Couples.
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:02 pm
-
- Posts: 1752
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:02 pm
-
- Posts: 1752
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:02 pm
-
- Posts: 1752
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:02 pm
- VonOfterdingen
- Posts: 462
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:28 pm
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:02 pm
-
- Posts: 1752
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:07 am
- Location: Seattle, WA
-
- Posts: 1752
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:02 pm
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:07 am
- Location: Seattle, WA
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:02 pm
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:07 am
- Location: Seattle, WA
Seriously! Alibi is great, but it really just feels like "I Want You 2" and like most sequels, doesn't live up to its predecessor. That menacing tone of "I Want You" is just conveyed so perfectly, from the seemingly innocent intro to the sinister body of the rest of the song. "Alibi" doesn't combine its lyrical content with the actual sonic approach that "I Want You" does so artfully.
-
- Posts: 1752
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
I bet my life that somebody would say that. I guess I won... my life?seanpointblank wrote:The "lame intro" is one of the things that makes that song such a classic.
"I Want You" just seems like gimmick Elvis to me. The version without the intro is superior to its original.
Elvis's vocal work in "Alibi" is probably his greatest vocal track he has ever recorded. "I Want You" isn't even close to as beautiful.
"I thought Elvis was really trying hard to do the psychopath in 'I Want You,' and all that. Things like that, they really annoy me, you know... he loves all that stuff about 'fingernails scratching down the wall' and 'I Want Yooooouu...Ohhh, yeah, I'm gonna...', this sort of Tony Perkins job. I'll give you the address of a good analyist, you know. That's not soul-baring or honest, it's just neurotic."
@ Bruce Thomas
"Alibi" is forever one of Elvis's top songs... and for me, "I Want You" isn't even in the top 50. It's too simple, and just too repetitive (not in a good way). "Alibi" captures the magic that went unrecorded in "I Want You" (since we're going with this "sequel song" angle).
"Alibi" is a genius build up into that amazing final verse... it is so perfect.
"You were happy when you were poor
And more honest and that's your…
Alibi, alibi
Sister is a whore, brother isn't sure
Alibi, alibi
You don't fit the body that you're trapped in
Alibi, alibi
Papa's got a brand new
Alibi, alibi"
Such a perfect delivery as well, musically and vocally. "Alibi's" lyrics are superior, its vocal melody is superior, and the performance musically is superior. "I Want You" is just long (especially with that lame intro).
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:07 am
- Location: Seattle, WA
- King Hoarse
- Posts: 1450
- Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:32 pm
- Location: Malmö, Sweden
I think I Want You and Alibi are both really well-written songs to begin with, and the bands' wonderfully understated playing on both makes them even better recordings. Alibi does suffer a little from being the younger (less original) track, but the lyrics aren't that similar except for the format.
Sure, I Want You may be neurotic and Alibi cynical, but why is that a bad thing? I guess Bruce Thomas (my all-time favourite bass player) isn't too fond of, say, Richard Thompson either. I thought anyone into mentally stable narrators exclusively would have a hard time going through the pre-North catalog anyway.
I do agree that Elvis sometimes does quite a bit of overacting on stage (and not on these songs only), but I always thought it amuses rather than disgusts. Why shouldn't he be allowed to throw off a hilarious I Want You now and then?
Much as I love the slowly increasing surge of Alibi, I think maybe he should have left the long version for live shows, and made the album one a minute or two shorter, more similar to the solo electric version he used to open shows with. This would have spared him some of the more negative comparisons to I Want You, and I do think some (very few) of the lines in it are funny but redundant, which is seldom the case in his songs.
Sure, I Want You may be neurotic and Alibi cynical, but why is that a bad thing? I guess Bruce Thomas (my all-time favourite bass player) isn't too fond of, say, Richard Thompson either. I thought anyone into mentally stable narrators exclusively would have a hard time going through the pre-North catalog anyway.
I do agree that Elvis sometimes does quite a bit of overacting on stage (and not on these songs only), but I always thought it amuses rather than disgusts. Why shouldn't he be allowed to throw off a hilarious I Want You now and then?
Much as I love the slowly increasing surge of Alibi, I think maybe he should have left the long version for live shows, and made the album one a minute or two shorter, more similar to the solo electric version he used to open shows with. This would have spared him some of the more negative comparisons to I Want You, and I do think some (very few) of the lines in it are funny but redundant, which is seldom the case in his songs.
-
- Posts: 1752
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
I really never looked at "Alibi" as a similar song to "I Want You". They are completely different. I don't think it's fair that they are grouped together because they are long. I know I started this whole thing, but judging by the comments- this isn't a new discussion.
"Alibi" is the song that got me into E.C., it is the first song I can remember listening to... so maybe I'm bias to it. But, I've heard both songs a countless amount of times, so the bias should be justified by now.
"Alibi" is the song that got me into E.C., it is the first song I can remember listening to... so maybe I'm bias to it. But, I've heard both songs a countless amount of times, so the bias should be justified by now.
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:02 pm
-
- Posts: 237
- Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:22 pm
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Elvis COMPLETELY ruined Alibi on the album version.
I saw Elvis blow the crowd away with a distorted solo electric guitar version of this song to open the show in the dark at the Park West in Chicago about 4 years ago (which Pip 52 was kind enough to supply me with a CD of).
The song was seared into my memory.
Unfortunately, the finished product is about 4 minutes too long, with more cliches than all other Elvis songs put together (the soldier stuff near the end is particularly sophomoric). The arrangement is horrible. Overproduced. It loses ALL the vim and vinegar of the live version. The tempo is lackadaisical, and the whole vibe is like some bad 80's poser band.
I challenge any one to listen to one of the many solo versions of this song he played a few years ago, and not think it hands down head and shoulders above the droning CRAP he decided to put on Cruel.
This, by the way, is not my opinion. It is my objective analysis.
I saw Elvis blow the crowd away with a distorted solo electric guitar version of this song to open the show in the dark at the Park West in Chicago about 4 years ago (which Pip 52 was kind enough to supply me with a CD of).
The song was seared into my memory.
Unfortunately, the finished product is about 4 minutes too long, with more cliches than all other Elvis songs put together (the soldier stuff near the end is particularly sophomoric). The arrangement is horrible. Overproduced. It loses ALL the vim and vinegar of the live version. The tempo is lackadaisical, and the whole vibe is like some bad 80's poser band.
I challenge any one to listen to one of the many solo versions of this song he played a few years ago, and not think it hands down head and shoulders above the droning CRAP he decided to put on Cruel.
This, by the way, is not my opinion. It is my objective analysis.
-
- Posts: 1752
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
Nope, it's your opinion.
It is not overproduced by any means, I don't know where that comes from. There's not much standing between the listener and the song, especially with the one-take brilliance in the vocal take.
Four minutes too long is just a ridiculous thing to say. I've heard the live version, and I'd be pretty angry if that was the definitive version of the song. With E.C., premature live versions are always different then the studio. In my opinion, the original "High Fidelity" is better. I'm not sure how relevant that is, but I'm trying to say I feel your pain. Sadly, an acoustic "Alibi" has nothing on the studio version.
So yeah, I've listened to it, and it's not that impressive. The album version is much, much, much better.
It is not overproduced by any means, I don't know where that comes from. There's not much standing between the listener and the song, especially with the one-take brilliance in the vocal take.
Four minutes too long is just a ridiculous thing to say. I've heard the live version, and I'd be pretty angry if that was the definitive version of the song. With E.C., premature live versions are always different then the studio. In my opinion, the original "High Fidelity" is better. I'm not sure how relevant that is, but I'm trying to say I feel your pain. Sadly, an acoustic "Alibi" has nothing on the studio version.
So yeah, I've listened to it, and it's not that impressive. The album version is much, much, much better.
-
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:07 am
- Location: Seattle, WA