lyrics

One-liners

Feb 272012

I am the original skeptic when it comes to the poetic value of rock and roll lyrics. Strip these words of their musical accompaniment, and I submit that 99.999% of them will suck. With music, I’d say a good 50% of them are still pretty embarrassing.

Every now and then, though, rock lyrics deliver. They give us goose bumps, they make us punch our fist in the air, or they make us stop and stare out the window for a moment.

Usually, these words take flight because they achieve perfect symbiosis with the music they accompany — but sometimes, they just escape the pull of gravity because they’re just, you know, really good.

For the last few days, I’ve woken up with the Jam song “Monday” bouncing around in my head — and I always pause when my mental Rock-Ola gets to the line “I will never be embarrassed about love again.”

I don’t know what Paul Weller meant to say — and I don’t even really know what that line means to me. But I love it. I’d like to focus a quick discussion on rock lyrics — but not entire songs or verses, or even couplets. I want to know if there are any rock “one-liners” that deliver the goods for you, like that one line in “Monday” does for me.

As always, I look forward to your responses.

HVB

Grammatically Grating Songs

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 202012

On the most-recent episode of Saturday Night Shut-In I promised to tell the story of breaking up a fight between our 2 boys minutes before my wife and I departed the house for yet another delicious meal at Le Virtu, a restaurant in South Philadelphia owned by 2 old friends, Rusty and Cathy. A few of you wrote me off list, disappointed that I did not ever get around to telling this story. I apologize. I was caught up in the flow of the show and lost track of my note to share that tale. Here goes, and a resulting thread suggested by the owners of Le Virtu follows!

So my wife and I had our coats on and were leaving the boys their instructions/reminders for the couple of hours they’d be spending alone when suddenly our older son had our younger son in a headlock…

Et tu, Pete?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 062012

"Put a quarter in the jar, Pete!"

When you get to the 1:25 mark of Pete Townshend‘s demo for “Doctor Jimmy,” from the spectacularly fascinating Quadrophenia box set, listen closely and tell me what’s missing from the album version, the version we know so well and listened to while trying to make sense of our teenage angst.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/10-Doctor-Jimmy-DemoDemo-Version.mp3|titles=”Doctor Jimmy” (Demo)]

Cure for Controversy

Posted by cherguevara

Dec 162011

I’m not an ardent follower of The Cure, which accounts for the fact that I am years behind on learning of the alterations Robert Smith has been making to the band’s first single, “Killing An Arab,” since 2005. The song is now performed as, “Killing Another,” due to superficial interpretations of the song that overlook its basis on Camus’ novel, The Stranger, oversimplifying it as an anti-Arab message. Given the politics of the last decade or so, it is easy to see how Robert Smith took the stance of asking radio stations to not play the song and then choosing to alter the lyrics.

Before changing the lyric to “Killing Another,” apparently Smith went with “Kissing An Arab” in his attempts to continue playing the song while playing down these racist interpretations.

Being the band’s first single and one of their best-known songs, it seems that it might be difficult to set this song aside. On the other hand, it seems to me that they have many other well-known songs and need-not feel compelled to play the song anymore.

My questions to the Hall are these: What would you do if you were Robert Smith? Abandon the song? Play it as it is? Or change the lyrics as he has done?

Can you think of any other artists who have abandoned one of their big hit singles? Can you think of any other songs that have suffered from gross misinterpretation? As a fan, are you open to changing the lyrics to a song (or the title) after 30 years of hearing it as it was originally written?

What say ye, Townsfolk?

Mad Props! to Volkswagen Passat Ad Featuring Elton John’s “Rocket Man”

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Dec 072011

My wife seems capable of singing along with the lyrics to any song on the radio, even Elton John songs. I’ve always found him to be the most difficult singer to understand in rock, even more difficult to understand than David Bowie. Thank you, Volkswagen Passat.

In other rock-ad news, what’s your reaction to Devo doing those “Drink It” radio spots for Pepsi?

Finally, speaking of Pepsi, can anyone clear up if it was The Hawks or The Band playing on the following movie intermission ad?

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Posted by cdm

Jul 052011

A quibble about the Mod’s recent open letter to Robbie Robertson, in which he said: “you’ve… …written perhaps rock’s greatest story song ever, ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.’” In the article linked to the Mod’s post, Bill Flannigan makes a similar assertion.

Now I like TNTDODD well enough (although it’s hardly among my favorite Band songs) but I don’t understand what the story is supposed to be. It just kind of runs through a bunch of Civil War images without any discernable plot (not unlike Thin Lizzy did with random Western images in the Cowboy Song). I would ask you to either explain the plot of this “story” to me or please refer to the song as “Rock’s Greatest Civil War Imagery Song” from now on.

In the meantime, I submit “Tom Ames Prayer,” one of a dozen or so songs by Steve Earle in which he tells a much more cohesive story than TNTDODD:

What’s Your Favorite ELO Lyric?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

May 162011

What’s your favorite ELO lyric?

It’s funny how lyrics operate within the context of studio-recorded pop music. I’ve been listening to my favorite 10 or so ELO songs on my iPod lately, and while marveling at how good Jeff Lynne‘s voice could be the rare times he let it be heard without obstruction by the aural shades that were layers of multi-tracking and studio effects I also began to marvel at how much emotion his music could inspire despite the fact that there’s hardly an ELO lyric that, taken at word value alone, means a damn to me.

I first began to think about this while enjoying maybe my third-favorite ELO song, “Strange Magic.” I’ve loved this song since middle school, but I can’t even tell what he’s singing in the chorus after he sings the title. From what I can make out in the verses, which seem to race by in time to enjoy the next musical variation on the chorus’ arrangement, I’m not missing much, but because Lynne so artfully buries his lack of lyrical content sacrificing his pleasing vocal timbre in the process, it never matters for me. It’s probably best that I fail to pay attention to his lyrics. Beside, it’s magic; why should I try to make sense of it?

Whenever “Telephone Line” comes on I can actually follow along with the lyrics and get something directly out of them. It’s no surprise that this is one of the few songs on which Lynne avoids overdoing the effects on his voice. He knows he’s got a direct sentiment to express. Beside that song, though—only a few days after listening to these songs and thinking about this stuff—I can barely think of a couplet in a verse in an ELO song that I give a damn about removed from the music! Other than “You’ve made a fool of me,” in the beginning of “Evil Woman,” I’d have to think long and hard about a line outside the chorus in any song by them, let alone one that means anything to me.

How about you? Do you have a favorite ELO lyric, even as small as a couplet or ad-libbed aside?

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