So, you know those little bits of poems, song lyrics, films or TV shows that just hang around in your head and never go away? Maybe some of you have heads full of snippets of Wordsworth and Plath, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen - them and many more, no doubt. A lot of the scraps in our heads change over time but some hang around...and around and just never go away. The hook of this song, for example, comes back to me again. And again. And again. It does contain a rude word...but it's used very beautifully so I think you'll be OK with it.
Maybe some of you will find it a bit corny but that's OK...we all have our corny moments (even if we keep them quiet). And I know the lyrics to this song by Eels (real name Mark Oliver Everett) are very simple...probably nothing you'd be entering into a poetry competition...but they hit the spot with me (fairly regularly). In fact it's probably only the repeated "it's a motherfucker" that does it...sung the way he does, with that accompaniment. He uses such a nasty modern expression in such a gentle and sweet way. Here are the lyrics, in case you're interested:
“It's a motherfucker
Being here without you
Thinking 'bout the good times
Thinking 'bout the bad
And I won't ever be the same
It's a motherfucker
Getting through a Sunday
Talking to the walls
Just me again
But I won't ever be the same
I won't ever be the same
It's a motherfucker
How much I understand
The feeling that you need someone
To take you by the hand
And you won't ever be the same
You won't ever be the same”
He's had his share of sadness and confusion, Mr Everett, and you can kind of tell. Still, not everyone puts their sadness and confusion to such good use. I find I hear his voice singing that one line...so many times...when things are not as they might be, when things are less than ideal. I hear it, I smile, I tear up, I get on with the next thing...oh you know the routine...
Everett has a book called 'Things the grandchildren should know' that I really enjoyed (I read it back here if you remember). There's also a documentary about him and his family (his father was physicist Hugh Everett III...it's not a very happy story...) called 'Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives' that was shown on the BBC a while back and that's worth catching if they show it again. The Eels website is here.
I might be back with more snippets from the cluttered mind of Rachel next time. Some of them are really embarrassing though. One is even from the film 'Showgirls'. (Note to self – must try and be more highbrow....note back to self...oh, you know that never works...I'm just a messy, modern magpie kind of person...and writer...).
x
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
18 comments:
Where would we all be without mad parents and crap childhoods?
Sunday must be the day that features most in sad songs. Someone should do a poll of the saddest day of the week. Mu money's on Sunday or Monday.
Taken out of context and appropriated as done here merely highlights the awfulness of that phrase.
Lovely and poignant song.
Hi Apprentice...I'm sure there is a website somewhere that can tell you!
TFE - most swearwords have something awful about them somewhere don't they? They wouldn't be used in anger originally otherwise. But it's using them so much (as we do) that makes them so far removed from any original meaning they may have had...so they become just words that we use and not much more. I'm taking from your comment that you don't like the song...but maybe I'm wrong. Oh and hello. Been here long?
SW - glad you like it. We have some tastes in common, eh?
x
Did I mean just anger..? Probably other stuff too...shock factor at the very least. Attention-getting too.
Interesting what you say Rachel. Someone was talking to me the other day about "earworms" - apparently these are catchy tunes that once we know them don't go away, so that we find ourselves singing them driving along in the car, or we wake up with them in our heads. I have a few of those and I have to say that sometimes they can be very irritating.
I've never heard that term before, Weaver.
As much as the tune with this song it's the whole feel of it...the dismay! It cheers me up...sort of. Shared sentiment and all that.
x
Yes, earworms- that's what we call them here... like that song from Disney- "It's a small world after all..."- does it to me very time. ;)
I liked this song, though- I mean, what other word could you use? Sometimes feelings just need words like this to really stress how deep they are and how deep-felt they are.
I can relate to this, too- I miss my dad so much and sometimes, all I can do is say "f**k it- I want you back in my life..."- I get where this guy is coming from.
Thanks, Rachel
x
Ah ,Yes, Hello! (should have said that first)Yes ,been a while.I like that Radiohead piece on you tube be da way.
Kind of a haunting tune...and a potential earworm. [You'd hear that term more often if you get Ken Armstrong and Matt Urdan talking about ABBA]. :)
Think the only time that term ever grabbed me as something other than one of the 7 words you can't say on the radio was when, of all people, a black drag queen who really wanted to be a girl said it. Every time he/she got angry, he said his southern Mama had always said, "Two tears in a bucket, Motherf**kit".
Weird how words get in your brain.
Enjoyed the video. Never listened to anything by The Eels so might be worth checking out. The song reminded me of 'Savage' by Eurythmics because it simply wasn't.
RB - I don't think I know that Disney song...maybe I should be glad!
TFE - thanks re the Radiohead poem. I keep meaning to do some more videoing for youtube...haven't got round to it yet! Do you have any up there?
Hope - I keep away from all the ABBA talk!
Jim - I think you'll like Eels. There's quite a variety of songs.
x
What a gorgeous song! Why are gorgeous songs always so short?!
However, if we're talking expletives... this takes the biscuit. I think it has more in it than any other I know. And it makes me want to dance. Yikes. Scary sight!
And I'm now playing it very loud. :)
***
Now, the Eels.... I don't really know much by them, except the few singles I've heard. I'll investigate more. His father was an odd one (and came up with one of the silliest scientific theories to be treated seriously).
And am I a failure as a human male if I admit to never having slyly seen Showgirls?
And forget the highbrow... it's much more fun on the pavement. :)
Finally someone mentions 'Showgirls'! It's terrible, truly terrible. The first time I watched it I was drunk and surrounded by gay men (well, there was twa of them) and I loved it (in an 'oh my god, I can't believe it!'. much hysterical laughter kind of a way). Some of the lines are so...unbelievable! And it is funny in places...intentionally? I'm not sure.
But then I watched it again (sober and without entourage) and it was just terrible. Painful really. It's certainly a film of extremes.
I love some Eels songs...but not all of them by any means. He tries out all sorts though and I like that.
x
I've never really listened to much Super Furry Animals but I like that track. I would dance too. I do a lot of Tigger like bouncing when I dance...kind of rave/pogo/headbanging kind of moves. Stand well back.
x
So I have to decide if I want to be a sadist if I watch it, do I? I think I may pass... I prefer guiltily liking awful songs to awful films. The songs finish after three minutes. :)
And I'm on a full-on Super Furries sunday now. Me happy. :)
Showgirls *is* Terrible... Terrible... but... :)
Yes...but some of the dialogue is kind of unbelievable. I can't decide whether to do a separate post about my favourite bit from it or not. After the Jukebox of Cringe...the Cinema of Cringe...
x
Post a Comment