In response to a string of comments from yesterday, here’s an anniversary song for Clyde and the Mrs.
Alongside great art like Paul Robeson singing Shenandoah, the internet is full of strange, inexplicable things that exist only to make you pay attention for a few moments before you share it with your friends. They pay attention for a few moments and send it to THEIR friends, and before long a huge pool of human attention has been collected so it can be sold to advertisers. This is the world we live in.
I’m not making things any better by sharing this with you, but how could I resist?
If this sounds familiar to you, here’s why.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZThquH5t0ow
Have a wonderful summer weekend!
Name a song that makes absolutely no sense.
Trail Baboon 
There are some songs with which I like to argue. For example, in “I’m So Lonesome I Cound Cry,” there’s that line “Have you ever seen a robin weep, when leaves begin to die?” That always makes me think, well, no, Hank, I haven’t. All of the robins I’ve seen have actually looked pretty chipper, and cold fall weather makes them fluff up their feathers a little, but look otherwise unperturbed. I don’t think they suffer from depression. Do they even have tear ducts?
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Off Topic: I posted this late yesterday in response to your lilac post:
Don’t trim the lilacs now, or they might not bloom next year. At least don’t deadhead ‘em. (I read this somewhere.)
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Thanks, Barbara. I’ll still have to trim, because they’re reaching too far over the sidewalk. But I usually let them go on the top, and they bloom okay there regardless of when I get around to trimming them. I think deadheading is alright if you only go back to the point where there’s foliage. That part of the stem is dead and won’t bloom again anyway. But I usually don’t deadhead, because I have about 150 feet of lilac hedge and I don’t have that kind of patience.
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Thank you, Dale. I will play it for my wife when she gets up.
Songs that make no sense: about 90% of rap, about 95% of opera, and about 99% of modern country. No not really; well maybe the opera.
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The friend that I go to see opera with gauge and opera by the number of “oh, please” moments it has (these can come from people not recognizing someone in disguise, anything related to love in opera, etc.). Puccini is prone to a high number of “oh, please” moments – but the music is pretty, so we forgive him.
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“Oh, please!” That’s a clever observation, Anna. The first and last opera I saw in person was Puccini’s Tosca, and it was just one long string of “Oh, please!” moments.
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Could not bike ride to Panera, so I drove and wrote this:
Time Does Make Fools of Us All
My mother, encyclopedia of cliches,
To me, often, too often, did say:
“There’s no fool like an old fool.”
I never thought about her words,
Because them I too often heard,
Until an old fool myself I became.
Off bike, by rain driven interior,
I saw a man with prodigious posterior,
In Panera lecturing young ladies.
I stood long behind him in line,
As he expounded in details quite fine
On packaged food nutrition labels.
Willowy, they were pleasant and sweet
As a tray they filled with rich treats.
In wisdom on their tongues they bit down.
The cause of this old-mannish foolery,
Resulting in droning buffoonery
Came not from corn syrup or dextrose.
An old man stares in soft feminine eyes,
And asserts wisdom his body belies . . . .
I ordered tea and looked not at Medusa.
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poetic vignettes
well done
happy anniversary
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Very well done – and I hope the day has been full of celebrations for you and Mrs. Clyde!
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Hello gang! I think there is no contest on the song that makes the least sense. It has to be MacArthur Park, originally sung by Richard Harris (the actor). The lyrics are supposed to be “symbolic” and artful, but I’m sure the song writer was well medicated when he wrote these immortal lines:
Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed,
In love’s hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants
CHORUS
MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down…
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
’cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
I wish I knew how to hotlink a video of the thing, but I’m doing you a favor by not linking.
Whooeee! Bought me a new computer yesterday. I have a week at least of work to download programs, fight with software companies, set up programs, all that!
Have a terrific weekend, babooners, and don’t leave your cake out in the rain.
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Make me laugh. I never could figure that song out! I was a tween when it came out. My friends and I spent hours trying to write down the lyrics and understand them.
The singer was probably well medicated, too. He had a rep.
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richard harris
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Happy Anniversary, Clyde! thanks for the poem.
i’m off to the pasture with the Girly Herd. will think about Dale’s question whilst i’m there watching over them.
Highway 61 Folks Festival Today (continuing from last night thru tomorrow). we’re going to the Singer/Songwriter contest this afternoon (as watchers, not participants)
good day to you All
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you can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd, barb. I’m guessing the Ladies’ Pasture might be equally challenging.
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OK, it’s a toss up between your Surfin’ Bird, Dale, and maybe Good Morning Starshine, which sports the following:
Gliddy glub gloopy/nibby nabby noopy
la la la – lo lo
saba sibbi saba – nooby aba naba
lee lee – lo lo
tooby ooby wala/nooby aba naba
Early mornin’ singing song.
I was reminded of this gem when reading Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs; apparently he surveyed his column’s readers, and the rest is history. I’m sure there was something from American Pie in there…
And does anyone else remember A-hab the A-rab — very pc incorrect lyrics, I’m almost embarrassed to enter it, but it was hilarious when I was a teen.
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oh yeah, i remember Ahab.
what about “does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?”
that Gliddy glub gloopy/nibby nabby noopy brings tears to my eyes every time – so touching – so heart-rending.
g’day
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It wasn’t hilarious to me.
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…and Happy Anniversary #45, Clyde and Sandra Marguerite!
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Good Morning and a Happy Weekend to All,
I would guess that some of you have listened to the Doctor Demento show on the radio. There has been many interesting nonsense songs on that show. My favorite is Fish Heads, Fish Heads, Rolly, Polly Fish Heads by Barnes and Barnes. My favorite line is: Took a Fish Head to the movies, didn’t have to pay to get it in. I don’t know if this show is still on the radio.
Happy aniversary to Clyde and his wife.
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“Dead Puppies” is the song still stuck in my head from Dr. Demento. “They don’t come when you call – they don’t chase squirrels at all – dead puppies aren’t much fun…”
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Happy Sapphire Anniversary to the fine couple in ‘Kato.
Congratulations on the new arrival, Steve.
You already grabbed my all time top pick for this category, so now I have to think of something else.
For a few golden years, right around the time my son was born, I worked with an insane group of women making foam bodies for life-size Muppets. We also feathered Big Bird. At that time, we worked in a smallish room in the old Ford plant in the warehouse district of Minneapolis.
That group collected bizarre music, and there it was I learned of Mrs. Miller, William Shatner’s Transformed Man album and a lot of other delights. We also faithfully tuned in to Science Friday and the Morning Show.
Every year at Christmas, one of the women(God rest her) and her sound designer husband collected and mixed the best of the best and presented each of us with our own disk of “the Pod Room Sampler”.
Happy days. Now all the departments are in a huge warehouse space and everyone wears an iPod.
Knew if I thought about it long enough, I would think of something.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen-also has the quality of being somewhat operatic, so there you go.
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Yes, C., and Killer Queen… never could get those lyrics.
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excellent choice. i love that song
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Off Topic – anyone know a good non chemical remedy for a path of teeny tiny brown ants that appear to be coming from under my kitchen sink? They’re not going to the compost pail that’s right there…
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Are they grease ants? Do they go for butter or oil?
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Maybe, I’ll look ’em up. They were headed over to the stove…
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try pepper. black pepper, i hear they wont cross the line
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Greetings! Happy Anniversary to Clyde and Marguerite — may every day together be special.
Enjoyed your poem, Clyde — fun image. For some reason I thought of Uma Therman’s(?) portrayal of Medusa in “Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief”. She is absolutely gorgeous, but wears a turban to cover the snakes and dark sunglasses to cover the eyes. But once you look into her eyes and snaky hair — boom, you turn to stone. Her great line when an innocent citizen tries to avoid looking at her … “Sssnneak a peeeek.”
Steve – I’m with you. “MacArthur Park” is definitely a nonsense song, followed closely by “Good Morning, Starshine.” But then, a lot of songs don’t make sense to me. If there’s pretentious, artsy fartsy layered meanings and subtext in lyrics, it’s usually over my head. Just give me a beat
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(oops finger in band-aid hit wrong key). Just give me a beat I can dance to and interesting harmonies. So much for that …
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Geez, I’m lame. Happy Anniversary to Clyde and Sandra Marguerite.
Steve, I hope you’re enjoying your new computer. My husband gave me his computer a few weeks back, but it’s full of his stuff, programs, emails, etc. Jim didn’t even transition my stuff over to this one until yesterday. Aarrggh! Must be nice to start with a fresh slate on a new computer!
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Uma was Medusa.
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Happy anniversary Clyde and bride! I’m thrilled by marriages that endure like that.
Here is a rather stupid response to a new computer. Wow. Even a cheap new computer can whip the pants off an old (9 years) expensive one. I had no idea. I was forced into this purchase, but it sure is fun having something that performs so much better.
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Hey–
Busy day here so just reading this and then heading out the door again. Headed up to see ‘The Gospel at Colonus’ at the Ordway tonight. Wave if you see us!
I don’t pay attention to song lyrics or words… I’m only in it for the tune. 😉 (I have the same problem at church– )
I do like ‘Surfin’ Bird’… got that on my iTunes!
Have a good weekend all–
Ben
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Oh, but my son reminds me of the ‘Llama Song’
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama
(note who is credited with it…)
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OMG, I think it doesn’t ever end!
OK, I never thought it would come to this, but I have been reminded of The Old Sow, by Rufe Davis, which we found at the library when our son was little. I AM NOT responsible.
Burl Ives also had some great nonsense stuff, and wouldn’t Spike Jones too?
Dale, it’s occurred to me that in a pinch, we can request stuff from you still!
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We had this on an album when we were kids and I had forgotten it. Looking forward to sharing it with the s&h when he returns from a week of indulgence with his aunt’s family.
OT-we always connect at the Orange Moose in Black River Falls, and there is a little shop there where I get Wisconsin micro-brews and 10-year aged cheddar. This time, I simply had to pick up some beer from the Horny Goat Brewery in Stevens Point.
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Congrats Clyde and Mrs. Every minute of a good, lasting marriage should be celebrated.
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ooh oeee walla walla bing bang
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Excellent tim, I was trying to remember that one!
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Who put the bop in the bop shoo bop?, Who Wrote the Book of Love?, and Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Questions whose musical answers make no sense. My son used to refer to Why Do Fools Fall in Love as the Push Down Song…obviosly they fell because like Baby Jane they were pushed!
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What about “I am the walrus” and Norwegian Wood” Weird lyrics..
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I’m with you Renee on those – and I was going to suggest “Revolution #9” as well. Just plain weird.
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I thank you all for the anniversary greetings; wasn’t really expecting that but they brightened the day for my wife. It has been on my mind all week. Been a tough and sort of ignored day, for a variety of reasons, cards not received from friends who have died for one. And the 45th, makes you think of the 50th, which is a hard thought. So anyway, it really pleased her and me.
Dale, who cannot love it by Paul Robson, such a difficult row he had to how.
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Clyde – I know what you mean about anniversaries. Our anniversary is September 11, so it’s been hard to celebrate in the aftermath of 2001. Plus, we just don’t make a big deal about birthdays or anniversaries for us — usually for financial reasons.
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Wow. What year were you married? Wow, because that is my daughter’s anniversary and their anniversary. Our son is getting married in September. They would have chosen the 11th for the fun of duplicating the date, except, well the obvious reason. So they are getting married the 18th. My sister got married on my birthday.
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We were married in 1982. We chose the date because it’s halfway between our two birthdays (8/20 for Jim and 10/2 for me). Congratulations to your children’s upcoming nuptials!
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I am going to be contrary on dumb songs.
Just went on a bike ride and listened to the album “Sounds of Silence” because it has “Kathy’s Song” in it, which has the lyric “As I watch the drops of rain/weave their weary paths and die./I know that I am like the rain./There but for the grace of you go I.”
Those words followed by the guitar solo that ends it, is MUSIC for me.
This whole album may be the best poetry in music of the last century, including the little-known challenging song “Blessed”
“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit.
Blessed is the lamb whose blood flows.
Blessed are the sat upon, Spat upon, Ratted on,
O Lord, Why have you forsaken me?
I got no place to go,
I’ve walked around Soho for the last night or so.
Ah, but it doesn’t matter, no.
Blessed is the land and the kingdom.
Blessed is the man whose soul belongs to.
Blessed are the meth drinkers, Pot sellers, Illusion dwellers.
O Lord, Why have you forsaken me?
My words trickle down, like a wound
That I have no intention to heal.
Blessed are the stained glass, window pane glass.
Blessed is the church service makes me nervous
Blessed are the penny rookers, Cheap hookers, Groovy lookers.
O Lord, Why have you forsaken me?
I have tended my own garden
Much too long.”
The sermon I gave on which the congregation and I had the most divided opinion (I liked, they hated) was on the line “Blessed is the church service makes me nervous”. But every line in it is worth thought.
Now back to dumb lyrics: Paul Simon said once that “Feelin’ Groovy” was a terrible song with stupid lyrics and he wished he could erase it.
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I like your line, “blessed is the church service which makes me nervous.” My idea of true spirituality is to be thought-provoking, to nudge me out of complacency and take a hard look at the woman in the mirror. Like Michael Jackson’s song, “Man in the Mirror.” Take a look at yourself and make the change … While church and spirituality can be a balm to the soul, it also has the ability to make us more of who we truly are, while leaving the ego-driven, selfish brat we act out … behind.
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I simple but true guideline for pastors:
“Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
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Amen to that — sounds like you are/were an excellent pastor!
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Macarthur Park
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