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chaim
01-29-2015, 05:19 PM
Not sure if this has been discussed before, but there's a certain mannerism that Don seems to love so much that I can't help paying attention to it. In the sentences that are in pairs the first one often ends with a note that goes high, and the next one ends with a note going down.

Nobody on the road (up), nobody on the beach (down)


Now, where you going? (up) Now, what's the rush? (down)
You listen here (up) No, you just hush (down)

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here (up)
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear (down)

You say you haven't been the same since you had your little crash (up - sort of)
But you might feel better if they gave you some cash (down)

They knew all the right people, they took all the right pills (up)
They threw outrageous parties, they paid heavenly bills (down)

I'm not too familiar with his solo albums. Is there a lot of this on those?:hilarious:

VAisForEagleLovers
01-29-2015, 05:40 PM
They knew all the right people, they took all the right pills (up)
They threw outrageous parties, they paid heavenly bills (down)

I'm not too familiar with his solo albums. Is there a lot of this on those?:hilarious:
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It's actually heavily instead of heavenly.

There's a name for what you are talking about it, I remember learning about it in music class. I do know that in church when we chant the Psalms, we always do the same thing regardless of the tune used... 'up' on the first part and 'down' on the second part.

chaim
01-29-2015, 05:53 PM
It's actually heavily instead of heavenly.

There's a name for what you are talking about it, I remember learning about it in music class. I do know that in church when we chant the Psalms, we always do the same thing regardless of the tune used... 'up' on the first part and 'down' on the second part.

I always criticize people for trusting internet sources too much - on lyrics and chords. Now I just copied the lyrics without checking them myself! Well, I probably wouldn't have noticed anyway...
Yeah, it's probably common to do it like that, but for some reason it really catches my ear when Don does it. I don't know why. Sometimes it makes one song sound a bit like another to me.

That thing about chanting Psalms is interesting!

VAisForEagleLovers
01-29-2015, 07:08 PM
I always criticize people for trusting internet sources too much - on lyrics and chords. Now I just copied the lyrics without checking them myself! Well, I probably wouldn't have noticed anyway...
Yeah, it's probably common to do it like that, but for some reason it really catches my ear when Don does it. I don't know why. Sometimes it makes one song sound a bit like another to me.

That thing about chanting Psalms is interesting!

I think that a lot of singers just sing an entire verse, and maybe they do go up and down. Don has a habit of pausing a bit between the two lines and so it emphasizes it more.

Don't feel too bad about 'heavily' vs. 'heavenly'... In English, "They paid heavily bills" doesn't make a lot of sense, at least not to me. So most people get it wrong. Even when Glenn did the Songwriters lecture at NYU in 2011, they put the lyrics to LITFL and HC up with errors. They had 'heavily' and they had 'Benz' instead of 'bends' in HC. I'm not sure Glenn noticed because he had his back to them.

shunlvswx
01-29-2015, 11:46 PM
All She Wants To Do Is Dance he goes up and down in all the verses.

The Heart of the Matter is he starts down and then goes up when he sings "I'm learning to (down); live without you now (up).

Ive always been a dreamer
01-29-2015, 11:50 PM
Re: heavenly bills vs. heavily bills in Life In the Fast Lane, there are discrepancies all over the internet about which is correct, including much debate on this board over the years. I could be wrong, but, to the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been any credible source to confirm which is correct. Personally, I have never heard it as anything other than 'heavenly' and, to me, heavily doesn't even make any sense. So, at this point, no one will ever convince me that it is 'heavily' until a very reliable, credible source confirms otherwise.

And BTW chaim, I had never paid attention to the 'up' and 'down' mannerisms in Don's voice. You make a very interesting observation and I' need to start taking more notice of it.

chaim
01-30-2015, 05:31 AM
Re: heavenly bills vs. heavily bills in Life In the Fast Lane, there are discrepancies all over the internet about which is correct, including much debate on this board over the years. I could be wrong, but, to the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been any credible source to confirm which is correct. Personally, I have never heard it as anything other than 'heavenly' and, to me, heavily doesn't even make any sense. So, at this point, no one will ever convince me that it is 'heavily' until a very reliable, credible source confirms otherwise.

And BTW chaim, I had never paid attention to the 'up' and 'down' mannerisms in Don's voice. You make a very interesting observation and I' need to start taking more notice of it.

Don't start taking too much notice of it. At some point it may start bothering you!8)

chaim
01-30-2015, 08:27 AM
Don and Glenn should combine their mannerisms:

Don: Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here (up)
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear (down)
The extra phrase from Glenn: No, I don't
:hilarious:

DivineDon
01-30-2015, 10:21 AM
Very interesting topic - I think Don's style is very much influenced by his poetic and literary background as there is a definite 'poetic' feel and rhythm to how he delivers his lines. Up and down, balancing each other almost like a rhyming couplet. I'm sure Soda would be far better able to explain the technique.

As for Life in the Fast Line that line has always intriqued me. Having listened and looked at Don very closely (ahem!) it sounds as if he says 'they threw outrageous parties, they paid heavily bills'. I used to think he sang, 'they threw outrageous parties that they heavily billed' which would make more sense but perhaps he means they paid heavily bills in so far as they suffered for their excesses and it just fitted in better for the rhythm albeit if it is a little awkward grammatically.:headscratch:

Brooke
01-30-2015, 10:51 AM
I've always heard 'heavenly' and it makes much more sense to me. The two words are very close either way.

One mannerism I've noticed about Don is he tends to lick and smack his lips when talking. I first noticed it on HFO where he talks about the song Get Over It. And I've noticed it a lot since. But it's very cute! :wink:

DivineDon
01-30-2015, 12:16 PM
Yep, having just listened to Don's 'rap' version of LITFL, it's definitely 'heavenly bills'...:rofl:

L101
01-30-2015, 03:43 PM
Yep, having just listened to Don's 'rap' version of LITFL, it's definitely 'heavenly bills'...:rofl:

I just listened to the rap version (my ears are still burning!! :grin:) and the normal version but IMO its definitely 'Heavenly bills'....

I noticed Don licking his lips when he's doing interviews etc - think he does that when he's nervous which shows he's normal and its so cute !!

What I did notice and absolutely love is the way he pronounces words beginning with W in songs - it really shows his Texan accent and to me its what makes him stand out when he's singing. I can't think of examples off-hand, I just notice it when I'm listening to the songs.

Oh and every time he sings 'Baby' in a song :faint:

Freypower
01-30-2015, 04:37 PM
Re: heavenly bills vs. heavily bills in Life In the Fast Lane, there are discrepancies all over the internet about which is correct, including much debate on this board over the years. I could be wrong, but, to the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been any credible source to confirm which is correct. Personally, I have never heard it as anything other than 'heavenly' and, to me, heavily doesn't even make any sense. So, at this point, no one will ever convince me that it is 'heavily' until a very reliable, credible source confirms otherwise.

And BTW chaim, I had never paid attention to the 'up' and 'down' mannerisms in Don's voice. You make a very interesting observation and I' need to start taking more notice of it.

The sheet music book which was published after the album's release confirms it as 'heavily'. Dreamer, I know you said before that even that didn't convince you, but it's enough for me, I'm afraid, plus I've only ever heard 'heavily', annoying as it is that the word makes no sense.

In my view it's the official version of the song which counts. In any case, the rap version isn't on YouTube so I can't check it.

Here is the thread where we discussed this. We seemed to be evenly (evilly? :p see what I did there?) split. I won't change my position which is that the 1977 sheet music book has 'heavily' which overrides the later songbook.
https://eaglesonlinecentral.com/forum/showthread.php?t=992

sodascouts
01-30-2015, 08:50 PM
I always criticize people for trusting internet sources too much - on lyrics and chords. Now I just copied the lyrics without checking them myself! Well, I probably wouldn't have noticed anyway...
Yeah, it's probably common to do it like that, but for some reason it really catches my ear when Don does it. I don't know why. Sometimes it makes one song sound a bit like another to me.


As others have said, there's controversy over what that lyric is, even amongst official sources with songbooks and sheet music contradicting each other. No one knows definitely - well, we know what we THINK, but not if what we think is right. lol To say one official source "overrides" the other is convenient if you agree with the one you give priority to, but not necessarily accurate because BOTH are sanctioned by the band.

Freypower
01-30-2015, 10:59 PM
As others have said, there's controversy over what that lyric is, even amongst official sources with songbooks and sheet music contradicting each other. No one knows definitely - well, we know what we THINK, but not if what we think is right. lol To say one official source "overrides" the other is convenient if you agree with the one you give priority to, but not necessarily accurate because BOTH are sanctioned by the band.

It did occur to me that maybe the later songbook, which I haven't seen, was supposed to correct the alleged error in the first book. In that case I would like to know why the error was made in the first place.

chaim
01-31-2015, 06:07 AM
I guess sometimes when songbooks appear almost immediately after the record, they could have gotten the correct lyrics from the band/artist. But I've seen so many horrible errors in songbooks that I'm skeptical about it.
It's great that people on this forum are aware that songbooks and internet lyrics aren't necessarily more reliable than your own ears if the original record didn't contain the lyrics. It's so frustrating when you ask about a KISS lyric on the KISSFAQ forum, and someone posts the lyric from one of these lyric sites, like Metrolyrics, and says "here you go!" :brickwall:

Funk 50
01-31-2015, 10:33 AM
It did occur to me that maybe the later songbook, which I haven't seen, was supposed to correct the alleged error in the first book. In that case I would like to know why the error was made in the first place.

Maybe Glenn and/or Don had better things to do than do a detailed check of the entire text of a songbook. Are songwriters required to copyright all the text of a song in written form?

From memory, the lyrics of Stevie Nick's, Rock A little track are vastly different on the album sleeve and the actual record, I felt I'd been robbed of half a song!

chaim
01-31-2015, 12:13 PM
Maybe Glenn and/or Don had better things to do than do a detailed check of the entire text of a songbook. Are songwriters required to copyright all the text of a song in written form?

From memory, the lyrics of Stevie Nick's, Rock A little track are vastly different on the album sleeve and the actual record, I felt I'd been robbed of half a song!

I'm afraid they had better things to do. In my experience artists don't "give a darn" about whether their lyrics are correct or not in all these sources. For example, when Gene Simmons had the "KISS discography" section in his official homepage, whoever maintained his site had just copied the lyrics from the internet. KISS albums didn't have lyric sheets until 1982, although some pressings of The Elder from '81 may have had. So the usual errors from 1974 to at least 1980 were there. I once wrote to Gene about this - whether he could check the lyrics at least to his own solo album. He never replied (although he replied to some of my e-mails) and they were never corrected.
This is not the only case where I've seen lyrics copied from the internet on an official site of an artist.

On the other hand, Keith Reid has co-operated with an (as far as I know) unofficial Procol Harum website on lyrics, but that must be rare. Years ago when I pointed out some usual errors on a YES website they insisted to me that Jon Anderson has checked the lyrics. I don't think he had gone trhough every line, since there were some obvious errors.

WalshFan88
01-31-2015, 03:42 PM
It's one of those things where I didn't notice until pointed out to me, but now that I know about it, I hear it all the time! :hilarious:

septemberwn
02-01-2015, 01:27 AM
I believe the use of "heavenly bills" was Don's way of stating how high
The bill is for a doctor to make a "house call".

Freypower
02-01-2015, 01:46 AM
I believe the use of "heavenly bills" was Don's way of stating how high
The bill is for a doctor to make a "house call".

They threw outrageous parties
They paid heavily/heavenly bills

refers to the amount of money the couple are spending on their lavish lifestyle. The doctor reference doesn't occur until the last verse:

Call the doctor, I think I'm gonna crash
Well the doctor says he's coming
But you gotta pay in cash

which isn't necessarily a literal description of a crash scene with a literal payment (at a crash, not a house) but a continuation of the fast lane metaphor.

Funk 50
02-01-2015, 06:22 AM
It's difficult to get official clarification on lyrics when sometimes even the writers can't remember their own lyrics.

I remember a documentary featuring Keef and Ronnie from The Stones rehearsing for a gig with Chuck Berry. Kieth was singing one of Chuck's more obscure songs, "What's that your singing" asks Chuck

and when Joe's decided to perform Collage, during the reunion of The James Gang, a song they'd recorded in 1969 but never performed live, they got an underling to listen to the CD and write out a lyric sheet for Joe. "They're not the right words" says drummer and band leader Jim Fox and points out the mistakes " No, I like these words better" answers Joe to his immense credit.

I must apologise to Chaim for going off topic.

I believe Don composes his lines by singing over the backing track as he's driving and he delivers them as they would be spoken, with the odd "baby" thrown in. Whatever he does, he's a very consistent performer.

Ive always been a dreamer
02-01-2015, 01:31 PM
Don't start taking too much notice of it. At some point it may start bothering you!8)

I love it. Being bothered by Don's singing would be such a problem. :thumbsup:

sodascouts
02-01-2015, 03:27 PM
They threw outrageous parties
They paid heavily/heavenly bills

refers to the amount of money the couple are spending on their lavish lifestyle. The doctor reference doesn't occur until the last verse:

Yes, but I think it's fairly safe to assume that the "doctor bills" were part of the expenses of that lavish lifestyle.


Call the doctor, I think I'm gonna crash
Well the doctor says he's coming
But you gotta pay in cash

which isn't necessarily a literal description of a crash scene with a literal payment (at a crash, not a house) but a continuation of the fast lane metaphor.
Thanks, but I doubt there's anyone who thinks the song is literally about people having a car accident in the fast lane. For instance, I would hope it would go without saying that I am not referring to a literal doctor's bill in the above comment.

sodascouts
02-02-2015, 10:43 PM
I just realized how derailed this topic has become - sorry!

Another vocal mannerism of Don's that I've noticed, although it's only on a few songs: sometimes, when he's getting very dark like in "Damn It Rose" or lines of "King of Hollywood", he adopts an unnaturally deep voice.

Ive always been a dreamer
02-02-2015, 11:28 PM
Yeah - He does that in the verses of Everything Is Different Now too.


Oh and every time he sings 'Baby' in a song :faint:

I agree with you about this L101. Most of the time when he sings that word, it is meltworthy!