Listening to “Sultans of Swing” the other day, I was struck by the fact that is a song about a jazz band with a mediocre guitarist … but that it is a rock song, and features an great guitar solo.
Nothing wrong with that, but I found it ironic. Can anyone think of a similar example of a song’s music and lyrics being at odds?
I thought the Devil’s solo beat the living tar out of Johnny’s in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
Me too.
I can play the guitar like a motherfuckin’ riot!
plink plink plink…
I used to think so too, until I realized that what sounded good wasn’t the Devil, but the band of demons. The Devil’s playing, once you pick it out of the music, is noticeably poor. Decent enough, but definitely worse than Johnny’s.
Weezer- “In the garage where I belong, no one hears me sing this song.”
Forget who wrote/sung it, but that song, “I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away” doesn’t rock, at all. I almost posted a similar thread a couple of weeks ago but didn’t think there would be that many candidates…
But it’s not SUPPOSED to be a jazz/swing song, and the narrator isn’t supposed to be a jazz/swing musician.
The whole idea is, a rock musician stepped into a small, dingy club, just to get out of the rain, and found himself captivated by a jazz band he happened to see there. It wasn’t a band that was ever going to achieve wealth or stardom; they played jazz in front of tiny, indifferent crowds just because they loved the music and they loved performing together.
UNLIKE the “crowd of young boys fooling around in the corner,” the narrator found himself admiring a band that DIDN’T play his type of music.
Mark Knopfler has always had an appreciation for musicians who play for love, knowing they’re never going to make it big. Think of “Walk of Life,” the story of a guitarist playing old songs on the subway, hoping to get tips from passersby.
Oh, and “Guitar George” is NOT a mediocre guitarist. He “knows all the chords” and COULD play hot solos. But he’s just the rhythm guitarist, so he has to check his ego and play just what the band’s music requires.
Just the OPPOSITE of a rock guitarist, who’d feel stifled playing simple rhythm chords when he really wanted to play some hot licks.
How’s about Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville?
It sounds, and is generally treated as a great party song.
But the lyrics are all about how this guy has lost an unknown number of days, gotten tattooed, and otherwise is on the far side of the party, and kinda regretting it.
Air Supply, “Making Love Out Of Nothing At All”
Tenacious D’s “Tribute” to the greatest song in the world didn’t actually sound anything like that song. It was just a tribute.
I don’t think the song itself promises anything that it doesn’t deliver–how it’s treated is a separate issue, isn’t it.
For me it sounds like and is treated as a sitting around in an expat bar feeling mildly sorry for yourself kind of song. And it delivers perfectly on that score.
Beat me to it. I can’t listen to that without cracking up.
A DIFFERENT Dire Straits song fits the category. In “Expresso Love,” during the bridge, Knopfler sings “I was made for that girl just like a saxophone was made to go with the night.”
Next comes a sax solo, right? Wrong! He plays a guitar solo!
In concert, of course, Dire Straits often has a saxophonist, and they often DO have a sax solo when they play the song live.
Elton John, I Think I’m Gonna Kill Myself.
*Alexander’s Ragtime Band * is not a rag.
Swing, Swing by All-American Rejects isn’t a swing song, either 
“I Predict” by Sparks: the singer sings
*I predict / This song will fade out / I predict *
and then the song stops cold.
Something that always bothered me when this song was being played:
A. The lady doth protest too much. But more directly:
B. The last line practically contradicts the sentiment of the entire song. You can lay interpretations on it which avoid this, but the idea seems to me clearly to be “Don’t try to tell me that I’m not beautiful, that would bring me down.” Contradiction. Hence by reductio ad absurdum, the song is stupid.
-FrL-