New Sylvian Track - Jacqueline

[Chet]

Lovely track.
I would love to know everything about it. where and when it was recorded, with who and why etc...

[becky]

Are those lyrics about Ingrid and Lorenzo by any chance? ...but it sounds like a lovely song and I like the sample snippet I heard. I never managed to get a copy of the mag - download possible anyone? Is this allowed Silvermoon? - sweet Silvermoon, pretty please?

[hitch]

Are those lyrics about Ingrid and Lorenzo by any chance? ...but it sounds like a lovely song and I like the sample snippet I heard. I never managed to get a copy of the mag - download possible anyone? Is this allowed Silvermoon? - sweet Silvermoon, pretty please?

i have found it on demonoid.com

[Haldeman Gracie]

It's a beautiful track. I can see myself getting quite attached to it in the current form, more than any possible future release. It's reasonably polished as it is (more incomplete, if anything, than a 'demo' as such).

The magazine can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk for £5.50. Other than the CD though, I thought the mag itself was a bit rubbish and could barely justify the $10 tag.

From what I could glean from the lyrics of Jacqueline, it appeared to me to be about someone dying of a terminal illness. For whatever reason, I assumed it was a male, not particularly young, and probably known to Sylvian for some considerable time (Sylvian and Jansen's father perhaps?)

[Astronaut]

That's an interesting take on the lyrics. Hadn't seen that in there myself and was inclined to think of it along the lines of another "Get the H*ll Out" Caroline situation with the "big man" ... DS appears to have a certain preference for writing indirectly about domestic violence - or maybe that's just my twisted take on things?????

[Haldeman Gracie]

That's an interesting take on the lyrics. Hadn't seen that in there myself and was inclined to think of it along the lines of another "Get the H*ll Out" Caroline situation with the "big man" ... DS appears to have a certain preference for writing indirectly about domestic violence - or maybe that's just my twisted take on things?????

I could be wrong, of course, but jumping on the 'nurse and care for him' line, a lot of the other lyrics seem to back up the terminal illness angle. 'Just now until the end, with nothing inbetween', suggesting that this person is still alive (at that point in the song) but that 'productive life' is now over and it's death bed time.

I assumed that the person accused of domestic violence is the one dying, and also assumed that this was the very same bloke he'd written about over 20 years ago in When Poets Dreamed of Angels. Jacqueline apears to be this older man's partner.

I'd also assumed that 'the big man', who puts this character in his death bed in the first place, was Sylvian's irreverent description for God. Given Manafon and Small Metal Gods in particular, I think DS may have finally grown out of all that devotional nonsense and is finally in on the joke. Not that it's done him any good: Manafon is the most disturbing album - lyrically - that I think I've ever heard.

The Believer CD is actually excellent throughout. I've dipped into a handful of other tracks and they're all great so far.

[Astronaut]

The Believer CD is actually excellent throughout. I've dipped into a handful of other tracks and they're all great so far.

Agreed. It IS an excellent CD! And thanks for explaining your thought processes!!! I was trying to rack my brain to remember the DS song where I first noticed his reference to domestic violence and you have reminded me: "When Poets Dreamed of Angels" ... Thanks!

[Chet]

still no news about where and when he did this
and with who...

[Bern]

anybody else notice the Manafon title track sounds in part very much like the melody of Jacqueline

[Blemished]

Jacqueline resembling Manafon?! I hope note...sublime to ridiculous and all that...

Do you guys really like Jacqueline? Sure there are some lovely chord changes occasionally and nice production for a demo but...is it not just a bit middle-of-the-road? A bit Jean the Birdman-esque dull?

After stretching out with Manafon I really, really hope he doesn't veer back into that kind of dullsville...now beautiful 'Damage' like ballads...yes please...but Mr Croon Sings Lounge Lizard Tunes...

[Haldeman Gracie]

Jacqueline resembling Manafon?! I hope note...sublime to ridiculous and all that...

Do you guys really like Jacqueline? Sure there are some lovely chord changes occasionally and nice production for a demo but...is it not just a bit middle-of-the-road? A bit Jean the Birdman-esque dull?

After stretching out with Manafon I really, really hope he doesn't veer back into that kind of dullsville...now beautiful 'Damage' like ballads...yes please...but Mr Croon Sings Lounge Lizard Tunes...

I see where you're coming from, but disagree. It's a lovely track, and I would like to see Sylvian embrace more of this kind of thing. Jean The Birdman was a great track before he may have lost faith in its original form (per a few interviews) and let Fripp and Gunn all over it. That gentle ballad / acoustic Sylvian period (Under Ingrid's Wheels, The First Day, Damage, Endgame, Earthbound, early Jean The Birdman) deserved more than being buried under all that Frippery.

He went from Blemish to Snow Borne Sorrow, so I don't think he's on some post-Manafon linear path into pure noise like some people do.

As for the 'melody' to Manafon... it's pure Barbara Streisand's The Way We Were! I aint kidding. Listen again - it wont take much of a remix to make it obvious. Big Dave does Big Babs... finally!

[heartofdavid]

As for the 'melody' to Manafon... it's pure Barbara Streisand's The Way We Were! I aint kidding. Listen again - it wont take much of a remix to make it obvious. Big Dave does Big Babs... finally!

LOL! Would be for the second time though, Japan covered "Don't Rain on My Parade."

[Blemished]

That gentle ballad / acoustic Sylvian period (Under Ingrid's Wheels, The First Day, Damage, Endgame, Earthbound, early Jean The Birdman) deserved more than being buried under all that Frippery.

Agree on that era. It remains a huge disappointment that he didn't put together an album based around some of those tracks. I always think of it as the lost great Sylvian album.

As for Babs Streisand?! OMG. Next thing he'll be singing songs from musicals for adverts or something...

[baht habit]

Ok Ok, I suppose I can let the ripping on my buddy ole pal Fripp slip by, but please - let's not even begin any bashing on Barbra. Streisand and her husband James Brolin are really kind people and class acts through and through. They have both been very active in assisting the career of my extremely talented niece. They helped fund the film she stars in and are aiding in representing her as she attempts to make her way within this very cruel and cut throat music business. Streisand is known as a tough diva since she is a no-nonsense consummate professional, but she also has a kind heart and is a liberal spitfire as well. So I'm compelled to defend her against any slights on her.

[Haldeman Gracie]

As for the 'melody' to Manafon... it's pure Barbara Streisand's The Way We Were! I aint kidding. Listen again - it wont take much of a remix to make it obvious. Big Dave does Big Babs... finally!

LOL! Would be for the second time though, Japan covered "Don't Rain on My Parade."

Oops. Totally forgot about that, probably as I've listened to Japan's first album on CD even less than David Sylvian has (which is, I suspect, a mathematical impossibility without punching a hole in the space / time continuum). I just found it too hard to know that Mr Sylvian was once in the same boat as Milli Vanilli. I mean sure, it's his pretty face on the cover, but who the heck is doing the singing???

Agree on that era. It remains a huge disappointment that he didn't put together an album based around some of those tracks. I always think of it as the lost great Sylvian album.

Yep, I certainly think so. If EMI are going to release some studio stuff they own behind his back, I'd love to see an album of that era (the unreleased studio ballads & Fripp B-sides) more than anything else. All that's slipped out since the First Day / Damage releases has been The Blinding Light of Heaven which was, sadly, just more of the same Fripp Frappery. I've got nothing against Fripp (or Babs for that matter), I just think RF and DS would work better as each other's sidemen on choice tracks as opposed to 50 / 50 collaborators.

As for Babs Streisand?! OMG. Next thing he'll be singing songs from musicals for adverts or something...

Even his iTunes 'Celebrity' Playlist took me by surprise! And I can't watch the Linoleum video without wondering how much mental anguish the on camera miming must have put him through (even if he was a total natural with an on-screen persona that was David Beckham with a hint of the Emperor from Star Wars).