I wasn't sure what to write about this week.
I was going to write about the upcoming A.C.T. election but decided it was too depressing.
Movies? Haven't watched any.
T.V? Doctor Who ended on a cliffhanger and finishes this week for a whole year and a half while David Tennant plays Hamlet in the theatre. That is almost as depressing as politics.
The Emmys were on. Most of the night was dire. Josh Groban's take on iconic theme songs was suprisingly funny. My favourite part is Animal from the muppets being beamed up during the
X-Files theme. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=u7xD59eAnUc
90210 is causing random people to throw biscuits and other high-fat baked goods at the actresses. Much has been made of their weight and it will be interesting now that the show has been picked up for a whole season what the producers, and indeed the actors, do about it.
I could talk about music. Trouble is, I've listened to exactly one song all week. Metro Station's "Shake it" I'm slightly obsessed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9ioJ_i8P3k
Books? This week I read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I don't read a lot of fiction, and the last book about vampires I read was Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire" which I hated.
Twilight has more in common with a romance novel than anything else. It's very simple to read and moves along well. It's as far as you can get from high-art or literature, but would make a good airport novel for a (slightly younger) teenage girl. The film will come out later this season.
So, I'm off to watch more T.V. If anyone has a song they think I should listen to that isn't by Metro Station, please send me the name of it! Also, if anyone has read the sequel to Twilight, I'd love to know what you thought about it.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll
I've been thinking alot about songs that have gotten away with being played on mainstream radio without being censored. I've been looking particularly at songs with explicit drug references. "Golden Brown" by the Stranglers is one. It's about heroin.
Even Pink has managed to get a reference to morphine into one of her singles. In the same song, "Just like a pill" the word "bitch" is erased. This is a little odd, given that Meredith Brooks' song "Bitch" was never censored. If the difference between the two songs is the intent of the word, the reason is a little weak. I'm quite sure worse things have appeared on commercial radio. Any reference to ho's comes to mind...
Of course, some artists don't have a hope in hell of getting a drug reference past the censors. Snoop Dogg for example can say "When the pimps in the crib ma" but can't say "and I roll the best weed 'cos I got it going on". Perhaps it's a little blatant, but you get the feeling he couldn't get away with euphimisms either.
There is one song from the 90's that was ubiquitous, catchy, played at every school disco, and in hindsight is just as blatant as Snoop is. There is a difference though, this song is a 4 minute hook-laden song about a "Class A" drug. (or 2 or 3)
"Semi-Charmed Life" by Third-Eye Blind.
Alot of people are aware that this song is about crystal meth. But the truly astounding fact about this song is that not one word was ever censored for airplay.
Let's deconstruct it. The first verse:
I'm packed and I'm holding
I'm smiling, she's living, she's golden, she lives for me
says she lives for me, Ovation, her own motivation,
she comes round and she goes down on me.
Okay, so in those four lines we have that he's packed and holding a crack pipe. We also have a reference to Ovation, which is a drug company that makes a methamphetamine pill, and finally a reference to receiving oral sex, possibly in return for a hit. The next lines of note are:
And I speak to you like the chorus to the verse,
Chop another line like a coda with a curse
So they have given up on the pipe and are snorting it (or coke) instead. It continues:
The sky was gold, it was Rose
I was taking sips of it through my nose
and I wish I could get back there, some place back there
Smiling in the pictures you would take,
Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break.
I originally mis-heard the last line as about Mescaline. Clearly not! Rose is good quality meth.
I won't stop, I won't come down I keep stock,
With a tick-tock rhythm I bumped for the drop,
and then I bumped up
I took the hit that I was given, then I bumped again
Then I bumped again
The singer doesn't want to come down off his high so he bumps. Bumping is when you take a little to maintain a high, but not enough to OD.
Quite alot of the next verse is about the sex you can have for hours on Meth. Then this verse, that was often cut out of the radio edit for length, kicks in:
And when the plane came in, she said she was crashing
The velvet rips in this city
And we tripped on the urge to feel alive,
And now I'm struggling to survive
The end of the song makes it clear that it's a co-dependant relationship based completely off the drugs they are taking. This song was out quite a while before the "Ice epidemic" was in full swing in the media. Perhaps if it was to come out now, in an arguably more conservative time and with the general population knowing more about Crystal Meth and addiction it would be censored. I would like to think not, but suspect it would be.
So, does anyone else have any songs about drugs that have escaped the censors? Comment away!
Even Pink has managed to get a reference to morphine into one of her singles. In the same song, "Just like a pill" the word "bitch" is erased. This is a little odd, given that Meredith Brooks' song "Bitch" was never censored. If the difference between the two songs is the intent of the word, the reason is a little weak. I'm quite sure worse things have appeared on commercial radio. Any reference to ho's comes to mind...
Of course, some artists don't have a hope in hell of getting a drug reference past the censors. Snoop Dogg for example can say "When the pimps in the crib ma" but can't say "and I roll the best weed 'cos I got it going on". Perhaps it's a little blatant, but you get the feeling he couldn't get away with euphimisms either.
There is one song from the 90's that was ubiquitous, catchy, played at every school disco, and in hindsight is just as blatant as Snoop is. There is a difference though, this song is a 4 minute hook-laden song about a "Class A" drug. (or 2 or 3)
"Semi-Charmed Life" by Third-Eye Blind.
Alot of people are aware that this song is about crystal meth. But the truly astounding fact about this song is that not one word was ever censored for airplay.
Let's deconstruct it. The first verse:
I'm packed and I'm holding
I'm smiling, she's living, she's golden, she lives for me
says she lives for me, Ovation, her own motivation,
she comes round and she goes down on me.
Okay, so in those four lines we have that he's packed and holding a crack pipe. We also have a reference to Ovation, which is a drug company that makes a methamphetamine pill, and finally a reference to receiving oral sex, possibly in return for a hit. The next lines of note are:
And I speak to you like the chorus to the verse,
Chop another line like a coda with a curse
So they have given up on the pipe and are snorting it (or coke) instead. It continues:
The sky was gold, it was Rose
I was taking sips of it through my nose
and I wish I could get back there, some place back there
Smiling in the pictures you would take,
Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break.
I originally mis-heard the last line as about Mescaline. Clearly not! Rose is good quality meth.
I won't stop, I won't come down I keep stock,
With a tick-tock rhythm I bumped for the drop,
and then I bumped up
I took the hit that I was given, then I bumped again
Then I bumped again
The singer doesn't want to come down off his high so he bumps. Bumping is when you take a little to maintain a high, but not enough to OD.
Quite alot of the next verse is about the sex you can have for hours on Meth. Then this verse, that was often cut out of the radio edit for length, kicks in:
And when the plane came in, she said she was crashing
The velvet rips in this city
And we tripped on the urge to feel alive,
And now I'm struggling to survive
The end of the song makes it clear that it's a co-dependant relationship based completely off the drugs they are taking. This song was out quite a while before the "Ice epidemic" was in full swing in the media. Perhaps if it was to come out now, in an arguably more conservative time and with the general population knowing more about Crystal Meth and addiction it would be censored. I would like to think not, but suspect it would be.
So, does anyone else have any songs about drugs that have escaped the censors? Comment away!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Welcome!
Hello and welcome to my new blog!
I have blogged on Bebo before but I got bored with it and stopped. To head off all the calls of how much everyone hates Bebo, I know it is made primarily for illiterate Britons. Hence, ending blogging there.
As with my last blog comments and debates, and indeed insults, are encouraged. Making a return appearance are the very short DVD and movie reviews I take way too much pleasure in doing.
I blog because I hate speaking on the phone. It drives me mad. Blogging gives my friends and family a chance to find out what is going on in my head whenever is convenient to them, without having to speak to me. Talk about an added bonus!
Please check back when you have nothing better to do, Bertie.
I have blogged on Bebo before but I got bored with it and stopped. To head off all the calls of how much everyone hates Bebo, I know it is made primarily for illiterate Britons. Hence, ending blogging there.
As with my last blog comments and debates, and indeed insults, are encouraged. Making a return appearance are the very short DVD and movie reviews I take way too much pleasure in doing.
I blog because I hate speaking on the phone. It drives me mad. Blogging gives my friends and family a chance to find out what is going on in my head whenever is convenient to them, without having to speak to me. Talk about an added bonus!
Please check back when you have nothing better to do, Bertie.
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