home, too political? Options

[Wambangalang]

get off your pro war horse and actually listen to the song instead of just presuming its anti-war......

quote from Ed: "This song is not just about stopping this war, but all wars.”

sounds pretty anti-war to me...

[GvB]

quote from Ed: "This song is not just about stopping this war, but all wars.”

sounds pretty anti-war to me...

Yes!
And I think it's cool and very brave to stay this way nowadays when a lot of politicians in America and Europe want us to believe that war is the only answer!
I am anti-war too, most times it just makes things worse and causes even more war, with all horrible consequences (violence is not the answer, it's the problem! Caused by everyone involved!).
The only time that it turned out to be good for Western Europe was when people where liberated from the German government in the end of the second worldwar.
But that's long ago.
And even that was not 100% perfect, because it ended in the cold war with Eastern Europe and Russia.

I think (but that's my opinion ) that people don't like that Ed takes the perspective of a soldier in the verses of "Home", because they don't like to be confronted with the fact that a soldier is human too and has a family and maybe even children!

GvB.

[ShowalittleLove]

I don't understand the argument that Ed has never been in war so he shouldn't sing about it or that it's the only political song on the album. Can you never speak on an issue if you haven't lived it? I couldn't disagree more. And a majority of their songs dating all the way back to MJ are pro love and peace songs. These are all anti war songs IMOP, maybe not as direct as WAWFF or Home, but they are delivering the message in an opposite way. (Just had to vent)

[LiveattheOasis]

the song is not about what its like to be in the army! its about setting a clear date so that all those soldiers and their familes will know when their sons and daughters are coming home.

anyone can know what its like to worry about friends and family in war zones so get off your pro war horse and actually listen to the song instead of just presuming its anti-war......

Ed has said he was very careful not to take stance against some particular war or make it overtly political. I guess that's why the song Home is written from the perspective of the individual with love and care for his family (lover and kids), something Ed has experience with.

"I'm a soldier on a field ..."
I am not "pro-war" as you seem to think, but I find it laughable that you fail to see whose perspective the song is written from. The chorus is fine, it's more from a perspective of anyone who has ever known anyone fighting in a war, but the verses presume to know what it's like to be a soldier. If Ed has been a soldier, then I am incredibly interested in what is going through his mind out there. If he hasn't, I personally thinks he presumes too much, and loses credibility for his own song. That is my opinion.

[Pokey]

I hate this song. But in it's defence, everyone jumps up and down about how Ed can't and shouldn't write from a soldiers point of view .. but they don't seem to care if a song writer sings from a point of view that isn't there own when it has nothing to do with war. Johnny Cash for example wrote Folsom Prison Blues before he'd ever been in prison, what's wrong with that .. Ed isn't claiming to be speaking from experience, he's writing as if he were in someone elses shoes.

But yeah, bottom line is this song is still balls. It does seem tacky, it doesn't really fit in with the theme of the album, it seems to be put on their cos it's the done thing these days.

[throwing_cheetahs]

Home is the best song on the album, the next best song would be "Show". I have been listening to the album alot lately, and it is not that bad, it is poppy but it has a great feel to it IMHO.

[Bremang]

Wow I really dislike Home. I just thought it was exploitative subject matter, and just didn't sound good.

But that is the thing about SFBM. People often disagree about what they dislike about the album, even though most of us hate something about it.

Some people think night of nights is OK. That one track always struck me as particularly terrible because the chorus changes tempo in a way that is just poor in the auditory sense, not just bad taste. How did the producer allow Ed to keep that tempo change on the album? Its like the producer just wanted to give up already and call it an album.

On the other hand I can kinda vibe to Sofia and Get Ready. But I can fully understand why anyone would hate those songs as well.

[Pokey]

Wow I really dislike Home. I just thought it was exploitative subject matter, and just didn't sound good.

But that is the thing about SFBM. People often disagree about what they dislike about the album, even though most of us hate something about it.

Some people think night of nights is OK. That one track always struck me as particularly terrible because the chorus changes tempo in a way that is just poor in the auditory sense, not just bad taste. How did the producer allow Ed to keep that tempo change on the album? Its like the producer just wanted to give up already and call it an album.

On the other hand I can kinda vibe to Sofia and Get Ready. But I can fully understand why anyone would hate those songs as well.

See the tempo shift in NON is one of the things I don't mind, it didn't quite fit, but that was ok because it was at least semi interesting, it was just something different to the horribly safe formula every song on the album had to that point. It by no means made it a good song to me, but it was at least something.

Sofia to me is and always will be the biggest missed opportunity on the album, I've said it before but un-lame the lyrics a bit, make it 10mins long, the concert intro, a big jam session in the middle where Ed shuts the fuck up, and if it didn't suffer from having its balls cut off in production and sounded a bit more rough around the edges. Could have been a really cool track. Instead, it's not.

Home though, one of my all time least favorite Live songs, you nailed it, exploitative subject matter.
As with a lot of SFBM, and BOP too ... if you go through the supporting tour and there are songs from the album you never played, it just reeks of not having faith in them. That they're filler tracks. With 7 albums you'd not expect them to play everything in one night, but over the course of a tour you would.
So when Home never turned up in any set it just made it seem like it never mattered, it was pandering to the masses about a topic that was big at the time. I think i've always gone by that, if a song never gets played live, the band probably see it as filler.
I mean I can see why CCP would consider it filler and be happy not playing it, having had no part in writing and all .. but if Ed had his stranglehold on the band then and it was all his show and he chose not to play it...

This post has been edited by Pokey: Oct 13 2011, 2:24 am

[throwing_cheetahs]

See, i just take it at face value, i good song that makes me feel good listening to it. It doesn't seem preachy to me, and i think it's a song alot of people like but won't admit to liking.
I do like the old Live better, don't get me wrong, but i dig this one.

That's just like...my ....opinion ...man

This post has been edited by throwing_cheetahs: Oct 13 2011, 12:19 pm

[World Dreamer]

The problem with Home and WAWFF is that Live used to be about things and concepts that were above the shit we deal with on a day to day basis...if that makes sense.

For me, Home and WAWFF are just more examples of the writing of Ed going to shit.

[thefunkyredcaboose]

I listened to 30 seconds of Home once.

[jaybb]

The problem with Home and WAWFF is that Live used to be about things and concepts that were above the shit we deal with on a day to day basis...if that makes sense.

For me, Home and WAWFF are just more examples of the writing of Ed going to shit.

I actually liked What Are We Fighting For? The fact it was on the end of the album and the fact it was at a time when seemingly most of the country was against the Iraq war. Home, on the other hand, is one of the tackiest, awful songs I've ever heard. Should have been written by Lee Greenwood.

[OutToDry]

Its easier not to be great......

[figure8]

Ok, so someone has mentioned that this album is a work of art, it is definitely not - it is like selling the fake Adidas shoes on car boot sale. If there was something really unique about LIVE back in the days, on the last 2 albums (BOP, SFBM) they have lost it. And this is not in regards to the anti-war songs that they have made (Home, WAWFF), this is about LIVE in general.
What I don't understand is - how can people actually enjoy SFBM. Yes, I would've understood that if this was a new band, with their debut CD, and this was actually their style of music. But when you know LIVE by MJ, TC, SS, TDTH and V (do not have any problem with V what so ever) how can the last to albums be called a work of a art, or be enjoyed? Yes, BOP had dome descent tracks, but SFBM? Common!
The thing that separated LIVE from all the other rock & roll bands was their unique sound. I cannot tell you what exactly it was, but they definitely had it. With the last 2 alums it was lost. And it is not a matter of success.
There are lot's of American (and not only American) bands that do sound the same. Back in the early 2000's there were lot's of them, now possibly even more (thank God I do not listen to the radio): Creed, Nickelback, The Calling, 3 doors down and so on, but there were also the ones, that when you heard them, you knew, oh this is - Pearl Jam, or Tom Waits, or Radiohead, Lou Reed, REM, etc (each one has their favourites) - for me LIVE was always in the context of those unique bands who had the unique sound and with the single note you would know who they are.

But this was in the past...

This post has been edited by figure8: Oct 14 2011, 2:03 pm

[Merica]

Home is naff. [/end thread]