"From A to I" strikes me as the best song on the Solo record, but I have some questions about it and would like to discuss.
1- Ipswich? I know it's a quiet country town in England. But is there anything notorious about Ipswich's history that Jarvis is referring to? Or is he just saying that evil exists everywhere? According to Wikipedia, there were some witch trials in Ipswich in the 15th century, but did those trials come to define the town in the same way Auschwitz is now synonimous with concentration camps?
2- What's with this refrain? Not one single soul was saved I was ordering an Indian takeaway I was spared whilst others went to an early grave
Oh, got stoned Yeah, went out and got stoned
The rest of the song seems pretty tight, but this part just comes out of nowhere and seems quite lazy. Ok, I can see getting high to shut out the world, but what's any of this have to do with Indian takeaway? I sort of cringe during that bit, so if I had some idea what Jarvis was on about, I think I'd like the song a lot more.
Fuss Free wrote: 2- What's with this refrain? Not one single soul was saved I was ordering an Indian takeaway I was spared whilst others went to an early grave
Oh, got stoned Yeah, went out and got stoned
I think it just means he was doing something mundane while terrible things were happening in the world.
The Idiot wrote: For anyone who may not be aware, the town of Ipswich is currently living in fear as five prostitutes have been found dead in the last two weeks.
What a bizarre and unfortunate coincidence that Jarvis should have released From A To I and I Will Kill Again only weeks before.
I was just thinking that yesterday. Indeed BBC's other main headline was something about obesity in children. Talk about capturing the zeitgest, intentionally or not.
The Idiot wrote: What a bizarre and unfortunate coincidence that Jarvis should have released From A To I and I Will Kill Again only weeks before.
Maybe someone will use the Judas Priest/Helter Skelter defence when they get caught. "Jarvis told me to do it!"
BTW Jarvis isn't a suspect, is he? If the boys in blue hear about this they could be putting 2 & 2 together, and given his bit of form back in 1996...... (being frivolous here)
A controversial Nevada court case highlighted the potential legal dilemmas that can arise during periods of subliminal hysteria. The families of two boys who committed suicide in 1985 sued Judas Priest, the bad boys of British heavy metal, for allegedly placing in a song a subliminal message -- "Do it" -- that the plaintiffs believed pushed their sons into suicide. The two-word trigger was purportedly buried in the song "Better By You, Better Than Me," from the band's 1978 album Stained Class. The plaintiffs sought $6.2 million dollars for the band's "product liability."
Infamous serial killer Charles Manson claimed that The White Album, and the song Helter Skelter in particular, were secret coded messages from the Beatles to start the ultimate racial war which would bring about the end of the world. Black people would rise up and kill all of the white people. Manson's followers would supposedly hide in an underground cavern and live until they numbered 144,000, at which point they would emerge and take over because, Manson theorized, the blacks would have no idea how to run things. Manson also used the phrase Helter Skelter in reference to his plot to begin the war.