Essentially the bookends for The Flaming Lips' 2002 quasi-concept album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, there was no better starter/closer combination this decade. As overproduced, overdramatic psyche-pop bliss-outs, "Fight Test" and "Do You Realize???" sealed The Flaming Lips popular canonization after the band's euphoria-inducing 1999 album, The Soft Bulletin. To hear these songs performed live during the growing legend of a Lips show became a vital musical experience. Even if it meant dressing up as a pink bunny.
It's hard to think of any recent band that has had a five-album run like The Flaming Lips, a run that is so evolved and varied, so unhesitant and adventurous. From alternative music touchstone Transmissions from the Satellite Heart to the fuzzed-guitar splendor of Clouds Taste Metallic; from the transcendental, psychedelic musings of The Soft Bulletin to the four-part player experiment Zaireeka to the bleeping drones of cosmic weary Yoshimi, The Flaming Lips developed into an authentic life-force all their own.
"Fight Test" is a universal call to arms. Or not. Walking the fine line between justice and mercy, even when it applies to evil robots, requires an introspective, hopeful, and sometimes regrettable self-evaluation. Indeed, the song's star-gazed soliloquy became a mantra of sorts for The D Man as he contemplated his own individual battles during the early part of this decade. The song seems to ask and (almost) answer all the right questions. And in a strange way, the song provides comfort to those who truly seek to know what's right for their own life. But it also reminds us that, ultimately, there are things you can't avoid--you have to face them when you're not prepared to face them. The test begins now.
A fount of humanistic triumphalism, "Do You Realize???" is the happiest, most celebratory song-of-death of all time. Voted into law as Oklahoma's official rock song, the song's sobering message is quite simple: all we have is now. So in the face of death, whether it be at the hands of pink robots or plain-old cancer, treat people right, live right, and let them know you realize.
2 comments:
Not being familiar with "Fight Test" I immediately listened upon reading your post. I fell in love with the song. Terrific song. There was something strangely familiar about it - which I liked. It wasn't until just a few minutes ago that it dawned on me (a huge Cat Stevens fan) that this song sounded an awful lot like Cat's "Father and Son". I googled it and sure enough I must be the last person in the world to catch on. Looks like Cat filed suit and the Flaming Lips agreed to split all royalties for the song: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5936702/flaming_lips_avoid_cat_fight Here's a link to Cat's "Father and Son": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q29YR5-t3gg&feature=fvw Query: can a song be included in the best songs of the decade if it's probably a rip off of a song from another decade?
Answer: yes.
In typical Wayne Coyne fashion, he was entirely open about "Fight Test" and any similarities it had with Cat Stevens' song. (A resemblance is there, but it's quite broad and somewhat vague).
"I know ["Father and Son"] and when I came up with "Fight Test," I knew there would be a little bit of comparison to that," Coyne told Rolling Stone.
"Parts of it are radically different than what I intended in the beginning, which I thought sounded a lot like the Cat Stevens song, but I didn't give it that much thought. We did the song quite quickly once we came up with the arrangement. It's not a reference necessarily to the ideas of ["Father and Son"], but, yeah, definitely a reference to the cadence, the melody, and stuff like that. I think it's such a great arrangement of chords and melody that you just hope to express something, even though it's in a similar vein."
With respect to being a rip-off, however, you would have a hard time convincing The D Man that "Fight Test" is anything but original. It's lyrical content, chorus-round, and production is entirely unique. And frankly, The Lips probably did more with whatever framework Mr. Stevens gave them, resulting in a tighter, more melodic focus and pleasurable experience.
Artists from every age have "cribbed" from other artists, whether knowingly or not. The truly great artists, however, move beyond the "anxiety of influence" into wholly original realms. Melville begat Faulkner begat McCarthy. But each one achieved an undiminished cognitive individuation. (Moby Dick, As I Lay Dying, Blood Meridian).
Indeed, in popular music the best example of this phenomenon is from Nirvana. The band constantly poked fun at their tendency to intentionally pull ideas from other song structures, melodies, and riffs, including no less than "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and its Boston-esque guitar riff. Nevertheless, few would argue that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is anything but an authentic tour de force.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ba2A3mtVU
Your question is a good one. In the realm of music, most practitioners merely mimic past precedents or their peers. But great artists, despite similarities or outright influences that surface in the music, somehow manage to elude or recreate those same similarities and influences. I believe "Fight Test" is a great example of this. And I'm glad you fell in love with the song. I remember right where I was when I did too.
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