There’s no question that it’s intentionally ironic - the whole song is a riff on the whole “stoner/slacker/loser guy that lives on his mom’s couch but is perfectly content” mentality/persona. Of course the solo is inept and rudimentary, intentionally, to reflect this guy’s state of mind and generally lackadaisical approach to life.
Now? That song is around a whole decade old. Imagine how much further out of stoner hipsterness us old fogeys are by now!
Oh well, I never could understand some slangs, even when I was right on top of them.
*Summertime
and the livin’s easy …*
;j
I thought it was referencing his dog.
Really!
It was. If it is slang for a dimebag now, it wasn’t when he set it down. This is Louie-Dog.
There is no causal relationship between “I’ve got a dalmation,” and “I can still get high.” They are simply two independent positive affirmations.
There’s no doubt there’s a meme going that “dalmation” really means “dime-bag” and “livin’ with Louie-Dog is the only way to stay sane” is a heart-felt endorsement of the Chronic, but that’s only because Sublime fans are often high. The man just loved his dog.
I just thought it meant ten dollar bill, myself.
Did anybody say it sucks because it’s easy? An Ygnwie Malmsteen solo wouldn’t have fit the song, but the OP asked if the part was easy to play and if it was a joke. It might be a joke, and it IS easy to play.
I had always assumed that “dalmation” was some drug slang I was unfamiliar with.
pssssst!
It’s Dalmatian, without any “O”. But you can still get high.
I always thought the dalmation line was a nod at the classic Cheech and Chong bit in “Up in Smoke”, you know… when Chong said they were smoking Maui Wowie with a little ‘labrador’ in it… cause his dog ate his stash. It worked for me as an explaination anyway. ;>
I second this. Some Yngwie riffs amount to sheer wankery (in my humble opinion), even if they’re incredibly difficult to play. (I don’t mean to pick on Yngwie, he’s very talented with his guitar, but I think he’s a good example.) By contrast, I could name a whole slew of riffs which are of either easy or moderate difficulty, but which I consider great. Just my two cents, though (YMMV).
More than anything else, luck. Second, exposure.
On the first point, tons of great and incredibly talented artists never “hit it big”, for one reason or another - the ones that do, for the most part, ought to consider themselves incredibly lucky someone else took a liking to their craft enough to sign them, and so on. Luck plays the biggest part in most successes in the music business, and probably several others as well (acting, for example).
On the second point, exposure is one of the most important factors, ignoring the whole luck thing. Geography plays a huge part in exposure. All other things equal, my band (which is from a small city in Texas) has less of a chance of making it as does a similar band located in L.A. Obviously, the guys in suits who make those kinds of decisions live out there, hence the geographic factor. As a general rule, the suits don’t send a lot of talent scouts down here to Texas, which should not surprise you, as you could probably name way more music artists from California than from Texas.
Lots of great musicians will never reach the mainstream. And, of course, a number of artists of mediocre (or even just crappy) quality somehow manage to make it big (like, for example, Good Charlotte). C’est la vie, I suppose.
I think it’s an intentional joke as well. It may be subtle if you’re not paying attention, but it’s musical humor all the same.
Speaking of Yngiwe, he’s your guitar god! 
(Requires sound; mild swearing [“shit”] at 0:30).
This is how I took it, too. Like “check out my mad (for a stoner who really can’t play much guitar, but thinks he is) guitar skillz”.
Similar to “Cover of the Rolling Stone” where he yells “ROCK AND ROLL” and the guitar playing descends into pluck plink pluck and he exclaims “Beautiful!”.
I don’t know about you guys, but when someone says something is a “motherfucking riot,” I usually assume they’re saying it’s hilariously funny. Thus, the protagonist of this song is saying that his guitar playing is laughable, as evidenced by the plinky solo.
Also, this song is a total rip-off of the Beatles’ "Lady Madonna, " music-wise.
I’d say it’s a stretch to call this two-chord song (except for part of the chorus) a rip-off of “Lady Madonna.” I-IV is probably the most popular two-chord progression in pop music.
And the melody is only vaguely reminscent.
It’s not just the common chord structure, but the vocal cadence is pretty close as well. If you wanted to do a solo acoustic What I GotLady Madonna it might work out pretty nicely, if you’re into that whole Jack Johnson style of music.
There was supposed to be an arrow between the song names inferring a medly. :smack:
Though I agree with the tongue-in-cheek interpretation, I had always associated it with what we learn in “April 26, 1992”.
After all, “where do you think I got this guitar that your hearin’ today?”
A motherfuckin’ riot.
I was about to argue with you on this, referencing how Lady Madonna has a very characteristic bVI, bVII, I ending on the progression that What I Got doesn’t have, only to realize that I was thinking of another two chord summer song that was popular around that time - (I Just Wanna Fly) by Sugar Ray.
What I got does indeed share striking similarities with Lady Madonna in the verses.
I don’t think anyone said it sucks at all; it’s a catchy little guitar bit, but, as has already been stated, it is in no way a “motherfuckin’ riot.” This doesn’t mean it’s bad; but if it were, for example, the soundtrack to a riot, it would be a mellow, groovy kind of riot with insufficient looting to require a 911 call.
I take the line as the ill-warranted braggadocio of someone who’s been playing guitar for maybe six months and wants to rock “Smoke on the Water” all night.
You know, in “Thunder Road,” Bruce Springsteen sings, “I got this guitar and I learned how to make her talk” and then goes into an extremely brief and rather uninspiring guitar solo, almost completely drowned out by the other instruments. It sounds a lot better when he does the song unaccompanied on the piano.