Your essential Eels, your useless trinkets (and a triple trouble new contest)
So I am back from Kauai, after the most brutal red eye flight home last night that just kicks all the vacation relaxation right outta you, back into the biting 11 degree weather. It's sunny today here, so that's nice, and I do have to smile at my tan peeking out from the fleece, as it reminds me of lying on Poipu Beach less than 24 hours ago, watching the humpback whales play just offshore. Seeing whales like that as they spout and breach is one of the few experiences left for grownups to spark that flicker of a childlike sense of wonderment. Those animals are incredible.
Anyways, yesterday was also notable for E (Mark Oliver Everett), the multi-instrumentalist artist behind the band Eels, because he released two new albums to the world.Meet The EELS: Essential EELS Vol. 1, 1996-2006 is a great place to start if you know little about this stellar artist. It collects 24 tracks spanning a ten year period and 12 videos, to show first-timers who this E fella is.
The companion album goes deeper: EELS Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006 has 50 hard-to-find B-sides, film contributions and unreleased tracks, and a DVD of live performance footage from Lollapalooza 2006. All the music has been digitally remastered, with new liner notes from E.
NEW TRIPLE TROUBLE CONTEST
(Please tell me which one/s you are entering for - 1, 2, or 3)
#1 - Someone wins a vinyl 7” -- limited edition (3000), signed by E, featuring two tracks – both previously unreleased:A-side)“Climbing To The Moon” (Jon Brion remix)
B-side)“I Want To Protect You”
#2 - Someone else wins the Meet The Eels CD+DVD
#3 - A third someone wins the Useless Trinkets b-sides 2-CD+DVD
TO ENTER: E has written some gorgeously sad songs that leave me wide-eyed how someone could so precisely nail a sentiment in two or three lyrics, a few brutal scather songs, some fun and off-the-wall contributions, and several that make me want to dance. If you feel so compelled, please let's chat about your favorite Eels song or lyric. To keep it fair for those who are new to Eels and want to be introduced, the winner will be randomly picked for each of the three prize packs, so you can win even if you can't discuss favorites (yet). I'll run this through Sunday or so.
TRIPLE TROUBLE OF EELS TUNES
Fresh Feeling
I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man (Prince cover, live)
I Write the B-Sides
posted by heather @ 3:04 PM
56 comments
56 Comments:
I would have to say my favorite song from E would be "It's a Motherf***er". It is poignantly beautiful in its breif simplicity, and accurately reflects the feelings of a man abandoned. I'm not one to use profanity, really, but I have felt the pain of this, possibly his best, lyric:
It's a Motherf***er
Getting through a Sunday
Talking to the walls just me again
But I won't ever be the same
I won't ever be the same
The version on Eels With Strings is the ultimate version.
I'd like to enter contest #3, please. Keep up the amazing work, Heather.
I don't have alot of Eels but the any of the 3 would be unexpectedly nice to win...Essentials would be right up my alley though. Love the site...daily. Thanks!
"This is the day that I give myself up cold"
Wow -- give me a double single malt and I might be crying on the floor when I hear this.
The string arrangement is lilting, and tilting towards the final statement that he's not f*cking around anymore.
Brilliantly sad, indeed.
I only have 4 Eels tunes in my collection, but I've had a deep affection for "Guest List" since my lonesome university days. The song has an addictively mellow groove (that reminds me of the Devlins, kinda), plus the randomness of wanting a walkie talkie to talk to God.
Since I can't believe that I still haven't explored more of the Eels, I'm up for contest #2.
I don't know why this song in particular struck me on my first listen. It was obviously a mix of lyrics and music, but the imagery also hits me for some reason
"Blinking Lights (For Me)"
Blinking lights on the airplane wings
Up above the trees.
Ain't no rainbow in the sky
In the middle of the night
But the signal's coming through
One day i will be alright again
Blinking lights on the highway cars
Stopping one by one
Get a look at the accident
Didn't see that one coming
And the doctor in the sky
Gonna bring his chopper down
Gonna bring me out alive
And set me on the ground
Once more again
Blinking lights on the airplane wings
Up above the trees.
I really don't have a fav. part of the song, I just think the words fit perfectly together and to take some out would ruin it.
(if I'm lucky enough to win, I would be up for winning the 7", it seems like a pretty unique prize.) Thanks.
Of course I mess up and delete the first part... so I'll just post those.. Sorry about that..
Blinking lights on the airplane wings
Up above the trees
Blinking down a morse code signal
Especially for me
I always go back to his album,"A Man Called E." I really like Are You & Me Gonna Happen, Nowheresville, and Hello Cruel World.
Put me in for contest #2.
I'm not gonna lie to ya here, I popped my hat in the ring in an eels contest on another blog yesterday. (Though this blog is where I start my trek through the web many days.)
For me, it's not so much the lyrics, but it's the feeling I get when "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" happens to come on the shuffle in the car. Especially in shitty days. It is really hard not to feel better when E sings "Goddamn right, it's a beautiful day."
Saying that marks me as a bit of an eels tourist though doesn't it?
I guess I'll be angling for the contest #2 option Bob. Can I play Plinko to win it?
Jay
I think I've maybe heard 1 Eels song before in my life, but I'm really digging Fresh Feeling. I'm up for either of the first 2 contests. Thanks, Heather.
P.S. You Rock My World. Every time I hear this song I experience an emotional response. I don't know why. There's something about the first line, 'I was at a funeral the day i realized i wanted to spend my life with you.' There's something about the soaring strings and the hopefulness you really can hear in E'x voice that, by the time it's over, I, too feel like maybe it's time to live.
i think i loved her from the first moment i held her in my tender embrace..she seemed to fit just perfectly. she was intelligent and funny and beautiful and soft and strange and unique....unfortunately my heart was hers by the time i realised the otherside of her..she was an alcoholic and had been fron one abusive and explotitive relationship after another..she was a mess and it broke my heart to see it....i spent the next two years loving her and trying to save her from the demons that poccessed her....it was a rollercoaster lurching from one crisis to the next, one failed detox after another and when she upped and finally dissappeared from my life my heart broke into a thousand pieces and then each of those pieces shattered into a thousand more pieces..it took me years to get over her and i thought i never would....i had lost her and she was gone and not a day went by when she wasn't in my thoughts at some point...id done a mixtape cd for her once. all my favourite lovesongs, jason falkner, the mutton birds, rem, semoisonic..and i remember i had put Beautiful Freak from the first eels album on there and as i was listrening to it i knew that it was the one song on there that really could have been written for her..i cried when i heard it for the first time in that context...i dont think she ever played the cd..it just got lost and mislaid in the the chaos that always surrounded her.......
i thought id never lay eyes again on her in this life, i tried to find her on various occassions but she was gone.. until one night eight years later the phone rang and it was her soft beautiful voice on the other end....
she sounded a bit drunk, but just a bit..she was also married to some idiot sexist moron and had two beautiful young children who she loved very much..and she had never really stopped drinking. She was isolated, exhausted, diminished and abused and had. i asked her why she hadn't tried to contact me before now as she said that she assumed i would hate her for all she had put me through...it had never even occurred to me to hate her in all those years...i asked why she had thought of me after all this time.
and she said that she had never stopped thinking about me and when everything got too much for her to bare she would drive somewhere and just sit listening to the mixtape i had done her all those years before and cry her heart out.
she was reaching out to me that night but i got the feeling that she was uncertain she had done the right thing....until she said..."Theres one track on the cd that is so perfectly me"
"You mean Beautiful Freak dont you?" i replied and she gasped and then said quietly.. "ive missed you.."
i spent the next two years, this time purelly as a friend, trying to save her and her children...and of course i failed (94% of all alcoholics never get out from under that horror of this evil addiction)but the children were saved..her good sister took them on alongside her own at the end....
i havent had any contact from her for a few years now..she left her husband only to replace him with another man cut from the same shabby cloth...i probably will never see her again but thats okay the place she occupied in my heart for so long has become silent....
i still love that song Beautiful Freak, without it i wouldnt have had that second shot at saving her..it was the defining moment off that first phone call.....i can play it and smile and forget all the hell she put us all through and remember why i tried and why i loved her....
"That must be her sister.
That must be her sister... right?"
Where are we headed?
#3 please.
I do love me some Eels. I picked up Blinking Lights and actually found it to be kind of uneven, but a good record overall. I'm kind of on the fence about picking up the new Eels record though. hopefully i'll change my mind, i just placed another order on amazon for more CDs
You can't truly embrace life unless you embrace the good and bad. Emotions are our friends.
I always felt that these lyrics could only be written by someone with depression on those few, clear days when the sun shines. Simple, and true:
Do you know what it's like to fall on the floor
And cry your guts out 'til you got no more
Hey man now you're really living
Have you ever made love to a beautiful girl
Made you feel like it's not such a bad world
Hey man now you're really living
Now you're really giving everything
And you're really getting all you gave
Now you're really living what
This life is all about
Well i just saw the sun rise over the hill
Never used to give me much of a thrill
But hey man now you're really living
Do you know what it's like to care too much
'bout someone that you're never gonna get to touch
Hey man now you're really living
Have you ever sat down in the fresh cut grass
And thought about the moment and when it will pass
Hey man now you're really living
I'd like to enter drawing #1 (vinyl) please
"The Good Old Days" has been on many a "why does this morning commute always end at work" mix for me. Lyrical points of interest include:
"I know I'm not too much of a bargain/and you know that's not what you bargained for"
and "I guess I could be a quiet hero/no one knows the good I've done."
But for pulling at my heartstrings and putting my emotions in the Yahtzee (spelling?) shaker, the Electro-Shock Blues album has my number.
Thanks for starting my day off with good music,
A
A few faves:
"Lookin for a simple life.
Life ain't simple.
I'm tired and sick but I...
don't wanna be alone."
"Sometimes I dream about it:
What it's like back home.
The railroad tracks and the pussywillow.
But I had to leave it,
now i go back
whenever my tired head hits the pillow."
"Friends telling me that maybe I need
some psychiatric help.
Yeah, they're always so quick to tell you
just how to get on with it.
But I look into the mirror
All I see is age, fear,
and agony..."
"Look up
a plane writes in the sky
for every passerby
no one ever dies
they just write things in the sky."
"I feel like an old railroad man
Getting on board at the end of an age
The station's empty and the whistle blows
Things are faster now
And this train is just too slow
And i know i can walk along the tracks
It may take a little longer but i'll know
How to find my way back"
"...a careful man tries to dodge the bullets
while a happy man takes a walk.
and maybe it's time to live..."
Desperate. Lonely. Insightful. Somehow sweetly uplifting. Simply EELS. So hard to pick a favorite...
Would love to get my hands on that Vinyl Disc, so count me in for #1 please!
I firmly believe that "Things the Grandchildren Should Know" is the most profound of all the songs by the Eels. That song alone has lifted me from dark times on several occasions.
"So in the end I'd like to say
That I'm a very thankful man
I tried to make the most of my situations
And enjoy what I had
I knew true love and I knew passion
And the difference between the two
And I had some regrets
But if i had to do it all again
Well, it's something I'd like to do"
Like many songs, the version on Eels with Strings is the best.
Count me in for #1.
p.s. You rock for mentioning the eels
that could be me in a coupla' years
suckin fumes under the highway pass
on a rainy day
while i wear newspapers for pants
and a tee shirt that says "damn i'm good"
The Eels are brand new to me from this post, but I'm intrigued, and would love to be up for either 2 or 3.
For prize #2:
Lyrics from "Selective Memory"
When i was a baby
We would go out to the park
And sit out in the fountain
Splashing 'round until it's dark
The days go on forever
When you only know that much
And everything you need to know
Is answered with one touch
Thanks!
I'd like to enter contest #3, please. bgmeiner(at)gmx.at
My favourite song of the Eels would be "Climbing To The Moon", I think.
Apart from the fact that it features just brilliantly composed melodies, it also makes my heart cry while E deals with the death of both his sister and his mother. This is just such a sad yet sweet song. A true masterpiece.
SORRY, contest #1 please.
I'd like to enter contest #1, please. bgmeiner(at)gmx.at
My favourite song of the Eels would be "Climbing To The Moon", I think.
Apart from the fact that it features just brilliantly composed melodies, it also makes my heart cry while E deals with the death of both his sister and his mother. This is just such a sad yet sweet song. A true masterpiece.
the holidays can be very stressful for a lot of people
my favorite stress reliever is "everything's gonna be cool this christmas"
"remember last year when you were on your own
you swore the spirit couldn't be found
december rolled around and you were counting on it to roll out
but everything's gonna be cool this christmas"
the eel's released it but i really prefer the solo 'acoutical' version put out by e
I don't know much about the Eels, but one of my all-time favourite songs is by them and it's P.S. You Rock my World!
I was at a funeral the day i realized
I wanted to spend my life with you
Sitting down on the steps at the old post office
The flag was flying at half mast
And i was thinking 'bout how
Everyone is dying
And maybe it's time to live
All the "maybe it's time to live" thing really gets me. It's kind of happy in a sad way. He tells a story about a man who has been too careful and didn't live is life the way he should and then he realizes that it's finally time to enjoy the good moments of life. I really love this tune!
I've been a fan of Eels for some time. My first taste came with "daisies of the galaxy" - which, I thought, was just brilliant. For me, there is far more "sad" material than "happy" material in the Eels catalog. That said, there is a song - and a lyric - that is one of the most uplifting in the entire Eels discography.
The song is "from which I came / a magical world" and the lyric is "a little wonder goes a long, long way."
In those moments when I need a musical pick-me-up, that song (and that line) often do the trick and help to put things in proper perspective.
Oh, and if I manage to win - I'll take #3.
Best.
oh i forgot..id want the meet the eels...i already bought the useless trinkets collection..though i had most of it... i wish trashing the cathederal from the casstte single to novocaine had been included because ive never been able to track it down...ive been an e fan since the man called e album so i have everything else but the dvd that comes with it is a must..
thanks
I'll add my 2 cents to this...
My favorite lyric is from "3 Speed". I see someone already posted a bit from "It's A Motherf***er" which is another great song, as is "F***er". Both of those songs are extremely poignant (I might have spelled that correctly).
Anyway, my favorite lyric from "3 Speed" is:
Life is funny
but not ha ha funny
Peculiar I guess
You think I got it all going my way
Then why am I such a f**king mess?
Great lyric.
Enter me in either contest two or three please, as I have no turntable. Thank you.
sillyboob ( at ) hot mail dot corn
The Eels are a band I've always been meaning to explore more of, but have never actually followed through on.
I would be up for contests #2 and #3, let a bigger fan take the really unique item.
Welcome back to frigid Colorado.
Sorry I can't contribute, I don't really know Eels that well.
I don't know much about the Eels, but I have a little bit of their music. The song of theirs that I find I come back to the most is "Theme for a Pretty Girl that Makes you Believe God Exists." Although the song has no lyrics, the title alone is beautiful enough to carry the entire song.
I have met many beautiful girls in my life, but there are a select few women that I have met that fit the title of the song, and every time I hear the song I can't help but think of them.
email: jared.a.robertson@vanderbilt.edu
"i'm gonna stop pretending that i didn't break your heart."
i know it's a little obvious...but that got me so hard the first time i heard it. it felt like a personal apology from someone in that exact situation to me...and, man, it sure helped. as much or as little as i still listen to e (and it changes from week to week, month to month) i will always be grateful for that song.
oh, right...my address:
sannellio@hotmail.com
p.s. btw, love the blog and read regularly...even if i rarely comment.
I was in love with a woman that I had no chance with. Every time I thought about my chances with her, I would hear "Jeannie's Diary" playing in my head.
"I don't have a chance at writing the book. I just want to be a page in Jeannie's Diary."
petsounds14@msn.com
contest #1
I am sort of a fan of the Eels though I don't own hardly anything from them. I have a download of the CD "Beautiful Freak" and the song "Fresh Feeling" on the "Scrubs" soundtrack. And that's it. I would love to be entered in Contest #2. Email me at Geoff@iowatelecom.net if I should [by some freak possibility] actually win.
Thanks for the contest Heather and keep up the good writing.
Geoff
Not sure if I can pick a favorite, but railroad man is the first one that comes to mind. Throw me in contest #3.
Thanks, heather!
jnelson@huronregional.org
Haven't heard much of their stuff, sadly, but am loving it thus far! I'd love any of the three, but probably #1 or #3 would be best!
antennastoheaven.wrvu@gmail.com
I would love me some "Useless Trinkets" to go with my Strings and Daisies. Put me with the other hardcore Eels freaks in contest #3!
My favorite song is, after long deliberation, "Bus Stop Boxer." I love the line "Going down by the railroad tracks/where people know that they better not relax." Very evocative of that hardscrabble environment. One tough mother of a very sensitive song.
I also love the lyrics to "Guestlist." They pretty much tell the story of me at every party I attended as a young man. A wonderfully accurate portrayal of alienation.
I really enjoyed reading all these posts. Eels touch us all.
Thanks,
Gordon
underthegordwalk@hotmail.com
God damn right it's a beautiful day, Ahah
Not sure if anyone has even mentioned Mr E's Beautiful Blues. I love this song. Dark lyrics hidden either side of a fun chorus, with a sweet little melody that keep you bopping all the way through. A great song that, depsite its dark pretense, always brings a smile to my face - especially when it's bright and sunny outside and I' heading out for a beer with my mates.
God damn right it's a beautiful day, Ahah
Oh, how do you contact me
iminhiding.blogspot.com
stevemunachen@hotmail.com
my first eels tune was 'novocaine for the soul'. i think what struck me most was how simple it was, musically and lyrically. the opening line, "life is hard / and so am i" cracked me up as a teenager, and the song has stuck with me since.
thanks for all your blogging!
i prefer contest #2.
brandon
theyeck zero one at hotmail dot com
My favorite EELS song is "THINGS THE GRANDCHILDREN SHOULD KNOW". I love how E talks about his insecurities, like walking his dog while staring down at the sidewalk cracks, not leaving the house much and the fact that he doesn't like being around people. It's also interesting to point out that in the end of the song he says, "it's not all good and it's not all bad, don't believe everything you read". Very cool. I just love that song. It paints a picture into the world he lives in. Another reason I love the song so much is because I feel the same way about some of the things he talks about in the song. In a way it kinda hit home for me, kinda like, Hey, I'm not the only one who feels that way. Maybe I'm not crazy after all...then again...
I'd like to enter contest #3 please.
Also, I adore your website. I check it out everyday, but this is the very first time I have ever left a comment. It took the EELS to get me to do so. Thank you for all your hard work and great music.
Scott
smlull@wowway.com
I don't know how this has happened, but I don't have any Eels in my collection. How could this be? I sure hope I win the Essential Eels CD so I can fix this problem. :-)
Thanks for all you do...
For any of the contests...
"Going to your funeral and feeling I could scream
Everything goes away
Driving down the highway through the perfect sunny dream
A perfect day for perfect pain"
-- Going to Your Funeral, Pt. 1
Heavy stuff.
I'd be open to any of the contests...(horrorlibrary@hotmail.com)
Ah EELS. I'm introduced so many people to their wonderful music. I'm going to their 'warm up' show on Feb 14th in Santa Ana and it'll be the first time I've seen E perform LIVE. I'm totally stoked.
I discovered EELS when I was going through some pretty hard and depressing times. Then I heard a little about what E had been through. Had to truly feel for the guy, to be able to have a spark of optimism inside all of that pain.
I think one of my favorite lyrics, and it may very well have saved my life...are:
You're dead but the world keeps
spinning
From "Last Stop: This Town"
I'd actually been contemplating suicide that day, and somehow...that beautiful song found me. Never had heard EELS before that, and this song somehow found me through some DJ on a college radio station. Incredible. I called the station and made him play it again in his next set...which he did begrudgingly.
On a brighter note, the lyrics from "Dirty Girl" so totally remind me of the girl I fell in love with later that year and have been with every since:
"I like a girl with a dirty mouth
Someone that I can believe"
And
"Once in a while your life gets so good, Worth all the trouble of the past"
Even though that song is ultimately about losing someone, I always took it as kind of a reminder to not let that special someone slip away.
And, if I could claim a song as my own...a song just so damn perfect in it's sentiment and tone that it just breaks my heart everytime I hear it...that'd be "Old Sh*T/New Sh*t"
I won't bother to put the lyrics down here, on paper...they lose their impact. But, if you've never heard the song...go find it, and listen. It's just too beautiful.
"Somebody loves you"
"Somebody loves you
And you're gonna make it through"
Says it all really - I finally found someone who loves me and who made life worth living.
pshawuk@yahoo.com
What a gem of a thread. I too would go for Things The Grandchildren Should Know, just about, over PS You Rock My Word and It's A MonsterTrucker. I love these lines
I'm turning out just like my father
Though i swore i never would
Now i can say that i have a love for him
I never really understood
What it must have been like for him
Living inside his head
I feel like he's here with me now
Even though he's dead
Any of the prizes would do me nicely.
For me, P.S. You Rock My World edges out Things the Grandchildren Should Know. TtGSK is a stunning, stunning song, and it takes a hell of a lot to beat lines like:
I knew true love and I knew passion
and the difference between the two
and I had some regrets, but if I had to do it all again
well it's something I'd like to do
To me that's wistful, it remembers joy and sadness all in the same piece, and ultimately there's a pride in it because of that.
But PSYRMW contains the following:
I was thinking 'bout how
everyone is dying
and maybe it's time
to live...
What clinches it is the pause between 'time' and 'to live', and the way it reinforces the shaky uncertainty of that maybe. For me, falling in love has a whiff of mortality about it (cf: "till death do us part"), and that uncertainty's always there too. So it's P.S. You Rock My World for me.
#1 if I win, please, and my email: grundyn-at-gmail-dot-com
"The clown with the frown driving down to the sidewalk fair
Finger on the trigger let me tell you it's quite a scare"
This is the only eels song that i have (Mr. E's Beautiful Blues), but i love it!
I'll enter contest 2. thank you!
i forgot my email
cardswsc@yahoo.com
I think my favorite lyrics are from Ugly Love.
"And I dream about so much it is absurd
But when I get there and she sees me
I'll be impressed if she does not run screaming
My kind of love is an ugly love
But it's real and it lasts a long, long time"
He captures the pain in trying to meet someone who loves you for you, flaws and all.
I'd like to be entered in the contest for #3. Email is long.amy@gmail.com
Contest #3 please
nsrich22@gmail.com
Favorite lyric has to be from PS - You Rock My World:
A careful man tries to dodge the bullets, while a happy man takes a walk.
oh i keep forgetting to mention...is the signed single that id be up for....
BLinking Lights (For Me) from "Blinking Lights And Other Revelations Disc 1"
pretty short and simple. just hoping for a better day. He leaves the song the way it started, to me it feels like the song could go on forever, like thats all you can do. Hope for a better day and hope that someone will help you when you need a hand.
Blinking lights on the airplane wings
Up above the trees
Blinking down a morse code signal
Especially for me
Ain't no rainbow in the sky
In the middle of the night
But the signal's coming through
One day i will be alright again
Blinking lights on the highway cars
Stopping one by one
Get a look at the accident
Didn't see that one coming
And the doctor in the sky
Gonna bring his chopper down
Gonna bring me out alive
And set me on the ground
Once more again
Blinking lights on the airplane wings
Up above the trees
prize #3 - 2cd 1 dvd would be nice
This comment has been removed by the author.
The greatest break-up song by anyone ever is Fucker (or F#&!@r as it's listed on Useless Trinkets). I'm not certain which version is on Useless Trinkets but the version on Oh What A Beautiful Morning is just exquisite. Just the song to help you get over a bad relationship split.
Please enter me for contest #1 as Climbing To The Moon is one of eels' greatest songs and to own it on vinyl would be great.
I don't know many Eels songs and don't always get the lyrics (I'm French). But "Rags to Rags" certainly is a song I love very much. I've rarely heard so much anger and dispair put together so well in just one song. It also has a very powerful dramaturgy to it.
I find it extremely moving when a art piece (can be a painting, a movie or a novel) is so personal and intimate that it becomes universal.
Thanks for the blog. It's really great. Thanks for the contest too: reading others' comments is very interesting and makes me want to know more about Eels.
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