Queue on 3/2/2011 at 15:34
Mediocre, poppy, or even douche-chillingly bad songs can have moments of poignancy. And I love finding those such moments. So here's three oldies to kick this off:
- "You got your glory, you paid for it all. You take your pension in loneliness and alcohol." - Billy Squier's, Everybody Wants You.
- "The old place don't seem the same anymore. Yesterday's dreams lie discarded on the bedroom floor." - Night Ranger's, Why Does Love Have To Change.
- "Look in the alley, along the road, there the losers stand. There in the rain they bide their time, hustling what they can. They bet just to get that bottle in their hand." - Russ Ballard's, In The Night.
What can you add to the list?
Kolya on 3/2/2011 at 15:52
Mediocre or clichéd songs often have a lot of truth, that's how they became clichés in the first.
Anyway, I choose "(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE89OeM5nmU) Where do you go to my lovely" from Peter Sarstedt. The moralistic and begrudging chorus is pretty abysmal, but that just makes the allegedly empty and shallow life of the besung Marie Claire seem all the more fun and free. And so sophisticated, OMG. :D
You talk like Marlene Dietrich
And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
Your clothes are all made by Balmain
And there's diamonds and pearls in your hair, yes there are
You live in a fancy apartment
Off the Boulevard Saint-Michel
Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
And you're a friend of Sacha Distel, yes you are
I've seen all your qualifications
You got from the Sorbonne
And the painting you stole from Picasso
Your loveliness goes on and on, yes it does
When you go on your summer vacation
You go to Juan-les-Pins
With your carefully designed topless swimsuit
You get an even suntan on your back and on your legs
And when the snow falls you're found in Saint Moritz
With the others of the jet-set
And you sip your Napoleon brandy
But you never get your lips wet, no you don't
Your name, it is heard in high places
You know the Aga Khan
He sent you a racehorse for Christmas
And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, a-ha-ha-ha
They say that when you get married
It'll be to a millionaire
But they don't realize where you came from
And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn :p
SubJeff on 3/2/2011 at 15:56
I don't listen to mediocre songs.
Fingernail on 3/2/2011 at 16:00
I like finding what seems like genuine feeling in pop classics, eg. Luther Vandross' "Dance with my father", which as a song about missing his deceased father, and as a man looking back on his childhood (he died soon after recording it), is quite touching, but that only just lifts it above its cheesy ballad production.
Another is The Winner Takes it All by ABBA, which contradicts its forlorn and oppressed lead vocal with a bouncy bassline and upbeat drums after the first chorus. Whilst this might seem to make it more shallow, it somehow makes it less so than if it just continued in a very sombre fashion. It's like happy life is going on around the loser. Which is kind of what it's like when you're sad.
madwolf on 3/2/2011 at 19:51
It's probably easier finding crappy lines in classic songs, though none spring to mind immediately.
demagogue on 3/2/2011 at 21:36
I remember an article complaining about Pink Floyd lyrics and rolling its eyes at Wish You Were Here: "We're just two lost souls / Swimming in a fish bowl / Year after year".
A lot of Nirvana lyrics were adolescent mumbling, cf. Smells Like Teen Spirit
"And I forget just why I taste
Oh yeah I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard it's hard to find
Oh well whatever nevermind"
Though the nevermind vibe to them was pretty much the point.
Sulphur on 3/2/2011 at 23:17
Green Day - Jesus of Suburbia. All right song, catchy, but the lyrics didn't do anything much until the song segued into a quieter piano-led bridge that went:
I read the graffiti
In the bathroom stall
Like the holy scriptures of the shopping mall
And so it seemed to confess
It didn't say much
But it only confirmed that
The center of the earth
Is the end of the world
And I could really care less
'The centre of the earth / is the end of the world' hits me for no particular reason that I can say why.
SubJeff on 4/2/2011 at 00:17
I can't stand his blocked-nose-singing but that was bunch of cool lyrics right there.
I just can't think of any mediocre songs that have good lyrics at the moment. I suppose some of the stuff I don't consider mediocre other people would though so...
Sg3 on 4/2/2011 at 00:31
Yeah, so often I find a single excellent line amidst a bunch of drivel. It's disappointing, especially because in order to use that line to express how I feel, I would have to take it grossly out of context. Often the artist was talking about something completely different, which I cannot relate to, but that one line was something that could be used to elegantly describe exactly how I feel about something else.
Kolya on 4/2/2011 at 10:34
Quote Posted by Sulphur
'The centre of the earth / is the end of the world' hits me for no particular reason that I can say why.
May be interesting in this context:
Cyrus "Koresh" Teed was an American physician and alchemist turned messiah in 1869 when he discovered that the sky and stars reside in a hollow earth and we're all living on the inside of that shell, shielded from the void outside by a massive gold layer.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Teed)
Inline Image:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/cc/img/bcover.jpg