Friday, August 1, 2014
THIS SURVEY HAS BEEN NORMAN MAILERED, MAXWELL TAYLORED, JOHN O'HARA'D AND MCNAMARA'D: According to some survey of 2000 British people, the "weirdest song lyric of all time" is The Killers' "Are we human, or are we dancer?", narrowly edging out the distinction between Eggman and Walrus, Lionel Richie's faux-Swahili in "All Night Long," and Carly Rae Jepsen's chronologically impossible "Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad." [Also, "The Reflex." FlexflexflexflexFLEX.]
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I maintain my position that 90s one-hit wonder Dog's Eye View belongs in this conversation with the immortal lyric--"The devil is not/in the details/no, the devil/is in my pants."
ReplyDeleteI know this is just opening me up for ridicule, but I love that Carly Rae Jepsen line. She missed the IDEA of the person she thinks he is. (Of course, when you watch the video, you realize that the guy she's talking about is not interested in women, which is a whole other conversation. I've thought about this way too much.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great collection of weird lyrics. As a kid, I was always confused by lyrics of Elton John songs. I still sometimes have to really focus to figure out what the hell Bernie Taupin is talking about!
ReplyDeleteLook, if this space is not a safe space for the overanalysis of Carly Rae Jepsen lyrics, I don't know what it's supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteI like Manfred Mann's "Blinded by the Light." Whether you sing "wrapped up like a douche" or " revved up like a duece bag," you still have
ReplyDelete"Madman drummers bummers,
Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat"
There's also a silicone sister, a go-cart Mozart, and a fresh-sown moonstone; and the calliope always crashes into the ground.
Also chronologically impossible: "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
ReplyDeleteI remember the first through 30th times I heard "Californication" on the radio. My reaction is always the same. I like this song. This is great. Wait, did he just say "First born unicorn"? Hey, there it was again. First born unicorn. But he sings it "Firstborn unicor-orn" so it doesn't even rhyme. I thought Kiedsis was clean.
ReplyDeleteMost of that is the fault of Springsteen in his self-discribed "rhyming dictionary in hand, write the music later phase." Although the original lyric is "cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night." Like a street racing couple.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to wait for someone to argue in the next post that films like Shoah and Night and Fog are both overrated.
ReplyDeleteNot if you're your own grandpa.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite song about the effects of time-dilation on an ordinary romance? "Benson, Arizona" -- soon to be covered by our own Paul Tabachneck, btw.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2F0dHVZAm8