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Sulk songs
Aug. 6th, 2008 11:43 amThe Ting Tings, That’s Not My Name
JULES: We were both in a band before this, with more members and stuff, and it went really, badly wrong being signed to a label that was changing their personnel. So we got caught in that cliché of [being] stuck on the shelf, not putting records out, not doing anything. When we wrote that, it was like we felt really invisible. We’d been dumped by our label, no one was picking up the phone, we lost a lot of friends, no one wanted to seem to know us at all. Also, when Katie was singing the chorus, I remember Katie had quite a lot to say from a girl’s point of view being signed. And again, no one [was] remembering her name, just treating her kind of [like] a bit contemporary. [AOL]
Mika, Grace Kelly
LAUREN LAVERNE: “Grace Kelly” sounds like it’s a straightforward 3-minute pop song, but it’s got a bit of a dark undercurrent lyrically. Tell us about that.
MIKA: It sounds like the happiest song ever but I wrote it when I was completely furious. I went home from an hour-long meeting where they told me that I had to knuckle down and write songs like everyone else—at least for my first album; by the time I get to my second album I could do whatever I want—and I knew that was completely false. So I went home and I wrote Grace Kelly as a little “stick you” song to them and I typed out the lyrics and I sent it to them. I think by the time they got to the bit that said, “Should I bend over, should I look older / Just to be put on your shelf?”, they kind of figured out…
LL: Yeah. Their loss. [The Culture Show, BBC]
McFly, One For The Radio
At least in this case McFly are not sulking at their record company. Instead, they are sulking at people who have had the temerity not to buy or enjoy any of their records—a worthy target, by any standards. Are you a non-McFly-record-buyer? Do you pretend you hate them? Do you feel suitably chastened by this song?
These are all recent, but what other examples are there of successful sulk songs? What other personal whinges or diva-esque hissy fits have struck some kind of chord with the record-buying public, usually because the record-buying public has liked the tune and not bothered with the lyrics?
AOL: What inspired you guys to write “That’s Not My Name”?They call me “Hell”
They call me “Stacey”
They call me “her”
They call me “Jane”
That’s not my name (x4)
They call me “quiet girl”
But I’m a riot
Mary, Jo, Lisa
Always the same
That’s not my name (etc, etc)
JULES: We were both in a band before this, with more members and stuff, and it went really, badly wrong being signed to a label that was changing their personnel. So we got caught in that cliché of [being] stuck on the shelf, not putting records out, not doing anything. When we wrote that, it was like we felt really invisible. We’d been dumped by our label, no one was picking up the phone, we lost a lot of friends, no one wanted to seem to know us at all. Also, when Katie was singing the chorus, I remember Katie had quite a lot to say from a girl’s point of view being signed. And again, no one [was] remembering her name, just treating her kind of [like] a bit contemporary. [AOL]
Mika, Grace Kelly
* You might be as surprised as I was to discover that this is the actual lyric rather than, as Mika’s dreadful muppety falsetto makes it sound, “I could be happy, I could be bappy”.I could be brown,
I could be blue,
I could be vi-o-let sky!
I could be hurtful,
I could be purple, *
I could be anything you like!
Gotta be green,
Gotta be mean,
Gotta be everything more!
Why don't you like me?
Why don't you like me?
Why don't you walk out the door!
LAUREN LAVERNE: “Grace Kelly” sounds like it’s a straightforward 3-minute pop song, but it’s got a bit of a dark undercurrent lyrically. Tell us about that.
MIKA: It sounds like the happiest song ever but I wrote it when I was completely furious. I went home from an hour-long meeting where they told me that I had to knuckle down and write songs like everyone else—at least for my first album; by the time I get to my second album I could do whatever I want—and I knew that was completely false. So I went home and I wrote Grace Kelly as a little “stick you” song to them and I typed out the lyrics and I sent it to them. I think by the time they got to the bit that said, “Should I bend over, should I look older / Just to be put on your shelf?”, they kind of figured out…
LL: Yeah. Their loss. [The Culture Show, BBC]
McFly, One For The Radio
“One For The Radio” is about McFly’s constant struggle for critical acceptance. The song is aimed at people who secretly like McFly but refuse to admit it. I don’t have any figures on how big a demographic that is, but McFly clearly think it comprises enough people to bother writing a song for. Apparently the way to persuade your closet fans to declare their allegiance is to sound exactly like Green Day, except that your protest is directed not at any contemporary issues but at how much people like you, and to give your album away free with the Mail on Sunday—a trick that Miami rapper Flo Rida, whose album, bafflingly, is actually called Mail on Sunday, somehow missed.LA temptations, or music sensations
There’s great expectations that weigh on our heads
So here’s to the liars who dream and conspire
Against the admired, we hope you drop dead
So here’s another song for the radio
And here’s another line from the heart
So don’t pretend you hate us when we sing our songs
‘Cuz we all look the same in the dark
At least in this case McFly are not sulking at their record company. Instead, they are sulking at people who have had the temerity not to buy or enjoy any of their records—a worthy target, by any standards. Are you a non-McFly-record-buyer? Do you pretend you hate them? Do you feel suitably chastened by this song?
These are all recent, but what other examples are there of successful sulk songs? What other personal whinges or diva-esque hissy fits have struck some kind of chord with the record-buying public, usually because the record-buying public has liked the tune and not bothered with the lyrics?
