Category: poetry

Insane Clown Posse – Bugz On My Nutz (Ringmaster, 1994)

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Okay, okay, I know. This is a song about getting STDs from unsafe sex. Yes, this is the chorus:

Your nuts we want your nuts
We’ll itch and scratch and bite your nuts
Your nuts we want your nuts
Please, oh please, fuck dirty butts

Your nuts we want your nuts
We’ll itch and scratch and bite your nuts
Your nuts we want your nuts
Please, oh please, fuck dirty sluts

Here’s the thing though – it’s catchy. The rapping has some pretty clever stuff going on rhythm-wise, and the instrumentation somehow manages to communicate the idea of an itchy crotch – blurpy synth bassline, clicky drum machine percussion, guitar stings, and this tiny little synth line that I think is freaking in genius at 1:24 – just two little notes, bleep bloop, but somehow it swings you right around from the entertaining “got me a purdy woman’s love” sample into the next batch of rapping.

And then you’ve got stretches like this:

So you wanna fuck around, always gotta buck around
Lift up your dingaling nothing but a bug ya found
Now they call you funky nuts cuz you like funky butts
Scratching and biting them, now they call you monkey nuts
But I ain’t sayin nothing, cuz you ain’t playin nothin
Bring the track back and I get back to the nutsac track

Everything is cut way back to a slim drum loop, and the syncopated lyrics almost become another percussive elements – and the twisty ryhmes almost remind me of something like Beasty Boys, despite the fact that I hardly ever listen to them. Something really works about stuff like that.

One thing I’ve got to admit that I find undeniably entertaining about some of these ICP tracks is the ridiculous things that they come up with:

Somebody asked me how I got scabies
Probably that homeless fat redneck bad lady
That I fucked in the shed

Did you make it through to the end of the song? If not, skip ahead to 3:26 for a little bonus action.

 

“Hey, check this out man, I can remember back in school, back in elementary school. 
Yeah, shit used to be cool then, ya know what I’m sayin? 
Cuz it was all about shootin’ dice and playin’ dodge ball and shit, you know? 
But then something happened man, everybody grew up and now ain’t nothing the same, 
like this one punk mutha fucka. 
The same mutha fucka I was trading G.I. Joes with and playin’ kick ball,
is gonna run up on me and throw a gang sign 
talkin about he’s gettin ready to fly my head and shit. 

Well fuck you ya know, cuz your still the same fake ass bitch you always was, 
so don’t come up on me with that shit, 
cause I know ya too well. 
You still the same ‘gotta be in by 6,’ jello eatin’, mutha fucka ya always was. 
Oh yeah, and a couple years ago I fucked ya sister at your birthday party. 
So don’t come up on me, cuz I know ya too well bitch boy.”
“Yeah mutha fuckin’ bitch boy!”

Once again, I know, it’s not the most appealing way of saying it, but… it’s an appealing sentiment. “Don’t try to act like someone else, because I know you too well.”

Insane Clown Posse – Under The Moon (The Great Milenko, 1997)

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ICP confuses me – I actually like a fair amount of music off of their Great Milenko album. Unfortunately, the albums which bookended this release aren’t anywhere as enjoyable – and the ‘juaggalo’ aspect of their music and fanbase is intriguing, (is it acting? is it marketing? is it sincere?) but not particularly appealing. I have trouble separating the apparent violence, hate, and bigotry in their lyrics from their non-violent, non-judgemental, non-everything-their-music-appears-to-be message – the progression of their albums or ‘joker cards’ introduces a mythology that leads the listener to heaven. I don’t know what to make of it.

I do know what to make of a few good tracks though – and since it’s been about a month since I posted anything, I’ll take this opportunity to look at a few of my favorite ICP songs.

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Things start out right – whispery chorus in the intro, overlapping laugh track, and a nice solid ‘slam’ to start the first verse: (sorry about the slang and bad spelling – it’s all [sic] from the source, unfortunately.)

I was just a child but you seemed like so much more. 
The way you would approach me and drift across the floor, 
I’d see you in the hall and you’d kiss me with a smile. 
I never understood it was I even worth your while? 
The other kids at school they would hate me and they’d spit. 
Cuz I was just a no one to them I wasn’t shit. 
But you would always hold me and stand there by my side, 
We were only 17 we’d be together till we died. 

Wait, this isn’t about killing rednecks, dark carnival mythology, killing rednecks, or dismembering children - it’s a love song!

But then it all happened the ever dreadful day. 
Somebody tried to rape you and now I’ll make him pay. 
You pointed him out to me- my thoughts began to race. 
I took my daddy’s 45 and shot him in the fuckin’ face! 
I did it all for you and though I’m facin’ years 
I would do the time just to equal all your tears 
The last thing that you told me when I left the courtroom 
Is that we’d always be together… cause we’re both under the moon.

A tragic love song, no less. Listen to that percussion! The quick little hi-hat flicks, the kick, the solid snare/clap hits… it’s a pretty interesting pattern. Unobtrusive string hits, chromatic runs of more strings, plus occasional synth pads… it doesn’t get boring, to a certain extent because the lyrics are there to keep it interesting, but also because it’s just good instrumentation.

“I’ll forever love
you even in your doom,
we’ll always be together cuz we’re both under the moon”

Romantic sentiment, eh? Now things get a little more tragic:

I sit here in my cell and the walls are made of stone 
I justified your pain but now I sit alone 
I write another letter I write one everyday 
I never got a letter back I write em anyway 
I try to call collect- your number has been changed 
I’m starin at the light bulb and I start to feel deranged 
You never came to visit me I sit facin tha glass 
No-one’s on tha other side and now its in tha past 
My head is always spinnin I’m poundin’ on the wall 
I feel like I’m forgotten no sign of you at all 
You’re probably gettin’ married you’re probably gettin fucked 
I’ll break out of this cage and try to cut that muthafucka up 
I curl up in the corner my body will corrode, 
My teeth are turning into dust skin is growing mold 
I’m starin’ out tha window of my eternal doom 
I know that you are out there… somewhere underneath the moon.

This is a story – they’re telling a story about a poor kid who murdered the guy who raped his girlfriend (and the only one who made him feel like someone worthwhile), then experiences the agony of losing her while he rots away in prison.

Which side are you on? Was it right for him to latch onto her as his only way of feeling good about himself? Was it right for her to be raped? Was it right for him to seek retribution? Was it right that he be punished for his crime? Was he right to count on her continued devotion to him during his punishment? Was she right to move on with her life?

Many many years many more to go
duz she still remember? God he only knows
I now become a savage they chain me to a wall
I still can see your body I still can hear ya call
I’m nothin but a maggot I’m locked away and lost
the world that duzn’t want me
my dignity is tossed
and to tha girl for who I feel this doom look here…
fuck you and the moon

I’m too lazy to clean up the inane ‘z’ usage, but he’s finally broken – he obsessed over her until he went insane, and he finally ends up cursing her. Is this a good thing? Has he accepted reality and is he now able to move on with his life, such as it is? Or is she really the one to blame in all this – leading him on, driving him crazy? And yet, for all his denial, he can’t help sadly singing -

Still under the moon
I’m still here under the moon

So fuck her, fuck the moon, he’s crazy, he’s a murderer, and on top of all that… he’s still there, waiting for her, under the moon, hoping things will go back to the way they were before.

Come on. You know this is good stuff – after all, it ends on a major note, whereas everything else has been minor – is there hope of redemption at the end? If you know me, you know I like redemption at the end of a story.

The Decemberists – Yankee Bayonet (The Crane Wife, 2006)

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As I’ve mentioned before, as much as I like The Decemberists’ singing, playing, and portland-local-band status, it’s easy for me to pick out my favorite track from each album, and Yankee Bayonet (also known as ‘I Will Be Home Then’) is the one I like the most from The Crane Wife.

This song tells a story – and while I hate to disregard the music, that story is so attractive to me that I almost don’t care what they’re playing behind it.

Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind
Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas
That’s where my true love lies

So the stage has been set – civil-war era Carolina, a girl pining after her soldier love who has gone off to war after carving their names in a heart on a tree. The first two lines describe the scene of this screenplay, and the third and forth are lines of dialog from the sweetheart.

The next two lines begin a conversation between the dead soldier and the sweetheart – delineated by Colin Meloy and Laura Veirs

Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the voles and the weevils
All a’chew upon your bones so dry

She’s remembering his promise to her – that he’ll be back when the birds are singing, in the spring time, when the sun comes out, but she’s lamenting that he’s dead, and rotting under the dirt.

But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then

I want ‘battle creek’ to be ‘battlecry’, pronounced like ‘mimicry’, as in, the art or practice of battle. But apparently that’s not what the real words are.

When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin

The story of how they met – she lived isolated in her community, and met a boy on the fairgrounds. Also, check out the consistency of metaphor in the second line – ‘seam’ and ‘hem’ are both sewing terms, it could’ve just as easily been to ‘keep’ her in, or a ‘fence’ instead of a ‘seam’, but since girls were expected to sew, that’s what’s used for this verse.

But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child

Manassas, Virginia was where one of the first big battles of the civil war took place – and it was fought mostly by young unexperienced soldiers – the first two lines reflect the soldier’s horror of the situation. The girl reveals helplessly that while she wasn’t watching her friends die around her on the battlefield, she was at home, pregnant with the soldier’s child. The blankets are barren – they devote a whole line to that statement, and it emphasizes the physical component of her longing for him. Also, the first two lines deal with death amongst others, while the second two deal with life alone.

Stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
Skein of skin is all too few
To keep me from you

Even though he’s dead, and she knows it, they can’t bear to apart…

But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind

So she can’t help feeling that his spirit returns to her in the spring, even though his body has died – and perhaps his body literally comes back, to be buried, as suggested by ‘then will you make a grave?’ in the chorus – although it could as easily be an empty grave, a hero’s grave, a nameless white cross in a field of identical monuments.

Basicly, this song is incredibly sad, lonely, and heartbreaking, but it’s also a song about love. This stuff always gets me.

The Magnetic Fields – I Thought You Were My Boyfriend (‘I’, 2004)

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Once again, songs by The Magnetic Fields are steeped in clever lyrics. This track is also notable for being a distinctly gay song – the line “I thought I was just the guy for you” makes the gender of the singer undeniable.

A plaintive little piano line makes for a great start, followed by a nice clubby dance beat and a slightly-grunged bouncy bassline. Occasional orchestral strings, backup vocals and harmony, and a nice flange effect on the accompaniment keep things interesting while the lyrics unfold – percussion enters and the music swells appropriately as the chorus plays out.

You told me you loved me
I know where and when
Come sunrise, surprise surprise!
The joke’s on me again
I know you don’t love me
You know I don’t care
Keep it hidden better
Did I say the world was fair?

I thought I was just the guy for you
And it would never end
I thought we were s’posed to be like glue
I thought you were my boyfriend

Love or not, I’ve always got ten guys
On whom I can depend
And if you’re not mine, one less is nine, get wise
I thought you were my boyfriend

“Where and when,” “Sunrise, surprise surprise,” and “I know you don’t love me, you know I don’t care” are tasty literary treats, and the rhymes don’t sound forced at all, despite their proliferation. The story starts – bitterly, the narrator establishes that the relationship that he hoped “would never end” is over. Interestingly, his comeback is that “Love or not, he has always got ten guys on whom he can depend,” which is either just an example of bitter bragging, or maybe a little bit of insight into his situation: maybe he really did have ten guys before this one left. Either way, the line “if you’re not mine, one less is nine” is incredibly clever, as is the repeated accusational rejoinder, “I thought you were my boyfriend.”

I just hope you’re happy
Stringing me along
While you’re stringing
I’m here singing
This, my saddest song
I wish I could see you
I wish I could sleep
Should I freak out?
Should I seek out
Someone I could keep?

Bitterness! Regret! He’s trying to guilt trip the other guy with this passive-aggressive behavior: “I just hope you’re happy,” obviously a lie, and “I’m here singing this, my saddest song.” Plus the alliteration of ‘stringing’ & ‘singing’, ‘freak out’ & ‘seek out’ are more genius.

I wanted you tonight
I walked around a lot
Wishing you were here
To keep me from sleeping
With anyone who might
Want me or even not
Some guys have a beer and they’ll do anything
Anything, anything

In the bridge, I almost start to wonder if he’s actually talking to the titular ex-boyfriend, or if it’s all to himself – something about “Some guys have a beer and they’ll do anything – anything, anything.” makes me think that it could either be a taunt, or an attempt at self-reassurance.

The fade-out at the end of a string of chorus repetitions almost feels like an early-pop sort of move – think of ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ by The Beatles, for instance. I guess this isn’t a rule, but it still reminds me of that. Also, I really want this song to be a metaphor alluding to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas in christian mythology – especially because the ‘ten guys on whom I can depend’ could stand for Jesus’ disciples, although there are traditionally twelve disciples, not ten.

If we’re willing to forgive this numeric inconsistency, things actually fill in pretty nicely. Either one could feel betrayed by the other – I’ve always liked the interpretation that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus had more to do with conflicting ideology then greed; After a heated argument, Jesus made it clear was not going to start a revolution (at least not in the violent terrestrial sense), and Judas, ashamed and enraged by being so let down by the man he had thought was the Messiah, rationalizes that if Jesus won’t start the revolution himself, he’s worth more as a bounty then he is alive – at least 30 pieces of silver can buy some weapons! Also, as the group’s treasurer, he might have suspected that Jesus was merely taking advantage of his celebrity status, especially considering the story of Mary Magdalene using an expensive bottle of perfume to wash his feet, instead of selling it and donating the proceeds to charity.

Finally, upset over his falling out with Jesus, Judas wanders off drunk into the night, and meets the people to whom he will betray his former teacher. He marches off, leading them right to the place where Jesus has gone to pray, and gives him a vindictive kiss – but his vengeance sours when Jesus reproaches him, “Judas, have you come to betray me with a kiss?”

Anyway, I think the verses could work very well with either Judas or Jesus singing lines, sometimes a duet, sometimes back-and-forth, or it could work equally well with just Judas. Anyway, if you listen to the song with that in mind, it makes for a really neat story idea – which is © matt lohkamp 2009, by the way.

The Magnetic Fields – I Don’t Believe You (I, 2004)

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To be honest, this song is not so much about the instruments for me – a laid back jazz kit for percussion, a nice plucky meandering banjo line, supporting deep strings, that’s not what’s important here. What’s important is the incredible well written lyrics:

So you quote-love-unquote me
Well, stranger things have come to be
But let’s agree to disagree
Cause I don’t believe you
I don’t believe you

The last two lines for each verse (excluding the one bridge) will always be “I don’t believe you, I don’t believe you,” so I’ll skip them after this – but what a way to start out strong: “So you quote-love-unquote me.” It’s an incredibly literary way of expression sentiment – the concept of someone “loving” someone else and the implications of those added quotation marks is delightful.

You tell me I’m not not cute
Its truth or falsity is moot
Cause honesty’s not your strong suit

Intentional use of double-negative also racks up points, and the complicated phrasing in “Its truth or falsity is moot,” is great – what it means it, “Although your statement might be true, it doesn’t matter because you often lie.”

You tell me of what once was
And all about Buck, Butch, and Buzz
How they were not like me because…

Alliteration in ‘Buck, Butch, and Buzz’, but otherwise not quite as interesting as the other verses. And now, for the bridge:

I had a dream and you were in it
The blue of your eyes was infinite
You seemed to be
In love with me
Which isn’t very realistic

It’s a nice little way to break up the otherwise strict AAABB-rhyming format of the verses, and somewhat droning instrumentation – and if you look closely at the bridge, can you see what it is? It’s a limerick: AABBA, with an almost identical rhythm. Neat, huh? Also, the bridge literally straddles the center of the song – three versus, one bridge, and then another three verses.

You may sing me “They Were You”
And I start crying halfway through
But nothing else you say is true

Like ‘Butch, Buck, and Buzz’, this verse isn’t as intricately crafted, although “They Were You”, from The Fantasticks is an interesting reference to make – I’m not really familiar with the play at all.

You may set your charm on stun
And say I’m delightful and fun
But you say that to everyone

Star Trek (or possibly Star Wars) reference with ‘on stun’, which is always appreciated, and finally -

So you’re brilliant gorgeous and
ampersand after ampersand
You think I just don’t understand

Remember the “quote-love-unquote me” line in the first verse? This last verse closes the loop with “So you’re brilliant, gorgeious and ampersand after ampersand,” – once again, it evokes visions of typography, which is incredibly unique – I can’t think of many other songs where this happens. You’re brilliant & gorgeous & & &. It’s like another way of saying ‘et cetera’.

Anyway, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Daniel Handler (also known as Lemony Snicket) is involved with The Magnetic Fields – although as far as I know Stephin Merrit writes the lyrics.