Songs of overwhelm
Sep. 11th, 2003 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tzikehI would like to be original, articulate, insightful, or inspiring today, but I've never mastered the ability to take the thoughts in my head and transmogrify them into clear, sensible words. So I will say this:
I was driving to work this morning when a song came on WXRT (Thursday is "New Releases" on this station) which was called, I think, "Fate's Right Hand", by someone I've never heard of. It was a song of overwhelm - that is, it was comprised mostly of lists of everything the songwriter finds awful, incomprehensible, or otherwise oppressive in the world today, either on a personal or a grand scale. It got me thinking about this very narrow sub-genre of songs, and other ones that I know. Each of them has a particular attitude towards its own subject matter, be it comic irony, painful earnestness, or resigned "fuck it" celebration. Interestingly, I can't think of any that were written pre-nuclear age - though each decade since then has at least one. If you folks know any, I'd love to hear them.
Merry Minuet (1958)
They're rioting in Africa,
There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man!
Eve of Destruction (1965)
Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,
but when you return, it's the same old place,
the poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace,
you can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace,
hate your next-door-neighbour, but don't forget to say grace,
and you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
Ball of Confusion (1970)
Evolution, revolution, gun control, the sound of soul
shooting rockets to the moon
kids growing up too soon
politicians say more taxes will solve everything
And the band played on
It's the End of the World As We Know It (1987)
Six o’clock - TV hour. Don’t get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.
We Didn't Start the Fire (1989)
"wheel of fortune", sally ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, aids, crack, bernie goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, china’s under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore
imagine all the people
living life in peace
you may say I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
and the world will live as one.
I was driving to work this morning when a song came on WXRT (Thursday is "New Releases" on this station) which was called, I think, "Fate's Right Hand", by someone I've never heard of. It was a song of overwhelm - that is, it was comprised mostly of lists of everything the songwriter finds awful, incomprehensible, or otherwise oppressive in the world today, either on a personal or a grand scale. It got me thinking about this very narrow sub-genre of songs, and other ones that I know. Each of them has a particular attitude towards its own subject matter, be it comic irony, painful earnestness, or resigned "fuck it" celebration. Interestingly, I can't think of any that were written pre-nuclear age - though each decade since then has at least one. If you folks know any, I'd love to hear them.
Merry Minuet (1958)
They're rioting in Africa,
There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man!
Eve of Destruction (1965)
Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,
but when you return, it's the same old place,
the poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace,
you can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace,
hate your next-door-neighbour, but don't forget to say grace,
and you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
Ball of Confusion (1970)
Evolution, revolution, gun control, the sound of soul
shooting rockets to the moon
kids growing up too soon
politicians say more taxes will solve everything
And the band played on
It's the End of the World As We Know It (1987)
Six o’clock - TV hour. Don’t get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.
We Didn't Start the Fire (1989)
"wheel of fortune", sally ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, aids, crack, bernie goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, china’s under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore
imagine all the people
living life in peace
you may say I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
and the world will live as one.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-11 11:51 am (UTC)The first one that came to mind when I was reading this was Don McLean's Prime Time. There's also Goodbye Marlon Brando by Elton John. On a more personal level of, um, overwhelmedness, there's Mr. Chainsaw by Alkaline Trio.
On the flip side, you've got Affirmation by Savage Garden, which is a feelgood version of a list song.