Talk:The Future Soon/Lyrics

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Revision as of 09:46, 30 April 2008 by Bry (talk | contribs) (Responses, now I'm awake)
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A request for comment has been made for this page. Please add your thoughts!

Riddle me this:

My ears hear "And I'm all alone during couple skate" The info page in the store (and everything in this wiki) reads "And I'm alone during couple skate"

Obviously, and without a doubt, we should use the lyrics actually in the song. But I'm not going insane for hearing that, right?

I agree. That's pretty definitely what's sung. This live performance has a good facial close up during that line, and that looks like two words to me (rather than "ah-ah-lone," for which that subtle mouth closure wouldn't be there). Of course, I would've also sworn to it being "couples' skate," so what do I know? ~ Thomast 18:25, 29 April 2008 (EDT)
I have always thought the words were "And I'm all alone...." I think it's a safe change to make, and I'll make it -- if someone disagrees, he or she can change it back. --Bry 01:14, 30 April 2008 (EDT)
Cool, good to hear. I'll go ahead and make the same changes in the Tabs section. (Yeah, I think it could go either way with "couple skate" and "couples' skate", depending on what JoCo himself says.) (And darn, that was me at the top who forgot to sign his name.) Thanks, Thomast and Bry! || Wesley 01:19, 30 April 2008 (EDT)
I've changed the smart quotes, which is the only change I've made that I'm sure about, for I've done a lot of things that are real, real judgment calls. I said "And I'm all alone during couples' skate", "She'll eye me suspiciously" (no "and"), "And she'll scream and try to run" (instead of "she will scream"), and most radically, during the pre-bridge chorus, "close my eyes and it's all ready" -> "Here on Earth they'll wonder" (starting a new clause). I'm not sure I even agree with that (granted, "when my heart is breaking I can close my eyes and it's already / Here on Earth they'll wonder" isn't grammatical, but there's certainly little reason to believe that wasn't what was intended). But it's clever, and it would be grammatical, and I'm going to pretend it's the lyric because it makes me happy to think so. --Bry 01:29, 30 April 2008 (EDT)
Given that the end of the choruses before has been "and it's already here," I think it should stay as "already" since (to me) it's a clever link to the next line. See also the wacky rhyme scheme, eg "Turns out she's smarter than I thought she was/She knows I wrote it, now the whole class does too" --Lex (talk - contribs) 06:10, 30 April 2008 (EDT)

(replying, but don't want the indenting to get too crazy)

I have to admit that I get a little bit of an uncomfortable feeling changing the lyrics--even the "all alone" part I first posted about. Jonathan did post those lyrics on the website himself at some point, so he must have at least read over them once. I think we should probably err on the side of caution and let the original lyrics stay when it's too close to call. Having said that:

  • You're totally right about "and she'll scream and try to run", because in the demo version, he says "she will scream and try to run"--they're two different versions of the line! I'll make a note about it in the wiki, but we should use the change you made, since it's the "official" version of the song.

I'll go and make those changes now. I hope you don't mind the changing-back of some of those changes :S And if you think one of the changes should actually stay, go ahead and change it back while we hunt for more evidence one way or another. In fact, just while doing that I dug up an awesome acoustic demo version of The Future Soon! (That'll be going on the main page very shortly :P

Wesley 02:22, 30 April 2008 (EDT)

I have not the slightest compunction about changing the lyrics -- for a year and a half now I've been dealing with the ramifications of JoCo's mistakes and typos on the lyrics. ;) To justify "all ready" (fighting an unnecessary and losing battle), it's much cleverer in that it plays with your expectations. If the line is "already," one hears what one's been hearing, and then seconds later he or she hears it clash grammatically and can't resolve it properly -- syntax error, didn't receive the expected input, that is. If the line is "all ready," one hears what one's been hearing, then seconds later realizes that it wasn't the same thing he or she'd been hearing and has to reorient -- which is, after all, one of the characteristic "forms" of humor, where information coming in late changes the meaning of everything that came before. (To drift into musical theater, which forumgoers will know is a hobby of mine, Lerner and Loewe used the same kind of structure in "Why Can't the English," from My Fair Lady -- "...why can't the English learn to / Set a good example..." - but Lerner's lyrics actually are meant to make grammatical sense.)
I find setting the demo lyrics apart makes them more confusing -- any thoughts about putting them after each respective line of the song? (I don't know how that'd look, but it would make slightly more sense to me.) Otherwise, perhaps footnote them with a "jump-back-to-the-spot-in-lyrics" link? --Bry 09:46, 30 April 2008 (EDT)

Demo Version

In the demo version of the song, in verse 3, does it sound like the line is "'Cause when a crazy cyborg..." instead of "When a crazy cyborg..."? Again, if it's impossible to tell, I think we should leave it as-is, but since this page has been marked as a request-for-comments, I thought I'd put that out there. — Wesley | 06:21, 30 April 2008 (EDT)