#491...
 

Good evening. Tonight, I will take a look at...

I Love Rock 'N Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

There sure were a lot of songs about rock 'n' roll in the '70s and '80s. Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll, Billy Joel's It's Still Rock and Roll to Me, and the Beach Boys' take on Chuck Berry's Rock and Roll Music, to name a few. Heck, the Stones even had one, the name of which escapes my memory. However, this song opens with a very similar line to the Beatles' I Saw Her Standing There.
Beatles: "Well she was just seventeen, and you know what I mean..."
Jett: "I saw him dancing there by the record machine, I knew he must have been about seventeen..."
(What is it about seventeen-year-olds that songwriters can't resist? Even Meatloaf's tenagers were barely seventeen [and barely dressed!])
These lyrics actually made me laugh with their awkwardness. I mean, seriously, we get that the fella loves rock 'n' roll. What's that got to do with you?
It's worth mentioning that this song is an Arrows cover. One of those covers that outlasts the original, a la Twist and Shout.

5/10. Meh.

A tidbit of information: Since I write every day, barring reptilian intervention, I don't usually go into great depth, so to fully understand the context of everything I say, it is recommended to skim the lyrics linked in the bold song title. Tomorrow, I glance at Coldplay's Clocks. However, until tomorrow, good night.

I know the thing about seventeen years olds. In many countries under sixteen years olds are not legal, if you know what I mean, and Paul McCartney once explained that seventeen is not as young as sixteen,which are barely legal, but still young enough, if you get my drift. And well, I guess sixteen is more popular still... It's a pervert world we're living in ^_^

^
I get your drift, Taxman.

Don't have time fo an entry tonight, but I just wanted to say to anybody, feel free to PM a recommendation to me, and I'll be glad to review it. You don't want to have me call on Briks again, do you! ;)

Good evening. Tonight's lyrics are rather cryptic. I will not attempt to decipher them, as that would detain me from more worthy pursuits far too long. I present...

Clocks - Coldplay

As some of you might know, I was almost aborted. My mother made the difficult decision to keep me. My father was off in England at university when I was born. He didn't even know she was pregnant. It was a year later that, after having been essentially alienated from most of the people in her life, she finally told him her child was his. Thankfully, he was decent enough to shoulder the responsibility of parenthood. Anyhow, those first few years were rough. Luckily, I remember very little. One thing I do recall is the song my mother would sing me to sleep with:

"My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf, so it stood ninety years on the floor. It was taller by height than the old man himself, but it weighed not a pennyweight more. It was bought on the morn of the day when he wa born, and was always his pleasure and pride. But it stopped, short, never to go again, when the old man died..."

Reading these lyrics made me think once again of those first few years. And how that song seemed like the tick of a clock, keeping life in time. As Billy Joel once said:

"Someday, we'll all be gone, but lullabies live on and on. They never die, that's how you, and I, will be."

9/10. For nostalgia.

I have decided not to reveal the song titles I will be reviewing next. I do want some shock value! Good night to all, and thank-you for reading. Until we meet again...

Good evening. If you are expecting a long, philosophical review and in-depth interpretation of this song's lyrics, you are in for a disappointment.

Under the Boardwalk - The Drifters

My job is easy tonight. No mystery here. This song is simply about a guy having fun with his baby on a blanket under the boardwalk. And I don't think they'll be playing Parcheesi. These lyrics seem pretty loaded for 1964. In fact, in one version, the line "we'll be falling in love" was actually "we'll be making love", which resulted in some radio stations banning the song.

6/10. Rather unimaginative.

If anyone is interested, tomorrow is recommendation day, and I don't have one yet. You have until noon EDT tomorrow to suggest a song, otherwise... I will review the next song on the Top 500. :p: But for now, my fellow Banterers, I bid you good night.

Briks Picks!
 

Good evening. Briks suggested tonight's entertainment. His recommendation...

The Smiths - The Headmaster Ritual

This is a masterful set of lyrics. Though each line is rather short, it's not to he point of being choppy, and they get their point across, complet with a pince of Roald Dahl-esque dark humour. The Headmaster Ritual is told from the point of view of a student at one of those English schools always mentioned in books, where speaking out of line results in a stiff caning. The student has obviously experienced a few of those beatings, and isn't too pleased with the headmaster or the cane. It sound to me as if the chap is taking a beating at the hands of his mates, as the headmaster would likely not be kicking boys in the shower, as mentioned in the last verse. I don't know if corporal punishment was a political issue at the time of the song's release (1985), but that would seem to be the The Headmaster Ritual's message.

9/10. I will definitely be checking out some more of this band's work. Thank-you, Briks!

I won't be posting tomorrow, for one of two reasons. Depending on how things swing, I will either be too happy or too upset to write. So until Monday, good night.

MGMT make some of the most pretentious, least inspired shit around. But that's just one man's opinion. If that's what they said I'd take it with a grain of salt to throw in their four eyes. Not sure how you'd go about throwing one grain in each eye though.

Btw the Weezer song is chock full of that 90s irony I think, taken alone I can see why you'd dislike it for sure. I think it's a fun song but I haven't read the lyric sheet itself either.

In my hopefully respected opinion, Pinkerton has some pretty good lyrics. "Across the Sea" made me burst into tears once on a dreaded summer day.