lyrics

Tape Your Wife to the Ceiling [or Anti-Valentine’s Day Songs]

Posted by funoka

Feb 092013

Before the big heart day — I thought I would share this little number called “Tape Your Wife to the Ceiling.”

Here’s another kind of anti-valentine song from Tom Petty.

A personal aside: The biggest rock band in the Twin Cities in 1980-81 was not Husker Du or The Replacements or Prince. It was a large ensemble group called The Suburbs, who had a couple of minor hits (“Music For Boys”, “Love Is The Law”), a 1-record major-label deal, and then kind of faded away into local lore. The ‘Burbs packed ’em in — I saw them outside at Navy Island in St. Paul with R.E.M. — and R.E.M. wisely opened for these guys, because the ‘Burbs were always a tough act to follow. (That concert is also memorable because I saw some of my sister’s 14-year-old friends at the show, which freaked me out, because I was an old man of 19.)

Personal aside II: Petty’s “Long After Dark” is due for a critical upgrade.

So, anyway, what’s your favorite anti-Valentine song?

Cha-Cha-Changes…For the Better

Posted by sammymaudlin

Feb 082013

I’m not sure exactly where I heard this tidbit of George Harrison lore but half-assed Googling indicates that it comes from his autobiography. He said something to the effect that in The Beatles song I Want to Tell You, penned by Harrison, that he wished he had reversed the lyric,

But if I seem to act unkind
It’s only me, it’s not my mind
That is confusing things

to be something more like

But if I seem to act unkind
It isn’t me, it’s just my mind
That is confusing things

I admit that I could be butchering this story but I’m pretty sure that I have the gist of it. It stuck with me because I used to think that about that part of that song before I heard Harrison thought it too. It’s kinda obvious isn’t it? “Me” is so much more than “mind.” Anyhoo… Here is the only version I could find where it is sung by Harrison in this reversed way.

Unfortunately it is a pretty crappy version of the song, IMHO. It doesn’t help that Eric Clapton, I think, is part of this performance as well. Feel free to Pince Nez me Townsfolk.

Your Favorite Songs With ROCK in the Title?

Posted by funoka

Dec 072012

One of my favorite albums of 2012 is Dwight Yoakam’s 3 Pears, which has “Rock It All Away” — a slow burner that I like.

Then I started thinking about other songs with “rock” in the title — and there are many of those, but what would be my favorite? I think I’ve settled on this chestnut from Garland Jeffreys’ out of print “Escape Artist” called “R.O.C.K.”

So, what’s your favorite song with ROCK in the title?

Cit-Ay and Other Rock Pronunciation Tips

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Aug 032012

I was listening to Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City” earlier today, while driving from Laguna to San Francisco, primarily through the kind of amazing California nowhere land that I-5 takes drivers. Hearing Stevie repeatedly pronounce the song’s key word as Cit-Ay I got to thinking of that horrible Journey song that pronounces the word the same way, and the possibility for a Last Man Standing. Then I realized there are probably a dozen other words that are only pronounced a certain way in song, a way that no one would ever pronounce the words in everyday speech. Then I realized that you can help budding rock singers identify and learn the proper rock pronunciation of these words. Go!

Running Low on Inspiration

Posted by northvancoveman

Jun 232012

Driving home tonight, I heard a song for perhaps the 10th or 12h time. I typed part of the lyrics into Google to find the title, and found out it was “Love You Like a Love Song,” by Selena Gomez.

This is a song I hear when my wife leaves the dance station on in my truck. I used to have a problem with this, kinda, but I don’t anymore. I think we are in a producer-driven golden age of dance music; I find many of the songs exciting and edgy.

“Love You Like a Love Song” isn’t one of these, but I did find something about the tune that caught my mind’s Rainman-like attention to patterns that sometimes manifest themselves in RTH posts.

It’s the lyrics. They’re mundane. But they are mundane in a way that has historical precedent in pop music. Take a look at the first two lines:

Every beautiful thought’s been already sung
And I guess right now here’s another one.

This is the sound of someone struggling to write a song, nay, write a HIT SONG. This is a very particular pattern in pop history. My mind leapt to dozens of songs that had this “guess it’s all been done but i need to write a song” genesis, that were then voiced that within the finished product.

I thought of a half-dozen right away. Most weren’t good, but some were very good.

Anyone?

Name That Tune: The ESL Edition

Posted by cdm

Apr 102012

Please identify the song that contains the following lyrics:

Nobody does not feel this evening
it imports which pain
since me m’ nell’ within of the Ev’ rain;
to find;
everybody it knows this baby
to obtained the new dresses
but to see its tapes
and its arches of its circuits
have fallen recently

The tricky part is that I “translated” the lyrics from English to Dutch, then Dutch to French, then French to Italian, then Italian back to English, using the online translation site Bablefish.

Let me know if you want any hints.

Feel free to stump us with re-translated lyrics of your own choosing.

Recurring “Nightmare” Couplets

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 012012

The recent One-liners thread launched by Townsman hrrundivbakshi coupled with an ongoing super-busy streak at work seem to have brought what I consider an unwelcome yet wholly appropriate rock lyric couplet into my brain:

Get up and do it again. Amen.

It’s from some Jackson Browne song I deeply dislike. Is it “The Pretender?” I’m not going to risk listening to any Jackson Browne songs right now to verify the source, but it’s a recurring nightmare couplet that enters my brain as a form of gallows humor during tough stretches at work, then gets stuck there for as long as a week. For the first day or two it makes me chuckle, then it grates on me. Big time.

Do you have a recurring nightmare couplet that creeps into your brain in certain circumstances?

(As an aside, does Jackson Browne’s have more songs about how hard it is to work, how hard it is to get through the day, than he does days working an “honest” job? Didn’t he start out as a 16-year-old boy-toy and songwriter for Nico? Has he ever worked an “honest” job in his life? Is watching his roadies haul equipment across the country the closest he’s come to any form of non-artistic labor?)

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