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Dude, this song fooking RAWKS!!!!!

Really, do I need to say anymore? It’s a rock song. About dying. And having a birthday. And it’s hilarious. And it rocks.

Good shit, Maynard.

Here’s a link to a mashup

And of course, the lyrics:

Many years ago today something grew
inside of your mother…
That thing was you

Happy Birthday
You’re gonna die

A lot of people love the Gary Jules cover of this song, but I will always prefer the original. I first saw the video back in 1983 on Richard Blade’s MV3 video show, and I loved it. It’s got a really nice beat, you can dance to it, plus it’s got some very interesting–and quite frankly, over the top–lyrics (although I still think that the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had is one of the saddest lyrics I’ve ever heard).

As far as the song’s meaning, here are two quotes taken from Wikipedia:

That came when I lived above a pizza restaurant in Bath and I could look out onto the centre of the city. Not that Bath is very mad - I should have called it “Bourgeois World”!
—Roland Orzabal

It’s very much a voyeur’s song. It’s looking out at a mad world from the eyes of a teenager.[1]
—Curt Smith

I think that’s very appropriate for this song.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
‘Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World

Rebel Waltz isn’t one of the best known Clash songs, but it is a really good one. From the Sandinista! album (which I personally think is better than London Calling), it’s an odd tune by the Clash, a 3/4 waltz. It’s got a gorgeous, seemingly ethereal mood, describing what is likely the last night of a group of rebels in some war. From Rock and Roll Meandering Nonsense:

“Rebel Waltz” is a forgotten song on the Clash’s forgotten Sandinista album. As the title says, it is a waltz, but with an edge. I’m not sure what war this involves or even if that’s important, but the lyrics describe the resolve in a rebel army before (or perhaps after) a battle they cannot (or did not) win. There is a surreal sense to “Rebel Waltz” that suggests that the scene may actually follow the battle in which the rebels were slaughtered. At any rate, the song shows that the Clash can be a powerful band even on low-key songs. Even their waltz is for rebels.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful and haunting song, and it is slightly forgotten, which is a shame.

You can listen to the song below:

And of course, the lyrics:

I slept and I dreamed of a time long ago
I saw an army of rebels, dancing on air
I dreamed as I slept, I could see the campfires,
A song of the battle, that was born in the flames,
and the rebels were waltzing on air.

As the smoke of our hopes rose high from the field
My eyes played tricks through the moon and the trees
I slept as I dreamed I saw the army rise
A voice began to call, stand till you fall
The tune was an old rebel one.

Delia’s Gone is in many ways a typical Johnny Cash song, full of black humor and regret. In the hands of another singer, this song could be absolutely brutally painful, or woefully plastic. In Cash’s capable hands, it’s a masterpiece.

Johnny Cash brings a grim tongue in cheek quality to this song, in many ways a counterpoint to Robert Johnson’s 32-20 Blues. However, he manages to avoid the manic insanity of Johnson’s tune, with a little more regret and a little more anger. In many ways, he makes this song about killing someone more or less palatable.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

Delia, oh, Delia Delia all my life
If I hadn’t have shot poor
Delia I’d have had her for my wife
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone

So if you woman’s devilish
You can let her run
Or you can bring her down and do her
Like Delia got done
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone

Suffer the Children is easily one of my favorite Tears For Fears songs, perhaps only surpassed by Mad World (a quick aside–I know a lot of people love the slow version of that song, but it makes me want to hurl). I think it’s a great, sad song about parental neglect. I particularly dig the children’s voices singing “Na na na na na na na, na na na na na” in the background.

Here’s what Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal had to say about the song, from Wikipedia:

“Suffer The Children” was the first song we did together when we left Graduate. It was our very first experimentation with sequencers and drum machines, with a guy called David Lord, who worked with Peter Gabriel and different people down in Bath. So that was actually the first song we did as Tears For Fears.
—Curt Smith

The song’s title bears resemblance to a passage in the Biblical book of Matthew (19:14), in which Jesus Christ teaches on the innocence of children. According to Orzabal:

…We were really big on this at the time - we really thought children were born innocent and good and holy… When you’ve got kids of your own, you realize how bloody difficult it is. But it’s that kind of thing - saying look at what you’re doing with your child.
—Roland Orzabal

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

It’s a sad affair
When there’s no one there
He calls out in the night
And it’s so unfair
At least it seems that way
When you gave him his life

And it seems so strange
That at the end of the day
Making love can be so good
But the pain of birth
What is it worth
When it don’t turn out the way it should

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Now playing: X - White Girl
via FoxyTunes/>

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Now playing: The Jam - Ghosts
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Stay Cats - Stray Cat Strut
via FoxyTunes

It’s really interesting the stuff you find out sometimes when researching these posts. I’d always thought this song was an hilarious tale of someone who chose to bore people to death, but I have discovered the song is based on The Killer Inside Me, a novel by James Thompson.

The song is set from the point of the protagonist, a man who seems to be friendly, laconic and perhaps a little bit slow, but that’s apparently only a veneer hiding the truth–he’s a serial killer.

I’ve always liked this song because it has a good hook and because of the humor, but I’ll be listening to it with different ears from now on.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

You’ve probably seen me hanging around
I’m a very familiar face in this town.
A day doesn’t go by that I don’t meet
a lot of my friends walking down the street.
I’m never too busy to stop by the way
and I’ve always got something pleasant to say.
Maybe some perceptive thoughts about the weather
or the latest news from Wall Street, whatever.
I could stand around all day making small talk
gushing platitudes, blocking the sidewalk
tying people up for hours with ease,
my one big talent is shooting the breeze.
When they start to squirm, I really get going
but only my happy-face smile is showing.
Why can’t the y see what I’m trying to hide,
I’m bustin’ a gut, laughing on the inside.
It’s in their smile when I say hello
I can see they think I’m a little bit slow.
But after a while with me, they look dazed
their eyes covered with a donut glaze.
I really start to cook when I see that look
I hit ‘em with every cliché in the book.
Their knees wobble and they start to weave
it’s like they’re begging for permission to leave,
they think they are having a brush with stupidity
I don’t laugh, even though it’s killing me.
Watching them wilt like day-old flowers
Ticking off the minutes as they turn to hours.
They are wondering how much more they can take
I give ‘em a friendly smile and a handshake.
We say goodbye very politely

so I introduce them to the killer inside me.

Country Death Song may not be the darkest song ever written, but it’s certainly one of them. According to Wikipedia:

“Country Death Song,” for example, was based a true story from an 1862 news article about a man who intentionally threw his daughter into a well and then hung himself in his barn. It was written by Gano during his 10th grade study hall.

It’s quite interesting that this is based on a true story–presuming that Wikipedia is accurate. If so, Gordan Gano did a fabulous job of getting inside of the head of the murderer, making his craziness sound almost plausible.

The song itself is extremely well arranged. The stark sounding bass, the simple snare drum, and the sparse finger-picked guitar give the song a spacy, hollow feeling. However, what really makes it work is the banjo. Al Barger had this to say:

But this recording has a critical additional instrument: banjo. The more I listen to it, the more interesting Tony Trischka’s playing here becomes. The point of the song emotionally is despair, not typically an emotional territory associated with banjo playing. Indeed, Steve Martin got one of his funnier stand-up routines out of how nearly impossible it is to play sad songs on this happy instrument.

I agree completely: the banjo gives the song a certain flavor and feeling used as a counterpoint to the other instruments. Additionally, Gano’s plaintive vocals really put things in perspective.

Here’s a link to a tribute video

And of course, the lyrics:

I had me a wife, I had me some daughters.
I tried so hard, I never knew still waters.
Nothing to eat and nothing to drink.
Nothing for a man to do but sit around and think.
Nothing for a man to do but sit around and think.

Don’t speak to me of lovers, with a broken heart.
You wanna know what can really tear you apart?
I’m going out to the barn, will I never stop in pain?
I’m going out to the barn, to hang myself in shame.

Okay, everyone knows Tainted Loe. I mean, EVERYBODY. You hum it walking down the street, and you’re likely to see a scene out of a Gene Kelly musical as the street explodes in song and dance…well, perhaps not, but you get the point.

What a lot of people don’t know, however, is how good the rest of the album that Tainted Love came from is. Among the great tracks is Sex Dwarf. Almost comical–okay, quite comical in many ways–the song’s evocative lyrics in many ways belie the sordid nature of what’s really going on. After all, it is a song about luring young girls into a life of pornography or prostitution or both, not quite the happy fun time it sounds like.

Oh yeah, it also works as a really cool disco song as well. That’s right, I said disco. Wanna make something of it? ;) All together now, “It’s got a great beat and I can dance to it!”.

Here’s a link to a tribute video

And of course, the lyrics:

Isn’t it nice
Sugar and spice
Luring disco dollies
To a life of vice
I could make a film
And make you my star
You’d be a natural
The way you are
I would like you on
A long black leash
I would parade you
Down the high street
You’ve got the attraction
You’ve got the pulling power
Walk my little doggy
Walk my little sex dwarf
We could make a scene
We’d be a team
Making the headlines
Sounds like a dream
When we hit the floor
You just watch them move aside
We will take them
For a ride of rides
They all love your
Miniature ways
You know what they say
About small boys
I’m in my Rolls Royce
Look it’s so huge
It’s big and it’s gold
With my dumb chauffeur
Looking to procure
Run little doggy
Lure a disco dolly
Run my little sex dwarf
I feel so lonely
Get my little camera
Take a pretty picture
Sex dwarf
In a gold Rolls
Making it with the dumb chauffeur
Isn’t it nice
Sugar and spice
Luring disco dollies
To a life of vice
Sex dwarf
Isn’t it nice
Luring disco dollies to a life of vice
We could make an outfit
For my little sex dwarf
To match the gold Rolls
And my dumb chauffeur
We’ll all look so good
We’ll knock ‘em cold
Knocking ‘em cold
In black and gold
We can have playtime
In my little playroom
Disco dollies
My sex dwarf
And my dumb chauffeur
I would like you on a long black lead
You can bring me all the things I need
Sex dwarf
Isn’t it nice
Luring disco dollies to a life of vice
Isn’t it nice
Sugar and spice
Luring disco dollies to a life of vice

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Now playing: Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died
via FoxyTunes

The first time I heard Rise on MTV, I was captivated and enthralled–especially since I knew what a rare thing it was to see a PiL video. I rarely saw it again.

This is a great song, a bastardization of a traditional Irish blessing/folk song. The singer seems to be challenging the notion that anything you know is right, and that anything other than conformity will be squashed–sort of typical for John Lydon. Still, what really makes this song is the steady bass line, the pounding drums, the strings, and John Lydon’s hectoring vocals (yes, I know he really can’t sing, but he can use his limited range very, very effectively).

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

I could be wrong, I could be right
I could be wrong, I could be right

Anger is my energy
Anger is my energy
Anger is my energy
Anger is my energy

I’ve generally wondered what all the fuss was about regarding Pearl Jam. There’s maybe two songs of their’s that I like. One is Jeremy. This is the other one.

I like this song for many reasons. I think one of my major reasons for liking it is that it doesn’t sound like a Pearl Jam song. In fact, Eddie Vedder’s voice on this song reminds me much more of Neil Young than anything else. Another reason is that I just feel it has a lot of depth. Plus, it does rock.

For once, I’ve got some concrete information on the song’s meaning, specifically from Wikipedia:

When speaking about the song, Eddie Vedder stated, “That song is all about someone who’s drunk with technology, who thinks they’re the controlling living being on this planet. It’s another one I’m not singing as myself.” Pearl Jam has stated that the novel Ishmael influenced the writing of Yield, and according to the novel’s writer, Daniel Quinn, this song comes the closest to expressing the ideas of the book. Vedder stated:

This Daniel Quinn book, Ishmael…I’ve never recommended a book before, but I would actually, in an interview, recommend it to everyone….But this book, it’s kind of the book of my … My whole year has been kind of with these thoughts in mind. And on an evolutionary level, that man has been on this planet for 3 million years, so that you have this number line that goes like this [hands wide apart]. And that we’re about to celebrate the year 2000, which is this [holds hands less than one inch apart]. So here’s this number line; here’s what we know and celebrate. This book is a conversation with a man and an ape. And the ape really has it all together. He kinda knows the differences between him and the man, and points out how slight they are, and it creates an easy analogy for what man has done, thinking that they were the end-all. That man is the end-all thing on this earth. That the earth was around even so much longer before the 3 million years. Fifty million years of sharks and all these living things. Then man comes out of the muck, and 3 million years later he’s standing, and now he’s controlling everything and killing it. Just in the last hundred! Which is just a speck on this line. So what are we doin’ here? This is just a good reminder…And I’m anxious to see what happens. You know, I’ve got a good seat for whatever happens next. It’ll be interesting.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

Woo..
I’m ahead, I’m a man
I’m the first mammal to wear pants, yeah
I’m at peace with my lust
I can kill ’cause in God I trust, yeah
It’s evolution, baby

I am ahead, I am advanced
I am the first mammal to make plans, yeah
I crawled the earth, but now I’m higher
2010, watch it go to fire
It’s evolution, baby
It’s evolution, baby
Let’s do the evolution
Come on, come on, come on