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Album Title Apostrophe Placement

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:scratch:

Just a concern about the album title "Waiting For The Sirens` Call."

Notice the location of the apostrophe on "Sirens". By placing the apostrophe after the S is to imply that there is more than one Siren. Fair enough. But listening to this song, it is obvious Barney is refering to just the one woman.

The album should have been written as: Waiting For The Siren`s Call".

Or am I completely barking?

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Hey it's confusing enough that they have named the album after a song so who cares :crazy:

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There was more than one siren.

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Hey, they could have titled it Cries and Whispers and the next one Mesh.:laugh:

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Veritas wrote:

:scratch:

Just a concern about the album title "Waiting For The Sirens` Call."

Notice the location of the apostrophe on "Sirens". By placing the apostrophe after the S is to imply that there is more than one Siren. Fair enough. But listening to this song, it is obvious Barney is refering to just the one woman.

The album should have been written as: Waiting For The Siren`s Call".

Or am I completely barking?

Tremendous to see this discussion has reared its head again.

Despite the lyrics of the track suggesting Barney's woes with just the one woman, perhaps it all comes down to the actual line in the song.

"Waiting for the sirens' call"

It's being suggested that the ship is off course, lost and probably sailing towards impending doom. Waiting for the sirens' call is a metaphor for this impending doom, using the Ulyssean fable. At this point in proceedings I don't think he's specifically referring to the female protagonist, therefore the sirens needn't be singular.

:\pimp3:

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Maybe Mr Wakefield could help us with this one, but what I was told is that originally, the artwork didn't have any apostrophe at all because the band couldn't decide where it would be, so Mr Saville said it won't have any.

But since they decided to pass on that artwork and go with the big orange one, the apostrophe appeared...

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And by leaving it as "sirens" plural, it implies a series of sirens that steer one astray over the course of one's life, plus it allows the subject of the song to be less personalized (in the way that, say, Paradise was grossly personalized to being about a specific woman named Jolene, not just some random woman), leaving it so much easier to apply to appropriate for one's own life.

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Veritas wrote:

Or am I completely barking?

Past Barking and well on the way to Dagenham, I'd say.

(Welcome, btw!)

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Old Blue wrote:

Veritas wrote:

Or am I completely barking?

Past Barking and well on the way to Dagenham, I'd say.

(Welcome, btw!)

Well, if you ever go to Shoeburyness, take the A road, the OK road thats the best.  Go motoring on the A13.

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LOVE VIGILANTES**'**

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Right, let's nail this one down. The "woman" referred to in the lyric is in fact the ship itself, (I name this ship.... God bless HER and all who sail in HER!) The sirens are, as we all know, mythological creatures who lured sailors to their doom and in the tune Bernard clearly says he's never seen "THEM" here before.

What does this ship bring to me,

Far across the restless sea,

Waiting for the sirens' call,

I've never seen THEM here before.

There SHE plies a lonely trade,

Cutting through the breaking waves,

Drifting slowly from HER course,

SHE is lost for evermore.

I therefore contend that the apostrophe is correctly placed. Any questions?

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Who's Joe?

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huntsman wrote: Who's Joe?

He's got eyes like an old, wounded soldier.

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I did read that the song was written about a tramp, or tramps.

Most tramps I see play guitars and encourage dogs to collate coins from the general public.

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huntsman wrote: I did read that the song was written about a tramp, or tramps. Most tramps I see play guitars and encourage dogs to collate coins from the general public.

They're just trying to put you off the scent.

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Who, the canine protagonists?

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huntsman wrote: Who, the canine protagonists?

Barney and company.

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MMmmmmm.

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huntsman wrote: MMmmmmm.

Is that a comment on your soup, H?

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No, I was just humming to a tune I had about fig rolls.

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