While listening to a few 'oldies' recently, I found some interesting lyrics. There were bits of social commentary tucked away within love songs! I encourage you to click the links and listen before reading the lyrics and my analyses. Then listen a second time.
First up is Just Like Romeo and Juliet by The Reflections. It was released in 1964, the year that a very conservative Republican, Barry Goldwater, was nominated for President. The mood of the country was still somber after JFK's assassination. Not a time for lyrics to stir up class consciousness. Imagine my surprise when I read the words:
Findin' a job tomorrow mornin'
Got a little somethin' I wanna do
Gonna buy (gonna buy) somethin' I could ride in
A-Take my girl (take my girl) datin' at the drive-in
Our love's gonna be written down in history
A-Just like Romeo and Juliet
I'm gonna buy her pretty presents
Just like the ones in a catalog
Gonna show (gonna show) how much I love her
Let her know (let her know) one way or the other
Our love's gonna be written down in history
A-Just like Romeo and Juliet
(Ooh-ooh-oop)
(Dooo, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doo-doop)
Just Like Romeo and Juliet
Just Like Romeo and Juliet
Just Like Romeo and Juliet
Just Like Romeo and Juliet
Talk about love and romance
Just wait 'til I get myself straight
I'm gonna put Romeo's fame
Right smack-dab on a date
Ah, all right, now, I'm speculatin'
Wonder what tomorrow's gonna really bring
If I don't (if I don't) find work tomorrow
It's gonna be (gonna be) heartaches 'n' sorrow
Our love's gonna be destroyed like a tragedy
Just like Romeo and Juliet
(Ooh-ooh-oop)
(Dooo, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doo-doop)
Just like Romeo and Juliet
A-Just like Romeo and Juliet
A-Just like Romeo and Juliet
(Just like Romeo and Juliet)
(Just like Romeo and Juliet)
(Just like Romeo and Juliet)
(Just like Romeo and Juliet)
The opening lines to any song are of great importance. "Findin' a job tomorrow mornin'" The guy in this song is unemployed. "Gonna buy (gonna buy) somethin' I could ride in" He doesn't even have a car. "I'm gonna buy her pretty presents/Just like the ones in a catalog" Note that he is not in the class that would have seen these "pretty presents" while shopping in a fancy retail store. No. He's only seen them from afar - in a catalog. Finally, the very revealing lyrics, "If I don't (if I don't) find work tomorrow/It's gonna be (gonna be) heartaches 'n' sorrow/Our love's gonna be destroyed like a tragedy/Just like Romeo and Juliet" Up to that point, he dreams of a perfect romance, predicated upon finding a job and buying a car. Absent these materialistic things, his entire world will come crashing down, "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet." These problems would not be as prevalent in an upper-income group, for whom being without a job and car simultaneously would be highly unlikely.
Next in line for a Bitter Analysis is Five O'Clock World by The Vogues. It was released in 1966. This was not an era conducive to getting songs with social commentary played on Top 40 AM radio. Unless those lyrics merged with a love story:
Up every mornin' just to keep a job
I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob
Sounds of the city poundin' in my brain
While another day goes down the drain
But it's a five o'clock world when the whistle blows
No one owns a piece of my time
And there's a five o'clock me inside my clothes
Thinkin' that the world looks fine, yeah
Tradin' my time for the pay I get
Livin' on money that I ain't made yet
I've been goin' tryin' to make my way
While I live for the end of the day
Cuz it's a five oclock world when the whistle blows
No one owns a piece of my time, and
There's a long-haired girl who waits, I know
To ease my troubled mind, yeah
oh my lady, yeah
oh my lady, yeah
In the shelter of her arms everything's OK
When she talks then the world goes slippin' away
And I know the reason I can still go on
When every other reason is gone,
In my five o'clock world she waits for me
Nothing else matters at all
Cuz every time my baby smiles at me
I know that it's all worthwhile,
yeah oh my lady,
yeah oh my lady, yeah, fade.....
The first four lines are extremely depressing. A normal person dealing with all that on a daily basis might become suicidal. The next four lines show that the real person has to be hidden away under his work mask until he leaves the job site. Once the shackles of the work-a-day world are thrown off, then and only then does " ... the world look fine." Indeed, the only reason he can put up with his job and the related world of work, a/k/a drudgery, is because of his lady love. A sad commentary on a society and culture that devalues a person and his job, and reduces him to a cog in the machine.
By 1970, radio had changed forever. Stations known as "underground FM" had sprouted up, whose mission was to reject the restrictive boundaries of the Top 40 AM outlets. Gone forever was the two to three minute record length 'rule'. Gone forever was the need to hide socially and politically charged lyrics. John Lennon wrote a dark song that is still controversial today. "Working Class Hero" appeared on his first album after leaving the Beatles in 1970, and must be included in any grouping of songs with a working class theme. No analysis, bitter or otherwise, is necessary:
As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they've tortured and scared you for 20 odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
A hearty 'thank you' goes out to the songwriters who crafted their words to create powerful pictures and weave intricate tapestries. As with all pictures, their beauty and interpretation is in the eye of the beholder. I'm anxious to hear your decipherment of these songs, or any others you feel that fit into this category.
Friday, June 27, 2008
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6 comments:
Good observation, by the way.
I think there is good reason why these types of themes show up so often in music, poetry, and art:
It's because these professions most often create hardship in those that pursue them. There's a very good reason it's referred to as "the starving artist syndrome". Because, with the exception of the extreme few (and lucky) there's no money to be made as an artist.
So while you may think that we have artists spouting social commentary, I'd say they are telling the story of their own lives. A life, by the way, that could have been avoided to begin with by choosing a trade other than art.
So, in short, the evil Lord Kiser is once again saying, "They brought it upon themselves."
Art is an INCREDIBLY worthwhile pursuit... just not lucrative.
I've noticed on Journey's latest two albums, other than the obligatory love ballads, they've pumped out a few songs with focuses on the struggling working class and family values. They even have a song about an unemployed plant worker signing up for the service and fighting in Iraq and THANKFULLY, they didn't seem to take a side on the matter. They just thew out the message of supporting our troops.
lord Kiser - We are in agreement that art, for the vast majority of artists, is not lucrative, and that artists are telling the stories of their own lives. I suspect, though, that these artist's work is mostly based upon hardships endured before they began writing songs or stories, rather than those endured after their decision to become artists.
Granted, they did make a voluntary choice to continue their economic hardships by choosing art in the hope of both fulfilling a burning need for self-expression, and attaining a measure of material comfort in the process.
We are so much richer, as a country and a world, for artists of all genres, for sharing their ideas, angst, and hopes.
Support your local starving artists. BUY a book, album, painting, tickets to plays, et cetera.
bfoxy - Thanks for the info on Journey's new album. The song you mention about the unemployed plant worker sounds great. If the lyrics lay out the facts of the person's story (dare I say his 'journey?') and then allows each individual listener to draw his own conclusions, then art has reached a higher level. It has become thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating.
It's like they say (who's "they" by the way)..."If you ain't the boss and you don't own the business then git in there and dig some dirt!" As I put on my working togs and prepare to hit the road to put in my shift time that line came to me after reading those song lyrics. Choosing a trade as a life's work pusuit does not necessarily guarantee untold wealth and success. Most tradesman and women manage to make an honest living. Any major bump in the status quo however tends to upset everyday lives ($4.00 plus a gallon doing you any good?). So unless your boss is willing to give you instant raises to make up for rising prices for gas, food, etc. a trades person can feel like a starving artist as well and can relate to the song lyrics.
You make a good point. Because the average worker feels the strains of the daily grind, she can relate to the lyrics of songs like these.
When the words move her to buy the songs, she benefits from the cathartic experience of hearing her story told, and the artists benefit from both the sales and the validation of their work.
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