Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006

Sneaky Lyrics


I was driving the whole seven minutes of my morning commute to work yesterday, and when I pulled out onto the road in front of my house, I turned on the radio. I don't hear much of anything I play on the radio in the morning, due to the aforementioned baby commute, but I usually have time for a song and a half of whatever tape's in the deck (it's an older car, and doesn't have a CD player in it) or a bit of whatever radio show doesn't set my teeth on edge.

Yesterday morning, it was the latter. The DJs were talking about the lyrics to the 70s song "Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band, and how the actual tune of the song, all light and frothy and baby unicorns and stuff, did not match the racy words. Which, for the record, are about spending the middle of the day rolling around nekkid with your partner. Do-si-do, eh? And, as the radio personalities demonstrated, when the lyrics are presented in a different tone, they can be funny, or even creepy. Maybe why the music reminds people of rainbows and bubble gum? Perhaps.
But they're still funny.

I started thinking about other songs I knew that, either intentionally or accidentally, had musical accompaniment that didn't really match the words. The ones that came to my mind were ones that had light, bouncy, upbeat music but harsher or surprising lyrics, like Rick Nelson's "Garden Party" or "Follow Me" by Uncle Kracker.

"Follow Me" was actually a topic of discussion at my workplace a couple of months ago, because of the lyrics. I always listen to the words of songs, and I always have. The first time I heard Uncle Kracker's little ditty, my thought process looked something like this: "Hey, this is kind of an upbeat, snappy song! His name is Uncle Kracker? That's an interesting name. Whoa. Wait a second. Is this song about...? Oh, it is. Okay, I don't like this song anymore."

But, the more people I meet, the more I realize that there are a lot of people that don't listen to lyrics at all. So one day, we were listening to the radio at work and "Follow Me" came on, and I snorted. One of my coworkers looked at me, aghast. "How can you NOT love this song?" he asked, incredulous. "It has such great guitar!"

"Have you listened to the lyrics?" I asked.

"Well, no. I usually don't."

"Give it a listen. See if you don't change your mind."

He gave me a look like I knew some long-hidden mystery, and cocked his head towards the speaker. After about a minute, he looked disgusted. "Is Kracker talking about what I think he's talking about?"

"Probably." I said.

"Oh. Then I don't like this song anymore."

Listen to the words, man. They're there for a reason.

***

Hah. And just now, Mom turned the tv to a program about movie/television stars who recorded songs, including Bruce Willis ("Respect Yourself"), Don Johnson ("Heartbeat"), and Patrick Swayze ("She's Like the Wind"). I do kind of like the last one in that list, but the first two are just silly.

Though, I do own Donny Osmond's "Soldier of Love". I'm not saying it's a *good* song. I'm not even saying that the lyrics make sense -- Hell, the song contains the line "Every picture tells a story/won't you listen to mine?", which... what? I sense a rattlesnake in a pickle barrel. But I like the song anyway.

***

Well, mom just handed me a bowl of microwave popcorn, and since it's difficult to type and eat popcorn, I'll call this an entry. Have a good evening, and listen to some song lyrics. They're good for the soul, and sometimes, a chuckle.

"A-a-afternoon delight!"

And... there's a full circle for you.

saturncat at 9:53 p.m.

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