One of my all-time favourite songs is Outdoor Type by the Lemonheads. To my delight it came on the radio today while I was driving, and so I cranked up the volume. I was happily singing along with it until I reached the third verse and in particular these lyrics:
I can’t go away with you on a rock-climbing weekend
What if something’s on TV and it’s never shown again?
Now I’ve probably heard this song a thousand times and this line has never seemed odd to me before. But today I found myself thinking: ‘Hang on a minute. Why don’t you just YouTube it? Don’t you know you can find practically anything online these days? There is absolutely no logical reason why you would need to give up a weekend away just to wait for some show to appear on TV?’
And with that the song was ruined.
Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘Chill out mate, it’s only a song.’
Of course I realise that, and I know they’re just silly lyrics, but think about it. No artist these days would ever put that line in a song. It simply has no cultural relevance whatsoever. Nobody cares about missing their favourite TV show anymore. Why? Because they know they can always go to school the next day and borrow their friend’s downloaded copy of the entire season, including all the episodes that haven’t even aired yet.
See what I mean? The whole context which the songwriter (Evan Dando, no less! Don’t get me wrong, he is a genius) is employing to convey his imagery has now become culturally redundant, therefore eliminating the listener’s ability to relate to it, and thus thoroughly diluting the power of the message he intends to convey.
See. A good song. Completely ruined. I can’t listen to it anymore.
I wonder how many other perfectly good songs have been ruined by technology?
If you can think of any, or have had a similar experience to me when listening to a song (I doubt it – you’re probably normal) then please share it in the comments section.
Cheers
EDIT: It has come to my attention that Evan Dando did not write this song after all. It was written by Tom Morgan of the band Smudge, and was later covered by The Lemonheads. I apologise for the error. But let that be a lesson to us all: We should never believe anything we read. Or hear. Ever! And I mean anything! Especially anything!!!!
14 comments:
Didn't Paul Dempsey from Something for Kate write "Outdoor Type" for Evan Dando for his birthday, or something like that? Am I misremembering?
Holy crap. We are both wrong. I just did some research and this song was originally written by a dude called Tom Morgan of the band Smudge. It was later covered by The Lemonheads. Evan Dando didn't even write it after all.
Another example: The song that goes `Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage'
These days nobody gets married! It's redundant! Oh wait I mean nobody uses horses anymore
Haha. Probably true on both accounts.
Another example I thought of was Video Killed the Radio Star. Its now twenty years later and the medium of radio is surviving pretty well. Ironically though, during that time MTV has drastically reduced the number of music videos it plays, and has replaced them with reality TV shows and the like.
Another example: Any song that has a line about waiting by the phone for someone to call... Don't they have your mobile number?
excuse me, hack, but i would like to take all credit for thinking of Video Killed the Radio Star - which i hastily called out to you as i rushed through your house with a wok and a bag of rice (hmmm...bizarre...)
I believe that Video Killed The Radio Star is the song that encompasses your whole argument! Which is the beautiful irony of it all!
You may have thought of it yesterday, but I thought of it today. There is a difference.
It's 'true on both counts.' Not 'accounts.' And don't even get me started on the rest of your blog. The grammar is a disgrace!
Who is this?
The thing is, I can't work out if you're trying to be 'funny' or if you're simply a very 'amateur' writer.
Seriously. Who is this?
*chuckles* I'd just like to say, before I see you, face-to-face, this weekend; that Grammar Police is not me. If I were to call you to task for your poor grammar, it would at least be funny.
Is that why you have very subtly posted a link to an instructional grammar website? Why is everybody suddenly turning on me? Was it my boring and completely unfunny post about the economy (not to mention now proven completely and embarrassingly wrong!) I promise I won't do it again.
Post a Comment