Nursery Rhyme Lyrics?

[greensubmarine]

First let me start by saying I love everything Syd has done just about. I like Interstellar Overdrive, Astronomy Domine, Jugband Blues, Apples and Oranges and many more...

what annoys me are the ppl who comment under the syd youtube videos saying he sucked b/c they were nursery rhyme lyrics and that he was obviously crazy when he wrote certain songs.....the song that gets the most shit is "Bike" which i also enjoy.

What do you guys think of statements like that and how would you respond?

[Syd'sSexy]

Obviously I am a fan of Syd's music, though not all of it is brilliant. Some of his material is just plain awful, IMO (Rats, If It's In You). Bike is a classic, however.

I have really never seen any comments about "nursery rhyme" lyrics, but the one song that comes to mind is The Gnome. Effervescing Elephant could also be categorized as such I guess.

I hate those songs too.


EDITED BY ADMIN - Can we all stop posting tiny text so that people can't read it? Its very annoying!!!

[Hudini]

Well, "The Gnome" may not be a masterpiece but it's not that awful after all. "Effervescing Elephant" is a bit silly, but I enjoy listening to it from time to time.

And I love "Rats"!

[Stephen]

I agree that there's definitely a "childlike" quality about many of his lyrics although they are often combined with slightly more sinister elements. As his earlier influences are said to include the writings of Hilaire Belloc (Matilda Mother was originally intended to be a Belloc poem set to music I believe) I suppose that's hardly surprising.

[mosespa]

I'm going to be referring to another band for my comments...but I think the comments will still apply to Syd's music:

I hear a lot of people saying that the music of The Beatles is simple and like nursery rhymes. Every single person that I've ever heard say this wasn't born until after The Beatles broke up...so there's a very good chance that their first exposure to these songs was as infants.

At the time they were writing, The Beatles were master craftsmen...but it was a simpler time in every concievable way. The music of today is built upon the foundation that they laid.

Now...when you look at the foundation of a house, you don't think much of it because you've got the rest of the house sitting on top of it, covering it up.

Take the house off and look at the foundation itself, on it's own terms and in it's own light, if you really want to know why it's important.

[Damn!t]

What do you guys think of statements like that and how would you respond?

I would say that they're brain is simple.

I dont have any problem with Syds childlike lyrics.
Again, and I'v said it before... superficial complexity of some piece of art doesent guarantee it's beauty.
Sometime a haiku can mean a great deal more then a 20 page of written text.
Syds "simple" lyrics, in his prime days, where far more complex and filled hidden messages that made me thinking then alot of the modern stuff I hear today in pop music.

[lostplay]

as we


grow older our minds eye narrows
things that stare us plainly in front of our faces
we some how fail to grasp

but as a child does
syd does
he see's all .. the whole scene
and he comments on it in a child like wonderment way
almost like a first person to a third person commentary

for example
''
xxxxx
In the sad town
cold iron hands clap
the party of clowns outside
rain falls in gray far away
please, please, Baby Lemonade

In the evening sun going down
when the earth streams in, in the morning
send a cage through the post
make your name like a ghost
please, please, Baby Lemonade

I'm screaming, I met you this way
you're nice to me like ice
in the clock they sent through a washing machine
come around, make it soon, so alone...
please, please, Baby Lemonade

In the sad town
cold iron hands clap
the party of clowns outside
rain falls in gray far away
please, please, Baby Lemonade

In the evening sun going down
when the earth streams in, in the morning
send a cage through the post
make your name like a ghost
please, please, Baby Lemonade
>>>>>>>>
i think here syd talks about a amusment park ride
'where you have some painted garish metal clowns
and how sad they must look in the winter when the park is closed and he paints himself as one of them
telling baby how much he doesn't need her
yet he misses her so .

yes syd is a genius
a kind soul who refused to close his mind

peace

9

[Syd'sSexy]

superficial complexity of some piece of art doesent guarantee it's beauty.

Jesus Bran! That's a pretty profound statement. Did you write that before or after you smoked a joint?

[greensubmarine]

One thing that I really enjoy about Syd's lyrics are the timing of them in arrangement with the music. I think he does that very well IMO. Kind of like how in apples in oranges after the long music part he comes in at an unexpected time with "Thought you might like to know..." I love that.

[bpmolder]

I say that it's a pity people knock such childlike simplicity when they could benefit from a bit of it in their own lives from time to time.

[PublicImage]

I say that it's a pity people knock such childlike simplicity when they could benefit from a bit of it in their own lives from time to time.

Oh, I know. I spent most of this afternoon playing on swings in a park. What a lark.

[my breakfast.]

I say that it's a pity people knock such childlike simplicity when they could benefit from a bit of it in their own lives from time to time.

Oh, I know. I spent most of this afternoon playing on swings in a park. What a lark.

And I played "slappies" with my girlfriend and sorta dislocated her finger! Someone who truely loses their childhood instincts are either in rigerous self-denial, or heinously boring in my opinion!

[kingfisher_flashing]

I love the fact that Syd's lyrics had a fairytale/childlike feel to them. I am surprised that Primary schools did not take up on these lyrics like they did with the Beatles Oh bla di Oh bla da, Yellow Submarine and Octopuses Garden and use them in their music curriculum. The Gnome, Scarecrow, Bike would have been perfect lyrics for the kids to recite. My 7 year old daughter knows Bike word perfect and teachers and students alike are quite perplexed when she is singing the song to herself in the classroom.

[musicbailey]

My daughter used to perform the intro to powr toc h since she was a nipper. We still bounce it off each other now, she is 18

[greensubmarine]

u guys have the coolest kids