Without Me by Eminem
*
I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley, to do Black Music so selfishly
and use it to get myself wealthy (Hey)
there’s a concept that works
20 million other white rappers emerge…*
Holiday in Cambodia by Dead Kennedys
*
It’s time to taste what you most fear
Right Guard will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear*
I just found out that Don McLean did not write On The Amazon. But his cover of it is a delight.
Wild Duodeum are lurking in the trees.
And the jungles swarm with green apostrophes.
Oh the Amazon is calling, oh the Amazon is calling.
Oh the Amazon is calling me.
“I’m not from here
but people tell me
it’s not like it used to be
they say I should have been here
back about ten years
before it got ruined by folks like me”
Oh, I completely missed the obvious: It’s not a lyric, but a line of music - and one we all know, too: The tagline from “Merry-go-round Broken Down.” I grin when I hear that, too.
I recently got into the Kinks’ wonderful Lola vs. Powerman album. It’s (mostly) about the band’s disillusionment with the recording industry after several years of ups and downs.
One of my favorites is Top of the Pops, in which Ray Davies tracks his record as it climbs the charts, much to his elation, until the very end:
*It’s strange how people want you when your record’s high
When it drops down they just pass you by
Now my agent called me on my telephone and said, “Son,
Your record’s just got to number one.”
“And you know what this means?
This means you can earn some real money.”*
So, uh, I called her up, her father was home
Said “She’s busy she can’t come to the phone”
I held my breath, decided to wait
A guy like me doesn’t get many dates
Ha! Yes! Also, you gotta love when he says, “Whoever’s out of hand, Imma give 'em handles, light 'em up, blow 'em out like candles” That is so funny to me. Ah, the Soloist is so quotable.
From the movie The Music Man, the entire song “Trouble in River City” cracks me up, but when he says, “Why sure I’m a billiard player,
Certainly mighty proud I say
I’m always mighty proud to say it.”
It is the way he says it that cracks me right up. Someone sent me a link to that clip recently, and it took me back 20 years and had me singing all day.
Cake always makes me smile, particularly in ‘‘Short Skirt, Long Jacket’’
when they say,
*
‘‘I want a girl with the right allocations
I want a girl with good dividends…’’*
Hell yeah you do!
And then there’s Julieta Vinegas, a Mexican songwriter, who has this lovely song (I think it’s called ‘‘Me voy’’ (I’m going))
But basically it’s this wistful little innocent sing-songy tune and the chorus is led up in a long stream of consciousness conveying the following:
I’m not going to cry and say
That I don’t deserve this
Because, it’s probable that
I do deserve it,
but I don’t want it,
Therefore I’m leaving.
Too bad, but goodbye…
I smile every time. You really have to hear the silly tone of her voice to get it, though.
And who can’t help but smile when Beck cries out randomly, ‘‘Gettin’ crazy with the cheese whiz!’’
or even '‘My time is a piece of wax fallin’ on a termite.’’ ?
“we could fake our deaths to get insurance money
and take on hippie names
I’d be Snowphish, you’d be Sunny
we could start a little farm with little white bunnies
cause watching them copulate is very funny”
From Friday Night At The Drive in Bingo, off his new album. He has some old stuff, but that never stops making me giggle.
"she was getting on her tall skinny bike
with the guy all the hipster chicks like
his hair was very short and his pants very tight
around his calf muscles
Not to mention, the entire song “Punk as Fuck”. Go listen to Juju B Solomon.