Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

...wonder if Karl's drinking again?

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

yeah noticed that
seemed too goofy to actively speculate on though

remember that thread worrying if rick was anorexic

augh

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

i took it as:

taking a diamond jigsaw (blade) and cutting premium tequila bottle (visual: sawing a bottle in half) .

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

analyzing karl's lyrics? madness this way lies!

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

you looking to ruin a song today

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

uh what?

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

So, just because karl mentions a popular drink, suddenly he is an alcoholic again. Next, you will be calling Lady Gaga a prostitute :p

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

Diamond Jigsaw is a codeword for cocaine:

http://i51.tinypic.com/a3madz.png


= feeling fine in the limo.;)

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

it ain't at urbandictionary.com

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

Karl just coined it. Takes time for hot new slang to make it to all corners of the interwebz. ;)


Who's gonna add it to the Urban Dictionary for him?:confused:

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

I always wondered about the song Spoonman. Obviously, he is singing about heroin use (right?). Did he try it one time? Or is he talking about heroin addicts? I mean, it is possible to try heroin without getting an addiction, it is just that you have a much higher chance of getting addicted right away.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

The thing I've loved about Karl's lyrics is how nonsensical they are. I've no doubt they mean something to him, but I believe the artistry lies in how the words are arranged so vaguely that they can conceivably mean something different to every person who listens.

I never once thought about "Spoonman" having anything to do with heroin, for example.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

Also Karl said he hasn't done drugs. Alcohol was his addiction.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

Well, 'Spoon man' is slang for a heroin junkie. And then he says "transfusion, penetration" in the song (penetration meaning a drug needle puncturing skin). Then at the end of the song we have the lyrics "Into the blood" repeated many times.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

obviously??

It never occurred to me in a million listens that spoonman was about heroin. I don't think that's the obvious or even sensible conclusion.

Karl's lyrics are like his paintings. They're not depictions of literal figures and places. They're intentionally abstract, which allows the listener/viewer to overlay a subjective experience. I mean clearly he knows what he's thinking when he's writing lyrics but I guarantee if you asked him what a particular song meant his answer would be stubbornly evasive.

I remember some dirty radio show they did back when OWB came out and someone in the chat room asked what they lyrics were during the bridge on "crocodile.". His answer was to mumble the melody for that part and move on without answering. Because he doesn't need you to know, and he doesn't intend for you to know. The vocalization without immediate meaning is part of the musicality.

The lyrics aren't puzzles to be teased apart for their hidden meanings. They're mostly meaningless, which is what makes them uniquely meaningful to each listener.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

You said it more concisely than I did.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

That is why I put (right?) in there, because maybe it isn't obviously about heroin use. ;)

However, read my post above yours. I give reasons why I think it is about heroin addicts.

And I know most lyrics by Karl are nonsensical and poetic. And I love that about him and Underworld's music. It is a significant component of what I find appealing in a lot of their songs, even.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

That's a perfectly reasonable reading. You associate those words in that way and came to that conclusion and you may well be right with respect to the author's intent, but I think the lyrics are still designed to function as tools for the listener to create their own meanings.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

That last part you said is basically what the lyrics are about for most UW songs with lyrics; as you have basically said yourself in an earlier post. I agree with that analysis. So, then, are there any UW songs that actually have a message that can be clearly interpreted? It is hard to come up with some off the top of my head. At the least, ALAF from Barking seems like a love song (seems like it, at least).

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

The message in Ansum is the clearest of the lot...

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

I know, it's totally obvious.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

The heroin junkie interpretation is certainly interesting (and puts a new spin on the song for me!), but what I love about Underworld's music is its subjectivity: because of the abstract, fragmented nature of Hyde's lyrics, it's nigh-on impossible to really figure out a solid interpretation of each song. It's up to the listener to make some meaning out of it for themselves.

For example: Banstyle, for me, makes almost no sense on first reading/listening, and yet it's one of my top three songs by them because of what I associate it with, the people I was hanging out with when I first discovered that song, the feelings that overwhelmed me at the time fit that song perfectly. Dirty Epic is what my friends call "my song" because it kind of summarises the sort of person I am and the way I live my life completely. I find it really hard to listen to Skym because I first properly listened to it after a really rough breakup, and for me, the lyrics fit that perfectly - "I don't want you to call again."

I don't know how many people view those songs in the same way, and that's the beauty of it.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

I do love the surreal nature of Hyde's lyrics. It's definitely found in Banstyle/Sappys Curry and Skym.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

Im under the impression Karl had watched a programme about possible...2012 events.. Planet alignments etc...
BS
and the hope of the world
rides with one man
everybody cram
on the telephone ringing....... The 2nd coming or a Superhero!?

Louisiana.....Planets in sweet collision
Quietly violent... Karl must of had a few bad dreams... who knows..

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

8 ball.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

i always thought about the spoonman equals an heroin addict and, yes, i also thought if karl did try it once. then i found out that he never tried any kind of drugs, excepting alcohol.

then i thought of trainspotting and danny boyle. probably a connection? don't know, the book is from 1993.

EDIT: also 8 ball. 'the white stuff' and such. but that is linked with trains too. mmm.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

today i saw a man with a flaming 8 ball tattooed on his arm.

seems pretty plain language to me.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

You're forgetting that

"that White Stuff.....that stuff........that stuff makes me feel........feel.....feeeeeel.....Happy!" ;) ;) ;)


probably just referring to a large glass of milk:
http://www.milkbottleoftheweek.com/i...ff_sticker.jpg

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

It's possible to write a song about something without actually having done it, you know!

Anyway, lot of 'dubno' is built around double meanings and homonyms, Karl used a lot of clever wordplay on that album, and it's evident in the videos too (Ice Cream, Ice Cream, Ice Cream so Much).

You can interpret spoonman as the ravings of a heroin addict, a catholic priest performing communion (talks to god, transfusion, into the blood) or even as a commentary on cunnilingus during menstruation (don't put your hand where you wouldn't put your face, nice bikini, she's a wound, into the blood).

None of that was necessarily intentional when the song was written, I believe it's intentionally unclear, in a way that makes it open to whatever interpretation you decide to give it.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

it's all surreal... think of a painting by Vladimir Kush or M.C Escher...

i think the only real link to actuality is born slippy w/the lager reference to karl's past battles with alcohol.

other than it's merely a play on words - he uses metaphors from the standpoint of drug use, however, he's not really referring to drug use... come on - Spoonman, 8 Ball, Jumbo, Beautiful Burnout... etc...

he's very good at it too. ;)

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

If you ask me ... to take a visual approach and to think m i terms of his photos and snipits of the city..

Diamond Jigsaw = Shattered Glass

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2128/...c6ff1e1dd1.jpg

Its still a ridiculously shit song though...

And in terms of his lyrics.. they guy has pretty much spent all his time recording the "poetry of the streets"... I always presumed much of what he is singing is OTHER peoples words that he has recorded on paper.. ... and what is strange about the latest album is how much the lyrics to the songs are far more cohesive and in the first person..

Usually when there were words in the first person on other albums it seemed from the point of view of someone else.. but this time it seems way more personal.. and frankly a bit boring - the whole of bird 1 is him describing himself sitting in a room.. and the noises he hears.. a fly flying across the room.. i mean..... it reflects his older lifestyle now and is completely different from being wasted on the midnight train Romford..

Overall you are now listening to the words of a content older man, enjoying quieter times and still suffering from the darker times of the past.. but all in all its fairly boring

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

are we SO SURE he's saying "that white stuff?" because that never sounds right to me. i mean there are no officially released lyrics, right?

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

your brain is fabulous! :D

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

To paraphrase "Almost Famous":

"Do you have to be depressed to write a sad song?
Do you have to be in love to write a love song?"

No.
Experience helps. But also an attentive eye and creative mind. Karl's an observer, for sure. I can't say how much of the writing is experiential in the form of being autobiographical (ok, Born Slippy, yes, but may other tracks, who knows?) but he is always with a notebook and an open mind for what's happening around him. I wouldn't read too much into any lyric other than to say that if it hits a nerve, it's a good one and has had the desired effect.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

I never made such a claim, I merely asked the question.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

“Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain, if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”

Just asking.

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

seriously - we having this thread?

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

why the hell not? it's no stupider than any other navel-gazing fan obsessed thread we entertain around here. :p

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

You're not seriously comparing Karl Hyde to John McCain, or fathering children out of wedlock to having a drink... are you?

Dramatic much?

Cacophony's right -- sorry that my question isn't in line with all of the other card-carrying drivel. I was just curious. But not to worry, I think my next thread will be the 496th poll concerning what the best song on DUBNO is, to fall back in line. ;)

Re: Premium Tequila, Diamond Jigsaw makes me...
 

its one thing being curious - but surely because a song mentions a drink - doesn't mean the artist is an alcoholic - even if he does have previous....

i know its opened a lyrics debate - but ffs, Karl writes mainly about what he hears and see's but not necessarily does...

next you'll be telling me Karl was a phone sex addict back in the day too...