'Sparkling Day' by Elvis

[charliestumpy]

!!! This is now being played on BBC R2 0740 UK on Zoe Ball show ... in an hour or two will be on 'play it again' facility for a week ... sounded fine to me...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/programmes/schedules

ABOUT 1hr 37 mins in ...

[Neil.]

Okay, it's on this page now, about, as Charlie said, 1 hr 37 mins into the show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012rf8m

First listen, and I think it's quite a tough sell. Elvis has chosen quite a tough key in the sense that some of the notes are very strained-sounding and vibrato-y. I love Elvis's forced vibrato tic most of the time, but on this one it does sound strained, and I think it might put non-fans off.

Anyway, I'll give it some more listens!

Nx

[Neil.]

Aw, third listen and I'm not all that keen - but I hope it does really well for him!

[jardine]

I quite like it on first listen. somewhat she-ish in its simplicity and straightforwardness of melody, arrangement and words, and could be quite a hit if the movie ain't a dog.

i find the vibrato/key much less strained than many of e.c.'s upper reaches...we'll see.

i know that, back in the day, "she" was a big deal, but i never really heard exactly how. was it on some european charts? might this take the same track? it is certainly not the sort of thing that would get on billboard charts I don't think.

[Jack of All Parades]

Oh my! Maudlin and mawkish to boot and pitched way too high. I can just hear this one welling up over the closing credits. Not a fan of this piece.

[Hawksmoor]

Hmm...I'm quite keen, actually. Straining for the key makes him sound a tad younger, bizarrely, and to my ears it has quite an old-school feel. Feels like if he'd turned to writing/singing schmaltzy soundtrack themes around the time of Armed Forces, this is what they'd have sounded like. I like it.

[ecosteone]

The soundtrack details have just been announced. Looks like there two EC tracks on the album:

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2011/07/30 ... announced/

[jardine]

on the site where the song is posted at 1 hr. 37 minutes, scroll down and it says "CD single"!!

d

[Hawksmoor]

The soundtrack details have just been announced. Looks like there two EC tracks on the album

Although the other one appears to be 'Tear Off Your Own Head', and I'd be very surprised if it was a re-recording.

[docinwestchester]

I like it. Now on YouTube (guess who's channel?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t53A1PFOlE

[bronxapostle]

The soundtrack details have just been announced. Looks like there two EC tracks on the album

Although the other one appears to be 'Tear Off Your Own Head', and I'd be very surprised if it was a re-recording.

must be a different song...it's listed as: tear off MY own head; i don't know THAT one!!!

[wordnat]

Sounds mildly MLAR-esque -- overblown / oversung.

[Neil.]

Wouldn't you know it - I have a big smile on my face listening to it now - despite my reservations, you've got to hand it to him, it's a really passionate vocal and a passionate recording - I do love our Elv.

Love the kettledrums on

"Maybe I was lost
I'm a hopeless case"

Another Elvis grower, I think! Possibly not immediate enough to be a hit, though. Who cares? I love the man!

[Hawksmoor]

The soundtrack details have just been announced. Looks like there two EC tracks on the album

Although the other one appears to be 'Tear Off Your Own Head', and I'd be very surprised if it was a re-recording.

must be a different song...it's listed as: tear off MY own head; i don't know THAT one!!!

Neither do I, LOL, but it seems likely to be a typo. This site http://www.film4.com/features/article/o ... ck-listing has it as 'Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution)'. I guess it could be a new/different song entitled 'Tear Off My Own Head' - fingers crosssed - but I doubt it.

[bronxapostle]

I like it. Now on YouTube (guess who's channel?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t53A1PFOlE

thank you doc...been looking to hear it. i figured it must be around as i think the movie debuts this week. cheers to the king of video!!

[jardine]

yes, thanks for this.

right at the fade out it sounds either like it was cut off early or that it segues into something else. messy and unresolved. i'm liking it more each time i hear it.

[docinwestchester]

yes, thanks for this.

right at the fade out it sounds either like it was cut off early or that it segues into something else. messy and unresolved. i'm liking it more each time i hear it.

Careful. The fade out is my creation...Zoe Ball starts talking over the ending and I chose to fade out before she started yapping. But I'm glad you like it.

[johnfoyle]

My go at transcribing the lyrics -


Oh it was such a sparkling day
That I should be singing its praises
Just to get my senses as they slip away
But my sentences and phrases
Are about as worthless as one can be
And there are words that I could say
Perhaps I lack the sense of occasion
Seems I've been looking down so long you see
That it seemed like up to me
I should be ashamed I'm sure you will agree

Chorus

So don't go going out with Jude and Anthony
Maybe I was lost
A hopeless case
So that every night I listen carefully
But there was no message for me
No message for me
Sparkling days, sparkling days
Things I never said
Somethings you never heard
Sparkling days , sparkling days
Now I wait in vain to see
There was no message for me

When love is constant and content
You always fear some lingering temptation
Truer words are escaping underneath front doors
I'm astonished and amazed
Perhaps that message was erased.

Chorus

So don't go going out with Jude and Anthony
Maybe I was lost
A hopeless case
So that every night I listen carefully
But there was no message for me
No message for me
Sparkling days, sparkling days
Things I never said
Somethings you never heard
Sparkling days , sparkling days
Now I wait in vain to see
There was no message from me


'Truer words are escaping underneath front doors' seems wrong to me - can anyone hear different? Similarly I think the word 'for' is changed to 'from' in the repeat of the chorus - am I right? If it is it's a nice little twist in the tale.

It's a year since I've read the book so some aspects of it are a bit dim in my memory so I'll have to re-read to confirm but it seems the song is being told from the perspective of the lead male character. The book is set in, mainly, the 1980's/90s so the references to 'phone messages are , probably, to answering machines as opposed to mobile 'phones. Considering the current flap in the U.K. media about 'phone messages of any kind its a curiously apt reference which, if its properly spun to the dimwits who make up entertainment pages, could help to get the song some currency.

Considering the emphasis of this forum I guess I can get away with considering whether Elvis factors aspects of his life in the 1980's/90s into the song. Without giving away too much about the book part of the lead male characters story is seemingly based on Chris Evans, a leading UK. tv/radio presenter. Elvis appeared on his shows regularly so perhaps that informed part of the songs inspiration. Similarly the references to 'phone messages may be based on the leading role the same machines had in Elvis' late 1990's working relationship with Burt Bacharach. Worth wondering about is how much the narration of the time period sparked ( ha!) memories for Elvis of his Dublin/London based life and relationship of the same time.

Considering that Elvis based the song on a viewing of a rough cut of the film and had not read the book it will be hard to make a full assessment of the song , considering how the different mediums have different emphasis', until the film is seen. It may turn out to be slushy Hathaway vehicle or a gritty depiction of a generation etc. Considering the directors form with A Education I'm anticipating the latter.

[seanpointblank]

I heard "So we went escaping underneath locked doors" for that bit, Mr. Foyle.

The song isn't far from what I expected. Definitely appeals to the crowd who buy into "She" and PFM more than anything else. The melody isn't particularly catchy and the song is a bit of a throwaway to me. Wish something better would have come out of the opportunity that comes with the platform he was given here, ah well.

[Neil.]

John, thanks for your stab at working out the lyrics - what do you think of the song itself?

I've had a few more listens - I like the verses, although I find the extra syllable in this line really annoying:

"Are about as worthless as one day can be"

Couldn't it have been "Are as worthless as one day can be" ?

Also the choice of short, stoccato words and vowel sounds covering this bit of the melody is very ugly:

"So don't go calling out for Jude or Anthony..."

He should've chosen a softer sounding flow of syllables -"I wonder will you call for Jude or Anthony" or "I wish you wouldn't call for Jude or Anthony" or similar wouldn't have that choppy sound.

Gah, here's me trying to lecture my favourite songwriter ever - who the hell do I think I am??!.

P.S. I've read the book, and the line "some things I never said; some things you never heard" is a great summing up of the story.

Nx

[johnfoyle]

Well produced pop with a catchy refrain that I can imagine being hummed by women with fake tans with sunglasses on top of their dyed hair in supermarket queues - which is probably what the film folk looked for. Its good to see Elvis can stil turn them out so easily. Anything that may bring people to his more substantial work is always welcome.

[History History]

To me, it sounds like:

Are about as worthless as wonder can be.

[EdwardOC]

Tweaked John's take a bit, with what I'm hearing:

Oh, it was such a sparkling day
That I should be singing its praises
Just to catch my senses as they slip away
But my sentences and phrases
Are about as worthless as wonder can be
And there are words that I could say
Perhaps I lack the sense of occasion
Seems that I've been looking down so long you see
That it seemed like up to me
I should be ashamed I'm sure you will agree

Chorus

So don't go coming out for Jude or Anthony
Maybe I was lost
I'm a hopeless case
So that every night I listen carefully
But there was no message from me
No message from me
Sparkling days, sparkling days
Things I never said
Somethings you never heard
Sparkling days, sparkling days
Now I wait in vain to see
That there was no message from me

When love is constant and content
You always fear some lingering temptation
Silhouettes escaping underneath locked doors
I'm astonished and amazed
Perhaps my message was erased.

Chorus

So don't go coming out for Jude or Anthony
Maybe I was lost
I'm a hopeless case
But then every night I listen carefully
But there was no message from me
No message from me
Sparkling days, sparkling days
Things I never said
Somethings you never heard
Sparkling days, sparkling days
Now I wait in vain to see
That there was no message from me

[jardine]

I love these little doublings of meaning that he does so well:

"Seems that I've been looking down so long you see
That it seemed like up to me"


are jude and anthony characters in the story? or saints? or both??

[EdwardOC]

My lyrics transcription should have read "calling out" in the Jude and Anthony lines (thanks Earl Manchester for the correction):


So don't go calling out for Jude or Anthony
Maybe I was lost
I'm a hopeless case

. . . and nicely works with Saints Jude and Anthony being the patron saints of hopeless causes and lost things, respectively (or, apparently, in this case lost messages).