Thursday, February 15, 2007

It's Time To Face The Truth

I just found myself googling james blunt you're beautiful lyrics.

I don't think I can show my stony little face in the blogosphere again.


COMPLETELY UNRELATED UPDATE: Does anyone know the code for showing the labels in the sidebar? I don't want to shift over my whole template to one of the new ones, but I want to list the labels...thanks in advance!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was this to confirm that the single version was bowlderised? Or that the protagonist comes across as, ahem, off his face, and with stalkerish tendencies?

Unknown said...

You've raised all kinds of questions now. In the first place, why the google?! And in the second - which is possibly more alarming - why admit to it?!

May I suggest a nice calming cup of tea to get over the shock?

patroclus said...

Entropy: I was researching an article. Like Pete Townshend.

Hannah: See above. As I was typing it, I thought of all those blog posts people write about what people have been searching for, and wondered if I would end up in one, being lambasted for my feeble and unimaginative taste in music. So I thought I'd better admit to it before that happened, so that I could point to this post and say 'but look - I was researching an article! Like Pete Townshend!'.

Somehow I've only ever heard the song once, so I had no idea how it went. I was quite gratified to find that the lyrics were even worse than I hoped they were going to be.

Sean McManus said...

Such truly terrible lyrics, particularly the gratuitous swearing.

He could have said 'flying' or 'getting' or anything else that scanned instead of using such a naughty naughty word to pretend he was rock hard and in Oasis.

Take out the pointless obscenity, and he can pretend he's Cliff Richard in the 80s and look forward to a rosy career.

Dave said...

Who is this James Blunt?

(Obviously I'm not going to Google to find out.)

Billy said...

When you do the "Layout" thing and click on "add page element" you get a whole lot of things and one of them is labels. You have the choice of displaying them by frequency or alphabetically.

No idea what the code is.

Code confuses me.

patroclus said...

Sean: Swearing in pop music is indeed an art. Some people can do it, and some people just can't. Elliott Smith, now, he swore like an angel, bless 'im.

Dave: He used to be in the Army. Could kill a man as soon as look at him, he could.

Billy: Brilliant, will try that, thank you!

Anonymous said...

I have warned my girls against that sort of thing - anything by James Blunt, Daniel Beddingfield and Enrique Doubleglasis is just stalker music. If anyone speaks to them like that they are to call the police!

That bleeding song was broadcast endlessly on Italian TV and radio the year it came out. On cue, I would hear "Mum, Mum, he's saying that word again...." "Yes dear, thank you for telling me...now bugger off!"

Mangonel said...

Three things that make me ask 'So what's wrong with swearing?' (I have no idea who James Blunt is, nor have I any interest in finding out. Well maybe a bit.)

Remember the deeply fabulous swearing in 'The Thick of It'? Apparently Armando Iannucci, who really isn't a sweary sort of guy, had to outsource those bits of dialogue to a little man in the Midlands.

Also, I heard good things about 'Deadwood', which I'm looking forward to seeing when it is shown on a channel I don't have to pay for.

Also Dorothy Parker - top swearer when she was inclined.

Annie said...

Just to let you know, your posts dating back to 2003 keep popping up in my feed-reader. Am having a good old read of your back catalogue, and very fine it is too.

patroclus said...

Yes, sorry about that Annie - it's because I'm gradually labelling everything, and whenever I label a post, the feed readers think it's new. Expect a lot more old posts in Bloglines/Google Reader/your RSS reader of choice...

Spinsterella said...

Um, what's a feed reader?

patroclus said...

It is a website that tells you when people have updated their blogs, so you don't have to keep going round them all. Like Bloglines.

violet said...

'researching an article'? I don't take that nonsense from my punters and I certainly won't take it here. Admit it, there was more than just curiosity, wasn't there?? YOU KEPT GOING BACK, DIDN'T YOU??? Don't lie to me! It's all in the prosecution papers! Scum!


Sorry. I clearly do too much overtime. ~removes probation hat and locks it away safely~

Spinsterella said...

Oh God, I am registered on bloglines but I don't understand it.

I am going to investigate properly. Right. Thank you.

patroclus said...

Mango: I have not seen The Thick of It, nor Deadwood, but I *have* seen one or two episodes of Lovejoy. Does that count? I don't remember any swearing, but my brother still fondly recalls an episode in which Lovejoy runs away from the Triads on his portly little legs.

Spin: Bloglines isn't very intuitive, but once you manage to tame it, it's very useful. It means I actually get some work done, rather than trawling endlessly round the blogosphere looking for new things people have written.

Violet: I admit it. I went back more than once. For the, er, footnotes.

Valerie said...

It's difficult to keep back childish snickering when reading those lyrics. "My life is brilliant.. because I am.. too foolish to react otherwise.. to that woman who just flipped me off, wo wo wo"

The main thing I disliked about this song when I heard it on the radio the other day was the strong resemblance to the noice Rod Stewart would make if you put him in a vise, and squeezed.

The first season of Deadwood rocks and the swearing is just one glorious part of it. Do NOT play a drinking game with this one or you may end up in hospital.

Annie said...

I never realised that song included the line "my life is brilliant". That just sounds rubbish.

Anonymous said...

Why would you do this? Why? You've betrayed my trust in your musical taste... If you are now such an authority on James Blunt, can you tell me if he was trying to kill himself at the end of the video or was that just my wishful thinking? I only saw half of it and wasn't really paying attention at the time (ah, now I see how your slip happened).
I'm loving your description of his voice btw, Valerie.

Tim F said...

You're Beautiful
Words and Music by Major General James Sebastian Cuthbert Crikey My Dad Owns Herefordshire Sir Sir Blenkinsop Minor Is Bumming Matron's Corgi Ra Ra Ra We're Going To Smash The Oiks Bl(o)untington-Smythe, Bt.

Ne noonoo ner
Ne noonoo ner
Ne noonoo ner
Ner ner

Repeat to fade

patroclus said...

Oh god, now I'm going to have to watch the video as well. Does he really try to top himself at the end? These ex-army types are terribly unstable. Mind you, I suppose that being incarcerated in a regimented military institution does strange things to your mind. Sometimes I marvel that I survived the Brownies with my sanity intact.

Also: when I read that the first line was 'my life is brilliant', I thought I was reading some kind of piss-take. But no, it turned out to be real! That's the second time in two days that that's happened. Anyone got an explanation for the boy Blunt's success? Is he the Dan Brown of pop?

Anonymous said...

May I point you in the general direction of the Wikipedia page on said song (and he didn't write it all by himself) for discussion of video.

Rog said...

In the original version I believe he began "This Life is Brilliant, My voice if f*ing high", commenting on the cult TV programme of 1997.
This will all be in my new and highly original Footmanesque "Blogging Blunt" blog "Canyons of My Mind" seeking to understand how a talent-free wierdo broke into the USA when hard working Sir Clifford of Richard has wasted 47 years of his life trying and failing.

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one who misheard the first line as "my life is bread" thought that may be because I first heard it being sung over and over by a certain "friend"