# You Can Justify It In The End **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2009, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065 "2009-03-11T12:48:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/41 "2009-03-11T18:52:13Z")
> [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](#): > > The line is "I’ve > been undressed by Kings and I’ve seen some things that a woman ain’t s’posed to see’ > > So it’s in the realm of Arabian types, I suppose. Anyway, the song suits me. I wasn’t actually quoting the line, just explaining that she’s seen some things she ain’t sposed to see (with our without apostrophe). Whatever, she sounds like Blythe Danner ironically speaking ebonics. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/42 "2009-03-11T18:53:38Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > The thing I can’t get past is the underlying asumption that a woman is either a dutiful housewife or a whore. And that ‘going out to find yourself’ will result, inevitably, in the latter. This too. And she talks in the song while explaining this. You know what? I am getting on the where’s the pukey smiley bandwagon for this one. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/43 "2009-03-11T19:30:41Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > But nobody has yet said one of my long-time faves though: “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl).” I didn’t realize this song fell into this category. I kinda like it. I may have to fire up the ol’ TRS80 & download some of the gems in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/44 "2009-03-11T19:59:49Z")
I like quite a lot of what’s been discussed here. But my music tastes aren’t so much eclectic as all-encompassing. Well, maybe not ALL encompassing: there are one or two Carpenter’s songs that just make me reach for the dial. 😉 No one has mentioned that sap sucker of all sappy songs: Honey, by Bobby Goldsboro. I have it on a vinyl 45, and still play it from time to time… Some of these songs just aren’t as emotionally satisfying coming off an mp3 list as when you crank up the old Victrola. 😃 Oh, and any Muppet song list that doesn’t have “Put Down the Duckie!” on it is seriously deficient! ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/45 "2009-03-11T20:01:17Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > I recorded **Rainbow Connection** in the late 70s by holding my shoebox sized cassette recorder in front of the radio! Real high tech. I still have the tape. I used to do the same thing (in the same era) to record my favorite TV theme songs. I’d hold that big brick of a recorder up to the television so that I could enjoy at my leisure the songs from: The Dukes of Hazzard The A Team The Beverly Hillbillies The Fall Guy and others. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/46 "2009-03-11T23:58:12Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Whenever there is the a top 100 worst songs list, it’s like WOW someone has copied my playlist. I like all the songs on your list, however “Never been to Me” is the only one on my I-pod. This would approximate what I would have said. I like many of these songs and I don’t mind who knows it. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/47 "2009-03-12T00:33:15Z")
> [@bup](#): > > _Gentle on my Mind_ and _Wichita Lineman_ are unappreciated bits of perfection. Those two really aren’t bad songs (REM, incidentally, did a good cover of “Wichita Lineman”). The problem was they were both overplayed and badly covered too many times during the late 60’s and early 70’s. As a result, people got sick of them and they got banished to the “Oldies from Hell” category. And I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: listening to “I’ve Never Been to Me” is like being forced to read Danielle Steele at gunpoint. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/48 "2009-03-12T00:38:42Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Looking through this thread, I’m wondering if I’m reading the SDMB or looking at the back of the dust jacket to K-Tel’s “22 Explosive Hits!” 😃 I know- hey, who turned on 1974 in here?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/49 "2009-03-12T01:46:41Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I defy anyone to listen to this David Bromberg version of Mr. Bojanges and come back and tell me that it sucks: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODD1osyOIXM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODD1osyOIXM) I love David Bromberg, and love this Mr. Bojangles verion. It’s actually pretty much the only version I enjoy these days. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/50 "2009-03-12T02:08:45Z")
Ah, Tin Soldier. Our horrible music teacher made us learn it in fourth grade, and it was therefore the subject of my first ever song parody. From my fourth-grade self. Ahem: > [@](#): > > Go ahead and bake your neighbor > Go ahead and eat a friend > Cook your brother with some wild rice > Make sure it is Uncle Ben’s > You won’t hear any cows a lowin > Come the judgment day > on the nuclear day after > Ronald Reagan farts away. No applause please. Unfortunately I can’t hear the song without those lyrics superimposed. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/51 "2009-03-12T02:23:44Z")
> [@bup](#): > > _Gentle on my Mind_ and _Wichita Lineman_ are unappreciated bits of perfection. _Gentle on my Mind_ is good ear candy, but _Wichita Lineman_ flatly is one of the greatest Pop songs of the 20th century. I’ve always been a sap, so I loved _He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother_ until I got one of those flexible records from the Army that interspersed recruiting messages with it. In 1972 I found it, er, unpersuasive :rolleyes:, and wondered how much the Hollies had been paid. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/52 "2009-03-12T02:31:00Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > … > > Take, for my favorite example, The Velvet Underground. What the hell did they do except some albums where they said they were serious and got liked by Warhol? Nothing. They were damn all terrible, in my opinion, and Lou Reed has ALWAYS deserved a smack in the mouth just for being Lou Reed. Yet they’re critical darlings because they’re ‘art’ whereas Coven doing ‘On Tin Soldier’ is dismissed as lightweight pop. > > Ugh. Sore subject. > … Woa, what did a music critic do to _you?_ I’m sure someone, somewhere will feel that way, but I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find an actual music critic that held those views. And I must say, you are totally wrong about VU. White Light/White Heat is one of the most influential albums released in the last several decades, at least on a certain lineage of music. While this was largely due to John Cale’s influence, the loud, raw, unhinged anthems of debauchery and depravity on that album directly influenced punk, hardcore, emo, and grunge (in that order). Put in another way, that album helped to create rock music of the last 40 years. Like it or not, it’s the truth. Now, One Tin Soldier is arguably a good song, perhaps an influential song, but it is still definitely a pop song, atleast the Coven version you are talking about. I mean, it was recorded for a Warren Brothers movie and was the most requested song in '71 _and_ '73. So, with a combination of a) being a pop song, b) being over-exposed, and c) not being terribly influential (what genres of music did it help create?), and you can sort of see why it’s overlooked from a critical perspective of music, especially compared to a band like VU. Am I being “sheep like”, pretentious, humorless, terrible, whatever? Perhaps. But some things are true regardless of your taste for them. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/53 "2009-03-12T02:31:36Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > No “Simon Smith & the Amazing Dancing Bear”? No “Cottleston Pie”? > > ETA: (I don’t have those on my ipod, they’re just my favorite Muppet songs) _Cottleston Pie_? The Winnie-[del]the[/del]-_ther_-Pooh Hum? That’s the one Pooh was humming to himself while Rabbit was trying to hold a meeting on Solving the Problem of Tigger, wasn’t it? _A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly_ That one? I loved that Hum. I didn’t even know it had been set to music. And the Muppets covered it? So much cool stuff happened while I wasn’t paying attention. Is there a link to it? I have to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/54 "2009-03-12T03:08:33Z")
> [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](#): > > Barry Manilow and Celine Dion are my faves too. I think we may be twins, but I hate the Osmond Brothers as a whole. The Partridge Family rocks, as far as I’m concerned and I will admit to having some wild fantasies about Shaun Cassidy. SIS??? Is that you??? :eek: I adored Donny Osmond when I was a kid, and still enjoy some of their music. Just last year they had a 2 hour concert inb PBS and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was lucky enough to see Shaun Cassidy in concert in 1978. Yeah, he fueled some wild fantasies for me, too… ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/55 "2009-03-12T03:52:25Z")
I still can’t get over the fact that _Eres Tu_ was a hit in the States. That song was one of the things I most remember from my childhood. In it, the singer compares her beloved to the water from her fountain and the fire in her hearth or something like that. The only Mocedades song I liked more was called _Adios, Amor_, and I remember I always cried when it ended because I didn’t want it to end. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/56 "2009-03-12T04:42:25Z")
> [@Annie](#): > > I know- hey, who turned on 1974 in here?😃 Oh God, does that mean Nixon’s president again? ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/57 "2009-03-12T06:16:00Z")
Among Sesame Street songs, I don’t think I saw “Telephone Rock” (live version) mentioned here, or Lefty “the Salesman” (wink wink)'s “O” song. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/58 "2009-03-12T15:47:53Z")
This thread sure is taking me back to high school days. Seems like, in the early 70s, FM radio had come on the scene, supplying a venue for the “serious” stuff that had burgeoned over the previous several years, leaving AM free to focus on froth… but some really cool froth. I liked both the FM and the AM stuff… so I will now confess my affection for some (mostly) really silly tunes from early 70s AM radio: “Ma Belle Amie” by the Tee Set “How Do You Do” by Mouth & MacNeal “Gimme Dat Ding” by the Pipkins “Neanderthal Man” by Hotlegs “Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)” by Leo Sayer “Ride Captain Ride” by Blues Image “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’” by Crazy Elephant ‘Dancin’ In the Moonlight" by King Harvest “Go Back” by Crabby Appleton ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065/59 "2009-03-13T01:30:57Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > I recorded **Rainbow Connection** in the late 70s by holding my shoebox sized cassette recorder in front of the radio! Real high tech. I still have the tape. I’m (almost) embarassed t admit that I owned “The Muppet Movie” soundtrack on 8-track. In my first car. An Opel 1900. [blushes] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-justify-it-in-the-end/489065.md?page=2)