Talk:Black Ops (Alt. Version)

Great

I honestly don't know which version I like more, this version or the one from Nanobots. I think they're both great. -GrizonII (talk) 23:22, 6 October 2015 (EDT)

Looking at this again, I think the music video is just a re-arranged version of the one for I Hear A New World, which is no longer on youtube for some reason but is up on vimeo. GrizonII (talk) 21:46, 3 April 2016 (EDT)

Not a fan

Ugh, I actually hate this. I understand the need to come up with a compelling live version of the song, but they took one of the most creative arrangements off one of their best albums and made it sub-sub-generic. The Roxy Music-esque breakdowns with the bass clarinet and guitar have potential, but they end up sounding underwhelming as well - totally missed the boat, in part due to some uncharacteristically boring JL playing. As for the body of the piece, it sounds like some nondescript nineties act in the worst possible way. Flans doesn't even bother singing the correct lyrics at one point.

I never liked it live like this. As a completist, I'm pleased to have a studio version of the live version, but man, it's not to my taste. Should have been a Friday bonus track, as someone said earlier. It's the complete opposite of the "First Kiss" effect, where they ruined a song by slowing it down in the studio - here they ruined a studio song by rocking it out live... why they felt the need to waste studio time on this re-recording is beyond me. This is the bottom of DAS direct for me, possibly below "And Mom and Dad and Kid and Kid and Mom and Mom etc" (Deysian).

Kind of seems out of place on Dial a Song

I might be wrong, but looking at this reddit link maybe this wasn't originally supposed to be this weeks Dial-a-Song? It certainly seems more like a Friday bonus track. The Song "Prepare" was briefly on the TMBG app early on Tuesday before being replaced with this version of Black Ops. I wonder what happened?

I was right!!!

When Black Ops was first released I said that it would have to be re-arranged as Flans would never get through it live. On the original I liked the backing (King of Limbs - Radiohead style drums). However my review was pretty critical (and it got deleted!) of the lyrics and Flans' struggling vocal. This alternative version is terrible. Like Blink 182's Dad's tribute band they power pop through it, making it even less appropriate than ever. The point of a protest song is to make a point and challenge the listener conceptions. The music and vocal need to fit the mood. It fails on all accounts.

Take One More Parade, which the band have covered (very well) or Dylan's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall. God, even the folky Where have all the flowers gone. All those songs have either an anger at the waste of life, or a wistful ode of despair. Black Ops has none of this: Lyrically this is a mess as Flans, in typical post modern Giants style, is suspicious of direct emotional message, falls into simplistic description and then weak humour. Musically it's even more inappropriate. Black Ops are often horrific missions, so musically this sounds like a 13 year olds power pop record? Flans also insists on singing in his "pretty pretty" voice. A glaring example of the band misunderstanding form and meaning. If you were on a Black Ops mission and someone put this on in the helicopter they'd get shot! It's like the Maxwell's Silver Hammer of Protest Songs, and at least that song had a decent melody and a hummable chorus!

see a Communist And there's another one And his dumb son Is also one of the worst lyrics ever, plus, jarringly out of date given the song is supposed to contemporary what with the mention of drones! (Mr Tuck)

While I haven't agreed with most of Mr. Tuck's reviews so far with Dial-A-Song I do have to agree with this being the worst track so far, to me it outbeat Thinking Machine as being the most horrible. The original had such a chilling atmosphere to it, and really pegs down the isolation a drone operator has from what's going on out in the field. Even the guitar heavy parts in the original always had me imagining it as the drones dropping bombs and the pauses when Flans sings just emphasises the operators demoralization of his job. The alternate version just sucks out the whole spirit of the song to me and the music just sounds so bland and generic it makes me wonder why they made it so rock heavy.

Also in regards to the Mr Tuck's opinion on the worst lyric ever I thought it was pretty clever showing how the drone operator is just unphased by the fact that a son is following his father's footsteps to just get blown away, hence the lyric "Before we make you gone, you best be running on" and "stick to the music child, don't get us riled" kinda shows the operator warning children to just keep away or face death. (Shuda7)

While I definitely abhor this new "Blink 182" version (which is what I will call it from here on in, thanks to Tuck!), I think the original is great, and, even if at times it fails to engage lyrically, the music more than makes up for it.

I wonder why they did it like this, a half-assed studio version (seriously, ya goofed the lyrics?!) rather than a live-in-the-studio version. I really dug the live recording from the Berlin DVD probably because it was a bit faster and more manic. (Mason)

Shuda7 surely you can see that the lyric you quoted is absolute rubbish that one could forgive if Flans was a fourteen year old? Anyway, feeling bad that you liked it and because I do love the Giants, I had a good old think about a worse song in this genre. Flans needs to thank the UK's Culture Club and The War Song. (Mr Tuck)

Black Ops (A Critique)

[ed. note, a second Mr Tuck review moved from Lyrics Talk:Black Ops (Alt. Version), written 3 days later]

Black ops Black ops A holiday for secret cops Black ops Black ops Dropping presents from the helicopter

I don't think the opening lyrics work and it sets the tone for the whole song. Secret Cops and Presents from helicopters makes it sound childish rather than actually frightening and no, I don't think it works on any ironic level either

It's been a long year We've been so far from home Too many people here Here come the drones We take the best of it And make a mess of it Ripping up some lawn And then we're gone

The sing song a/b rhyme scheme isn't appropriate and the imagery is utterly un-chilling. The shock factor of the drones lyric and the simplicity of the rhyme scheme makes it sound like it's been written by an amateur song writer. Likewise the facile attempt to get inside the mind of the Black Op soldier reaches for the profound but is insultingly simplistic. Insultingly, because if you're writing a song about a serious subject whether you are pro or against or neutral you have to have some kind of intellectual coherence. Flans writes like a 13 year old trying to sound knowledgeable or worldly wise.

Black sites Black sites A thousand miles from day or night Black sites Black sites The story will remain unwritten

This is an incredibly adolescent lyric. Unwritten is supposed to convey the mystery one supposesin fact it's more smoke and mirrors to disguise how lyrically out of his depth he is.

Before we make you gone You'd best be running on Stick to the music child Don't get us riled Hey, there's a spot we missed I see a Communist And there's another one And his dumb son

This worst lyric is left until last. Utterly unthreatening one presumes the intended victim will be embarrassed to death by this onslaught. Flans straying into dangerous lyrical territory occupied by the likes of Duran Duran "You say you take it easy on me? You're about as easy as a nuclear war.' and Snap's "More serious than cancer, rhythm is a dancer". However, I'd argue Flan's lyrics are worse as at least the former are so bombastic and camp that one can laugh, and more crucially, neither Duran Duran or Snap are pretending that they are writing anything profound. Flans attempts (what he imagines) is a scathing critique of American foreign policy with some of the most immature and simplistic lyrics he's ever written

So why does it fail? Flans is more than capable of writing excellent lyrics but this is dire. In the main it's because he's in a foreign territory of having to write direct lyrics on a serious topic and he's aiming for a traditional emotional resonance. Much of the Giants output just isn't in the genre, it's post-modern, it's oblique. It's rarely directly political. The Pencil Rain, is the nearest thing he's attempted like this and it worked because the lyrics were direct and the melody fitted the mood of the song. In fact it was so successful and conveying the battle that melodically it got monotonous. Black Ops in it's orignal incarnation did musically match what he was trying to convey (the music is a beautifully recorded and pretty Radiohead, King of Limbs pastiche) but was undermined by a Flans singing far too high and of course the dire lyrics and poor melody line. On this alternative version any hint of menace in the music has gone by a teen pop Blink 182 arrangement. I'm at a real loss as why they've done a pop version. It's like Dylan doing a line dancing version of A Hard Rain. It utterly detracts from the point of the song. Anyway, it's a real blot of the Giants songbook.

The only other recent effort on a similar topic would be Linnell's I'm Impressed, which is a triumph. That song works mainly because of it's killer melody and for the fact that Linnell's lyric is more logically formed, he attempts and succeeds in demonstrating how seductive power can be even when one is opposed to it. A kind of ode to shock and awe. (Mr Tuck)

"Dylan doing a line dancing version of A Hard Rain.". that sounds amazing, sign me up! -- 13:11, 10 October 2015 (EDT)

He'd make it cool. (Mr Tuck)

You mean They Might Be Giants made an inappropriately hardcore version of an innocent song about swarms of drones? This is really an aberration. ~ magbatz 14:33, 10 October 2015 (EDT)

Revolution

This version is a straight out cash grab. I preferred the slower version on the white album. --Nehushtan (talk) 18:14, 14 October 2019 (EDT) 😆

I like the outro on this one. --ColorOfInfinity (talk) 20:19, 14 October 2019 (EDT)