R.E.M.'s “The One I Love,” Natalie Merchant’s “Wonder,” Paula Cole’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone.”
^ REM’s “The One I Love” is even more interesting because, according to Stipe, whenever they played the song (in the 80s, anyway) they’d look out and see people in the audience making out to it, as if it were a sincere lovesong! That’s both irony and idiocy.
Don Henley, “The Boys of Summer”: Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
At the time, that was supposed to be ironic.
Oh, and for the record on Randy Newman,
Randy Newman is over six feet tall.
Julie Andrews was a smashing sensation as Eliza Doolittle in the original Broadway cast of My Fair Lady.. When the movie was being cast, the producers chose Audrey Hepburn to play Eliza Doolittle because they didn’t think that Julie Andrews would have much box office appeal. That year Julie Andrews won the Oscar for the title role in Mary Poppins.
I have to throw in Spider Robinson’s “God Is An Iron” short story (which was later expanded into his book, Mindkiller), in which a character observes that God is an iron. That is, if we call those who commit gluttony a glutton and those who commit felony a felon, then …
That one would have gotten the Unintended Irony of the Decade Award, if such an award was ever given out.
BTW, the title of the song is just “Mercedes Benz”.
I don’t know or care if Randy Newman intended to be ironic with Short People. All I know is that a rather large percentage of the people I know thought that it was terrifically original and funny to pick me up and say “hello.” I still kinda hate him for that.
When I saw him in person, he didn’t look particularly short.
I’m pretty sure that the irony was very much intended. It was supposed to be a joke on how the Boomer’s values had changed.
Haj
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George Orwell’s 1984 – intended as a horrific dystopian novel, not, as the North Korean regime seems to think, an instruction manual for running a country.
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Nirvana’s “Rape Me” – nothing to do with physical rape or masochism, as its detractors claim, but rather a lamentation of the author’s inescapable position at the end of the press’s microscope.
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Nirvana’s “Polly” – This song actually does describe a rape, though Cobain is deploring it, not encouraging it. It was particularly upsetting for him to learn that two men sang this song while raping a woman.
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John Lennon’s “we’re bigger than Jesus” comment – As he later explained, he was lamenting this fact, not gloating.
Not quite ‘Irony’ but close;
Imagine by John Lennon with the line ‘Imagine no possesions’ - Morons always says (in a know it all voice) Huh- look at all the possesions he had guffaw guffaw.
Not to be to obvious but the song is called IMAGINE, implying he can only imagine it, because he knows it will never happen, but he can still believe it and strive for it.
It gets me so annoyed when people say this, even music critics (on CH4s top 100) say this. How could you miss the point any more.
When Frank Zappa debated John Lofton on Crossfire in 1986, Lofton mentioned that Zappa once had an album called We’re Only in It for the Money, which led him to ask, “How much money have you made peddling this stuff, Mr. Zappa?”
Whoosh.
Zappa, witty as ever, proudly replied, “Millions of dollars, Mr. Lofton. Millions and millions of dollars.”
From http://www.cyberpg.com/Music/woodieguthrie.html, how about these two verses from the original lyric of “This Land is Your Land?”
Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing –
God blessed America for me.
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people –
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
God blessed America for me.
…err, sorry, remove the comma from the URL and it works…
While driving in the car last night listening to “Disco NIght” on the radio, I heard one that should be a contender:
The Village People singing “In the Navy.”
A tune which was basically a navy recruitment song by people who would have been thrown out of said organization simply because of their sexual orientation. “Search the world for pleasure” (but don’t get caught.)
The irony of Born In The USA being used as a political anthem isn’t contained in the song - it’s on the cover of the album, where Springsteen is pissing on the flag.
Pedant: only three of the original six Village People were actually gay - the traffic cop, the Indian chief and the construction worker.
The “If you prick me, do I not bleed” speech from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. It was certainly not meant to be a sincere defence of the Jews, the play is incredibly anti-semitic. What’s funny is that this quote appeared in the movie “the Pianist”. You would think Polanski would know better…
Huckleberry Finn. People just don’t get it.
Regards,
Shodan
I fear I may have never fully appreciated the irony that exists in Billy Joel’s “Allentown”. If I’m not mistaken, the song hails from his Nylon Curtain lp.
It seems that Joel is lamenting the upbringing that exists in Allentown, PA (I assume that’s the case since he sings of Bethlehem from just up the road and vacationing on the Jersey shore…as well as mining iron, coal, and chromium steel. Perhaps “the Pennsylvania we’ve never found” is what really gives it away). It sounds like he’s trying to reminisce while also trying to find something to reminisce about.
It appears as if he’s not being as straightforward as the song originally suggests.
Someone explain this stanza:
“Every child has a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got.
Something happened on the way to that place.
Somebody threw an Amercian flag in their face.”
Perhaps I’m not hearing it correctly, but it seems as if Joel is directly contradicting himself here. I assume it is for a purpose. Perhaps he is saying that, yes, there are many people that are a product of their upbringing…people who aren’t given a fair shot in the world despite America’s ideals…and yet, there is opportunity available if one just broadens his/her horizons.
Irony also appears in the song “Innocent man”:
“And although this is a fight I can lose
The accused is an innocent man.”
Though that irony makes more sense because it is a fight one is willing to lose because it will preserve a love.
As far as Nirvana lyrics go…I can’t see how someone could find irony in either “Rape Me” or “Polly”. Neither song makes any sense. I was a huge Nirvana fan back in the day…but the realization that the lyrics were not intended to make any sense is part of what drove me away from the band. If there was ever any irony in what Kurt Cobain wrote, it is simply the line “And I swear that I don’t have a gun”…or perhaps the line “Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be”…or perhaps the entire song. It doesn’t really mean anything, but almost every line has some contradictory essense.
But the biggest example I can think of was from Guns n’ Roses “One in a Million”. The band received a tremendous amount of press coverage because of the slanderous nature of the song. I remember Axl, on an MTV interview with Kurt Loder about a decade ago, stating that the song was intended to be satire. Sure, he makes comments like “Immigrants are faggots”, and “Police are niggers” (I don’t use those terms liberally, so please don’t flame me for using them. I object to Rose even using them even if it was intended as satire). However, the last verse states that:
"Radicals are racists.*
Don’t point your finger at me.
I’m just a small time white boy
Just trying to make ends meet.
Don’t need your allegiance.
Don’t watch that much TV.
I’m just making my livin’ baby.
That’s enough for me."
*note that he seems to intend to mean reactionaries as well as radicals.
From that last verse, it appears as if he is saying that he doesn’t condone the behavior he explained in the rest of the song even though he could if he wanted to be that way. It sounds to me like he is trying to say: “I don’t agree with stereotyping in regards to religion, race, or sexual orientation. However, I intend to stand up for people who do such stereotyping because of the freedoms guaranteed to us under the First Amendment.”
Nobody seemed to get the point.
Finally, my copy of Born in the USA does not contain a picture of Springsteen (or anyone) urinating on an American flag. I don’t have my original cassette anymore (purchased about 1985 or so), and the CD was purchased in about '93 or '94. Is it possible that this particular image was pulled from the liner notes because it was found to be objectional to some people? Or are you referring to the front cover? I guess I can’t see how anyone could interpret that to infer that he is indeed urinating. Was the original version more explicit?
(By the way…I do find that Springsteen’s original acoustic version of “Born in the USA” to be one of the finest songs ever written. he did well by making it into the Rock anthem that appeared on the Born in the USA lp.