good: not least the fact that users from all over the world can come together and talk about obscure stuff they like together and slowly learn about each other in the process. It's curious that friendships formed on the internet can be just as real as the ones formed in real life.

In the last year we've gone from 1993 to 2008 in our discussion: 15 years, if my second grade math is correct. In the first year we went from 1973-1993. We're nearing the run of a particularly dense release schedule, the '00s. There are still three more releases to talk about from 2009: one from all three Finns.

After that, I think we'll find that the 2010s will be a bit sparser as Tim turned to the stage and for the most part eschewed releasing music on any other medium than live, Neil worked at his usual slow pace and Liam seems to have slowed down to Neil's pace after 2014. Thus I estimate that we will catch up to the present sometime in the summer of 2021.

 

Happy birthday, Lance! And kudos and thanks for this monumental undertaking that has so informed and enriched my former rudimentary knowledge of the music we've been discussing. Also thanks to all the other contributors, both for the shared information and the realization that the internet can, after all, be a place for well-meaning people to have rational discourse. Well done, everyone!

 

Happy birthday Lance! Great work on this wonderful thread. The thoroughness you’ve provided here is amazing. Even with my fairly extensive research in seeking out rare Split Enz/Finn related material, there have been some songs (and even albums like Mimori Yusa’s Hope) that I would have never known about had it not been for your and others’ knowledge of them. Hope you have a great day despite having to work a long one!

 

“Who Owns the Song?” - Another little sketch demo. For whatever reason, my favorite part is actually the little “whistly”middle 8. Otherwise the song is kind of just “there.”

I have no idea what he’s on about with this lyrically. Is it an anti-piracy song? Anti-record company? I’m lyrically inept so after like 5 listens, it’s still a mystery to me.

2.5/5

 

I'm very sorry to hear this. Hope that things go the best they can in the circumstances for you and your husband.

 

Who Owns the Song

The lyrics of this one are on an unusual topic. Though, one that many musicians will be thinking about.

There are some interesting musical changes here. Not having analysed the chords I'm not sure what the cause is. The melody is nice, and sounds good (very competently) whistled. The more unusual bits of the melody and chords work for me. They provide interest and stop the song being run of the mill without making it sound weird for no reason.

For me, the best bit is actually the bit of scat singing at the end. That could probably be expanded into a Split Enz style outro with some Eddie piano on it. I'm not sure that the song really suits the jaunty guitar style and maybe if it had been finished it could have had a from the bottom up brand new arrangement.

3.2/5

PS: Happy Birthday Lance, and congratulations on stewarding this (and other threads) for years!

 

The song is clearly meant to be lightweight and light hearted, despite the fact that it actually does ask an interesting question and makes me think about the nature of copyright law....and weirdly, I think it works way better than it should or even than it was intended.

For some reason I just love this little song -- there's humor in it); but the humor is not the main reason I like it: I just like the melody and the sort of western swing sound, including the cowboy-song whistling...and the way the melody sort of twists at the end the end of each verse. O

It just sounds like the kind of thing Tim does naturally and perhaps should be doing: light and easy country-ish folk with a dash of old music hall. I don't think it really needed to be fleshed out in an expensive studio: in fact, I think the home-made nature of it and the "free release" on the Internet is entirely fitting.

4.3/5

 

I think it's just a light-hearted observation about how culture around music and concept of ownership has irrevocably changed, even if the law regarding copyright, etc hasn't.

I don't think it's anti-piracy or anti-record company. It's just observing the sort of revolution that had occurred over the previous ten years in regards to music consumption.

It's also an interesting question in my mind about copyright law: while I think artists should be compensated (and I still buy music of my favorite when it's possible-- I spend na enormous amount of my money on music in fact), in the old days artists used other artists music quite freely to springboard and create new music -- this was how music worked for centuries. Think of how many classic rockers freely ripped off other more obscure artists!

It's only in the 20th century when this became some sort of taboo and we came to see that inspiration as "stealing" or "ripping off". Our very thinking about music has changed due to a sort of legal framework that has nothing to do with music. I think that it stifles creativity: you didn't see Shakespeare worrying about plagiarism when he wrote his plays yet over half of them did have plots plagiarized. What a lesser world it would be without his Hamlet!

 

Happy Birthday, Lance!

This thread feels like “home” on the internet to me, and I sometimes wonder what’s going to happen to our little group when we catch up to present day.

 

Happy Birthday Lance! Thanks for maintaining this wonderful thread, which I discovered about a year ago. I wish I'd joined in sooner, but was rather overawed by the excellent quality of writing here. Better late than never eh.

Speaking of quality writing, my review of Who Owns The Song is along the lines of... yeah, it's alright. Another quick sketch of a demo, although it feels more complete than yesterday's. A nice acoustic shuffle going on, with a bright wandering melody. However, between the whistling break and the la-da's at the end, all it's missing is a yodelling solo to really set my teeth on edge.

Judging from this and the Secret Heart rework, Tim was reminiscing on music and contemplating its relevance in the modern age. Odd how that didn't filter down into the final Conversation album. On the whole, I prefer it to the previous forgettable 2 minute ditty, so

2.75/5

 

That is truly awful, devastating news. For what little they’re worth, you have my support and all the positive thoughts zI can direct your way.

 

Happy Birthday Lance! I hope you have a great day today, despite having to work all day!

And a million thanks for running this thread. It's personally allowed me to reintroduce myself to the Finn music after an absence of many years.

Like @brownie61 I do wonder what will happen when we reach the present. I quite look forward to my daily dose of this thread...

 

Who Owns the Song - this is a nice little song with a breezy style that belies the lyrical content. I do like when Tim does this type of "swing" style. The lyrics seem to be a straightforward take on song ownership and streaming particularly. However, I note that he poses the question about "ownership" - is it the songwriter, the performers or the listener who makes memories, that "owns" the song? We all have some ownership of music based on that question and the take home I get from this song is that listeners have a responsibility to support their share.

I like this song - particularly the outro. It's very cool. I've been trying to figure out what this style is (I agree with the birthday boy that it is kind of swing), maybe it's Finn beach campfire style...

It's not finished, but 3.8/5

 

Thank you for all for the kind, compassionate words. I don't have much in the way of friends or family and your support means a lot to me.

 

New
Well I have plans for this thread to explore other Split Enz-era careers + Crowded House fan club albums when we catch up.

I think interest will be more limited and I might not want to do it every day, because I want to do a thread on XTC when it’s done and, time, time.... but at least the thread will stay open for new Finn releases. They are a long-lived family, so I expect many more years of music from them.

 

I like the music (what little there is) quite a bit, but lyrically it's got a long way to go - it's another one that's hard to rate. The little jangly guitar sounds cool, and I like it, and the lyrics are a compelling question, but feel more conversational than poetic - it's a couple ideas that never got past that stage.

I rate this "potato" out of a possible 5.

 

Thematically, "Who Owns the Song" resonates with me as a musician. It's also one of those songs that Tim does so well. Again, I'd happily trade it for one of several on the album. 4/5