6 January 2020
Most popular lyrics are fantastic (not “extremely excellent,” but “not realistic, like a fantasy.”) Every once in a while an author can get away with telling the truth, and it can be a thing of beauty. Some of the most honest lyrics in memory are as follows:
From Van Morrison — “The girls walk by, dressed up for each other.” Bearing in mind that generally only bookies profit from betting on averages (think talking lizards or mayhem like Dean Winters), Van nails it here. He understands that “nobody” dresses to impress men. Men dress to impress women, and women dress to impress women. Women undress to impress men.
From Jimmy Buffet – the central theme of maybe half of all popular songs written not involving revenge killing (“I’d rather see you dead, little girl”) or tribal allegiance (“You essay! You essay!”) is the honkytonk hookup. Kris Kristofferson may have expressed it (quite beautifully) with “hold your warm and tender body next to mine” but he was really just saying, as did Jimmy, “Why don’t we get drunk and screw?”
The next example just makes me sad, but I fancy myself an objective analyst, so its inclusion is required. From Brain Dead Bimbette — “I wanna be like, I wanna be like, most girls.” The flock hates the individual more than it fears the wolf, and will scorn such outliers, even at the risk of its own safety. There is emotional security in numbers, and as long as we’re uniformly attired in our sagging trousers and reversed hats everyone is “equal” and no one stands out as “better than” anyone else. Prominence will be punished!
Do I make too much of this? It’s hard not to when it sounds so much like, “I wanna bleat like, I wanna bleat like, most sheep.”
