And speaking of lyrics… As I’ve mentioned I’ve never been great at interpretation. In pop music I’ve always felt the lyrics were more about feeling than about actually making sense. The words to Close to the Edge make as much sense as the words of Liz Fraser or Jonsi Birgisson but they seem to fit the music perfectly. Like most people I have always misheard certain lyrics. I lost £5 to Chris Hogg once over the name Parker (Farmer?) in “I know what I like”, I said Farmer, he said Parker or possibly the other way around, I’m still not sure which it is. (It is one of the delights and sadness’s of our connected world that I could find the answer out in a second but I won’t…purely to prolong the mystery). When you are young lyrics are very important. Growing up an urchin in Glasgow I had little idea what Canasta and a Studebaker were but Bowie and Roxy Music at least opened up the words to me. Occasionally words would pop up and I’d be baffled and just accept that these rock gods were privy to a more glamorous world that was forever out of my reach, “I turned to look but it was gone, I cannot put my finger on it now”. I could converse totally in song lyrics which would be incredibly dull for most people around me.
The afore-mentioned Africa by Toto is one case in point. This is a preposterous AOR power ballad which somehow equates a love affair with plains of the Serengeti…I know, I know. For years I’ve always thought the line goes:
“As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like a Memphis above the Serengeti”
…which made no sense at all to me and for years I just thought it was just lazy writing trying to squeeze in some dubious African references into a dodgy song. But, thanks to the power of the Intraweb thingy, I’ve found that the actual line is:
“As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti”
…which does make more sense. I promise I have not lost too much sleep over this stuff! The song I do like though, even though it’s not really my thing. AOR was quite big in the eighties but I was a slave to Indie and when you listened to the Bunnymen, Cocteaus, JAMC, Wedding Present, House of Love etc you’re not supposed to like American Corporate AOR. This is crap of course, I’ve always hated musical elitism. Punk was great but I never really got the whole year Zero nonsense. I have a soft spot for the Toto song because it always reminds me of a holiday Cheryl and I had in Somerset. We stayed in a small flat in Winter with snow covering the Somerset levels around Glastonbury, the flat was warm and cosy, we were young and in love and had a great time. Africa always seemed to be on the radio but, then, so was the Cutter and, well I chose that route. One hates to be fashionable of course but the whole concept of “Guilty Pleasures” is detestable, I heartily agree that a good song is a good song regardless of the supposed genre or label. It’s great that some people love Adele who might think that Song to the Siren is a wailing dirge. (They’re wrong of course! – oops.)
Most pop lyrics do not bear much close scrutiny of course. For every Morrissey, Blackwell and Bragg there are the Chadwicks, Greg Lakes and, yes, Jon Andersons of the world. Although I suppose in Jon Andersons case he could be a good lyricist, who can tell? Greg Lake (or possibly Pete Sinfield) was responsible for probably the worst lyric I know in the otherwise quite fab “Still you turn me on”….
“Everyday a little sadder,
a little madder,
someone get me a ladder”
Ah yes, poetry! Of course ELP weren’t really about the lyrics man; actually come to think of it what were they for? I do like this song but hearing this line always makes me cringe, what were they thinking? Guy Chadwick is another one. The House of Love are one of my favourite bands and Christine is a great track and…
“Christine, you’re in deep, pristine
With a god-like glow
Christine, Christine,
Heart and the glory and me
Chaos and the big sea”
…is sort of okay but I’ve always heard it as “..with a god-like glove” and nothing will ever change that! (See also “Audience with the Mind”, Babyteen, Love in a Car etc etc).
Editors note: Canasta is a card game and a Studebaker is probably some sort of car?
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