This line from Born To Be Wild has been lodged in my brain of late, which could have something to do with The Boy’s newfound infatuation with driving our parked car and the sense of parental duty I feel to provide him with a fitting soundtrack.
And while it may not be the best example of lyrical gold, it has at least inspired the idea of documenting some of my favourite lyrical moments in song.
This is in no way a Top Ten list, partly because it goes from one to six, but mostly because that would be an impossible task for a lyric lover like me.
So instead you could think of it in much the same way as you do of the ‘shuffle’ function on your Ipod, except that it won’t ‘randomly’ select tracks from the same five albums for six months in a row before it finally throws in a wild card from one of the other 8,458 songs on there.
So to kick it off, here are a few gems that have either been on my mind of late, or are lingering favourites…
1. Joni Mitchell singing “I could drink a case of you / darling / and I would still be on my feet / oh, I would still be on my feet”
This is like poetry for alcoholics. It’s one that the real drinkers amongst us get, and we think its beautiful. It’s like, filling your cup full of someone, 24 times over. And even though the demure and classy Joni Mitchell was no doubt referring to a case of wine, I like to localise the sentiment and think of it as, ‘I love you so much I could take you to an arvo barbie with all me mates and down a case of ya in one sitting, and not even fall ass over tit’.
Other highlights from the same song include, “if you want me I’ll be in the bar”, cuz where the fuck else would someone who likens not being able to get enough of someone to drinking a case of alcohol be found?
2. The entire lyrics of Dolly Parton’s Jolene, though in particular;
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene / I’m begging of you please don’t take my man / Jolene, Jolene, Jolene / please don’t take him just because you can…I cannot compete with you, Jolene / you can have your choice of man / but I could never love again, Jolene
I particular like the repetitive use of the name, Jolene. Because even though poor Dolly sounds like a downtrodden heartbroken lover, she manages to make, Jolene, sound like someone that must be spoken to as though they have a dangerous mental health condition.
I also think this track has the potential to bring women together everywhere, this is mainly based on the fact that one night at the pub when some girlfriends and I started singing a drunken rendition of this number some old bird (we nicknamed her MJ cuz she was rockin the black shoes and white socks look) got up and started belting it out with us, and we all knew all of the words.
3. Now, there is no shame here people, and so much to the dismay of The Yang (aka the Music Nazi) I am going to publicly admit that I know the words of a Garth Brooks song.
Bear with me on this one, and you just may understand, because this is a man who gets what’s its like to come from the wrong side of the tracks. He kicks things off by signing
“Blame it all on my roots / I showed up in boots / And ruined your black tie affair….”
And then goes onto cement his knowledge of the lower classes with
“Cause I got friends in low places / Where the Whiskey drowns / And the Beer chases my blues away / But I’ll be okay”
Its rationales like this that has saved my best friends and my entire family a lifetime of therapy bills, and you cant argue with logic like that.
The other highlight from the song (if you can bear to listen) is the cheers, whoops, whistles, and drunken revelry taking place in the background. Rockin.
4. In keeping with this lowbrow theme, another all time favourite is Fancy by Bobby Gentry, who sings
“I couldn’t see spendin’ the rest of my life / with my head hung down in shame / You know I mighta been born just plain white trash / but Fancy was my name”
Substitute ‘Fancy’ for ‘<RubyTwoShoes>’, ‘plain white trash’ for ‘Westie’, and the general theme of the song from ‘lady of the night rises from the depths of poverty and despair’ to ‘<RubyTwoShoes> moves from the Western suburbs to the inner city’, and this is pretty much the theme song of my life.
5. The ever delightful Gillian Welch crooning in Look At Miss Ohio that
“she wants to do right / but not right now”,
because this is something that I totally get. It captures my feelings on everything from doing the dishes, all the way up to ending world poverty and environmental destruction.
Like, how I would love nothing better than to contribute to the completion of such goals, if only we could just, push it back a little, until after dinner, or after this TV shows finished, or after I drink this beer, or eat one more tin of tuna, or have one more el-cheapo holiday in the third world, or go on one more gas guzzling holiday in my methane farting prehistoric vehicle….
6. And there is this;
“I can’t be precise, when people ask what I do with my life” by Kevin Renick.
I wish I had the rhyming genius of Kev and that I had have coined this winner myself so that when I was next presented with dilemma of how to answer the stock standard ‘so, what do you do?’ question that dominates social interactions (which I hate) I could just burst into song.
If only we all slipped into a little rhyming verse at these times, while I bags Kev’s line above, next time you’re at a party, or out to dinner, and someone asks you to define your life in one sentence, you could try something like;
“I wipe my kids bum, but it doesn’t make me glum, because I love being a mum!”
or
“I’m saving planet earth, to improve my feelings of self worth!”
The possibilities are endless.
Well, a list like this could go on forever, or it could go to six. I’m choosing six. But a word of advice before I depart, by the way of this little gem from Chic:
“Remember: the whole world is a circus, don’t you be the clown”.
Good stuff. My 5yo loves Jolene. We also substitute my grandmother’s name, Noeleen…
Perhaps you should introduce some show tunes to diversify the boy’s interest… a bit of ‘rain on my parade’ from Funny Girl wouldn’t do him any harm…
Maybe i’ll save my rendition of that for when he seeks to rebel by asking if he can join the Young Liberals or something and I come down all strict and righteous and motherly, giving him a big fat NO while I sing about raining on his parade.
i LURVE lyrics!!! People think it’s bizarre that i have such a wide taste in music, including some quite mediocre or middle of the road stuff, but i put it down to a love of lyrics. I always hear them how they should be, and interpret them by colouring my own life…
And i LURVE LURVE LURVE Joni Mitchell!! She was the artist i first got into when i was seriously getting into music as an early teen. Though i think i prefer “Hejira”, maybe a “Coyote” or “Amelia”, or off “Blue” maybe “All I Want” or “The Last Time I Saw Richard”… Sigh. Someone even complimented me on the Joni Mitchell t-shirt i was wearing yesterday, which kinda looks like the cover of “Blue”…
I might also reccommend Stevie Nicks “Edge of Seventeen”. Never fails to stun me. Stevie is a Goddess.
I know i know I know, thats why the list could have easily gone on forever. It was such a revisit of the old teenager years, picking out lyrics I love – if only I could have remember some more golden moments. And yes, Joni really is something, poetry in motion. From Blue I probably love All I Want most of all, how lucky was Kev (comment above) getting a smile from her at that show back in the day, lucky man…
I will eagerly check out Miss Nicks now, I lover her too.
Ruby…thank you very much for writing about my song and including it in your list. And gosh, to be part of a list that also includes Joni Mitchell, one of my all-time favorite artists, is SO flattering. One of the concert highlights of my life was being in the front row of a Joni concert in the late 70s and having her smile at me when I was mouthing the words to one of her lesser known songs. You have great taste, Ruby, and you sound like a thoughtful person. Thank you again for your nice column!
Hugs,
Kevin Renick
Kevin I am very humbled by your visit to my little blog, and thank you for leaving this note.
Although I adapted a somewhat playful tone when writing the list I am glad you still managed to detect some thoughtfulness behind it, because I really do love all the songs, …(and so many more).
I just wanted to add, in all seriousness this time, that your song really struck a chord with me. As I left the cinema after seeing Up In The Air I felt very affected the movie, but more so by what you said in your song. I couldn’t get it out of my mind and I scribbled down that line from it as soon as I had the chance.
When I got home I found the song online (tsk tsk) and listened to it again, hunched over the speakers and scribbling down the lyrics, word for word. I felt like a teenager.
You really captured something with the song, and it certainly spoke to me.
So thank you once again for your visit, and may you always remain with your feet up off from the ground.
I would be so intimidated by interaction with Joni, she seems really fierce. I think she’s a Scorpio. Chain smoker too, but with that voice…
I remembered later that Prince too was a Joni fanatic (particularly “The Hissing of Summer Lawns”) and he used to regularly perform “A Case of You” in concert, which is funny, ‘cos i always thought he was a teetotaller… And he referenced her in “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”: ” ‘A fairy tongue’, she said, and it was Joni singing “Help me, i think i’m falling…” ”
Will have to check out Kevin Renick, i’m not familiar with him. (shame!)
I know what you mean, The Boy is a Scorpio, talk about being intimidated by interaction – you should have seen me when he was a new born, fierce is not a strong enough word!
absolutely classic… sweet joni, dolly, and garth… and although I’m not familiar with the Kevin Renick song, I just bought it on itunes because of you. hahaha… no seriously… I did.
Shit. I hope you like it. Its from the soundtrack to Up In The Air, so its kinda the story of it all that got me hooked, ‘”cuz i’m up in the aiiiiiiiiir…” I dunno, it just sounds like a good place to be….
I realised later too that Morrissey’s favourite album is “Hejira” by Joni Mitchell, which i thought was an interesting choice for him…
Another good song i’ve been listening to lately which i think you would dig is Leon Russell “A Song For You” Very heartfelt love song, in the best possible way…
I’m loving these recommendations! You are such a wealth of music (and art) knowledge, its awesome
I try my best. There are other people who i admire their knowledge so much, so i don’t even feel i’m in the race, ha ha…
Today i’m having a bit of a Steve Miller Band day, trying to muster up the brainpower to write another blog. I’m sure you know how it is.
But i did check out Kevin Renick and i loved it. I’ll have to check out the movie now!
I love Case of You. It is one of my all time favorite songs and I especially like the version by Diana Krall and the best thing of all is to see Alvin Ailey dance to it.
Great post!
Oooo, I am going to have to Google those names right now!
Great post. Hey I’m interested in interviewing you and featuring you in an upcoming ‘reader of the week’ thing I am starting. If you are interested please contact me via my webby and let me know!!
You know, I am subjected to a large amount of contemporary country music while at work, and nothing makes me happier than when they throw on a classic. But every time they do, it just puts into perspective how truly unimaginative and godawful 95% of today’s c&w actually is.
I would never had guessed I’d be so happy to hear Dolly Parton, if that’s any indication. Especially “Coat of Many Colors.” And I am the last person I would ever expect to write a sentence like that. “Jolene” is pretty great as well.
But the question is: is Dolly that good or is today’s country music that bad? My answer would be that it is somewhere in between.
I also had no idea that Bobby Gentry wrote “Fancy.” I’ve only heard the Reba version and that one kind of drives me up the wall. I’ve got a lot more respect for Gentry than for Reba, which is kind of terrible considering I hadn’t heard of Gentry before reading this post. I just don’t think Reba has the gravitas to pull it off, especially considering her ill-advised television career.
Thanks for this post, ruby. I’m a fan of music, as you are already aware. I’ll leave it at that. Most people I run into who say they like “all kinds of music” are the type that have a CD collection that mirrors the Now That’s What I Call Music! compilations.
True, you may have some Nickelback next to some Shakira and possibly an oddball like Chumbawumba or one of the surviving Tenors, but I don’t think that really means you’re a fan of a wide variety of music. Rather, I think it means you’re just a fan of a wide variety of very popular music.
Oh, and by the way, you’ve been blogrolled.
I have a feeling you would LOVE the The Yang’s music collection. Obvious bias aside, the man is a genius producer, but more and more he finds himself DJing to make a buck (much easier than surviving in the music industry based on your left field electronic production work!). He is a shit hot DJ, mostly because his music collection is so diverse that he it allows him to really tune into a crowd/venue and play stuff that perfectly suits. His fav place to play is at a venue where the management have a “no popular/ Top 40 music” policy. This is right up his alley as he hardly owns any popular music anyway – the only stuff he has is the few bits and pieces of Madonna etc he has collected for when he gets hounded by people to “play something they know” (you would be surprised – or not – to know how much this happens at almost every gig!). It actually really brings me down, because, as I feel confident you will agree – ‘popular’ is much more an indication of the power of the music industry than it is of good, ass kicking fucking awesome music, so much of which is languishing away unnoticed – and then it gets played and all people do is whinge for something ‘they know’!!
So anyway that blah blah aside given the extensive influence (inspiration) The Yang brings me musically, I’d have to say to your Q above – yes, today’s country music probably really is ‘that bad’ – over produced, pop friendly, ting tang….
And now for my confessions – I am a snob the other way, hardly knowing any ‘popular’ music of today – I have no idea who Reba is?! But I feel very pleased to intro you to Bobby Gentry, Fancy is a super tune!
Thanks CLT, lovin the convo!
Sorry about Reba. I sometimes forget everyone doesn’t live in the US. That would be Reba McEntire, an inexplicably popular country singer.
Glad to hear about the Yang and his music collection. I used to DJ a bit myself, but I toiled under the collective weight of a top 40-oriented dance club which I think burnt me out on the Top 40 in general. (I was already headed that way, but it pushed me over the edge. But can’t argue with DJing. At that point in my life, I was making pretty good money for playing music and getting trashed 3-4 nights a week.)
All said: DJing is one of the best jobs ever. If you can make money doing it, that’s just icing on the cake. (Hopefully that euphemism translates…)