Dec 142009
I believe it was in a recent issue of People magazine that I was reading at my Mom’s house this weekend that I read about a recovering Alexa Ray Joel, the daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, who survived an sort of overdose of homeopathic pills and who has a recording career underway. I had no idea!
What really struck me in this piece, though, was some song with a quoted couplet that contained the word “healthy.” I can’t put my finger on it just yet, but the word “healthy” has no business appearing in a rock lyric. Do you agree? What other words have you heard or read in rock lyrics that simply don’t belong in this genre?
here’s 2 words that don’t belong in rock: Billy Joel
Hahahaha Buddywhelan! that shit was funny!
“…but the point is probably moot”
-Rick Springfield’s, Jessie’s Girl.
moot is a terrible word for rock and roll. i’ve never heard it in another song and i hope i never do.
antiquing
Buddywhelan, that gets my vote for quote of the month!
Parvenu is the dumbest word to ever appear in a rock song:
The poor Prince of Wales
He gave up his crown
All for the trivial pursuit of
A parvenu second-hand lady
That’s from Blinded By Love by my favorite band. Sure, the song sucks balls no matter what, but I had to look up parvenu to see what it meant (essentially white trash lottery winner). I couldn’t believe Mick Jagger couldn’t come up with something funnier for that.
The reference to “Kant” in some artsy-farsty Sparks song off of “Kimono My House.”
On the other side of the ledger, I really like the reference to “Nabrokov” in the Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close To Me.”
Really? That reference to “Nabrokov” always felt forced to me; like Sting was trying to be all literary and whatnot.
I just like the rhythmic lilt to the way it’s sung: “that – book – by – Nab-rah-KOV!”
Though it’s kind of cheesy to rhyme “cough” with “koff.”
COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE COMMENTARY
That “Invisible” song sucks the bad part of my *ss — but Alexa Ray’s got one hell of a booty!
It’s Nabokov, he said pince nezly.
With all due respect to one of the greatest rock’n’rollers and his true love, the word I’m going to suggest is, “Yoko.”
Erectile dysfunction
As long as the pince-nez are out, the name is properly pronounced “Na-BO-kov.” The accent being on the penultimate syllable. Thus, the humor lies in the gap between Sting’s boundless pretension (i.e., allusion to great literary figure) and his inability to pronounce the name. Contrast with Jonathan Richman’s rhyming of “Camus” and “vous”, having already (ironically) rhymed “Freud” and “dude” in “She Doesn’t Laugh at My Jokes.”
That said, I still like “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” always have; and the cough/Nabokov issue is pretty far down on the list of Sting’s rock crimes. Even within the Police, the “young apprentice” / “Scylla and Charybdis” rhyme in “Wrapped Around Your Finger” calls for greater censure, if not “alabaster” / “master.”
But am I remembering wrong or did G. Sumner not at one time fess up to writing songs with frequent recourse to a rhyming dictionary?
By the way, until I saw the reunited Police on the Costello Spectacle show, I would have bet any money that Sting was the most annoying member of the Police; but no–Stewart Copeland leaves Sting in the dust. You’re just waiting for someone to punch him in the mouth.
But one digresses.
Any song’s overall ooomph is always diminished by in the inclusion of the word “fantasy”. I can cite numerous examples where the word’s presence has ruined anything magical that may be spinning around in the grooves. Be it “Double Fantasy” (one of thee alltime dumbest alubm titles), “Rock and Roll Fantasy”. . .even if the word appears in the liner notes, bad things are definitely in store for the listener.
Merry Christmas,
E. Pluribus
misterioso, what you say about the Police’s appearance on Spectacle is exactly what my wife said. It came up again Saturday night, while we watched Sting perform as part of that R ‘n R HoF extravaganza. My stepfather taped it for me. Sting was doing a decent job singing with some other Hall of Famer, and we were cutting up on his beard. Then my wife brought up how thankful she was to learn that someone in The Police was a bigger asshole than Sting. She said it allowed her to get back to enjoying the things she does like about Sting and The Police’s music.
epluribus, no allowances for “Dear Mr. Fantasy”? I hear you!
I would also allow for Ween’s “Don’t get 2 close (2 my fantasy)”
Don’t get too close to my fantasy
Don’t be afraid to clutch the hand of your creator
Stare into the lion’s eyes and if you taste the candy
You’ll get to the surprise
Also, “Fantasy” by Earth Wind and Fire. I think it works in that context (which is R&B&C – rhythm and blues and cheese).
While my intense antipathy towards Stingy has never ruined the Police for me, discovering how skin-crawlingly annoying Copeland was made me rethink my assumption that the band must have broken up solely due to the preternatural twittiness of Sting and his deep need to make sucky solo albums.
Did you read the interview with Stewart Copeland in the recent (current?) issue of MOJO. He’s really in to opera and liked Wagner’s in particular, until he started writing his own. Now he likes his the best.