[The Horrible Esthete]

Q to Horrible Esthete, is it just that part you don't like or the initial one as well ("the fates are amok and spun ..."). I prefer the second one to the first, because Gord sounds just that much more demented on it, even though it lacks the "holy f**k, it's jesus" exclamation point.
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Sorry Tanz, I hadn't seen seen this post. It's both parts. I elaborate in a reply to Direwolf a few pages back...

Strange how some people don't like the Drop Off. That chorus (I wouldn't really call the fast bit the chorus I'd say the chorus is the "don't go swimming past the drop off or ellllllsssse" bit) is just unbelievably awesome in my books.

I wondered to myself about whether or not that is the "chorus". The term itself emerges from the practice of additional band (or choir) members joining the lead vocalist (or soloist) to sing a repeated "stanza" of music that is distinct from the verse structure and is typically more dynamic and dramatic. Often times, the "chorus" is used synonymously with the term "refrain", but I was taught that in popular music, a refrain and a chorus are not one in the same. I did some research for the benefit of myself and anyone else who might be interested.

Wikipedia provides some explanation:

A pop chorus is not the same as a refrain. At least one well-known writer on pop-song-writing theory has stated this, for example, (Davis, 1990) says that a refrain musically and lyrically resolves a verse and therefore ends it, whereas a chorus begins a distinctively new music section of at least eight bars. A refrain is often a two line repeated lyrical statement commenting on the preceding verse, for example:

"Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down"
or
"The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, The answer is blowin' in the wind".
or
"All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrain


This leads me to conclude that the "Don't go swimmin past the drop-off" part is a refrain whereas the parts containing the "The surface is green and the dark interweaves" bit is the chorus, so to speak, but I'm certainly not an authority on this...

Thus, in attempt to label the entire song's structure, I'd be inclined to do something like this, where there are 3 verses, each ending with a refrain that is slightly modified for each verse (Gord has a history of doing this sort of thing), and 2 instances of the chorus, of which the first 2 lines are unique to each instance, but the last 2 lines are identical:

[VERSE 1]
When the summer is young
and nobody has their prices
No one is no one
and nobody in a crisis
[REFRAIN]
There’s no swimming past the drop-off
or feeling sorry for yourself
Ya don’t go swimming past the drop-off
or else

[VERSE 2]
Yer a pistol, yer a gun
and suddenly I have no prices
I’m like a friend of Dylan’s
our shovels meeting in some crisis
[REFRAIN (with a slight modification)]
But there’s no swimming past the drop-off
Yea we don’t replace ourselves
Ya don’t go swimming past the drop-off
or else

[CHORUS 1]
The fates are amok and spun, measured and cut and the past is meant to please us
Yer a comet from earth in a Kiss Alive shirt saying, ‘holy fuck, it’s jesus!?’
The surface is green and the dark interweaves in a lonely iridescence
It’s terribly deep and the cold is complete and it only lacks a presence
and nothing else.

[VERSE 3]
When the summer is done
and nobody sympathizes
Yer no friend of Dylan’s
Yea, you won’t see another crisis
[REFRAIN (with slight modification #2)]
There’s no swimming past the drop-off
or feeling sorry for ourselves
Ya don’t go swimming past the drop-off
or else

[CHORUS 2]
Personal stakes will get raised and get raised til your story gets compelling
If you lacked the sense or were willfully dense is forever in the telling
The surface is green and the dark interweaves in a lonely iridescence
It’s terribly deep and the cold is complete and it only lacks your presence
and nothing else
nothing else
nothing else
and no one else [/url]