Demo VS Official Release

[Miss Fitt 2]

I'm not 100% sure what it is about the song, but it's just always been a favorite of mine. I remember first hearing it in 97 or so, and it immediately stuck out as the best of the pre CFAS material. It really has a haunting melody and just flows so well. Can't say much better about why I love it so much, I just do. The other song I'd rank up there would have to be Freak Accident, which also ranks as one of the best SA songs ever. I think there's a trend that the best songs get left off albums...

Phil

Thanks, Phil, and everyone else for weighing in. I was genuinely curious and interested, as I always am when people single out songs as exceptional that I don't have the same reaction to.

I definitely agree there's a poignancy to some of the lines and to Dave's delivery of them. And I enjoyed it when Dave performed it at the Volunteers show last December. But I think the very best Soul Asylum songs combine poignancy and complexity, or else have an irresistible raw energy, and this song just seems rather ordinary to me. It's interesting that you mention "flow," because I think it has the least flow of any Soul Asylum song. Stylistically, it is full of stops and starts from the opening line. Somehow it manages to feel simultaneously overwrought and anemic. And personally, I dislike the whole "Black staaaaar.... black staaaar... black staaaar....there is a black star" refrain, which just sounds like Dave stopped writing.

Wow... I guess I really don't like the song, huh?

Now, Freak Accident... there's a song.

Anyone else have that experience of just not getting a song when the general consensus is that it's great?

[CrazyLittleWoman]

Anyone else have that experience of just not getting a song when the general consensus is that it's great?

Yep! But I'm not stepping back into that minefield by saying which one.

I've also had the reverse experience of having connected very deeply with a song that most other people seem to find trite. And I'm DEFINITELY not stepping into THAT minefield. I prefer that this particular private moment remain private.

To each her/his own.

BTW, it seems like you've been gone for awhile, Miss Fitt. Good to see you back again.

[Miss Fitt 2]

BTW, it seems like you've been gone for awhile, Miss Fitt. Good to see you back again.

Thanks! Yes, I've been sort of MIA for a while - swamped at work and dealing with some personal stuff. It's nice to be joining the discussions again. Hopefully, I'll have an opportunity to start seeing shows again soon, too. Going to try for the xmas show at the very least.

[LittleTooClean]

I always liked the demo of 99% much better than the studio version.
It was more like a real song or live version not a bunch of studio tricks.

[lune ellise]

I always liked the demo of 99% much better than the studio version.
It was more like a real song or live version not a bunch of studio tricks.

Oh, me too! I like 99% studio version (someone pointed out that the song is the only one that has balls in GDU, and I quite agree) - but the demo version sounded more real to me. It has a different melody too (a pitch lower?), and doesn't have those annoying radio static voices going on.

[sheryl]

Anyone else have that experience of just not getting a song when the general consensus is that it's great?

Freak Accident. I just don't like it.
Tied to the Tracks. Ditto.
Made to be Broken. That one for me is like a really bloody car crash. You desperately don't want to see but you just can't look away.

There are a lot of Soul Asylum songs I don't like, but those three are the ones that come to mind that just everybody but me seems to love.

Then there are some that I just seem to connect with on such a visceral level...I keep wondering if there's some underlying theme that I don't get....
Blackstar
Closer to the Stars
Never Really Been
Cartoon
Success is not so Sweet
Blood into Wine

Songs I not only love but pull some very deep heartstring in me.
Closer to the Stars is probably at the top of that list. It's been my theme song ever since it was a screaming raucous punk din.
If ever there was a song that described me, that's the one that does.
And it makes me very weird when I listen to it. It throws me into a mindset of dozens of long cold winters.

Soul Asylum does that though as a rule. It's music I go to when things are bad...I almost never listen to it when things are good...because it's my asylum. So hearing it makes me very strangely oriented for a while.

blah blah blah

[philipgar]

Anyone else have that experience of just not getting a song when the general consensus is that it's great?

Freak Accident. I just don't like it.

That song.... it resonates with me just way too well. Possibly more than any other song that dave has ever wrote. I guess it depends where you are when you hear it, and listen to it. I've lived life as sort of an outcast, and freak accident, always played to me, something really special. And, yes, I'll admit sometimes I'm an ass, which really fits in with the song. As for the rest ... "screwed up a few things in my life... maybe even screwed them up twice.... every now and then somebodys counting... then again I'm still alive, somehow managed to survive". God, it speaks to me on so many levels.... I can't remotely go into how, but it does. I feel like dave is singing about my life, and then he keeps on with "i know you're a misfit too, that's my favorite part about you.... even at the fair you can get lucky". So pretty and beautiful. Hell, I'd trade closer to the stars for a freak accident any day, and that's saying a lot.... There are few songs that speak to me so strongly, and that one does.

Phil

[philipgar]

BTW, it seems like you've been gone for awhile, Miss Fitt. Good to see you back again.

Thanks! Yes, I've been sort of MIA for a while - swamped at work and dealing with some personal stuff. It's nice to be joining the discussions again. Hopefully, I'll have an opportunity to start seeing shows again soon, too. Going to try for the xmas show at the very least.

welcome back, it's been way too quiet with you gone. Hopefully we can catch up at a show at some point, but no clue when that might be.

Phil

[Miss Fitt 2]

he keeps on with "i know you're a misfit too, that's my favorite part about you...

Obviously something I connected with, too.

[zany]

ok sorry to backtrack to the Black Star discussion but it took me some time yesterday to remember which crosby stills and nash song that black star TOTALLY reminds me of - but i figured it out: Helpless (which is actually a neil young song)

anybody know that song as well and agree (or think i'm nuts)???

it's mostly 2 parts that remind me of it but they are VERY similar (to me)- one is the first line. both start with "there is a ..." and both sound sorta the same in that first line like i expect dave to bust out with "there is a town in north ontario"
also, the 'blaaack staaar' over and over is like the "helpless" over and over for a chorus. it's not the same note or anything but it really reminds me of it anyways.

(oh and there's no 'black star' in helpless but there IS a 'yellow moon')