Not really a fan of Bernice. I ought to like it and I do very much like the music, but the lyrics aren't particularly interesting if you know the Fitzgerald short story. Clever in that they take the story and make it work in lyric form, but no depth, nothing new or unique added. I think the Short Site analysis is grasping for something that just isn't there. 3.5 from me, mainly because it's a great tune, and I enjoy the performance.
That's interesting, because in my opinion that's the best three-song sequence on the album. I think there are some more highlights but not many in a row. It's certainly the one that would have worked as a single. Amen to these comments. This all flows so beautifully. The guitar part at 1:14 sounds very wistful without the "baa ba ba ba baaa"s, and I also love the change in intonation when Neil sings "jealous" at 1:52. Since I think this is flawless, it gets 5/5 from me (which is my highest score so far, too). Fittingly, during Neil's entertaining charity haircut by his partner he played "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" first (at 1.20):
I’ve never understood what everyone has against poor Diva. But I guess we’ll come to that in... oooh, about July?
Bernice Bobs Her Hair More poppy than what has preceded it and I like the changeup. The track itself feels more like a "regular song" than what we've heard before on the album. Good, strong singing and a jaunty backing makes this a winner. 3.7 (And I like "Diva Lady" too, as we'll see later.)
I agree with you here on the sequencing, though I like all the songs individually as well. It's the tail-end of the album that falters for me, these early tracks are what carries the album.
Bernice Bobs Her Hair I like this song a lot now, but I can recall not liking it very much when I first heard it. I think the first thing that attracted me to Divine Comedy was the bombast, which is not very present in Bernice. The song just sounded small and weedy to me at first, plus I was not yet 100% sold on the "character" singing voice that Neil used in the Setanta years. Eventually though, the melody and chord progression won out and I came around. 3.5/5 (Also, just teasing about Diva Lady, of course. I do hate the song, but I understand that, even in a thread where everybody loves DC, I'll have some minority opinions. More in a few months.)
Worth mentioning that there's a love version on the La Cigale promo CD that strips the song back to voice and acoustic guitar. The song works well in that context as well.
Yes; good point. I was planning to go over that whole concert the day after we’re done with “Liberation” and its B-sides. (if I have to upload it to YouTube in order to facilitate that, I will!) And actually, there’s another live version of “Bernice” on the Secret History Rarities disc, which is pretty good though a bit silly (that “mocking” piano playing from Joby I have never quite understood!) Edit: sadly that's also not on Youtube and I don't have time to upload it today...
If I were making a 2CD best of (which Neil surely deserves) then I'd definitely put Bernice on it, so I'll give her 5/5
Bernice Bobs Her Hair Bernice is where Liberation really takes off, and I would say is the first song truly developed in the TDC style we know and love. Right from the start the hooks commence. Full band arrangement plus ‘bah ba ba ba bah’ backing which Neil has employed many times since, get the song going at full steam from the off. Hook laden melody and some very individual guitar make this tale of hairdressing revenge one of the highlight of the album. I must admit to thinking the lyrics were out of Neil’s imagination and the literary references just passed me by amidst the joyous sound of the music. I was introduced to this track via the Secret History compilation being a latecomer to Liberation. The SH version is more polished and had a fuller sound but this version is my favourite with its slightly under produced feel. Neil finally hit the mark. Great song. I can’t give it 5 as there are songs I like better than this but let’s go 4.5/5.
There's a live version of Bernice on the rarities disc of the deluxe A Secret History. Is that the version you first heard?
The Flan in the High Castle's verdict: Setting a poem or story to music represents an impressive level of reader engagement, but paraphrasing a story, adapting it, retelling it imprecisely and in your own words, suggests a much deeper appreciation of the source material. That’s what Hannon does here, carefully abbreviating and rephrasing the key beats of Fitzgerald’s story to match the cadence of his song. “Bernice bobs her hair / In the barber’s in the square / All her new-found friends are there / To see it done / Bernice bobs her hair / She’s been driven to despair / ‘Cause her cousin doesn’t care / About anyone”. As a 170-odd-word lyrical summary of a story just under 9,000 words long, it’s more than adequate. It’s quite a bit longer if you count the “Ba ba-ba-ba ba”s with which Hannon begins and concludes it, in one of his occasional feats of extended non-lexical singing. Musically, this is accentuated with the same frantic harpsichord we heard on the previous track, with a throwback to the jangly guitar sound of Fanfare. It’s a catchy song, light and airy, with a literary element that makes for uncommonly classy pop music, and a story that ties to the album’s theme of rebelling against those who seek to control us – it’s a bit straightforward, and not entirely a product of Hannon’s imagination, but there’s really nothing not to like here.
Bernice is clever (but that word is going to be used constantly with anything Neil writes) and it has a jaunty tune to tell its tale. For me though, like practically all the album, it is slightly underwhelming and not quite as great as it should be. I'm glad I got into them later, with "A Short History About Love" and then worked my may backwards. If this, or Fanfare, had been my first listen the jury is out as to whether I would have carried on listening. So it's 3 for me.
You are correct Living Forever. I jumped in to early... I have been listening to Liberation and Promenade at work today and that’s what got me thinking about Pollen Count. We will come to that in a few days but don’t be surprised if it gets a similar score to Bernice. This thread is excellent, keep up the good work.
Ah, I love this. First of the galloping songs! That propulsive, giddy, soaring confidence gets me every time - Tonight We Fly, Something For The Weekend, Generation Sex, Absent Friends... A stepping stone to better things - setting a Fitzgerald story is a weird, distinctive move, but I prefer Neil's own, more personal stories later on. The chorus is a bit nursery see-saw. But its youthful energy always charms me. And really, who else was making songs like this? The demo's interesting isn't it? Probably would have been my favourite song on Fanfare. What was it about Euro-stuff - was Hannon a Maastricht Treaty fan? 4/5 Why weren't there any proper singles from Liberation or Promenade? (I know there are a few limited editions, but Something For The Weekend was the first 'radio' single wasn't it?)
As has been said, ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair’ really does feel like the starting point for a long lineage of charging, joyous, sometimes saccharine, baa-baa-baa-fests that form one of the most distinctive aspects of Neil’s sound over the years. I came to ‘Liberation’ after purchasing ‘Casanova’ and this was the first moment, back in 1996, where it seemed to me that the former was clearly made by the creator of the latter. The DNA is there, even if the sonic scope is writing cheques it can’t quite cash and thus has a slightly ramshackle bombast that would be fleshed out soon enough. Great fun. 4.2/5
Absolutely agreed, I did the same and had a very similar reaction. In fact this may have been one of the few songs on the album that I did like, the first time around. To be honest it does sound like something more akin to the “second band era”, given that, unless I’m much mistaken, the strings don’t make an appearance here. Joyous and bouncy, but with some very interesting chord progressions and great vocal harmonies especially in the “revenge section” (“So when it’s dark, and her cousin sleeps...”) this is everything I like about Setanta-era TDC. Especially that tinkling Portasound-harpsichord (thank you whoever it was who corrected me yesterday, I somehow managed to wrongly write that down out of the booklet!) All that, plus a fun story - I keep meaning to read the Fitzgerald original, actually, but fear it may ruin the song so I haven’t. 4.5/5 from me.
Interesting question, especially since this and the Europop EP are from around the time it was signed. I was 13 in 1992, and can remember this being big news - embarrassingly enough to admit, my friends and I used to go to our school music room at lunchtimes where one of our group who was a genius “by ear” piano player would improvise tunes and we would sing whatever lyrics came to mind. We must have come up with hundreds of terrible songs but the only one that sticks in my mind now went something like: “There’s Italy and Luxembourg And Ireland and France We’re all Europeans...” etc etc I guess it was something exciting to us, a new bright era where we were going to be part of something wider than just our little island. (Years later, in fact, it would afford several of us the opportunity to leave the U.K. for a year to live and work in Europe as part of our studies, something we all loved.) Hey ho...
[QUOTE="Hazey John II, post: 25485780, member: 122038" A stepping stone to better things This is probably how I feel about most of Liberation- the elements are in place and will be refined to greatness in due course. Not that this stops me from enjoying these songs of course.
Bernice Bobs Her Hair I'm really rather fond of this one - something about the way that Neil enunciates and emphasises certain words, the cadence of the verses and the general chord progression of the music, I think..... but also because it feels so simply joyous and comfortable with what it is. 4/5
