How a Sweet, Sensitive Song Became a Drag Racing Anthem
To state a tired cliché, it's funny how people always feel a need to label music. "What style is it?"What's even funnier is that you can take two pieces of music that are quite similar in sound, subject, and even intent and they can be categorized differently. What's perhaps most unfortunate is that people are influenced by these categories and may not be willing to indulge in listening to something because it is considered, for example, "Bubblegum Music," whereas a a similarly bubblegum-ish piece will be heralded as something of value because it somehow escaped the negative categorization. What is it that they say about a rose by any other name?
I'm not one of those people who say, "I listen to everything" when I am asked what I listen to. There is, admittedly, a lot that I don't like. But music is my ultimate passion and always has been, and I do listen to and enjoy quite a bit. And it is varied. It ranges from extremely solemn and serious groups to stuff that is, in fact, much more lighthearted or even shallow. And, of course, I listen to everything in between. I tend to enjoy the whole gamut, because I strongly believe there is different music for different moods and the intense complexities of one type of vision don't and shouldn't have anything to do with evaluating the worth and significance of a different kind of approach. And vice-versa. Apples, oranges...you know the saying...
But I digress and get back to those labels. What about those bands that have escaped the negative label? How about the Beach Boys? The early Beach Boys, pre-Pet Sounds? That's considered classic stuff and almost charming in its quaintness, but come on now...what is more corny than the early Beach Boy stuff, which is now considered classic stuff? If you know about those early albums, you'd know the answer: nothing.
I always thought--having grown up listening to an old, fuzzy cassette--that "Don't Worry Baby" was one of the sweetest, most expressive songs. It really hit home with a professional, aniety-laden worrier like I am and was! When I was young, I didn't know anything about that Phil Spector sound it had, and I didn't even know about what a tortured soul Brian Wilson was. I just knew the song had a sweet, sensitive tone to it, and I was always taken in by its beauty and flowing melody.
Fast forward to many years later, when I got a clear, digital copy of the tune and was devastated to learn that it nothing more than a shallow, stupid teen anthem about RACING CARS!!
Racing cars? Wow. How could I have known? On my old cassette, I always heard the lyric like so:
"I guess I should have kept my mouth shut when [inaudible inaudible inaudible]"
and
"She told me, baby, when you [inaudible inaudible inaudible] take along my love with you; and if you knew how much I loved you, baby, nothing could go wrong with you."
Beautiful!
I only (relatively) recently realized the lines were, "I guess I should have kept my mouth shut when I started TO BRAG ABOUT MY CAR" and "She told me, baby, when you RACE TODAY just take along my love with you."
How incredibly shallow! How teen anthem! But the mood was always there, and I always heard the emotion behind the song. So...who cares. I still love it.
Maybe there was innuendo involved. I mean, he does make a reference to his anxiety coach doing wonders for him "when she makes love to me." However, 95% of those early songs were really about surfing, racing cars, and going to the hamburger stand, so I don't think there was more to it than that. I can picture someone saying, "Nice melody you have here. 'Don't Worry Baby?' I love it. But does it appeal to kids who want to buy the California lifestyle? You better make this about racing cars or something."
It's getting late. So, I'm raisin' the meatball flag.
posted by Steve @ 10:24 PM
4 Comments:
"So, I'm raisin' the meatball flag."
What the hell does that mean? Hahah.
Right now I am into all these bands who idolize the Beach Boys (Of Montreal, The Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Beulah, Elf Power, The Olivia Tremor Control). I was never a Beach Boys fan, but these bands do a really good job crystallizing the Beach Boys harmonies into modern sounding stuff. And as for fluff, I actually like The Monkees. Really. They've done some really great pop songs. Please don't make fun of me now. I don't usually admit to the Monkees thing.
[[[[ What the hell does that mean? Hahah. ]]]]]
You know, I'm not sure! I think I was just overtired!
The early Beach Boys used to use all this old surfer lingo as they talked about things like their "Woodys" (station wagons that they drove their boards around in) and "Hurachis"(supposedly some kind of then-hip sandal). And the "Meatball Flag" is, so the web tells me, a flag that mean's "No Surfing."
I had been thinking of this one song called "Finders Keepers" from about 1963, and it is a perfect example of the kind of assine, trite surf songs I was talking about.
The ridiculous story line of the song is that the singer leaves his board in the sand while he drives off in his woody to the hamburger stand (you can't make this kind of drivel up) and then he gets back and it's missing. So he blames this "hodaddy" for taking it (under the rationale that he must have taken it because it's no longer where he left it) and extracts revenge, somehow, by "raising the meatball flag." If that doesn't make any sense, the story gets even weirder when the hodaddy ignones the fake warning yet still succumbs to wave that sucks him out to sea while the board floats up on the shore. Ridiculous. And it sounds like manslaughter to me.
All I was sayng with my meatball flag was that I was going to bed. Which is equally ridiculous.
[[[[[ And as for fluff, I actually like The Monkees. Really. They've done some really great pop songs. Please don't make fun of me now. I don't usually admit to the Monkees thing. ]]]]]]
Nah, I won't make fun of you. You know, that's essentially the thing about bubblegum music like that: those songs were all written by professional songwriters who knew what they were doing. Hell, Neil Dimond wrote "I'm a Believer." Steve Stills, who is highly acclaimed by critics, wanted to be a Monkey but was passed over (in part because of his hairline and teeth) for his friend Peter Tork.
Really, music is music. What seperates bubblegum stuff like the Monkees is merely intent. And the intent of that kind of stuff is to sell and sell big. There's a phoniness to it, but there still is room for something like that. I listen to some stuff that is sort of pretentious and yet I also love the original Josie and the Pussycats album. That album is an absolute DELIGHT. That's right, I said it! Pure guilty pleasure. (Cheryl Ladd (Charlie's Angels) and Patrice Holloway (sister of Brenda) are two of the Pussycats).
There's room for everything. I mean, you may like fine food, but that doesn't preclude you from also enjoying junk like a big bowl of Cheetos, with all the cheesiness intact and the cartoon cheetah on the bag. And if you enjoy it, is it truly junk? Can junk have a value? It's something to think about...
Those are truly some dreadful lyrics. How funny. I'm going to start slipping that "meatball flag" phrase into my day-to-day banter. You know, all the bantering to do with myself while I'm at home by myself. Haha.
Someone posted a picture of a can of Easy Cheese on Flickr. Of course, most of the comments were making fun of the cheese, mocking it. I basically cop to loving Easy Cheese. And I do. I haven't had it in ages, but today when I was at the grocery store I saw a can and I almost (ALMOST!) bought it. Mmmm. Goes well with Ritz crackers.
[[[[ I'm going to start slipping that "meatball flag" phrase into my day-to-day banter.]]]]]
I think that would be a great idea. I would be totally honored to know that a comment on my little ol' Heart and Mind blog influenced your vernacular!
[[[[ Someone posted a picture of a can of Easy Cheese on Flickr. ]]]]
At least it wasn't "EZ Cheese," right? Or even worse, "EZ Cheez."
And I like it, too. I haven't had it in a long, long time, but if it were here right now, I'd bust out the crackers and start eating.
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