Hidden In The Sand - Forums

At the end of the last Boralogue, the band does not harmonize the final 'turn the lights off", and instead only the guitar closes out the song. Every other recording I've seen has them closing it with the sung lyric. Since the last Boralogue was published after the band recorded the album and then played the El Rey theater (i think?), does anyone else think it's possible that the change is going to be reflected on the record? I'm very curious.

FoakleyGrove wrote:At the end of the last Boralogue, the band does not harmonize the final 'turn the lights off", and instead only the guitar closes out the song. Every other recording I've seen has them closing it with the sung lyric. Since the last Boralogue was published after the band recorded the album and then played the El Rey theater (i think?), does anyone else think it's possible that the change is going to be reflected on the record? I'm very curious.

Yes, I'd bet that's how it will be on the album.

Ah, crap. I really rather liked it the way we'd heard it for years. Which isn't to say that I've been averse to many of the changes we've heard as the songs transition from demos to full studio pieces. The effect just works so well visually as the lights on stage cut out completely... just seems like a more complete idea as a working whole, and cutting it for the sake of brevity doesn't make a lot of sense as it wouldn't really shorten the song in any noticeable way. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

On a similar yet different note, have they shortened sacred beast?

The recorded version is 2:22 long, while the acoustic recording of them at the Rugby store is around 3:15 long. That's nearly shortening it 50 seconds! (Granted, the youtube video has some talking and cheering before the song starts)

Why would they shorten it? Significantly?

I hadn't noticed that until now! It's not the first time we've heard a dramatic re-structuring of a Joe Hawley song. In the case of the original "Ruler Of Everything"'s transition from demo to MMMM, the time lost from cutting the second verse was re-established (added to, even) with the string introduction and alternate opening verse, but I don't think that much time has ever been completely cut from a song in all of the Tally Hall canon.

At first I thought that perhaps the listing online (after all, Amazon yanked the samples fairly quickly) was a typo and it's supposed to read 3:20 instead? I surely hope so. Although with a little further research, a video of the them in the Middle East Club has 2 entire verses and part of the bridge excised, so that the entire run of "A Lady" & "Sacred Beast" together clocks in at 3:15. The "First of all we know..." verse and the last verse closing with "shades of green" are both gone.

In the end, we have to trust to their artistic instincts. They're not our songs, though it feels pretty easy to be incensed when changes are made that aren't to our liking. It must be strange to own a piece of writing that thousands of people embrace so fully and personally. Especially when the band is so damn good that more of anything they write never feels gratuitous! Even at the original 3 minute length, I thought the song was very concise! I, too, will be incredibly disappointed if it turns up on the album considerably shortened...