Song meanings ? Tart and Distorted Angel

[when i was cruel]

Ive had an on going debate about them both with a friend, what do you guys think ?

[Ypsilanti]

Regarding "Tart", I take it to be about Elvis falling out of love with his second wife (while apparently on vacation in Spain). It's my view that he very deliberately included the imagery of the sour oranges rolling in the gutter as a counterpoint to "Sweet Pear"--which, of course, was such a lovely and sincere declaration of his love for her, all those years prior. Those 2 songs make an interesting set of bookends for that relationship. Although I remember Elvis saying the song isn't about anything at all, I sort of take that as an extra dig at Cait, like saying his years with her weren't significant to him.

[History History]

Distorted Angel concerns a young boy (Elvis?) being initiated into his first sexual experience
with a slightly older girl - a sort of doctors and nurses situation and his subsequent feelings of guilt and how it related to his Catholic religious upbringing....I think!

[Poor Deportee]

Well, 'Tart' is just a weak composition that doesn't bear too much soulful thought. In EC's later work, two issues crop up here and there: the neat lyric with no really convincing melody (Invasion Hit Parade, SciFi Twin, etc.) and the neat melody/sound with no really convincing lyric (Tart, All Time Doll, etc.). His account that it isn't about anything much rings true to me. Just a bunch of portentious and not-particularly-inspired imagery gesturing toward some vague and only mildly convincing analogy between physical taste and emotional experience. (Oddly for him, the pun on 'tart' - as in slattern - seems to be implied rather than fully realized here).

In truth, I don't even care for the way the bottom drops out in the lurch to a more rock-and-roll style at the end of each verse, nor do I find the pseudo-hysteria of the chorus particularly believable. As with so much of that album, the inspiration isn't really there.

'Distorted Angel' is another matter entirely: a modest but engaging little song about the relationship between a naive, underage choir boy type and a predatory (?) older woman. Rather the inverse of 'Mr. Feathers,' come to think of it. The narrator seems to feel guilt both for falling from grace and for hurting his paramour in some way (perhaps he moved on to younger, 'better' things?). I always thought the line

Distorted angel
Pure illuminated sweetness
Frightening small children is just about your only weakness

was pure classic EC. My only complaint with this one is the lame-assed 'surmise' rhyme. Can't win 'em all.

[the_platypus]

I agree that "Tart" is probably not actually about anything. I don't really care. It's still absolutely lovely.

[History History]

I always thought Tart was based on the following by Monty Python:


I want another slice of rhubarb tart
I want another lovely slice
I'm not disparaging the blueberry pie
But rhubarb tart is oh-so-very nice
A rhubarb what? A rhubarb tart
A what-barb tart? A rhu-barb tart
I want another slice of rhubarb tart
The principles of modern philosophy
Were postulated by Descartes
Discarding everything he wasn't certain of
He said, "I think therefore I am rhubarb tart"
A rhubarb what? A rhubarb tart
Rene who? Rene Descartes
Poor mutt, he thought he was a rhubarb tart
Rhubarb tart has fascinated all the poets
Especially the Immortal Bard
He made Richard the Third call out at Bosworth Field
"My kingdom for a slice of rhubarb tart"
Immortal what? Immortal tart
Rhubarb what? A rhubarb Bard
[- From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/monty-pyt ... yrics.html -]
As rhymes go that is really pretty bad
Since Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee
Laid down the axioms of abstract art
Even Jackson Pollock and Piet Mondrian
Prefer to paint a slice of rhubarb tart
Wassi who? A Wassi-ly
Kandin who? A Kandin-sky
And how he get in there for a start?
Read all the existentialist philosophers
Like Schopenhauer and Jean-Paul Sartre
Even Martin Heidegger agreed on one thing
Eternal happiness is rhubarb tart
A rhubarb what? A rhubarb tart
Jean-Paul who? Jean Paul Sartre
That sounds just like a rhyme from Lionel Bart
I want another slice of rhubarb tart
I want another lovely slice
I'm not disparaging the blueberry pie
But rhubarb tart is oh-so-very nice

[Jack of All Parades]

That is beautiful- and it needs its musical accompaniment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMpIwbHrgQM

You wonderfully puncture a nonsensical song!

You can also go from the 'sublime' to the just plain silly with this, both share Cleese:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IkhNxzX-Ig

[wordnat]

You're too tough on "Tart", Deportee -- but that's a nice piece of writing.

[johnfoyle]

http://dustygp.livejournal.com/241462.html

[Neil.]

I agree with all the interpretations cited above!

Gotto add, though, that I love 'Tart' even though it's (as Elvis happily admits) just vivid phrases strung together. Nowt wrong with that - Lennon, Dylan and Bowie did/do it all the time.

The opening salvo is a real sucker punch, with the suggestive lyrics and the sneering, seedy vocal delivery - and the whole thing is a swirl of tacky, fruity, fishy imagery that evokes sordid sex. Top marks! (Okay, not quite - a middle eight would've given it that extra oomph). By the way, I love Davey's bass on this.