Talk:Love Is Eternity

Lyrics

Scratch suggested in the newsgroup a while ago that this song was about a recently married couple in a car crash, and i didn't really see that until i started to figure out some of the lyrics, namely "stuck in a ditch, bleeding," which i originally thought was "stuck in a (?) meeting," and "surrounded by death" which i originally thought was "surrounded by dan." someone else also thought the line was "surrounded by debt," and that might make sense... but the death thing fits more with TMBG's morbid style and the whole car crash scenario. I also think that it could be something about doing something you regret but dying before you can take it back, as if the two got into a huge argument or something before they both bit the dust. anyway, that's what i've concluded so far. --Nathew

Man, there's no way. Listen close. It's "pitch meeting" and "debt." You can clearly hear an M sound, not a BL sound for the word meeting. The whole gyst of the song is that it deals with a very small and mundane corner of life, that's still pretty depressing in its own right but nothing compared to death and destruction. It's kind of a partner piece to They'll Need A Crane. Anyways, that's how I see it. But in a ditch bleeding? No way.

I don't think so. It's definitely "Pitch meeting", whatever that is. "Surrounded by death" sounds more accurate, and "Stuck on a cellphone" fits the scenario, but otherwise it doesn't fit because of "pitch meeting."

"debt" and "death" would be too close in sound to tell. and it almost does sound like an M sound, but i can't hear a P sound at all. what's a pitch meeting? --Nathew

(June 2, 2004)-I have no light to shed on debt/death, but I agree that it's "pitch meeting" not "ditch, bleeding". A pitch meeting being where somebody tries to convince somebody else (e.g. investors) to back their idea for something like a movie or invention or advertising concept. I also think that the line "Don't act like the other doesn't know how to drive" is "Don't act like the other doesn't know how to try" which fits with the other platitudes spouted.

I'm less sure about two other things:

1)Is the singer perhaps a certified appointed fan of marriage?

2) "And remember love with her" might be "And remember love's a bird". Some sort misquoting of Emily Dickenson's "Hope is a thing with feathers"?

-User:Tisher

I think it's "enough retreating" and "love's a verb"  :)

I like "Love's a verb". But I stand by "in a pitch meeting". -User:Tisher

I don't think there's any context for "pitch meeting" in the song. Dan and Lisa are a generic couple; the advice on marriage is meant to apply to anyone. Debt and cellphones are practically universal these days, but most people are likely to never attend a pitch meeting.

Also, even though the recording is of low quality (sounds like it was made over a cell phone, to me), it is very easy to distinguish hard consonants. (Cell phones are optimized for voice, after all.) The "p" in "patience" and "spouse" is clearly audible. In the "in a pitch meeting/enough retreating" phrase, there is no audible "p". I'm certain that the last two syllables are "treating". The "r" is definitely there. Comparing it to the "m" in "marriage" and "mad", it doesn't sound the same at all. In the last three syllables, both "r"s needed to make "retreating" sound the same.

I won't swear to it being "enough retreating" but I'm pretty sure that it's definitely not "pitch meeting".

Download

A nice hi-fi recording of this song is being offered as an exclusive $.99 download on the new theymightbegiants.com. It's a different recording than was on DAS. Its title is given as "Love is Eternity," so we'll have to move these wiki pages accordingly.

This version definitely confirms "love's a verb," and "pitch meeting" (unless it's "bitch meeting," but that seems out of character for the song). Death/debt is still kind of a tossup, phonically speaking. But without the "bleeding," "death" seems much less likely. --Bryce

The version on theymightbegiants.com is the one from DAS. If you can actually catch the song while calling DAS, it's very apparent. There is a demo version floating around that's not the full band, but it's not the version on DAS because it doesn't have the birds chirping at the beginning. - FrankEinstein

I realize that this comes a little late, but how can you justify offering the one and only 'web exclusive' from TMBG's download site on this website's MP3 Page? Shouldn't it have gone away the moment it appeared on the pay site?? I realize that it's low-fi and everything but why should that make a difference? I mean come on, the song is even described on the very page that this page is linked to as "Only available at They Might Be Downloads Music Store". Even if it actually is a different version of the song, aren't we negating the whole 'web exclusive' thing? In the download store's several months of operation, we have yet to see a single exclusive song appear there beyond this first one. Do we really want to keep it that way?? -TDK

The above applies to Skullivan, as well which I think was an appalling choice for Dial-a-Song. Parts of it sound terrible, and if any TMBG song is not cut out for phone playback, it's that one. -TDK

Yeah, i was kinda torn on what to do about those when they came out...not so much Skullivan, which was a crappy recording, but mostly for the Love is Eternity recording. It wasn't a great recording either, but i decided to take it down to avoid controversy. -- Duke33

Danny and Lisa

Anyone else reminded of this song when they heard System Of A Down's "Radio/Video"? --BlarJotunn

YES! Well, actually I had heard Radio/Video first, and had always wondered who the heck Danny and Lisa were, and if they were real people, etc. So when I heard this, I practically freaked out. Do you think it's too unlikely that Radio/Video is refering to the same couple? --Gannabel

Weird MP3 Encoding

For the Free Tunes MP3 version, has anyone else noticed that, when played in Windows Media Player (don't know about anywhere else, although I think it does this on my NOMAD too), the tag says the track is 2:42, but the track stops at 2:06? I emailed TMBGDot about this, who forwarded it to the tech people, who said it works fine for them and that I should get iTunes. I don't want to get iTunes! It's a system hog and it rips CDs into a stupid proprietary file format. Oh well.

That always happens to me on random songs. If the file didn't finish downloading, just delete that track, purge your cache or temporary files of that song, and try to download again. If that's not the problem, then WMP is (for whatever reason) reading it wrong, and I'm not sure what to do. But I agree vehemently with you about not running to iTunes-- it takes up way too much space and has the goal of hooking you on Apple products through its store and its file formats. We gotta fight the powers that be! ~ magbatz 23:23, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

iTunes plays MP3s, and you can set your preferences to have it rip CDs as MP3, AIFF, WAV, or any non-proprietary format you want. It's also incredibly easy to use, and half the songs in the store are downloadable DRM-free (which means you can convert them to MP3 if you want). Also, Windows Media Player blows, and not using iTunes for some "fight the power" reason is just plain silly!

Although, last I checked Microsoft is a much more insidious corporation than Apple, in the first place

By the way, my "Love is Eternity" MP3 (from the TMBG download store) works perfectly! --Oddjob 13:40, 16 November 2007 (UTC)