phroz Aww man. Have to disagree. Rice is great if you’re hungry and want 1000 of something. I was gonna get my teeth whitened, but I said fuck that.. I’ll get a tan instead. I want to be a race car passenger, why we driving in circles? You must really like Tide.
I literally just did that on holiday recently. I went to Fuerteventura where I climbed a mountain on my own with this song playing. No one around for miles. It was great.
There is a woman whose voice graces the beginning of this track. I saw her twice. The first time was on East Hastings, right outside of the Army & Navy store on Hastings, possibly where she was recorded. The second time was while riding the bus up Robson from the west end. I'm some kid from Omaha, NE, USA, but was a graduate student at SFU then. Good times. I remember hearing her voice, then looking and her, and then recognizing. I cannot possibly express the feeling I have in my heart for the wonder of Vancouver during that time. That was almost 20 years ago.
I'd forgotten I wrote that, and was surprised to see my own words. Upon seeing them, I thought I should write to provide more context. I'm originally from Nebraska, a long way away from where I heard her. But I moved to Vancouver in the early aughts. It was a mesmerizing time for me there. Very spiritual. I have a memory (and hope always to have it) of standing alone on the Lion's Gate Bridge very late at night watching the evergreens in Stanley Park sway in the smoke during a winter rain storm. Many memories of Stanley Park and Siwash rock, but that one stands out. Anyway, shortly after I moved there, I was down on Hastings and heard her voice -- like I said, outside of the Army and Navy. I was a big fan of Godspeed then (still am), and felt this shock of recognition. I looked up, and there she was, preaching away to anyone who would hear her. I don't know why I didn't approach her, but I didn't. I remember commenting upon my celebrity sighting to my friend Graeme (hi, Graeme!), and he laughed and said, "Well, the song's called East Hastings." But to me, for whatever reason, it was a big deal. Still is. Also, a shout-out to Godspeed. Thank you for your music. You all are wonderful.
Yeah, the elderly woman’s voice at the beginning: in the 90’s I regularly would see exactly this lady on East Hastings. She would be seated in a fold out chair chiming her hope into this bleak neighborhood. I would usually stop to admire her, and enjoy the soundscape against her melodic bellows. I seem to remember her in a lavender/pink sunday-best outfit with white gloves. Was so elated when when I first discovered her voice sample preserved in this music piece; Makes it a Double Treasure. - and I’m with you on how it can take you back!
I am in Milano, on the 6th floor of apartment building, watching how army vehicles patrols the streets and whole city is on lock-down, schools are closed, shops are closed, streets are empty, you can barely see anyone walking. This song makes it even more depressing
Suffering Experience Understanding Talent I don't have all of those, but I hear it in this. My god. This music is making me feel so many things. I remember why I wanted to go. I still do. But now, I have some purpose. I have people that I love, and that I want to make happy. But that call of the void? I don't think that will ever go away. The comforting nature of depression is horrifying. It lulls you in, until you realize you're trapped in hell. Avoid.
@@ZeranZeran just walk when you feel empty. Let the musical notes basic bounce in you head . Stand somewhere filled and listen to the empty in you. With that said this is a great, unique, and powerful piece that haunts the concept of basic rhythm in my head 9 outta 10 would recommend. Straight banger
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
@@Uruguay182 It's from Nietzsche's book "Beyond good and Evil" and the gist of the quote is that if you spend your time in conflict with something horrible you might become just as horrible.
I really wish I would've taken this quote seriously when I was younger. I didn't understand the significance of it. Stop staring, stop focusing on negative, go live your life. Your mind can be a prison, or a tool to do great things. Don't let it be your prison. It is living hell, every day.
I can honestly say that this piece has managed to perfectly represent what it feels like to evolve from depression and anxiety into gradual paranoia and crisis. Listening to this in bed brought a cycle of emotions that I hadnt felt in quite some time. The beginning feels sad but still somewhat hopeful, fading into pure loneliness and desperation, eventually giving way to the anxiety and paranoia of uncertainty, which builds up more and more with the tempo of the song, until it all finally drops out and youre essentially left lost. Then those feelings of fear creep back in, lending itself to scary thoughts that dont seem to be your own. This was an incredible experience to listen to.
Yeah I just went through that scary transition recently. Like all of a sudden you’re not a teenager anymore and the void starts to grip you harder and harder until you submit
That's been the last 4-5 years of my life. I don't want to die, but the older I get, the more I see it coming. And not at a natural time for most. But I see it. I hear it. I feel it. I hope that I can do the most for my loved ones while I'm here. They deserve better.
east Hastings is a part of Vancouver that is totally deprived,a magnet for the outcasts of the city,it has a big homeless population and is a hangout for drug addicts , mainly heroin users,a truly depressed and depressing area.
+Violet Raven the original Hastings in the UK is a shitty place. The government cleared out all the problem people to seaside resorts cos of the empty space in b and bs cos foreign holidays are cheaper for Brits.
The melodies in this song are some of the most simple yet effective motifs I have ever heard. A masterpiece in how dynamics can make a song as opposed to melodic or harmonic progression.
Yeah i like what you just said (a year later) the dynamics of the melody itself hold such a pure mysticysm it creates all that dead space for the atmosphere i looooove how the riffs somehow dont tire me out
@Steve Knight why call someone a twat for speaking about something they like though? Like yes i get the initial "wow this sounds dumb" but idk bud keep listening to ur rush and king crimson ill keep talking to people who enjoy talking 😅
I know im probably beating a dead horse at this point but like you become the twat for calling other people twats for their taste, like how i used to make fun of people who listen to rap, maybe you find yourself doing that too
This album is incredibly dark, depressing, but the most beautiful piece of music I've ever heard. Mind shredding horror to the most beautiful symphony. The atmosphere is just oozing with existential dread. Only I could dream of making music as authentic as this.
Beginning at 8:20 reminds me of how riots start. Riots are really a form of a natural disaster. You have to have the right conditions for them to start. You really need a prolonged period of high heat, unemployment, and an undercurrent of political and social resentment. Then you just need a spark. It can be anything really, a police shooting, a hit-and-run, an unpopular court decision, but it starts out with grumbles and murmurs of a few, and it builds, more people say the same thing, louder, and it draws in more people until the voices turn to acts, and then the acts bring in more people to act, and once a breaking point is realized, when the crowd realizes the police can't arrest them all, you have a full blown riot.
I really like how this was written. There's a part of me that's always wanted to be in a riot. The current climate of unrest and general level of societal tension where i live and many more places just like it seem to fit your criteria fairly well. Someone just has to strike the match and itll all go up in flames.
@@richardperry1334 I can tell you're a pampered and sheltered individual. Riots are an act of desperation, anyone living in the conditions that lead to rioting just wants a way out of hell. You've got it so easy you don't even know what hard is to begin with.
It reminds me of death. Becoming one woth life - meeting all the lifeforms, even those extinc and physically merging with them. Then merging with dirt, rocks, the planet and finally becoming one with the whole universe.
The last part of this song made me so physically uncomfortable and I love it. The combination of the high pitched buzzing and the sounds either suddenly popping up right next to me or slowly approaching, like something's after me... God. The embodiment of dread. It's not often music's able to pull up emotion like this
The cello coming on near the start of the buildup of the sad mafioso really fucks me up. Hope in hopelessness. Righteous vengeance. I can't describe it lol
This is my favourite intro to any song ever, a desperate cry for something better in the darkness, the message and field recording always strikes me We cant buy love and happiness, it comes from something more
+abba zabba Isn't she the one by Hastings and Carrall? Maybe not anymore, that corner's been cleared out a bit in recent years. Ever since The Cage got shut down for good.
+DougglesMagnificent Anyway I think she's Haitian? I ignored the fuck out of any of the preaching nuts on E. H. especially when I was focussed on getting something in me.
+DougglesMagnificent nah that's pigeon park. this is the next block going towards downtown. outside the long gone woodwards building. she had a pet duck with her.
this is recorded outside the woodwards department store on east hastings street downtown vancouver... i tried googling her up to see if there were pictures of her but coudlnt find her. i mixed her up with another old lady who used to walk around down there with her pet duck. the lady in east hastings was a black lady who would just yell like that sitting on a folded chair... people seemed scared and irritated by her i just smiled at her and she'd smile back.
oh yeah so to answer your question she was probably out there for all of the 90s maybe earlier. they'd since torn down most of the woodwards building and the only part that's left is the corner of the building she'd sit. next to the bus stop.
Imagine wandering around aimlessly in East Hastings while listening to this masterpiece while you see all the hopelessness and all the lives that got destroyed by hard drugs. That's terrifying.
Why are we drawn to this? This song is like the anthem to an ending. Like seeing the rise and fall of something. I’m writing this in early December of 2020. I’ve been having massive anxiety and depression recently. I feel alone but full of power. It’s as if there’s a part of me that wants to burn something while wanting to tend a garden. I’m a mess but I hope all of you out there are doing okay. 2020 has been a punch in the face to all of us. But I’m hanging in there. I want to outlive this pandemic so I can do the things I want to do in life before I take my step into the dark. This song is art and I won’t deny its emotional impact. It brings forth the dark colors of reality that we see in our daily lives. But I implore you to act not on this basis but on the light in your hearts. Be the flame in the darkness. Be your friend and spread your wings. You can do it. Keep going. Don’t give in until you’ve got nothing left in you. And let the things that fear you remind you of that.
I'm nearly 15 minutes into this song reading your comment. The last couple lines..I keep reading them over and over and now I'm just ABSOLUTELY SOBBING blinking hard to get the tears to clear out long enough to read your words again. I need someone to help me
I watched my home town Salem Oregon wilt into such a divided, grey place. I remember walking across town in the the rain to my friends house, and I had this song playing. I eventually reached an area under a highway overpass. There were tents upon tents of homeless folks.. yelling, coughing, it reeked of piss. I just thought.. it wasn't like this 5/10 years ago.. but Salem isn't the only place where this is happening. Addiction, poverty and the way ex vets get treated.. and the way nobody seems to be doing anything to help.. it's gut wrenching. Since that day, the bitterness in the world has only become much more apparent.
Yeah! It’s xmarlboroxbarbiex.. it’s funny, I saw a meme with this album in it and it made me come back to this great song. Forgot I ever wrote that comment. Now I’m staying with my dad in the only apartment complex in a rich neighborhood and it makes me fvckin sick. ☠️
That shit mainly only happen on the West Coast really. Here in the Deep South there's a shit loada abandos that the homeless can squat in and I think a lotta the East Coast is just like that in general.
On the bus.. Watching all who drive past.. Happy, loved... Appreciated.. Here I am.. Alone.. I wish I was someone else... Somewhere else. Bought a pack of smokes.. Feeling empty again.. On the bus... Going no where..
i've added timecodes to all of my gybe videos. you can now skip to each movement in every track i have uploaded. i tried to make them as accurate as possible.
This was the song that introduced me to Godspeed. I listened through their whole discography in short order, and in the decade since hardly a day has gone by that I haven't listened to at least one of their songs (usually several more). Glorious.
I am from Montréal, born and raised (80's) and... I never heard of Godspeed You! Black Emperor... before TODAY? What is this BLASPHEMY!? This band is LIFE!
The Sad Mafioso embodies a hopelessness I can’t explain but I understand all too well. There’s no one to turn to, no where to go, so all you can do is get up on your own two feet and run.
+SmokeytoastProductionz it's good sober or high, that's why I love drugs, it changes ur perspective and feelings on things for every drug, u can do the same thing 3 or 4 Times yet never actually repeat the same process
I remember the first time I heard this song . . . this was my intro to GY!BE . . . . I was a student at UCLA, floundering through the last stages of a dying marriage . . . this music spoke directly to my soul. Hard to believe that was almost twenty years ago now! Brilliant ..... simply brilliant!
Late reply ... yes ... but I only miss her as a friend, and we have been good friends for many years now ... Hope all is well with you ... @villalobosmaria15
I remember first hearing this in 28 Days Later, and just thought it was part of the OST. Then a couple years later my friend got me into GY!BE and I was like "holy shit I recognize this from somewhere".
After every election I come back to this track, because it makes me aware that it doesn't matter who gets in charge of my country. Nothing, absolutely nothing will change, and if it changes it is downhill, never up. Currently there's loads of things going on in my country and it's sad that I can't move out neither my family, we are stuck in here. And this song always comes to mind when watching the news, riding a bus packed with sad looking faces and so on. Anyway good luck to everyone in 2023!
@@connecticut1123 Depression overall is bad but in it you start to learn things. You can start to help others becsuse now you know what its like. You become a much more stronger person if you pull through. I've been suffering with depression ever since I was around 9 years old. I am currently 18 and still deal with it but I don't let it get to me as much anymore. I'm glad to have pushed through even when i felt weak because now I have a wife who cares deeply about me and she is the one who was the light in my darkness. In the moment you don't see the brighter side but if you push through and overcome it you'll feel so much different
Hastings Vancouver!!! My apologies, i didn't imagine anyone would be so thoughtless as to replicate Hastings beyond the borders of that most cynical isle
I'm the only one who Remember the part of the movie "28 days later" when Jim was walking in a abandoned London? I love that movie for many reasons, the soundtrack is one of them. Is one of my favourite movies.
I definitely remember! My Ex-wife and I seen 28 days later opening night in New Orleans at a small theater, I remember looking at her and saying Godspeed!!!
I finally got the opportunity to see GYBE perform this track about five years ago. I’d heard a number of live bootlegs from the early 2000s where, during the quiet bridge that is otherwise sung by the band on the studio recording, audience members loudly sang the melody along with the band. Figuring this was commonplace, when the track slowed to a halt, I proceeded to belt out, “YA DUH DUH DUH!!” and immediately, a thousand pairs of pissed off eyes turned towards me. One of the most embarrassing moments I’ve ever had at a show lol
thats what lifes about right there. the little things.. I for one would have thanked you for the opportunity to witness that. Like that "let me bang bro" dude. that right there was art and what i live for. thank you for sharing and don't allow there anygry eys to disuade you from doing more shit like that. fuck'em if they knew anything they would have joined you
The things I remember most are the times I was embarrassed. I now know other people don't recall those moments about me but it took me a while to realize that
This is the music you listen to and you don’t care how weird odd and out of place others think you are. And, you look into others with a deeper understanding of how you don't understand them and realize you don't want to, nor, do you need to. It's enough to know, that they don't know how much you, yourself, truly know. Except for the mosquito at the end. He knows. More than any lowly human could possibly comprehend
Sorry, I read this band's name somewhere and therefore come from the realm of normal music... this is not the best song ever, and with songs like "Foreplay, Long Time" by Boston out there I can say that with pretty fair certainty. This just sounds like a peyote trip pressed onto vinyl.
@@CrazyBrick30 everyone has their own opinion. I agree that this is one of the best songs ever made, but i can also see why you would look at this song and think that its crap. you just have to learn to appreciate it I guess.
I listened to this song on a really long late-night bicycle ride. There's loads of historical landmarks close to my house; five ruined castles, ancient burial mounds, prehistoric forts, abandoned medieval villages, and a Roman road that cuts perfectly straight through the countryside for endless miles. History has been a passion for me since the age of 5, but this time... it was something else. Going past the scattered remnants of long-gone cultures listening to this doomy track ironically made the past feel more alive and present that ever before. Riding down those same paths that have been tread by nameless masses over thousands of years in the dead of night brings out something primal and empathetic that has to be experienced with an understanding of just how catastrophic and horrifying that things like disease and war meant to our ancestors. To us, the Coronavirus means a temporary economic turndown with the odd pensioner not making it through; to them, the plague meant half your family dead within a week at the hands of some unseen force that only needs close proximity to spread. For us, war is just grainy WW2 footage; for them, war meant being sent off to a far-off land to kill or be killed, if you weren't one of the lucky ones to avoid conscription. But after all those countless apocalyptic ordeals, here we are now instantly communicating with each other across the world from the warmth of our homes. And one day we too will all be dead, and our houses too will become nothing more than a stump of old bricks and gravel, maybe the odd broken lighter and crushed can waiting under the dirt to be found by our 40x great-grandchildren. Let's enjoy our time while it's still ours to enjoy, because it can always become as dark and dangerous as it was in the past.
Listening to this while you walk through the DTES is quite the experience. It is a hell realm, the land of hungry ghosts, where all nourishment turns to ashes in the face of all-consuming desire. That said, Vancouver is entering a death spiral, and nowadays this misery permeates pretty much the entire downtown core.
Man this track is just so powerful. For me it conjures images of the end of the world, wandering through an endless and desolate wasteland. A city devoid of life. Gray skies. A beam of light through the crack of a tattered curtain. Dusty pews in a church long since abandoned. A field of burned trees. Black smoke on a far off horizon. Coming to terms with an end you knew was coming.
Holy crap I saw the movie 28 days later just today and recognized one song very familiar to my ears... And here I am, listening to this tune while remembering my days in Commercial DR in Vancouver.
Whenever I have a relapse, I come to this sound, and it comforts me; all anguish, all affliction is tuned to this melancholic melody. I ask God to help me overcome my sins that torment me
@@jeffjohnson419 calm down? I can’t, it’s just my nature, what is going on right now, the elite c0cks****** out there mind controlling people to say stupid sh!t to the masses and getting paid by their masters, glad I never own cable, I’m sticking with my morals conservatism, i guess being awake kinda feels hopeless sometimes.
Wow this captures the doom and despair I felt growing up on E.Hastings. Spending my prime development years there was motivating to want to do everything to get out but it also makes you cynical at too young of an age. Excellent album 💪 -Mr.SmartCity
I've heard of these before now but this is the first time I've listen to this band...this track is unbelievably good. The kinda shit that affects you. I might not sleep tonight
this is visual art without even having visuals, because the visions come when you just sit back and listen and close your eyes, that’s the beauty of GSYBE & Post Rock! Fly Pan Am is another one of my faves
In a way, 28 Days Later kind of captured the modern state of the world with this song and Jim walking around the remains of London. As a result of Covid-19, entire cities have gone into lockdown, making them seem decolate. This pandemic may not be rage zombies going around killing everyone, but 28 Days Later did predict the loneliness in a lot of areas around the world.
@@CharlieWielowski I'm kind of surprised anyone at all responded to my 2 year old comment lmao. And yeah, people nowadays are looking to get angry at literally anything to feed their fragile superiority complex or to cater to a cult that they've been indoctrinated to mindlessly follow, rather than acknowledging and fighting against the real issues of the world. Now people are really arguing whether gender means a type of reproductive organ and sex chromosome, or if it's some magical social construct that's decided by what kind of clothes you like wearing. The world's gone mad, and intellectuals like us need to enlighten it.
I actually enjoyed the empty cities during the lockdown. It was really beautiful with all the pigeons and crows in the city, only listening to the wind in trees and rain falling down on stones without traces. Everything seemed so goddamn peaceful. I wish it would have lasted longer.
I don't remember finding this to have it saved on a playlist of mine but seriously i suprise myself with the type of music I listen to post rock brings this diffrent side out of me no other genre replicates
I listened to this while on a saunter today, at the darkest hour of the morning. As "Nothing's Alrite In Our Life" played, I passed a faceless man clearing his driveway of snow. His snow-blower's engine hummed a perfect A# drone. It added a very surreal touch of bass to that section of this piece. A morning to remember.
i was searching for a song with lyrics and found a lot of songs with no lyrics i really don’t know how i got here i’m gonna go head back to where i came from nice to see you guys
I once listened to this song completely high. And for me, the first part was life, with its own ups and downs, and then, in the beginning of the second part, after we hear the heartbeat stops, comes death. And the last part is just a state of slow decadence of a moment that feel like it’ll last forever. But it’ll not. It is just a simple illusion made by the last cells in our brain that shut down, one by one. It is when you’re the closest to death that you wanna live the most. Thanks to Godspeed You! Black Emperor for this masterpiece.
I'm reminded of this song every time I hear a crazy person rambling on East Hastings. This song captures the depressing poverty and addiction down there . The "large barge" sample at the end always bothers me. That voice sounds familiar for some reason.
it sounds familiar and alien at the same time, I think it's the way that the sentence is worded. normally, you wouldn't say charge up a discharge, and it's just kinda unsettling for some reason