The Wrock Snob

[I can't explain why exactly, but I have lots of feelings about these two songs and how they relate.  The following is all the original writing until you hit another one of these.]

Welcome to another new “feature” on the Wrock Snob that will undoubtedly only last for a single outing!  This is an idea I’ve toyed around with for awhile, where I take two songs, sometimes similar, sometimes not, and I compare and contrast them.  First up, I’m comparing “And Then I Died” by the Moaning Myrtles with… “And Then I Died”… by the Moaning Myrtles…

Huh.

First, I have to make it clear what two versions of this wiz-rock standard I’m talking about – first up, is ATID1, or The MySpace One, which is, funnily enough, the original version of the song posted on MySpace waaaaaaaaay back in the day.  Secondly, is ATID2, or The Album One, which is the version that appeared on the album Toilet Humor.  For purposes of not getting lost later on, I will be referring to the original as “And Then I MySpace”, and the album version as “And Then I Toilet”.

“And Then I MySpace” is the first song I ever heard by the Myrtles, so it obviously holds a great amount of sentimental value for me.  Yeah, the recording quality isn’t great, but it also gives the sound a warmer, if also more muted sound, in contrast to the sometimes too-crisp sound of “And Then I Toilet”.  The Myrtles also have a history of changing AWESOME lines when re-recording for an album, probably brought on by the realization that they would be playing shows in libraries, where loudly singing “WHORRREEEE!” might be frowned upon.  But hey – it never stopped Whompy…  However, for this line, changing “She’s such a whore” to “Now this is war” is pretty clever as far as line substitutions go, and it’s better than the change in “Sitting on the Toilet”.

Now, the chorus of this song is one I hold up as one of the catchiest and most fun chori in wizard rock.  Of course, that list is a very, very long list, but hey, that’s still something.  However, recording-quality wise, neither version is great, or at the very least, neither version is perfect.

talk about drums and accapella in toilet

[Taken out of context, the above sentence fragment is rather amusing.  This article was originally going to be at least four-five paragraphs longer, but alas, it was not to be.  In the following section I will quickly try to summarize and clarify my thoughts on the matter.]

Basically, I wanted to compare and contrast two surprisingly different versions of a wizard rock classic.  I’ve actually long liked the original, MySpace recording better than the album version – sure the levels get a little peaky, but I like the lyrics better for one thing, though I understand the change.  But moreover, I just really don’t like the drums in the CD version – they just don’t jive well with the chorus, and it gets especially bad during the piano solo, rhythmically never quite syncing up with the piano, and detracting from a really fun little instrumental section, one of my favourites in wizard rock.  Of course, the better recording quality makes the accapella section near the end a lot better, and that one section is a marked improvement from the previous version, but the rest is either the same or worse.

tl;dr – I think this song was better off as a piano-ballad, without any drums, or at the very least with better drums.  Also, I think the Song vs Song thing was an interesting idea, and I wish I had run with it more, though the only other idea I had was to do “Don’t Duel” by The Remus Lupins vs. “How To Destroy a Horcrux, Part 8″ by The Seven Potters.

And for those wondering why that particular pairing, basically they are both pretty good, fairly catchy songs, though “Horcrux, Part 8″ is slightly catchier (but “Don’t Duel” rocks harder), but the Lupins song obviously has better recording quality and stuff. The real sticking point is the lyrics, wherein among numerous little lyrical bugs and quirks, such as saying that Voldy’s killing curse “has never missed”, except for, you know that time it didn’t kill Harry in Book 1. Or the time it didn’t kill Harry in Book 4.  And I’m pretty sure in Book 5 someone didn’t die every single time he shot off that curse in the DoM.  Or that time it didn’t kill Harry in the Battle of the 7 Potters.  Ahem.  Anyway, the real problem is:

You are fire, he’s a shadow

Deflect his words and then call him Tom

I mean, come on Alex! This is basic stuff here.  Dumbledore calls him Tom, like he did when he was a little boy, and Harry calls him Riddle, the same way he refers to any other school-mate (read:peer, thus on the same level as Harry, and not above) he doesn’t particularly like, such as Malfoy.  Both are ways of belittling Voldy and reminding him of his past and heritage, but it’s different styles for different people, intended to cause different effects. Harry would NEVER call Voldemort “Tom” – he uses first names for people he’s close to.  Him calling Voldy “Tom” would just be weird.  Like, almost as weird as if instead of having a last clash of philosophies, Harry and Voldemort just had a big wizard lightning duel while absolutely no one else was watching, and Harry EXPLODED Voldemort, leaving absolutely no trace of a body, or proof that the nightmare was finally over.

OH WAIT.

Anyways, I was going to contrast this with the rather factual chorus of “Horcrux, Part 8″:

Think, Riddle, try for some remorse

This is your last chance

Also, that whole Seven Potters album is great and it’s free and you should get it now.

Huh, I think this whole “quick addendum” thing ended up being just as long as the original article.  And I could go on about both songs, too…  But let’s leave it here, with an amusing collection of gifs.  Wrock Snob, out.