MCSMeister's Song Help Thread

Thank you!

Still, feel free to listen to the song if you want, I just uploaded it to my YouTube channel a few nights ago and I really like it. This is by the same artist that had a hit with the song "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)".

I had a listen. I didn't dislike it, but it's not something I'd have in my library. Did you win the bid?

I did win it Only cost me 3 dollars with free shipping. Paid it last night, so it should be coming my way soon.

And I can understand if you didn't like it enough for it to be added to your library. I have this strange interest for obscure '70s AOR/soft rock (as you've probably been noticing), so if I think something's great among that genre it might not be as amazing to others.

So, I haven't posted here in a while - and that wasn't my plan - because I got sick over the weekend. However, before I start on my homework today, I want to try something different.

This might be a bit difficult to explain, but I feel like when I post my transcription of a song and it has question marks in it, it can generate confusion in another person's brain, as the question marks may make a specific word or phrase unintelligible for someone else if their brain is aware that it is unintelligible, whereas if someone takes a blind listen to a song without following a transcription beforehand, they may hear a word/phrase perfectly clear. With that said, Joeyy, would you be interested in taking a shot at transcribing this next song yourself, without my transcription to begin with? If you don't have the time, I perfectly understand, but I want to see if this can generate better results than following a guide with question marks in it. And after you did so, I could compare it to my transcription and see if we can help each other out.

Greta thinking, Nicolas - I had the same thought myself early on and I've tried not to take in the questionable words when copying and pasting your transcription into an advanced reply form, but sometimes it's unavoidable. I can have a go at transcribing one myself.

Alright, great! I just want to see how this works out, and if it proves to work better than showing you my transcription beforehand, I can start doing it this way if that's okay with you.

Here's the song: "The Great Escape" by Atlanta Rhythm Section.

(Greta thinking, but also great thinking. )

Haha, sure.

Here's what I got:

Heaven help the joker (?)
He has made a great mistake
He became a prisoner
Shooting for the great escape

Don't you point your finger
Give a boy a break
He thought he'd take a tiny taste
And he would find the great escape
From that same old, same old -

It's the same old story
Hey, there, you clockin' rocker (?)
What you so proud about?
I wanna know
'Cause loyal fans will eat you up
They'll chew you up and spit you out

Woahh-oh

Like a passing fancy (?)
You're bound to fate
Big for a while, and then out of style
You are just the great escape
From that same old (same old), same old...

Look at all the people
Looking for the great escape
Young folks, old folks
Born of the country (?)
They're heading for a holiday

Ohh-oh

Life ain't no picnic
It ain't no piece of cake
Listen to my music, people, and help me make my great escape

Hmm, very interesting. This is what I got, and for the sake of comparison, I'm going to bold the things we got different, and the things you were able to successfully transcribe that I had in question marks I'll put in bold and parenthesize.

Heaven help the junkie
He has made a great mistake
He became a prisoner
Shootin' for the great escape

Don't you point your finger
Give the boy a break
He thought he'd take a tiny taste
And he would find the great escape
And that same old, same old
It's the same old story

Hey there, you ??? blocker
What you so proud about?
Oh no
Those loyal friends who eat you up
They'll chew you up and spit you out, whoa

Like a ????
(You're bound to fate)
(Big) for a while and then out of style
(You are) just the great escape
And that same old, same old

Look at all the people
Lookin' for the great escape
Young folks, old folks, ????
They're headin' for a holiday
Whoa

Life ain't no picnic
It ain't no piece of cake
Listen to my music, people
And help me make my great escape

So it seems like we both got tripped up on "clockin' rocker", "like a passing fancy", and "born of the country". For the first one, I first heard it as "cockin' blocker", similar to the term "cock-block", but I know that wouldn't make any sense.

For the second one, it seems like "passing fancy" actually is a real phrase, and considering the next line is "bound to fate", that seems to make sense because if that link is really the definition for "passing fancy", then such passing fancy would eventually become lost in obscurity, therefore "bound to its fate". Passing fancies are also "big for a while and then out of style". So I'm pretty positive that one's right.

Lastly, I think "born of the country" might be "bored of the country", as if someone was bored of their country they would head off on a holiday. So it seems like the only thing stopping us here is the "clockin' rocker" bit. Personally, I think it might be "cocky" something, and I hear a "b" sound beginning in the word after it. What do you think?

Joeyy, you still around? I have other songs I want to post down the pipeline but I can't post those until this one is cleared up.

Sorry, Nicolas, I thought you'd concluded this one; I forgot about the last question.

I'd say you're right about "junkie" and "And".

I still hear it as "rocker", no b sound for me - it's your decision. I also still think it's "I wanna know" - as in, "Hey, there, you ???? ????, what you so proud about? I wanna know". Again, your choice. Still believe it's "fans" - and if the person is a rocker, it makes sense they'd have fans (and they do later mention making music - "Listen to my music, people"). However, I do think you're right about it being, "Those loyal _____ who eat you up".

You're probably right about "bored of the country".

On this listen, I'd say it's more likely to be "bound to fade", not "fate". Makes a lot of sense considering the, "Big for a while, and then out of style" line.

Thanks for finally responding. So still, it seems the roadblock here is the "clockin' rocker" line. No problem, though. I'll keep this stored away for later, like I have been with all the unfinished transcriptions

I've been thinking, though - both of these methods to solving the missing lyrics have their disadvantages. While adding question marks in my transcription may cause you to hear a lyric unintelligibly, this transcription-from-scratch method takes a lot more time, and in this case took a week to conclude, and I wouldn't want that much of a delay put on this thread on a regular basis. Plus, I felt kind of bad that I was sorta imposing on you to transcribe a song, because I'm not sure if it was something you enjoy doing like I do. I must ask, though - which method do you prefer? I can always switcheroo between the two depending on the song, but which method works out the best for you?

I don't dislike doing it and it doesn't always take me this long. I haven't been doing as much since I developed this stomach thing a couple of months ago.

It's your choice, Nicolas. I know you don't like waiting (completely understandable), so it's up to you.

What "stomach thing" a couple of months ago? I never knew about this. If you developed it a couple months ago, though, why are you just now not doing as much? You were a lot more active in this thread prior to me posting "The Great Escape", and ever since I created the thread to begin with, so I'm confused.

Nonetheless, it's good to hear you don't dislike doing it. But if you're suddenly not feeling good I might go to the other method for right now. Or just wait until you're better.

You sound almost confrontational sometimes, Nicolas; you have to be careful about that. You're free to look through my posts in the Randomness thread from the past couple of months; you should find at least a few referencing my stomach problems there. And if I knew exactly what the problem was, I would have given it a name. Unfortunately it's "pills first, tests later" here, so I don't. I also didn't know I had to inform you personally about everything going on with my health.

The longer I've had this, the more down I've felt, (therefore) the less I've done as it's gone on. Yet I do what I can when I can, providing I remember and I'm not busy with other things.

You may as well continue to post any songs that would otherwise not go in the archives - better I help after however many days than no one helps at all.

I don't mean to ever sound confrontational; really, I don't. I can come off that way sometimes by accident, and I apologize. I'm pretty sure I've lost some friends because of miscommunications like that - and I don't want you to be next - so please understand I didn't mean it to sound that way.

You don't have to communicate all of your health problems to me, and that's not what I was saying. I was just surprised I hadn't heard about it previously despite communicating with you regularly. I would look at your posts in Randomness, but it's extremely hard to navigate through the heaps of posts in the many volumes of Randomness.

Thanks a ton for explaining this, though. It makes more sense now that as time goes on, the worse it feels for you. And I'll keep that in mind from here on out.

I'll continue to post songs when I can Again, I'm really sorry for the miscommunication.

Aww. It's all right, I've often had (and occasionally still have) the same problem myself. People do get defensive when questions are asked, I know. Also, I know I've told you a bit about my health before, so I knew where you were coming from (I meant to insert a winking face there to let you know I was mostly teasing). Talking about it can be depressing, though, especially when it's something else on top of the usual. Thank you for the apology. Do continue to post.

All right, this next song I'm going to post I'm going to approach a little differently. For the album this song is on, I actually have a PDF of the lyrics booklet to it. However, the problem is, like the two songs by The Jags I posted a while back, the songs include sections not in the lyrics booklet. So, I think I'll post a few songs from this album to try to solve these missing parts.

I'll include what's in the lyrics booklet to guide you along, and I'll put some dots as placeholders for parts that have lyrics that aren't in the booklet, because, like I said, it seems more efficient to me than question marks and fragments of unknown lyrics. I'm pretty sure I have a general idea of what the first segment is, but I'm not entirely sure about the second one.

The song is "Roger and Out" by The Fixx (actually uploaded this on my own channel )

No more Roger, Roger and out
No more Roger, Roger about
No more Roger, Roger and out

He left his house
Left his car
Left his job
Let his demons out

No more Roger, Roger and out
No more Roger, Roger about
No more Roger, Roger and out
No more Roger

He made his mark
Left his stain
Changed his future
Killed his pain

What was he thinking?
What was he searching for?
Where is he heading?
"Open sesame," the door

Had chains replaced his regal wings?
On the rock, the siren sings
Raised his glass, "let the games begin"
Stories on the changing wind

........ (2:10)
Where is he heading?
"Open sesame," the door

Reminded of his inner sins
Does God exist in a Hollywood ending?
Lose the plot, lose everything
Get the hell out before the sky falls in

No more Roger, Roger and out
No more Roger, Roger about
No more Roger, Roger and out
No more Roger, Roger about

........ (3:31)

I don't think I saw this one, Nicolas, but I got your message and assumed I must've missed a post here. I listened yesterday and today, and I'm afraid I don't really have anything to offer. I know you don't like submitting guess work and the only line I'm sure of is, "No more inconsistent" at 3:35 ish. Sorry.

That part of the message wasn't referring to that post in particular, just the fact that since you've been having your stomach problems, along with everything else, your responses here will be very delayed, as you've said. Thanks for trying. I actually heard "No more inconsistent" myself, and I thought the line before it sounded like "No more distant resistant", but both of those lines don't sound right to me.

For the first bolded segment, to me it sounded like "Why is he lurking? Why is he on the floor?". I mentioned I had a general idea of what both of these segments sounded like, but I wanted to see what you thought as they aren't in the lyrics booklet.

I heard, "No more distant assistant" and, like you, "Why is he on the floor?" so perhaps they're right, even if they sound weird.