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Rating: These guys are really lousy at playing! ..and listen to how off-key this is! What do they use to record?!!
Unfortunately, expectations can be betrayed, and a frustrated anticipation can lead to rejecting an album already at the first listen.
How many of us might shut ourselves in a garage, or could have done so, just us with our closest friends, the ones with whom you inevitably find yourself sharing feelings you can't even express to yourself with words?? You get hold of some instrument and immerse yourself in the apathy and mood swings that its prolonged state entails. Something inspires us, something else doesn't.. the cases are endless.. and yet almost always already heard....................but are we interested in being original? well, in a way, yes... but only as long as we really rediscover it within ourselves, with our capabilities. And then what tightens your throat with impositions and cynical schemes becomes discomfort, no longer rebellion, but awareness.
It doesn't matter learning to play the guitar or tuning the voice if that denatures me, saps me, shapes me, constructs me, doesn't let me "carefree" among my hopes and my anxieties. If so it is (if you think), not only does it not matter, but it is highly deleterious...
Calvin Johnson is the soul of this sentiment, it is this sentiment incarnate (but let's not idolize too much..). Surely he and the whole band felt like bad seeds, as the model of the rocker with some punk attitude (in the broad sense of the genre) prescribes, so he indeed sings: "We are not good is what they say, but we just see this world in a different way!!" The studio version of "Bad Seeds" suffers from less vigor. Throughout the album you can hear the presence of the Stooges, especially in the ballads "What's Important", "Down At The Sea" (the first is blatantly "The Passenger").
In "I Love You," the usual sharp guitars in true low fidelity and an ultra-obsessive yet carefree rhythm. His deep voice, and in other instances the lanky one of Heater Lewis. "Fourteen" is a gem where you can grasp the essence of Johnson's off-key style. "Run Down The Stairs" is perhaps Lewis's best effort. In all of this, there is sentiment, pure sentiment, and a great compositional talent of Johnson who literally "arranges" beautiful songs with the little he possesses.
These are the origins of lo-fi that Beat Happening announces along with bands like Half Japanese; their songs are poorly recorded which could be played by almost anyone after barely a month of instrument training, but beware, beyond a month to a month and a half you might empty the sense from within it..
Beat Happening by Beat Happening was released in 1985 for K-Sub Pop after a strange tour in Japan, two years after the formation of the band.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Our Secret (02:51)
I was walking in our town
I was walking through the store
I saw a pretty girl
She held open the door
I said I like you
She said that she liked me
And we could be friends
In our special stupid way
I went to Pacific Cafe
There she was again
So I said hey
We should go swimming in Capital Lake
We had a lot of fun but then it got real late
So I walked her home
And had dinner with her family
That's why we're running away
That's why we're running away
That's why we're running away
That's why we're running away
That's why we're running away
That's why I had dinner with her family
We went to her friend's house
To have a cup of tea
She said that it was true
She was in love with me
I knew right then we'd have to be alone
'Cause no one in this whole world could ever understand
That's why we're running away
That's why we're running away
That's why I had dinner with her family
05 Fourteen (01:50)
we were looking at your rabbits
we were feeding them some cabbage
you were telling me that you have a black and white cat
we took a walk, we start to hop, jump rope, play hopscotch
all the things i wanted to say
staring at your face, then looking away
all the things i wanted to tell
but i couldn't trust you, i couldn't trust myself
it's not that you're bad no
i just can't seem to let myself go
you see to me
the best part of sex is walking home holding hands after swimming in the lake
to me
the best part of love is when you say you'll be my friend
we were wearing our pajamas we were eating some bananas
i want to tell you how i want to be your pal
all the things i wanted to say
staring at your face, then looking away
now its too late
06 Run Down the Stairs (02:13)
i wanna tell the truth
i really do
i get so scared
when i try to talk to you
cause you know me when i open up my mouth
you see my eyes when i say what i say
when i say what i say
yeah, when i say what i say
when i say what i say
but i don't know the truth
and i can't talk
i clap my hands
and go for a long walk
i cut my hair
i run down stairs
run down stairs
i dance around in a small room
with the lights turned down
i think about you now
i walk around late at night
cause i can't go to sleep cause you're not here
to turn out the light
turn, turn, turn out the light
i guess it's all right
my hands hold the world
they hold my head
they hold my knees up to my chest
they tell the truth
they love you so
my hands would touch you but they don't know how
they don't know how
they don't know how
they don't know how
13 Foggy Eyes (02:46)
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4
Keep your eyes shut and live your life
Someone else will pay the price
Open-up your eyes and speak your mind
Leave your youth far behind
Foggy eyes lookin' at their friends
Wondering what's to become of them
Think about the way it used to be
Foggy eyes, why can't you see?
I tried to tell you that it was okay that
You were gonna go away
You're like the people that are never real
Like the foggy eyes walking down the street
Foggy eyes, lookin' at foggy eyes
Foggy eyes, going bang bang bang
Foggy eyes, lookin' at foggy eyes
Foggy eyes, going bang bang bang
Foggy eyes at home in a box of pain
Look in the mirror and travel far away
The world they see is enough to make you cry
Foggy eyes, say goodbye to love
Foggy eyes, lookin' at foggy eyes
Foggy eyes, going bang bang bang
Foggy eyes, lookin' at foggy eyes
Foggy eyes, going bang bang bang
There's things we want each other to be
I'm sorry that you think you're not important to me
I don't know why we make each other cry
Don't know why we all got foggy eyes
I think about all the things I never do
How I'm such a disappointment to you
'Cause I wanna play with you
I wanna get away from you
Foggy eyes, lookin' at foggy eyes
Foggy eyes, going bang bang bang
Foggy eyes, going bang bang bang bang
14 Bad Seeds (01:50)
They keep us apart from the other kids
They try to keep us from each other
We're no good is what they say
But we just see this world in a different way
We're bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad, bad, bad seeds
We're bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad, bad, bad seeds
They make a lot of rules
They tell a lot of lies
If we don't wanna, we won't behave
And they can't make us, 'cause we can't be made
We're bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad, bad, bad seeds
We're bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad, bad, bad seeds
The new generation formed the teenage nation
This time, let's do it right
Bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad, bad, bad seeds
We're bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad, bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad, bad, bad seeds
We're bad, bad seeds
Bad, bad
16 I Spy (01:50)
i'm more important in the usa
than a spy for the fbi
i'm trained to meet
the criminal elite
and i seek out wherever evil resides
i spy
i'm at home in the streets of rome
or just hanging round old shanghai
danger is my logo
espionage a go-go
i'm just diggin' this american crime
two deadly agents of a wicked persuasion
tried to send me on a permanent vacation
i gave them the slip
cause i'm totally hip
to that modern counter espionage
i spy
i got a bulletproof car and a secret star
and a ring with xray eyes
i wear spanish boots
crooks brother suits
and i don't know how to cry
17 Run Down the Stairs (01:55)
i wanna tell the truth
i really do
i get so scared
when i try to talk to you
cause you know me when i open up my mouth
you see my eyes when i say what i say
when i say what i say
yeah, when i say what i say
when i say what i say
but i don't know the truth
and i can't talk
i clap my hands
and go for a long walk
i cut my hair
i run down stairs
run down stairs
i dance around in a small room
with the lights turned down
i think about you now
i walk around late at night
cause i can't go to sleep cause you're not here
to turn out the light
turn, turn, turn out the light
i guess it's all right
my hands hold the world
they hold my head
they hold my knees up to my chest
they tell the truth
they love you so
my hands would touch you but they don't know how
they don't know how
they don't know how
they don't know how
19 Fourteen (01:44)
we were looking at your rabbits
we were feeding them some cabbage
you were telling me that you have a black and white cat
we took a walk, we start to hop, jump rope, play hopscotch
all the things i wanted to say
staring at your face, then looking away
all the things i wanted to tell
but i couldn't trust you, i couldn't trust myself
it's not that you're bad no
i just can't seem to let myself go
you see to me
the best part of sex is walking home holding hands after swimming in the lake
to me
the best part of love is when you say you'll be my friend
we were wearing our pajamas we were eating some bananas
i want to tell you how i want to be your pal
all the things i wanted to say
staring at your face, then looking away
now its too late
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