Re: The Presence Suite

[ppaiewon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Pablo Paiewonsky)]

Hello all, I think it's time for me to get into this worst ten debate.

Tom Flannery wrote:
>I for one disagree. Royal Orleans is a cool funbky kinda song. It , for me,
>is what the Crunge (another darn good tune) could have turned into if they
>had developed it more. Pagey pulls off 2 distinct riffs and weaves them
>within one another, pure mastery. And the tongue in cheek lyrics, can help
>but chuckle! Whiskers!!!!

Sorry Tom but I have to disagree.  Yeah, the two main guitar riffs are
pretty catchy, but two guitar riffs repeated over and over don't constitute
a 3 minute song.  I do like the funny lyrics, though.  I guess if it had
been a shorter song (like 1:30) I think it would have been pretty good.  As
it is, it's not horrible, but it's not great.

>IMHO HoFN is one of the groups 10 best, well maybe 15 :) I never payed too
>much attention to this song, until I sat down with the lyric sheet and
>truly understood what Robert was saying. Most people think its an odd kinda
>love song, but its not. Presence has alot of allusions to drug use, and
>this is one more IMHO.

This is one of my favorites off of the album.  Of the "filler"-like songs
it's the most well-written (with the possible exception of For Your Life,
which is way too repetitive IMHO.)  I love the "I lost my reindeer" line.
:)

>Just
>listen to Bonzo's drumming, it rocks. Pagey's solo is unique, not mind
>shattering, but it still has merits.

Pagey's solo is funny if nothing else.  A funny solo goes well with the
funny lyrics and funny nature of the song.

>Also, Candy Store Rock has been taking alot heat. Well it deserves it, its
>my least favorite song. But even so it does have some intersting lyrics. I
>like the line (especially the way Plant sings it):
>It ain't the wrapper that sells the goods

What's the problem with CSR?  I like the experimental rythm, but there's
nothing extra to the song.  It doesn't really have any sort of melody.  It
does have an interesting "middle" section in which Robert goes, "Ooh, ooh,
baby it's alright" and Bonzo goes crazy, but it doesn't really blend into
the rest of the song.
The ending sequence, "Ooh, ooh, it's alright", is nice but is repeated for
too long.

I think this is the problem with most of these Presence songs:  they have a
couple of good ideas in the song, but then they get strung together in a
somewhat haphazard and repetitive way.

- --Pablo