They add expectations of profoundness to the lyrics that they never live up too.

auschwitz?

I think I've maybe watched one lyric video in my entire life.

close second

Unless the lyrics are especially clever or well written or they are part of an undeniable hook I really don't care what the singer is saying I care how they are saying it. I've heard Even Flow 20,000 times I have no idea what he is saying. I understand I'm in the minority people love to know and study the words but I don't care. I'd rather they run the chords or tab or music charts along the bottom of the screen they are probably more interesting.

Lyrics are important to me, ultimately what can keep me locked into a song for years, but weirdly enough they are possibly the last thing that gets me hooked into a song.

I only care when they are really great or really terrible, and The Haves certainly qualifies as one of those.

Yeah I hear that. The other day I was listening to Crawling Back To You and the line "Most things I worry about never happen anyway" hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm not sure it ever registered before. So sometimes they are a big deal to me.

at least it was close

I though vaccine and mask mandates were worse than the Holocaust?

Spoiler: show

Strat wrote:

Bammer wrote:

Ms Harmless wrote:

stip wrote:

epilogue wrote:

stip wrote:

Ms Harmless wrote:

The Haves would genuinely work if Ed was actually poor or working class, and the song was ironically reclaiming "the haves" "for the people", as it were; he's just not in the position to be able to do that

I dont know that actually being a member of a social class is necessary to either share, endorse, or sing about a particular cause or set of values. We wouldnt say Ed cant sing about feminist themes because he’s a guy. But you do need to be mindful about self identification. Plus, as KD pointed out, that’s not really what this song is about and the very particular associations with have/have nots make it a terrible central metaphor

Not a great argument because one doesn't need to identify as woman or female to be a feminist.

one doesnt need to be poor to be a socialist, or black to be concerned about racisim, etc.

they don't, but they're very unlikely to produce good art about those things if they're not directly affected

For what it’s worth, John Fogerty was not born on the bayou.

10/10

:fistbump:

Well, I just listened to The Haves while doing some stuff and without focusing on the lyrics, I really didn't mind it. Sure, it's shlock and nothing great, but it didn't offend me. I've tended to be a little more into Ed's sappy side than many of you. I'm kind of glad for this development because on the off chance the rest of the album is decent, I'll be able to listen to it through now lol. Here are my 1-5 scores for the songs on Earthling so far:

Brother the Cloud: 4
Long Way: 3.5
The Haves: 2.5

I'm nervous about the Elton collaboration and Watt's production, which seems like a slightly more alive version of BoB. We'll see...

I agree with those ratings except for The Haves, which gets a big fat Blutarsky.

I'm generally a fan of Ed's slower stuff as well, but the Halves is bad. The lyrics. The music. The need to massacre words like Up. It's all shit. Pure shit, in fact.

I'd have preferred slow songs to be something more like Coming Home to You or Out of Sand.

Brother the Cloud, however, is

The seal has been broken.

Brother the Cloud – 4
Long Way – 3
The Haves – 1.5

Does he try to rhyme Above with Above? Fuck this guy.

Yeah. I just listened to The Haves for the second time and was horrified to be reminded of that.

It will be such a bummer to skip The Haves on vinyl, but boy ill take the time and do it.

the 50th anniversary boxset

does he say ay-bove or uh-above?