I was washing the dishes with an iPod on shuffle and up popped “Satanic Reverses” by The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, a song I can say truthfully that I had forgotten I had, and which I may not have actually played since about 1996.
Fine dramatic intro, excellent trumpet samples, way funkier than I remembered it being, then Michael Franti opens his mouth…
“In the nineteen hundred and seventies the OPEC nations began to dominate the world’s oil economy…”
Factually true perhaps, but pretty awful. He might as well rap “This is going to be a boring assed lecture with beats, so if right on worthy shit and economics ain’t your bag then turn off now.”
Needless to say that might be why I haven’t played the damn song in so long. So Afterward hive mind, what other tunes have this combination of great music and dreadful opening line?
Ohhh…. I soo wanted to like Hiphoprisy. Great voice, interesting beats. So righteous, so worthy, so… dull. The point at which music becomes a Civics lesson.
To be fair, it’s not all so dry. Five minutes later he says:
My pockets are so empty I can feel my testicles
Cos I spent all my money on plastic African necklaces
See? I’m one of those groovy civics teachers. Just cos we learnin’ don’t mean we can’t have fun. Alright! You know what else is cool? Economics…
Opening lyric: “A little something for your ear holes…”
Beat that.
Oh wait, I missed the “great music” bit in the OP.
Oh I can be flexible here. But with the song I posted, the music promises so much then…
New Model Army’s Here Comes The War is a urgent driving rocker despite starting with the couplet
“Today, as you listen to this song / Another 394, 000 children were born into this world”
Nothing kills music quicker than a fact…
As mentioned on here recently…
“I was 37 you were 17,
You were half my age,
The youth I’d never seen”
Bollocksology of the first water by Heaven 17.
Nah. I don’t have a problem with that. ‘Half my age’ can be a general,indication of an age gap even it’s not strictly arithmetically true.
First thing that came to mind is possibly the best rock song ever (OOAA)
Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone
Once upon a time – cliche albeit he could be using it ironically
You dressed so fine – dressed so fine ? Bob’s habit of I need a rhyme, this will do.
Come now Junior, this won’t do, especially from a top Dylanologist like yourself. You ought at least to include ‘Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?’ shouldn’t you?
You might as well say, ‘With your mercury mouth in the missionary times’ – what the hell’s that all about?
I see them as more poetic than the opening lines of LARS, even if unfathomable.
These are probably Dylan’s worst ever lyrics but it is also a crap song.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=lyrics+wiggle+dylan&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari
It’s not the opening line, but there’s a stanza in Simple Twist Of Fate which has always bugged me:
He hears the ticking of the clocks
And walks along with a parrot that talks
Not only is it a rubbish line (“parrot that talks” indeed) but it only rhymes if sung in an American accent, ie pronouncing “talks” as “tocks”.
Dylan clearly thought so too, because in concert he often sang an alternative version of the line:
He hears the ticking of the clocks
And walks along through the city blocks
The Dylan line that bugs me most (and there are many) is from one of the very few of his songs that I like, Jokerman. The verse in question starts off fine with:
You’re a man of the mountains, you can walk on the clouds,
Manipulator of crowds, you’re a dream twister.
But then he follows that with the truly dire:
You’re going to Sodom and Gomorrah
But what do you care? Ain’t nobody there would want to marry your sister.
What the feck has that last sentence got to do with anything? Nothing at all whatsoever. It’s awful – but it rhymes.
sigh… that’s what so good about it.
What you want? A biblical reference met with like?
Bob’s drop from God’s word to the lowest neighborhood talk is what gives the line oomph. Dichotomy.
burp… “sister” is only there cos it rhymes. Had Dylan not been so fixated (as he always is) on rhyme he could have retained that dichotomy (if that was indeed his intention) but come up with something meaningful, or at least interesting.
Because of the very early video which accompanies Jokerman I’m kind of OK with that line.
As Dylan sings “Manipulator of crowds, you’re a dream twister.” we see an image of Hitler.
But then as he sings “You’re going to Sodom and Gomorrah But what do you care?” film of a mushroom cloud appears.
Then for “Ain’t nobody there would want to marry your sister” we see the Picasso painting “Weeping Woman” (1937)
So it all makes sense. Sort of.
Notice how handsome Bob looks in the video. He’s had a shave and washed his hair and everything
I’m with you on that one, Junior.