Recent postings about Kid Creole has prompted me to revisit this subject and I wake up today keen to put on record my “take” on Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy.
Firstly, it’s a very funny but cruel lyric. Essentially he doesn’t care much for the child and wants to move on with his life without her – and her mother, for that matter. He is telling the young girl (who believes him to be his father), that this cannot be the case.
So what’s my beef with the lyrics as presented online now and in Smash Hits at the time? Well there are three examples:
He explains that her mother had one or two dalliances in Staint-Tropez. She was in search of love “but all she got was you”.
Lyric sheets say “all she got was used” rather than “you” – which spoils the joke because he is directly telling her “all she got was you” meaning that her birth was disappointing.
The Coconuts represent the voice of the child, reacting to the news. According to the printed lyric, they say “Mama’s baby, Papa’s baby”. This is not right – it must be “Mama’s baby’s Papa’s maybe”. My interpretation is backed up by the gestures The Coconuts make when performing the line. So at this point the child is relatively OK about things, allowing for an element of doubt and hoping nothing changes.
Until he says:
“See, if was in your blood, then you wouldn’t be so ugly”.
After this, the child realises the full horror. And then she says several times :
“Oh no oh no, I don’t want to be a…”
She can’t quite bring herself to be seen as unwanted, illegitimate or, more crudely – a bastard.
Offical lyrics say “oh no oh no I don’t want to be your” which doesn’t make sense, and again spoils the joke.
In addition, that line is famously misheard as “onomatopoeia” and is one of pop music’s finest moments.
Of course, the father figure in the song is the real bastard here and that’s the overall joke. He’s breaking sensitive news to a child in the worst possible way. He thinks he’s handling it brilliantly, of course.
Anyway, I’m glad I’ve got that off my chest.
This lyrics web site shows the line in Me No Pop I of “when you say I’m no good in bed” as “when you say I know Tooting Bec”
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/kid-creole-and-coconuts-me-no-pop-i-que-pasa-lyrics.html
Just gave that song a listen for the first time in 40-odd years. The “Me No Pop I” lyric comes in really late to the song – I thought it was the chorus. Very enjoyable though.
Do you think you maybe need to get out more?
I’ll have you know I have a rich and varied social life and am the life and soul of any gathering. Particularly if the conversation moves to deep analysis of pop songs from 40-odd years ago.
😏
” the conversation moves to deep analysis of pop songs from 40-odd years ago”.
There ain’t no party like an Afterword party!