Eagles and the self-titled album ‘Eagles’

The debut album of the band named Eagles was first published on June 1st, 1972. Bearing the name Eagles, the album rock, contemporary pop/rock, country-rock and soft rock album debuted with Bernie Leadon on banjo, guitar, steel guitar, Dobro, mandolin and vocals, Don Henley on drums, percussion and vocals, Glenn Frey on guitar, slide guitar, keyboards and vocals and Randy Meisner on bass guitar and vocals. Guest musicians David Sanborn on alto saxophone and Don Felder on guitar and organ also played on the album.

(The album cover of Eagles, the self-titled debut effort of the band called Eagles).

Take It Easy opens the album Eagles, having been released as a single on May 1, 1972. Charting as high as 12th in the United States, the song references Winslow, Arizona and a flatbed Ford as writing credits for the song are shared between Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey. Frey “says that he learned a lot about songwriting by listening to [Browne],” as quoted here.

(The debut single Take it Easy leads off the self-titled debut album Eagles by Eagles).

Witchy Woman charted as high as ninth in the United States with writing credits resting with Bernie Leadon and Don Henley. As quoted here, the song is “about a number of women [Leadon and Henley] had met. It is not meant to portray the woman as devilish, but as more of a seductress.”

(Witchy Woman was released as a single by Eagles in August 1972).

Chug All Night offers a clear example of the country-rock style for the album Eagles without relying strictly on instrumentation. The sentiment hits me on the country side while the sound plays as hard as any song on the album.

Most of Us Are Sad plays with a strong country sensibility with harmonizing vocals. The time measure of the song makes the song feel like a ballad. The sentiment of the song offers the singer’s sense of a romantic love lost with the emotional baggage to show for it.

Nightingale grants Jackson Browne a second writing credit for the album Eagles. The song emphasizes the value of a romantic love relationship along the means of protecting oneself from the chaos of the world around you with love.

(From left, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles).

Train Leaves Here This Morning rekindles a sad experience with a marriage coming to an end, with the singer planning, as quoted here, “to escape his romantic travails and head home on the morning train.” Gene Clark and Bernie Leadon recorded the original version of this song with their group Dillard & Clark in 1968. As Leadon is quoted as saying here, “The Eagles rendition is very country, folky and stripped-down”. “There’s electric lead, electric bass and drums, but they’re lightly played.”

Take the Devil offers self-contemplation on what a soul, divine love and, dare I say, self-love and/or self-acceptance of a spiritual kind can be. The journeys of a restless spirit in searching for these meanings leads the singer to contemplate these points, judging the wandering temptations of the Devil; it is with these self-discoveries that the singer wishes to be done with this influence.

Earlybird feels like it could be a declaration of the organizing self-view of what the bandmates of Eagles see themselves to be. The notion of playing their music and reading the books they choose to find peace of mind while never fading into meaninglessness or lack of regard is the point-of-view of the band in the year of the album’s recording and release in 1972.

Peaceful Easy Feeling was written by singer-songwriter Jack Tempchin, whose rendition can be heard here. As quoted here, the Eagles’ “song evokes a state of tranquility. The lyric, however, is about a girl, with Glenn Frey singing about how he'[d] love for things to work out with her, but thinks she’ll probably leave in the end. He’ll be OK though, since he has a peaceful, easy feeling and he won’t let her ruin it no matter what happens.”

(Peaceful Easy Feeling was released as the third single for Eagles in December 1972).

Tryin’ closes the album as the third song with Randy Meisner on lead vocals. The song invokes the young man’s seeking purpose while learning from and making mistakes along the road of continued effort to land at the place life is heading. Upwards and onwards, Randy Meisner.

Matt – Saturday, June 1, 2024

Don Henley and the album ‘Building the Perfect Beast’

Following a successful career as part of the band Eagles, Don Henley of Gilmer, Texas achieved success with work under his own name. The second album released in this way was Building the Perfect Beast, which was released in the third week of November, 1984.

(Shown is the album cover for Don Henley‘s second solo album Building the Perfect Beast).

The Boys of Summer opens Building the Perfect Beast with lyrics by Don Henley and music composed by Mike Campbell of Panama City, Florida and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. The song is a look back at what was had with a past relationship and wanting those feelings and experiences back again. Evoking a feeling of summer at a beach offers a pleasant sense of nostalgia for me.

(The Boys of Summer was the first single released from the Don Henley album Building the Perfect Beast on October 26th, 1984).

You Can’t Make Love offers a rather grim look into the physical and emotional limitations that keep the singer from a full expression of love. I sense Henley saying that engaging many of the heartfelt parts of love will offer simply the illusion of love without granting the intimacy that offers true emotional connection. Henley wrote this song with Danny Kortchmar of Larchmont, New York.

Man With a Mission offers a country dance floor sensibility to suggesting that is singular focus is on emotionally connecting with someone he wishes to know romantically. J.D. Souther of Detroit, Michigan joined Kortchmar and Henley writing this song.

You’re Not Drinking Enough went full country lament for the sadness of a love lost. The song focuses on the hurt of loving another, with advice to drink more as a coping mechanism against the pain. With writing credits for Danny Kortchmar here, this song was most popularly covered by Earl Thomas Conley of Portsmouth, Ohio, with another cover by Alan Jackson of Newnan, Georgia here.

(Supporting the Building the Perfect Beast album, Don Henley‘s Not Enough Love in the World was released as a single in 1985 and hit #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart).

Not Enough Love in the World lands with a soft rock sound with writing credits for Benmont Tench of Gainesville, Florida, Henley and Kortchmar. The song deals with another rocky relationship wherein the singer indicates he remains in love. As indicated here, the relationship sung about might be one between Henley and Stevie Nicks of Phoenix, Arizona.

Don Henley’s second studio album gains its title from the song Building the Perfect Beast. In what feels like a reference to the beast that couldn’t be killed in the song Hotel California by Eagles, this song offers a sarcastic look at the psychological torment that losing in love does in turning a man all around. That the distance traveled to building that beast is our own doing is a cruel feeling indeed.

All She Wants to Do Is Dance present writing credits for Danny Kortchmar. The song, as indicated by SongFacts here, “draws on classic literature for song inspiration.” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald of St. Paul, Minnesota and The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick of Sheldon, Iowa and William Lederer of New York City, New York are those classics. The song itself is among Henley‘s more successful in his solo career in part due to the pop groove of the sound.

(All She Wants to Do Is Dance was released as the 2nd single from Don Henley‘s Building the Perfect Beast album. The song peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart).

Written by Don Henley alone, A Month of Sundays offers a sentimental ballad of a lifestyle lost and looked upon in retrospect. Looking back as a grandfather who built things with pride, the song is sadness, lament and acknowledgment that the current world is no longer the one he knew.

Sunset Grill offers the writing collaboration of Henley, Kortchmar and Tench once again. As captured here, the “Sunset Grill is a real place and a favorite spot for Henley. Located on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, it’s a place where Henley could see how everyday people interact, which isn’t always easy to do when you’re a celebrity in LA.” Further, the Sunset Grill was used as “a metaphor for what he liked, what he thought was great about society. And then he also used it to describe what he didn’t like, which is plenty.”

(Sunset Grill was released as the fourth single from Don Henley‘s Building the Perfect Beast album).

Drivin’ With Your Eyes Closed brings a perspective of the elevation of women in the eyes of men in romantic relationships. Stan Lynch of Gainesville, Florida and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers joins Henley and Kortchmar with writing credits, wherein Henley‘s lyrics point out that improperly appreciating women in romance is bound to end badly.

Land of the Living is the concluding song to Building the Perfect Beast, granting Henley and Kortchmar their final collaboration for this album. The messaging gets into an uplifting feel as an album sendoff. Lyrically the song is a call to slow down and metaphorically smell the roses with the one you’re with. The song does provide the light touch in bringing me home with satisfaction and lightness of spirit.

Additional musicians contributing to Building the Perfect Beast included Steve Porcaro of Hartford, Connecticut, David Paich of Los Angeles, California, Michael Boddicker of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Albhy Galuten of Hartsdale, New York, Randy Newman of Los Angeles, California, Bill Cuomo, Lindsey Buckingham of Palo Alto, California, Charlie Sexton of San Antonio, Texas, Larry Klein of California, Pino Palladino of Cardiff, Wales, Tim Drummond of Bloomington, Illinois, Ian Wallace of Los Angeles, California, Kevin McCormick, Jim Keltner of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Maren Jensen of Arcadia, California, Jerry Hey of Dixon, Illinois, Belinda Carlisle of Hollywood, California, Sam Moore of Miami, Florida, Martha Davis of Berkley, California, Michael O’Donahue, Carla Olson of Austin, Texas, Patty Smyth of New York City, New York, Waddy Wachtel of New York City, New York, Marie Pascale Elfman and Dominique Mancinelli.

Matt – Saturday, November 19, 2022

The Year 2020 in Music

Matt Lynn Digital focused on reviewing music related material deliberately in 2020. Today we walk down memory lane for reviews made in 2020. We’ll refresh your memory first of album reviews in reverse order of album release, which is to say most recent first. We’ll then remind you of a couple of nostalgia moments that were of our own making. Finally, we’ll point you to films with some moviemaking hands thrown in.

(The album McCartney III joins Letter to You as the two albums we reviewed for the new decade, which we’re saying is the Twenty Twenties).

The 2020 album McCartney III by former member of The Beatles and Paul McCartney and Wings, Paul McCartney, leads our list. The self-produced effort shows a little age for the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, yet offers a little personality if you pay attention. The same is true of the Letter to You album by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which offers a love letter of mourning of sorts. Both albums look back with a statement of experience and appreciation.

(The album Merry Christmas, Baby reflects a look we made into the Twenty Tens this year).

The album Merry Christmas, Baby by Rod Stewart came along in 2012 with largely Christmas music. Interesting collaborations offers sweetly rendered takes, uplifting sentimental tunes, and individual rhythm and blues takes on new music. The spiritual focus on Silent Night was fantastic.

(The album MTV Unplugged in New York joins Superunknown, Wildflowers and Violator for the Nineteen Nineties).

The four albums from the 1990s included the MTV Unplugged in New York album for Nirvana, circa 1994. Soundgarden‘s Superunknown album and Tom Petty‘s Wildflowers album both came along in 1994, with Petty being the most established of these artists by this point in their collective careers. The 1990 album Violator by Depeche Mode was likely most responsible for getting this band of English rockers into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Whether I am beginning to show my age with this picks is beside the point.

(The U2 album The Joshua Tree is joined by the albums The Lonesome Jubilee, Tunnel of Love, Learning to Crawl, Genesis and Moving Pictures for albums we reviewed that were released in the nineteen eighties).

U2‘s The Joshua Tree 1987 album likely made this band in the United States, despite having been well known even before this album made its rounds. The Lonesome Jubilee album of 1987 by John Mellencamp offered a more mature lyrical offering for the artist also known by Johnny Cougar and John Cougar Mellencamp. Bruce Springsteen‘s 1987 solo album Tunnel of Love reflected a look back on what divorce can mean to you emotionally. The 1984 Learning to Crawl album by The Pretenders thematically places itself, incidentally, somewhere between Springsteen‘s Tunnel of Love and Letter to You albums. The band Genesis released the album Genesis in 1983, offering something of the bands progressive roots with the pop band the group was becoming. The 1981 album Moving Pictures by Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Rush gives us a sense for some of the best music this band has created.

(The self-titled album Van Halen by Van Halen is joined by The Grand Illusion, Feels So Good, Selling England by the Pound, Just as I Am, Electric Warrior and Cosmo’s Factory as reviewed albums released in the nineteen seventies).

The album Van Halen by the band Van Halen offered a sound that transcended at least two decades and four lead singers, with the original singer with the biggest edge singing on the 1978 introduction to the band. 1977’s The Grand Illusion album by Styx depicts a strikingly different sound and temperament despite playing in a similar era. 1977’s Feels So Good album by Chuck Mangione again offers a distinctly different take in a different genre of music. Each group and sound has its merits. 1973 offers a second look into the band Genesis with the progressive rock album Selling England by the Pound. The 1971 Bill Withers album Just as I Am was the breakout debut for one of the many artists on this year’s list that passed away in 2020. 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Famer inductees T. Rex saw perhaps their biggest recognition in the United States with their 1971 album Electric Warrior. The 1970 album Cosmo’s Factory by the band Creedence Clearwater Revival is the sixth of this decade reviewed. Take a closer look at the song Run Through the Jungle to see how the song has been misinterpreted by many through the years.

(The 1957 album Here’s Little Richard is offered with Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 2, 1930-1934 for complete the nineteen album reviews Matt Lynn Digital made in 2020).

The Little Richard album Here’s Little Richard debuted as a complete album in 1957. The distinctive vocals, bombastic piano playing and distinctive style made him an early pioneer of early Rock & Roll Hall from Tennessee. A predecessor to Little Richard from the same state was Blues Hall of Famer Thomas A. Dorsey, also known as blues pianist Georgia Tom Dorsey. The compiled album Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order, Vol. 2, 1930-1934 offers a look in the music of Dorsey from the period 25 to 30 years before Here’s Little Richard was released.

(Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen lead a review of artists including John Lennon,  Bing Crosby, David Bowie, The Kinks, Eagles, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Reverend Horton Heat,  Bob Dylan, Jason Isbell, Adele, Billy Joel and Garth Brooks).

A Matt Lynn Digital classic rock playlist of Christmas songs offered fifteen distinct songs in December as a means to enjoying some of the music I’ve enjoyed growing up. We began looking into the notion of music as a vehicle for storytelling here. This second subject is one that we would like to return to more vigorously in 2021 as interest allows.

(The movie Ray is joined by Mr. Holland’s Opus and The Last Waltz in wrapping up our review of Matt Lynn Digital’s review of music from 2020).

The movie Ray (2004) starred Jamie Foxx in the role of the title star offered us a biographical movie that offered some notion for the soul, blues and gospel musician that was Ray Charles. For those unfamiliar with this musician, the story does a decent job of level setting who Ray Charles without telling the full story you might get from a book on the star. The 1995 movie Mr. Holland’s Opus went in a different direction of storytelling. In this case, the movie starring Richard Dreyfuss in the starring role of the fictional title character offered the story of the conflicting passions of someone aspiring to write music placed against the responsibilities and adversities of a life that offers other passions that can become intermixed with a passion for music. This subject is broached in the movie Ray. A middle ground of sorts is found in the film of the last concert for a band named The Band. Released in 1978, The Last Waltz is a concert with guest stars performing alongside the featured band, interspersed with interviews of members of the band about life on the road and the personal reasons the band had for retiring. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the adventures of that night and the career of the band were made manifest in the concert event biography that came from the experience.

Share the Matt Lynn Digital blog with your friends if you see value in what we are doing. Before the end of this year, a similar review for entries on movies and books will also be coming. We feel these reviews provide excellent content that we would like to continue offering.

Matt – Monday, December 28, 2020

A holiday playlist introduction to classic rock

Many may have a preferred playlist for holiday songs around that bring comfort over the holidays. This is an introduction classic rock through a few songs that I’ve come to appreciate over time. Enjoy!

(Chuck Berry opens our listing with his classic Run Rudolph Run).

Beginning the list is this 1958 classic from Chuck Berry to get us started. Run Rudolph Run continues to be popular to this day.

(From left, From left, Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong of Cheech & Chong).

Santa Claus and His Old Lady by Cheech & Chong from 1971 falls more into the comedy genre, yet I get a chuckle from this for capturing an attitude. Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong were formidable in their day.

(John Lennon, pictured here, offered Happy Xmas (War Is Over) with the Plastic Ono Band).

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon with the Plastic Ono Band is a song hard to miss by folks streaming or catching music from the radio. The first holiday song on our list by a member of The Beatles, 1971 was the year this song entered the culture.

(Bruce Springsteen asking for a roll call of all the good little boys and girls)?

Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band has taken on a bit of a life since it came on the scene in 1975.

(From left, Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing the duet for The Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth)).

The Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth) by Bing Crosby and David Bowie first played for the masses in 1977. My first remembered exposure came on MTV a few years later. The mixing of two generations of performer like this produced a beautiful song.

(The Kinks offered us a reminder to aim for equity in the song Father Christmas).

1977 also offered the world Father Christmas by The Kinks, which offers a more pragmatic spin on the notion of the holidays in reminding us with social commentary that not all are affluent with an experience of Santa Claus that is consistent.

(The Eagles as they were in 1978 sang of the bond of togetherness over the holidays).

Please Come Home for Christmas by the Eagles came along in 1978 as a solid remake of the 1961 number by blues singer and pianist Charles Brown.

(Paul McCartney and his wife Linda McCartney in 1984).

1979 offers us the song Wonderful Christmastime by former member of The Beatles Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney & Wings get the musical credit for this song, which when put alongside Happy Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band offers a bit of a difference in where the two primary songwriters were in the messaging of their music.

(From left, Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt enjoying the work of being musicians).

Merry Christmas Baby by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band rings in 1980 with a second song by the boss and the band. The song’s popularity grew with the release of a Special Olympics charity album in 1986.

(From left, Sting of The Police, Bono of U2 and Simon Colley of Duran Duran as part of Band Aid).

On the subject of popular holiday songs made possible by charity, Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid. An effort of mainly English and Irish recording artists, the song was meant to offer aid for the famine in Ethiopia when released in 1984.

(John Mellencamp performed I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus).

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by John Mellencamp was a thematically lighter song released in 1987. The pacing in more upbeat and apolitical than some in this listing, yet musically appealing nonetheless.

(Bob Seger offering a rendition of The Little Drummer Boy).

The Little Drummer Boy by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band offered a second 1987 release, joining the Special Olympics album that included Mellencamp‘s I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Springsteen‘s Merry Christmas Baby. Seger‘s song is notable for removing religious names and references.

(Bono of U2 in the video for the song Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)).

Also in 1987, U2 offered Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) in a romantic interlude as filled with passion as anything the band released.

(Trans-Siberian Orchestra made a light show and orchestration a large part of their live holiday performances over time).

Trans-Siberian Orchestra came along in the mid-1990s with a concept of classical music made contemporary with a rock and roll sensibility. Much of their catalogue is devoted to the music this post contemplates. Our decision here is to introduce the 1996 song Christmas Eve / Sarajevo by TSO.

(The Reverend Horton Heat would like you to know that Santa Claus is Coming to Town).

Also stylistically on point with this list yet perhaps stretching the genre of classic rock is Santa Claus is Coming to Town by The Reverend Horton Heat. I could help but hear the excitement of young children looking forward to the holidays.

Matt – Monday, December 14, 2020

Soundgarden and the album ‘Superunknown’

The grunge style of alternative rock that came out of Seattle, Washington grew up in popularity arguably in the late 1980’s and definitely into the early 1990’s. The big question I remember asking was what was the heavy guitar, echoing of melody, and distinction from the era that came before was if the music was an alternative to Pop, Rap, or the music called Classic Rock. There are other bands who could have come first for us in answering who the band and album to discuss grunge, yet we at Matt Lynn Digital start with this review and linkage to the songs of Superunknown by Soundgarden for our mutual listening pleasure.

(Album cover for Superunknown by Soundgarden).

Let Me Drown opens the fifteen song album Superunknown with a clear sense of angst and anger directed at the borderline of adolescence and adulthood, of loathing of self-direction and the role of parents in what is to come.

Released as a single in October 1994, My Wave was the fourth of five singles released in support of the Superunknown album. The timing is a bit atypical for rock songs in functioning mainly in 5/4 with lyrical triplets. Lyrically, the song invites specific actions in response to impulsive feelings.

The fifth single released from Superunknown was Fell on Black Days in January 1995. Almost as a consequence of the impulsive, reckless acts contemplated by My Wave, Fell on Black Days sings of the experience of consequences begotten by questionable actions taken based in poorly understood feelings. The larger feeling of the song is anger of incarceration coupled with a fierce declaration of desired freedom and independence.

(The CD Single for the song Fell on Black Days by Soundgarden. The song was released in support of the album Superunknown).

Mailman follows Fell on Black Days from an angry place intending to announce the delivery of vengeance. The feelings here betray a sense that consequences don’t matter, yet the importance of winning over the one who has wronged you underpins the message.

Superunknown reflects the existential underpinnings of the album bearing the same name. The larger message is that the simple art of feeling something, while real, does not make the reality. There is power in how you make decisions, and those decisions feed your feelings. Also, you do not need to live strictly in the extremes of feeling to make life meaningful.

(From left, guitarist Kim Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron, singer and guitarist Chris Cornell, and bassist Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden. This quartet were the musicians that made Superunknown).

Head Down takes a different sound approach to the opening five songs of Superunknown. Lyrically, the music offers you the insight of coupling your will and your feelings with deliberation and planning; you have the power of consistent action, definition of who you are, and whether external pressures or feedback are things that will change you.

Released as the third single from Superunknown in May 1994, Black Hole Sun strikes me as a sad song kind of repudiating the notion that the stories and constructs underpinning religion, or even how individual people acting within the larger world, cannot operate from a real, created sense of putting oneself and ones truth out there. Feelings and actions feel fake to the narrator, and there’s really no guiding counterpoint to focus the feelings that raises.

Spoonman, released as the first single in support of Superunknown in January 1994, is ostensibly about a performer the band encountered on the Pacific Coast of the United States before the band was released. Bearing clear drug references, the song casually moves its lyrics from keeping a rhythm to keeping steady enough to continue a drug habit. While not achieving the lyrical level of Hotel California by The Eagles, I here echoes of that song in Spoonman.

(The CD Single for the song Spoonman by Soundgarden. The song was released in support of the album Superunknown).

Limo Wreck follows songs of drug addiction, a lost sense of the reality of defining your own path, and songs of consequence coming from trusting your feelings with less than desired effects. The narrator seems to be saying that he sees this along with no choice but to be held morally responsible for all of the ill feelings this begets. The message here is brutal, if that is what the song is saying.

In April 1994, The Day I Tried to Live followed Spoonman as the second single released from the album Superunknown. The song takes another bite of the moral turpitude apple, echoing David Bowie‘s The Man Who Sold the World, in addition to Limo Wreck from earlier in the Superunknown album.

(The CD Single for the song The Day I Tried to Live by Soundgarden. The song was released in support of the album Superunknown).

Kickstand follows I Tried to Live with perhaps the first taste of a purely punk sensibility on the album. The song lyrically feels like the narrator’s being a bit too young and eager to ride his motorcycle. The narrator’s mother acknowledge this underlying truth without too stringent an emotional response or support of the rider’s inspiration to experience what the life has to offer. Hearing this, the narrator cannot shake the desire to see.

The sensibility of Fresh Tendrils speaks of a hunger to experience life, moving still from inexperience to experience on a firsthand basis. While not as explicitly a song about drugs like Spoonman, the musical and lyrical overtones call upon a desire for intimacy unlike much of what has come before on Superunknown.

4th of July takes a brooding look at the experience of life with sadness. Musically the song is as blues as any on the album without feeling explicitly rock. Lyrically there’s an anger at having not been the first nor unique in feeling as the narrator does.

Half returns to a distinct, almost disjointed sense of musical timing that is echoed in the lyrics of the song. Having spent 13 songs in prelude to Half, the song debates feelings of an existential crisis that has been brewing all album. The decision of the song is, despite the heartache of what has come before, there may still be room for light and optimism.

The opening drums of Like Suicide are a first for Superunknown in closing the album. A dark perspective of suffering and pain are presented in the accident of a bird flying into a window. An outright desire to end things, or a desire for pain, are not the central metaphors for the closing song. The super unknown, the crisis of existing in Like Suicide, is like a bird breaking its wing flying into a building. It was in the compassion of the narrator in ending the pain, the injury, and emotionally the externally visible unknown in a graphic way. The end for the bird was literally like suicide, despite being a different end.

Matt – Wednesday, March 25, 2020