By By Billy Florio
“Your Racist Friend”-They Might Be Giants
In the late ’70s, punk icon Elvis Costello and blues singer Bonnie Bramlett were having an argument about musicians in a Holiday Inn bar in Ohio, when Costello, drunk and wanting to end the conversation, decreed that Ray Charles was a “blind, ignorant n***er.” Bramlett proceded to punch him senseless. A little over a decade later, the usually playful. They Might Be Giants wrote “Your Racist Friend” about the incident.
“White Lines”-Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five
Before trends like gangsta rap started, many rap songs focused on the social problems of the black community. Early innovators Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel used message driven songs to focus on these issues and attempt to eradicate them. “White Lines” is about the growing cocaine problem that was hitting the black community. Mel’s lyrical pleas of “Don’t Do It” sends enough of an anti-drug statement that they counteract how stupid the song sounds when he announces the bass’s entrance into the song by screaming “Bass!” Oh, and those overdubbed vocals near the end sound horrible-but just because it sounds like it obviously came out in 1983, that’s no reason not to recognize how the song’s potency.
“Take The Skinheads Bowling”-Camper Van Beethoven
Revisionist history has been good to Camper Van Beethoven. With the way “Take The Skinheads Bowling” is peddled on radio station’s “Retro Lunch” or “’80s Weekends,” one would think it was the quintessential new wave hit of the decade. In reality though, the song didn’t even get near the charts. Many patrons of ’80s college radio remember the song, mainly because of its non-stop airplay in 1985. It wasn’t until those college students grew up and got their own radio shows on mainstream stations that the song became an “’80s Classic.” Regardless of all that hit-or-not nonsense, the song rocks-ridiculous lyrics and all.
“Cool Jerk”-The Capitals
Somewhere a long time ago, I heard that this song was based on a dance called “The Pimp Jerk,” but all research into that has been unfruitful, so instead, let’s go a different route: this is one of those songs that will get you moving whether you want to or not. There’s something about the bass line and the piano playing that just causes the listener to dance.
“Excitable Boy”-Warren Zevon
This is such a happy song. At least that interpretation would be seen if you didn’t hear the lyrics and just heard the happy melody and chirpy piano line. Listen closer and you will hear what the song was really about: “He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom / Excitable boy, they all said / And he raped her and killed her / then he took her home / Excitable boy, they all said…After ten long years they let him out of the home / Excitable boy, they all said /And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones / Excitable boy, they all said.” Is it even worth mentioning that it’s one of the catchiest songs to come out of the ’70s?
“Teenager”-Camera Obscura
These Belle and Sebastian sound-a-likes put out one of the most beautiful songs of 2004. The vocals almost sound heavenly and angelic-the voice you’d expect to hear when you die, welcoming you to another world. It’s a bit ironic, since Camera Obscura’s music is the nectar of the gods, making life so much sweeter.
“Come On Eileen”-Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Ok, everybody knows this song. There really isn’t any need to include this in a musical education article-but this song is amazing and you best remember that. Kevin Rowland kept the genre of celtic soul alive long after Van Morrison stopped arriving to live performances sober and became some kind of aging rock star joke.
“52nd Street”-Billy Joel
One of the many goals of this column is to make Billy Joel credible again by bringing his good songs to the forefront to overshadow all the garbage he did later in his career. “52nd Street” is one of Joel’s forgotten songs, yet also one of his best. An amazing piece of jazz-fusion, Joel uses “52nd Street” to finish off the jazz-drenched 52nd Street album and achieve the highest point in his career.
“The Village Green Preservation Society”-The Kinks
Ray Davies had a number of favorite themes that he used as often as possible: things like not everything newer is better and the old way isn’t always the right way. These themes collide in “The Village Green Preservation Society” to create one of The Kinks best, with some of their most offbeat lyrics: “We are the village green preservation society / God save Donald Duck, Vaudeville and Variety / We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society / God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties.” Then the lyrics go on to talk about custard pie, Fu Manchu and tudor houses.
“The End”-The Doors
And now, an unpopular position: “The End” is one of the worst songs ever. It should be known due to the fact that it was everything that was wrong with The Doors, all fitted nicely into a song too long for its own good. Overly-pretentious lyrics, holier-than-thou imagery, over-the-top vocals, reliance on shock, unneeded complex narratives, an extreme drug-like atmosphere, addition of what sounds like a sitar (nothing against the sitar itself, but it became more of a cliché for a ’60s drug-culture band to use it for a more druggy feel), epic length, and the list goes on. Everything that was wrong with The Doors can be heard in this song. It was used perfectly in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, providing the perfect opening music for a movie about going into the heart of darkness, a literal hell. This song is a literal hell.