{"id":2990,"date":"2009-01-27T13:24:03","date_gmt":"2009-01-27T18:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=2990"},"modified":"2009-01-27T13:24:03","modified_gmt":"2009-01-27T18:24:03","slug":"shoulda-thoughta-that-and-the-worst-songs-evah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/shoulda-thoughta-that-and-the-worst-songs-evah\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Shoulda Thoughta That.&#8221; And the Worst. Songs. <em>Evah<\/em>."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"Album cover: Keane, Little Broken Words\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/littlebrokenwords_sm.jpg?resize=275%2C275&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"275\" \/>One of The Missus&#8217;s ongoing laments involves the infamous curve, which she seems forever ahead of. &#8220;Did you see,&#8221; she&#8217;ll say to me, &#8220;that <em>[insert name of formerly unknown person]<\/em> just made <em>[insert some number which includes many zeroes and a currency symbol]<\/em> from <em>[insert random clever idea here]<\/em>? I can&#8217;t believe it. That was <em>my<\/em> idea!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Over at the <em>Writing Well Is the Best Revenge<\/em> blog, <a title=\"Writing Well Is the Best Revenge: Worst Songs Ever\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jungleredwriters.com\/2009\/01\/on-worst-songs-ever.html\" target=\"_blank\">a recent post<\/a> starts out by touching on a similar phenomenon: encountering ideas they&#8217;ve never had, but wish they did. Specifically, they talk about the Publisher&#8217;s Lunch e-newsletter, which provides reports of recent book deals. BIG book deals.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I know it&#8217;s, what, masochistic? Not because I begrudge anyone the fabulous deals they made&#8211;oh no way! If books are getting purchased and publishers are humming along, I&#8217;m all for it.<\/p>\n<p>No&#8211;what&#8217;s masochistic is the constantly recurring thought that I am unable to suppress. And that is: oh&#8211;<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">I should have thought of that<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Or worse: Oh, <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">I COULD have thought of that<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>We won&#8217;t even discuss &#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">I DID think of that<\/span>, years and years ago, but didn&#8217;t do anything about it&#8221; <span style=\"color: #999999;\"><em>[Ed. note: <\/em>viz<em>., The Missus&#8217;s lament]<\/em><\/span> because that way lies true madness. (Two little words: <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Animal Planet<\/span>.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Which leads them &#8212; gotta love it, someone else is easily distracted, too &#8212; to consider the announcement of the sale of Christopher Bowles&#8217;s book, <em>Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The 100 Worst Songs Ever, a highly personal, deeply offensive, politically incorrect and humorous catalog of pretentious lyrics, bad rhymes and syrupy pap, including classics we love to hate such as &#8216;Achy Breaky Heart,&#8217; &#8216;Sometimes When We Touch,&#8217; and of course &#8216;Ice Ice Baby&#8217; by the singular Vanilla Ice, &#8230; for publication in 2010&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(By the way, I found <a title=\"Spinner.com: The 20 Worst Lyrics Ever\" href=\"http:\/\/www.spinner.com\/2007\/03\/27\/the-worst-lyrics-ever-no-20\/\" target=\"_blank\">a similar post<\/a> on the Spinner.com site, from 2007: &#8220;The 20 Worst Lyrics Ever,&#8221; starting with the line from Elton John&#8217;s\/Bernie Taupin&#8217;s &#8220;Your Song&#8221;: &#8220;If I was a sculptor\/But then again, no.&#8221; Ha!)<\/p>\n<p>All of which leads them to consider <em>bad<\/em> ideas they&#8217;ve <em>never<\/em> had&#8230; and of course to bad song lyrics, in particular.<\/p>\n<p>Their nominees:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Simon &amp; Garfunkel: &#8220;Homeward Bound&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Bobby Goldsboro: &#8220;Honey&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>George Michael: &#8220;Careless Whisper&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Sheena Easton: &#8220;Morning Train&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Paul Anka: &#8220;Having My Baby&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Cyrkle: &#8220;Red Rubber Ball&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The Archies: &#8220;Sugar, Sugar&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The whole post is entertaining, though, even tackling a quasi-icon like Neil Young (&#8220;Great music and from a guitar standpoint, pretty easy to play. The lyrics SOUND meaningful, but when you break them down&#8230;&#8221;) and an intellectual favorite, the Icelandic band Sigur R\u00f3s (&#8220;They recently started to sing in a completely made up language, so the audience would find their own meaning in the lyrics&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I&#8217;ve always thought one of the worst lyrics ever penned <em>and then captured for millions to experience<\/em> was in 1939&#8217;s great film <em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. It&#8217;s in the Scarecrow&#8217;s &#8220;If I Only Had a Brain&#8221; song:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I would laugh and I&#8217;d be merry<br \/>\nLife would be a dinglederry<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>[screech of phonograph needle jumping out of groove]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dinglederry&#8221;?!? I imagine the lyricist, E. Y. &#8220;Yip&#8221; Harburg, probably has to start his term in Limbo all over again every time Ray Bolger sings that line.<\/p>\n<p>Another oddball one, whose music haunts despite the relentless idiocy of the lyrics: 1966&#8217;s &#8220;96 Tears,&#8221; by the group known as <a title=\"Wikipedia, on ? and the Mysterians\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Question_Mark_and_the_Mysterians\" target=\"_blank\">? and the Mysterians<\/a>. (Yes, that&#8217;s &#8220;[Question Mark] and the Mysterians.&#8221;) Here&#8217;s the song itself <em>(click Play button to start, volume control at left)<\/em>:<\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 1px solid silver; margin: 0.25em 0.5em 0.5em; padding: 1em 0.5em 0pt; width: 400px; float: none; text-align: center;\" title=\"Click Play button to hear '? and the Mysterians: 96 Tears'\">[audio:96tears.mp3|titles=&#8217;96 Tears&#8217;|artists=? and the Mysterians]<\/div>\n<p>&#8230;and here are the lyrics, my God, the lyrics:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Too many teardrops for one heart to be cryin&#8217;<br \/>\nToo many teardrops for one heart to carry on<br \/>\nYou&#8217;re way on top now<br \/>\nSince you left me<br \/>\nYou&#8217;re always laughin&#8217;<br \/>\nWay down at me<br \/>\nBut watch out now<br \/>\nI&#8217;m gonna get there<br \/>\nWe&#8217;ll be together<br \/>\nFor just a little while<br \/>\nAnd then I&#8217;m gonna put you<br \/>\nWay down here<br \/>\nAnd you&#8217;ll start cryin&#8217;<br \/>\nNinety-six tears<br \/>\nCry<br \/>\nCry<\/p>\n<p>And when the sun comes up<br \/>\nI&#8217;ll be on top<br \/>\nYou&#8217;ll be way down there<br \/>\nLookin&#8217; up<br \/>\nAnd I might wave<br \/>\nCome up here<br \/>\nBut I don&#8217;t see you<br \/>\nWavin&#8217; now<br \/>\nI&#8217;m way down here<br \/>\nWonderin&#8217; how<br \/>\nI&#8217;m gonna get you<br \/>\nBut I know now<br \/>\nI&#8217;ll just cry, cry, I&#8217;ll just cry<\/p>\n<p>Too many teardrops for one heart to be cryin&#8217;<br \/>\nToo many teardrops for one heart<br \/>\nTo carry on<br \/>\nYou&#8217;re gonna cry ninety-six tears<br \/>\nYou&#8217;re gonna cry ninety-six tears<br \/>\nYou&#8217;re gonna cry cry, cry, cry, now<br \/>\nYou&#8217;re gonna cry cry, cry, cry<br \/>\nNinety-six tears c&#8217;mon and lemme hear you cry, now<br \/>\nNinety-six tears (whoo!) I wanna hear you cry<br \/>\nNight and day, yeah, all night long<br \/>\nUh-ninety-six tears cry cry cry<br \/>\nC&#8217;mon baby, let me hear you cry now, all night long<br \/>\nUh-ninety-six tears! Yeah! C&#8217;mon now<br \/>\nUh-ninety-six tears!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You&#8217;re welcome.<\/p>\n<p>____________________<\/p>\n<p><em>[The artwork for this post is the album cover for <\/em>Little Broken Words<em>, by the UK &#8220;piano-rock band&#8221; <a title=\"Wikipedia, on Keane (the band)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Keane_(band)\" target=\"_blank\">Keane<\/a>. By using the album cover here, I don&#8217;t mean to imply anything about Keane&#8217;s lyrics &#8212; about which I know nothing. The title just provided an appropriate phrase for a post about rotten lyrics.]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of The Missus&#8217;s ongoing laments involves the infamous curve, which she seems forever ahead of. &#8220;Did you see,&#8221; she&#8217;ll say to me, &#8220;that [insert name of formerly unknown person] just made [insert some number which includes many zeroes and a currency symbol] from [insert random clever idea here]? I can&#8217;t believe it. That was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,38,94,74,5,50],"tags":[930,931,932],"class_list":{"0":"post-2990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-themissus","7":"category-backwards","8":"category-02_in-the-news","9":"category-music","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-language-writing_cat","12":"tag-bad-lyrics","13":"tag-ahead-of-the-curve","14":"tag-writing-well-is-the-best-revenge","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-Me","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2990"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}