The Conscious awareness of the Ice Cream Van - Do you know what your listening to?

There’s a storm on the horizon
And for that I can’t see the sun
For I’ll keep a waiting on the pavement
For the ice-cream van to come

Destroying the ground where gruesome lays
Sectarianism and the hurtful racist ways
Bring back the glory days
Active citizenship
And pure community
Freedom of faith

There’s a storm on the horizon

I have been listening to this song by a british band Glasvegas for the past 2 months but never actually paid attention to the lyrics (mainly because the singer has a thick accent) until now. So imagine my suprise when I googled this song to see these lyrics. So it got me thinking I wonder how many people actually know the lyrics (consciously) to what they are listening to and could it be that perhaps we listen to music for a particular reason without actually knowing why we are doing it on a different level of conscious awareness?

Anyway thought I would share this little insight of mine with you as the song is excellent, (well to be honest the whole album is great) and I find that I am able to achieve a higher state of awareness rapidly listening to it.

Please spend a little time listening and tell me what you think.

Interesting. I think some people listen to different things in a song. As a musician, I am always listening and analysing the music and if I concentrate on the vocals it is to hear how the melody relates to the other instruments, almost never the lyrics. But then I also listen to a lot of music in languages that I don't understand so for me the voice has always been another instrument rather than a carrier for a message. There are exceptions of course but on the whole this is how it is.

However, a friend of mine is the exact opposite, he will listen to the words and what they are saying above everything else. Quite often we will hear a song and he will say, yeah it's ok but the lyrics are weak, and I will have no idea of what the lyrics were about.

I suppose it depends on what your focus in music is and where you hear emotion in it. I listen to a lot of instrumental north Hindustani music where, interestingly enough to this discussion, the instruments mimic the voice. For example, listen to this and tell me that words could express such beauty - .

Maybe if you are a musician you tend to listen to the music but if you have no musical background then words contain the expression that a musician sees in sounds?

Edit to say: how has your perception of that song changed since you started to listen to the lyrics? Do you like it less or more, has it changed the emotion that the song portrays to you?

[edit on 19-8-2010 by Frakkerface]

reply to post by franspeakfree
I worked security at Glastonbury for a couple of summers. Glasvegas were a brilliant shambolic nightmare. There were dozens of them and they turned up in batches at the wrong places at the wrong times. Buses and cars at wrong gates...real chaos and they couldn't care less.

I only got to hear the one show and that was probably 2002. They were pretty cool. Now I need an ice-cream

I thought this thread was about something entirely different and was about to talk about how my girlfriend, not from the UK, thought that ice-cream van music sounded satanic

Originally posted by Frakkerface
I thought this thread was about something entirely different and was about to talk about how my girlfriend, not from the UK, thought that ice-cream van music sounded satanic

Technically your post is not off topic considering you are talking about an ice cream van and a song. Personally I think there are subliminal messages in ice cream van music, that make little kids beg their parents form money to buy overpriced ice cream from a van that you could get much cheaper from elsewhere, even after you figure in the price of gas to get there, but that is another thread entirely.

As far as the main topic, I tend to tune out the actual music and hear the voice as another instrument most of the time as Frakkerface has stated. It is funny because the other day I actually heard the lyrics of a song, I have been listening to for a long time, it is an Anthrax song called Burst and in the song the statement is made, “I don’t intend to offend, I just offend with my intent”, which eerily related to another thread that I was posting in. The rest of the song I started listening to the lyrics and it was odd how I could relate them to the thread. This was not the Artists original thought I am sure, but is interesting how events around a person can cause the original meaning of a song be lost in ones perceptions created by other events.

[edit on 8/19/2010 by AlienCarnage]

I would provide link, but my browser sketchy right now. though google, labrynth of the psychonaut. or i think www.labrynthofthepsychonaut.com good stuff relating to music and why we may listen,

reply to post by franspeakfree


It's an unusual human trait to 'fill in the gaps' of lyrics that we don't know or understand - even more interesting is what we fill these 'gaps' with, sometimes revealing subconscious truths about the specific individual.

Anyway, I see your Ice Cream Van and raise you a Riot Van...

Originally posted by Frakkerface
Interesting. I think some people listen to different things in a song. As a musician, I am always listening and analysing the music and if I concentrate on the vocals it is to hear how the melody relates to the other instruments, almost never the lyrics. But then I also listen to a lot of music in languages that I don't understand so for me the voice has always been another instrument rather than a carrier for a message. There are exceptions of course but on the whole this is how it is.

I have been totally knocked for six with your words above, I never really looked at music that way. It has made me look at the way that I view music deeply.

I suppose it depends on what your focus in music is and where you hear emotion in it. I listen to a lot of instrumental north Hindustani music where, interestingly enough to this discussion, the instruments mimic the voice. For example, listen to this and tell me that words could express such beauty -

.

I concur with exactly what you say. I see what you mean. I listen to alot of instrumental music daily and I am going to consciously think about the above and see if I can empathise with you, with this I do hope so. This could be a new turning point for me.

Maybe if you are a musician you tend to listen to the music but if you have no musical background then words contain the expression that a musician sees in sounds?

Edit to say: how has your perception of that song changed since you started to listen to the lyrics? Do you like it less or more, has it changed the emotion that the song portrays to you?

Well since I have known the lyrics I am singing them everyday now, so I would say I like it more. The tune is constantly in my head whilst I am driving,walking, eating. Its great I feel great,

On a completely different note, I am a spiritual person (not religious) and I had an epiphany the other day and that is in order to change and wake up the sleeping masses I am convinced that MUSIC will be the key. For example more and more bands are starting to sing about real life and its those lyrics that people listen to whether it be subconsciously or consciously, and through music comes expression and awareness. I have been studying a little lately about shaminic rythmic dancing and song prose its very interesting indeed.

Originally posted by Myendica
I would provide link, but my browser sketchy right now. though google, labrynth of the psychonaut. or i think www.labrynthofthepsychonaut.com good stuff relating to music and why we may listen,

I found it here www.labyrinthofthepsychonaut.com..., very interesting indeed ordinarily I would have looked at this kind of site and thought money spinner and closed it down. However, the very first words I read were: Pschedelic experience, and spirit molecule it just so 'happens' that I have just reread the spirit molecule and I have been re researching psychedelics - Theres synchronicity for you. You see when I get an urge to post a thread and the title comes before the words, even though I know that only a handful of people are going to read it, I know that there are going to be members on this site that can help me with my research and development. Thats how it works. Synchronicity at its best !

Thanks alot for the information.

reply to post by LiveForever8


I have never been a fan of the arctic monkeys (the music all sounds the same) however, nevertheless in the spirit of things I have listened to it.

I take your Riot Van and go all in:



Time to cash up !

Originally posted by franspeakfree


On a completely different note, I am a spiritual person (not religious) and I had an epiphany the other day and that is in order to change and wake up the sleeping masses I am convinced that MUSIC will be the key. For example more and more bands are starting to sing about real life and its those lyrics that people listen to whether it be subconsciously or consciously, and through music comes expression and awareness. I have been studying a little lately about shaminic rythmic dancing and song prose its very interesting indeed.

I'm glad that I wrote something of worth for once

I agree about the music and change thing, it is yet another fascinating topic that you have brought up. I was always very interested in music at the times of social change, the 60's, punk, grunge, and currently dubstep. I was surprised for a while that we have had such polarizing and heavy politics over the last 10 years but absolutely nothing in terms of a musical scene in reaction to it.

I have started to see reaction in hip-hop (of all places), bands like Atma and Masta Buildas go explicitly in to conspiracy topics, to the point of maybe discrediting themselves (im not keen on the reptilian or 2012 stuff), but also more widely respected groups as well, such as Army of Pharaohs.

However, when you look at, say, punk and the political circumstances of why it arose in the UK you would think that there would be something all-encompassing in these days of political apathy in the wake of such pathetic political shenanigans.

There is something I want to touch on here, and this could be a conspiracy in itself, and that is why there is a lack of reactionary scene. The music industry has changed massively recently and I do wonder if this has been, at least in part, designed. While we have access to such a huge variety of styles and artists now, and often for free, we have killed any chances of a real scene happening. Musicians rarely make money from their music now so having to keep a 9-5 job makes it difficult to start a reactionary movement. But there is also the aspect of, if you want to, you can get any music for free. While this is good in many ways (it has started the demise of the joke of diva and boyband etc "music"), it means that not many people are looking in the same place for their musical fix, meaning that messages are not getting the attention they deserve. This is stopping us from creating a movement, our focus so diluted across so many genres. It's a double sided coin, in some ways we get more power as a consumer and artists have more power in terms of being able to release an album without being signed to a record label but this is also killing it (and maybe us in a broader sense).


Back to Indian music for a second. There has always been a huge link between Indian music and spirituality. There is a quote somewhere from Ravi Shankar talking about when he saw Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar. Ravi-ji was horrified because the sitar is literally sacred to a player. It's funny how far removed we have become from linking spirituality and music, yet so many people can feel - may i say god in a very broad sense? - when listening to beautiful music.

If you could like to explore the Indian version of the connection between music and spirituality, and i think you should from what you say, i think you will be truely fascinated, and to hear more about the quote i mentioned about Ravi-ji, please download the Raga film. It is kind of a biography of Ravi Shankar but music is so deeply linked with spirituality for him that it talks a lot about this subject. Here are the links if you would like it, i think these all still work. Definitely recommended viewing:

www....(nolink)/download.php?e2i5owjqqmd
www....(nolink)/download.php?izmyjzcivgk

www....(nolink)/download.php?img232qujzh

www....(nolink)/download.php?mzrmz21kwdt

www....(nolink)/download.php?y3myknzd2wq

www....(nolink)/download.php?hozjejmjt2w

www....(nolink)/download.php?tznm0ybvztz

www....(nolink)/download.php?yye0nwozmkj

Originally posted by franspeakfree
reply to post by LiveForever8

 

I have never been a fan of the arctic monkeys (the music all sounds the same)

You say that and then post a video of the Kaiser Chiefs? Pot, kettle, black

As for lyrics; I don't think they have as much cultural influence as they used to have, unfortunately. A great melody can make you feel, but a great lyric can make you think. The combination of the two can result in the kind of cultural resonance no other art form can match. Words, quite simply, are power.

One example of this decline in lyrical importance can be seen in modern protest songs, more accurately, the lack thereof. Modern protest songs don't have the same cultural impact, they do not capture the imagination of the public like they used to. Mainly because there is a distinct lack of them (a sign of the times?) but I suppose it also has a lot to do with the change in society as a whole.

Back in the sixties being interested in music was itself a way of protesting against the status quo. In short, modern music seems to have lost it's social conscience.

To borrow (and edit for relevance) a quote from Howard Beale (Network):

'Music is a God-damned amusement park! Music is a circus, a carnival, a travelling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business!'

By the way, I forgot to say what a beautiful song that Glasvegas track is. I've never really listened to them before but will be checking more out. It reminds me of Mogwai, for a few obvious reasons. If you don't know them check out their early stuff, first couple of albums are very good.

They sample Iggy Pop on one song and what he says couldn't possibly be expressed more elegantly and lucidly:

"I'll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and ah... and ah... heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it and it's a... it's a term that's based on contempt, it's a term that's based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that's rotten about rock 'n' roll. I don't know Johnny Rotten but I'm sure... I'm sure he puts as much blood and sweat into what he does as Sigmund Freud did. You see, what sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise is in fact the brilliant music of a genius, myself . And that music is so powerful that it's quite beyond my control and ah... when I'm in the grips of it I don't feel pleasure and I don't feel pain, either physically or emotionally. Do you understand what I'm talking about? Have you ever felt like that? When you just couldn't feel anything and you didn't want to either. You know? Like that? Do you understand what I'm saying sir?"

Godspeed You Black Emperor are in a similar vein.

I mentioned Atma earlier, I'm amazed that I haven't seen them mentioned on ATS before:




[edit on 21-8-2010 by Frakkerface]

[edit on 21-8-2010 by Frakkerface]