"song-to-song" relationships and connections
 

Sonic Youth to my understanding,
aren't really known for having songs with tangible connections to other songs on the same album, or across the catalogue.
but have you ever percieved any?
Just as in, are there any songs you like to put together?
Spit um out and let's chat about it.
Also, if it's all you've got, be a drag and discuss any SY songs which are soundalikes. ;)


(real!) examples:
i think of Bull in the Heather and Heather Angel as a pair,
kim's vox in the beginning of Heather Angel and the guitar throughout sound like ideas from Bull in the Heather being shone through a kaliedescope.

the first few times i listened to Daydream Nation I thought The Wonder was meant to pick up where Eric's Trip ended. "There's something moving over there to the right, like nothing i've ever seen" to "See flashing eyes" and the rest of that first part. I feel like i was just confused at the time, but i haven't forgotten about thinking so...
//
ok, let's go! :)

I always felt that Daydream Nation was or at least felt like a concept album. I can envision a Pink Floyd style movie that would accompany it quite well.

I also like the idea of EJST&NS being a conversation between a couple. Can't remember where I heard that the first time.

Bad Moon Rising fits very well together also; the songs all seem to build off each other in terms of forming a horror movie type scenario.

I'm going to think about this more, but I'll start by saying that two consecutive tracks on Dirty ie On the Strip and Chapel Hill, seem utterly inseperable to me. I'm not too sure why.

The whole Unicorns album blends as one giant masterpiece. They don't all sound alike or anything but they all seem to tell a story of ghosts and rainbows.

Becuz and its coda on Washing Machine is the obvious answer that comes to mind. And of course Snare, Girl and Stil. I love to play Stil first and then Snare, Girl.

But those are obvious, I'll try to think of some more.

Actually, I think with SY, the more interesting relationships are within songs. I have a lot of interesting analyses of SY in my head.

Which gives me an idea - a thread (stickied?) for boardie's reviws of SY stuff.

Sounds like a great idea to me.

I always tie together The Sprawl and Hey Joni.

And the OBVIOUS:

Karen Koltrane
Karen Revisited

yea, the Karens are big.

Bad Moon Rising is a great album. I love I'm Insnae great song.

Bad moon rising is the most obvious one. All the songs mould into one (and I usually hate that) to make the soundtrack to your nightmares.

wildflower soul - rain on tin

I usually listen to The Sprawl and 'Cross the Breeze together.

Also, Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit always makes me think of Stereo Sanctity. The opening guitar part sounds similar.

And whenever I listen to Winner's Blues, for some reason I feel like listening to Schizophrenia.

(just kidding about that last one).

obviously the karens are related directly- karen revisited is a follow on with the character. and yeh, i also cant seperate in my mind most of bad moon rising, but i suppose thats mainly because it segues into one another.

very interesting ideas,
I know there are some connections I see in Sonic Youth songs
but I can't think of any right now
I'll try to post later

another obvious
the "a thousand leaves" reference in Contre Le Sexisme, Female Mechanic Now On Duty, and French Tickler

youth against fascism with nic fit

everytime i watch corporate ghost i always think sy should have recorded a counterpart video of just one camera without any filtering or post production of them ripping thru a live version of nic fit in the same location as y-vs-f as a sort of coda to both the song and the video, to counterbalance the glossy nature of that video.

I was listening to Sister tonight and for some reason Pipeline/Kill Time and White Kross seemed really connected. I have no idea why.

Schizophrenia and Reena becuz they both talk about friendships and
going home.

Heather Angel and Turquoise Boy just for the melody...
And I think Pattern Recognition is to be linked with every other song by SY!

Interesting thread by the way!

Wildflower Soul and The empty Page

I think of most SY albums as concept albums - obviously not in the sense that they tell a story (i think the album is a terrible format for that kinda of indulgence anyway) but in the sense that they all strike up particular images and emotions.
A few personal ideas:

Bad Moon Rising - Someone on the board said it was the "soundtrack to a punk horror road film', everytime I hear it I can't help but see desert highways, and far out ghost towns, all backdropped by a rising sunset.

EVOL - Continues this road theme. Like the liner notes describe, 2 teenages going off to discover America. "I left home for experience caved suk for honesty on my chest" still remains my favourite Sonic Youth line ever.

Daydream Nation - The Perfect soundtrack to a Richard Linklater film. One can imagine hanging out with friends, getting drunk, stoned and staying up to the early hours talking shit. The burning candle says it all. I always thought of this album as the perfect elegy to the Reagan years and to the 80's.

I could go on, but those are the records that seem to have the most conceptional connections. I can't pinpoint where most of these images and ideas come from...they just seem to be there in the music.

At one show after Tom Violence and before Brother James, Thurston explains, "Here's another religious song about fucking."

haha

And, let's see...

at another show, Thurston banters that Mary-Christ is part two of (I Got A) Catholic Block.

On the Goo album, of course, the Mary-Christ outro is the same as the Kool Thing intro.

Wildflower Soul sounds to me like the blue print for the Murray Street jams. When I first heard it thats all I could think of.(back in the wonderful process of digesting the sonic youth discography.) Really reminds me of Rain on Tin, only simpler guitar work.



Does anyone know the solo thurston song where they lifted a riff for disconnection notice or rain on tin, I don't know what song on murray street.

Yo, great thread. I never want to ruin they're poetic fun by pulling the songs apart on this board, but this is a less hazardous endeavor.

Sonic Nurse was my first SY album (if we don't count soundtracks) and it seems a lot more interconnected than, say, Murray St (where each song darts off into totally different musical and lyrical realms than the last) or Washing Machine (where they seem to be trying on a number of 'modes' for size).

I feel that Pattern Recognition / Kim Gordon (Mariah Carey) and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream / Dude Ranch Nurse are a great trilogy of vaguely provocative feminist critiques that come across more like riddles than diatribes.

Also, Dripping Dream / Stones / Peace Attack are unified by their intensely organized musical passages and midsong 'breakdowns' as well as decidedly less excrutiating guitar-work.

It's impossible not to mention to more obviously interconnected NYC G&F, where we hear the words "Ghosts" "Flowers" and "Lightning" as lyrics to more than one of the songs, suggesting a puposeful interconnection.

Daydream Nation, by virtue of being so thoroughly unlike the rest of the albums, feels like a totally cohesive whole. It's tone of, god what is it?, educated innocence?, spans the entire record.

Finally, the unrepentant potency that crowds Experimental Jet Set... feels like another this-record-only, induplicable foray. Only time will tell if Rather Ripped is a similar detour or a whole new (Pacific Coast) highway.

In another way, all of each respective singer's songs constitute a constantly evolving 'thread' of Sonic Youth music. Listeining to a string of Lee joints together presents an irrefutable style that is bound more by approach and spirit than by any identifiable signature sounds.

I hope this hasn't been more rambling delirium than you can stand. Peace

Not they're. Their. Good, now life is perfect.

Uhh I always associated PCH and Pipeline together, for some reason. Others without much explaination:
Hey Joni and Eric's Trip
Secret Girl and Marylin Moore
Screaming Skull and Starfield Road
SFCC and NYCG&F
She is not Alone and I don't want to push it
And those with reasons:
Hits of Sunshine and Karen Koltrane (Both songs bore me)
Panty Lies and No Queen Blues (Both songs are screechy and horrible)
And the Karen Triolgy

There's more but I can't think of them.

For me, it would be New Hampshire and Master of Puppets.

:D:D:D

i made a post in the "post cometing completely random" thread along these lines.

i'm convinced that "I Love Her All The Time" and "Green Light" are both about F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

little trouble girl / snare, girl

cotton crown / unwind

....Erics Trip : my cup is full, and I feel okay
the world is dull, but not today

..."Paper Cup Exit" .....

Yeah....im just getting desperate here

PCH and The Sprawl remind me of one another for some reason.

Halloween/Death Valley '69 and I Love Her All the Time/Ghost Bitch

Both pairs of the above songs go hand in hand for me, maybe because they were often performed live on the Bad Moon tour, bleeding into one another.

Turquoise Boy's origin can be found in an acoustic instrumental Thurston did back in '02 (at that time) entitled "Altar Boy, Church Basement." There's a Turquoise Boy book that the title (I suppose) is taken.

I wanted to squeeze it in on #8...maybe I should have...

washing machine has some riffs that repeat a lil throughout the album

Essentially, all of the Sonic Youth album/EP is inseperable for me. It all sounds so beautiful and dark together.

(A super obvious choice):
Secret Girls and Providence, because of the piano...

But more personal;
Dirty Boots and Hotwire My Heart and White Kross are all very close for me for some reason. They do not sound at all alike, but I always pictured them as somewhat similar... because the first actual Sonic Youth songs I heard were (apart from "Little Jammy Thing") White Kross and Dirty Boots, and Hotwire my Heart was an early favourite when I first got into Sonic Youth.... (Hotwire barely even fits in here...)

Shadow of A Doubt and Beauty Lies in the Eye have the same kind of thing going for them.

Haha! I love that title.

Ghost Bitch / I'm Insane
I Dreamed I Dream / Hard Work
Dude Ranch Nurse / I Love You Golden Blue
Secret Girl / Providence