There are some songs that we wish weren’t still relevant.
February 3, 2017 5:24 PM   Subscribe

 
Where are the strong, and who are the trusted? Indeed.

A karaoke classic as well.
posted by Edward L at 5:43 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


Are you snooping on my Facebook feed? (I'm sure someone is.) And to answer the question, there's really nothing funny about them.
posted by mollweide at 5:46 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


Not snooping, I promise! Sorry about the terrible formatting. :(
posted by freakazoid at 5:48 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


Huh, I didn't realize Nick Lowe wrote that. I thought it was Elvis Costello. I always loved that song as I was a quasi-hippie/bowie freak in the early 80s and I felt like my 60s fascination was way passe but I still loved it.

Costello had to be a bit brave to do that in the early 80s in the post-punk era of cynicism. I thought it was brilliant.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 6:05 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]


One day my very Italian cousins came over to my mother's house. They came up to my attic room and we smoked weed. The youngest watched Elvis Costello singing Peace, Love and Understanding. On my black and white Zenith TV. Then she asked, "Is he retarded?"

There was no way that I could explain anything about Costello or the new music that would get to her. I just laughed and said no. She was a product of disco. No connection. Later we did hits of acid together and grew closer.
posted by Splunge at 6:10 PM on February 3, 2017 [14 favorites]


Saw Nick in a club a few years ago. He still puts on a fun and charming show.
posted by octothorpe at 6:28 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


Somebody sent me an 120 minute tape of bootleg live recordings of that song and my Walkman ate it after a few plays. I was in the army. 1984.

If anybody has The Ruts covering that song I'd love to hear it again.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 6:33 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


"Is he retarded?"

The glasses and the thick voice. I know adults who thought that at first.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 6:36 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


I keep coming back to this song as inspiration, and I thought it was dated in the mid-80s when I found it. It's completely disturbing how much early to mid 80s music is suddenly much more relevant, such as XTC's Living through Another Cuba.
posted by mollweide at 6:53 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]


My brother and I saw Elvis and Nick on the same stage @ Lynah Rink @ Cornell ~1986. Awesome!
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:56 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


No worries, freakazoid, I love this song and this post. This song has been much on my mind lately.
posted by mollweide at 6:56 PM on February 3, 2017


ZenMasterThis: "My brother and I saw Elvis and Nick on the same stage @ Lynah Rink @ Cornell ~1986. Awesome!"

I saw them together in '89 at Penn State's Rec Hall.
posted by octothorpe at 6:59 PM on February 3, 2017


Thanks mollweide. I was just in a mood tonight and my fingers didn't respond as advertised lol. It popped up on my playlist today for the first time in forever and I was struck by how much it spoke to our current situation. Unfortunately.
posted by freakazoid at 7:07 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


As one of my co-workers said to me last summer, "It feels like we're going backwards".
posted by freakazoid at 7:08 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]


Nick Lowe has an odd place in my personal pantheon*. When I was about 10 or so, I was on vacation with my family, and after dinner we went back to our motel. We didn't have cable at home then, so the HBO in the room was a novelty. Between movies they had 'Video Jukebox' and the first song I saw was "Cruel To Be Kind," so that was my intro to rock videos.

*plus over the years I've heard all his other great songs etc
posted by jonmc at 7:10 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]


Possibly related.
posted by vrakatar at 7:17 PM on February 3, 2017


It's completely disturbing how much early to mid 80s music is suddenly much more relevant

Tom Robinson Band - Better Decide Which Side You're On
posted by davebush at 7:17 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


I was somewhat obsessed with the Stiff Records stable of artists as a teen: Wreckless Eric, Elvis, Nick Lowe and Ian Dury. If I had a time machine, one of my first stops would be at one of the Live Stiff shows that that drunken crew put on in '77. Here's Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll with all of them playing at the same time.
posted by octothorpe at 7:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


~My brother and I saw Elvis and Nick on the same stage @ Lynah Rink @ Cornell ~1986. Awesome!"

~I saw them together in '89 at Penn State's Rec Hall.


'78. Circle Theater. Indianapolis.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


I would have killed to see either of them in '78 but I was only 13 and wasn't exactly allowed to go club hopping.
posted by octothorpe at 7:22 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


The glasses and the thick voice.
posted by mwhybark at 7:40 PM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


Holy crap that video was shot in Vancouver. Check the totem poles at 1:30. Stanley Park.
posted by mwhybark at 7:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]


It's completely disturbing how much early to mid 80s music is suddenly much more relevant

The Clash:
Working for the Clampdown.
The Guns of Brixton
Know Your Rights
posted by octothorpe at 7:47 PM on February 3, 2017 [18 favorites]


What other songs do you wish were completely irrelevant and hard to understand?

Some of mine:
A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
Love Me, I'm a Liberal
For What It's Worth
posted by Miko at 8:09 PM on February 3, 2017 [9 favorites]


DEVO never stopped being relevant, but they're more relevant than ever again
Freedom of Choice
Social Fools
Beautiful World ("It's not for me." *mushroom cloud*)
Don't Shoot (I'm a Man) (okay, this came out in 2010, but still relevant.)

---

I guess some things never change, huh? Enough said.
Also, while I didn't go to the Women's March, I saw a family heading to the subway that say all wearing matching smocks with "Love Trumps Hate" on one side, and "What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding" on the back, albeit credited to Elvis Costello. Still made me smile.
posted by SansPoint at 8:41 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]


What other songs do you wish were completely irrelevant and hard to understand?

"Why (The King of Love Is Dead)", Nina Simone.

"Political Science," Randy Newman.
"The Future," Leonard Cohen.
posted by Diablevert at 8:44 PM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]


Mwhybark, that's exactly what I said when I saw the totem poles! I've never seen that video before (though I love that version of the song), but that is most definitely Stanley Park. Very cool.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:56 PM on February 3, 2017


What you're hearing in early 80's new wave is the musical world reacting to Reagan, which at the time felt apocalyptic, and was actually, for tens of thousands of AIDS victims & Central American civilians. The comparison is apt. Here we are again. I've listened to both The Clash's London Calling & Devo's Freedom of Choice recently by random chance & had this exact same thought - why do these old damn songs still have to be relevant?

Hell, it goes back further than that - Mississippi Goddam is stil way too fucking relevant. Strange Fruit is still way too fucking relevant.

Speaking of The Future, I'm actually really glad that Leonard Cohen didn't live to see the last election. As bleak (and true) as some of his music could be, I fervently wish that at least he died with some of his hope intact.

Democracy is coming to the USA.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:13 PM on February 3, 2017 [6 favorites]


Things were going horribly wrong back then but Devo had a gut feeling and they had earlier thoughts but they brought home the bacon and developed uncontrollable urges.

Sorry. Had to.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 9:16 PM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


What other songs do you wish were completely irrelevant and hard to understand?

Melt The Guns.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:18 PM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]


"Running the World"
posted by My Dad at 9:19 PM on February 3, 2017


the musical world reacting to Reagan

Oh yeah. The whole harDCore scene came out of that but it had been simmering.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 9:22 PM on February 3, 2017


I heard this the other day for the first time for 30+ years. A few of the word made me think not a lot's changed... "Labi Siffre-Something Inside So Strong."
posted by Dub at 9:53 PM on February 3, 2017


I have had many occasions over the years to refer to Lowe's "Cruel to be Kind"; even named a BDSM-themed City of Heroes character after the song.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:55 PM on February 3, 2017


What you're hearing in early 80's new wave is the musical world reacting to Reagan

...and Thatcher (XTC, "Ball and Chain", for example, seems to be against urban renewal projects on the island)

I must add: Nick Lowe is a hell of a bass player, on top of his gifts as a songwriter, and doesn't get enough recognition for that.
posted by thelonius at 10:23 PM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


Pulp's "We Love Live" is also a great album to listen to in these dark times, just for its "Weeds" theme.
posted by My Dad at 11:08 PM on February 3, 2017


Mwhybark, that's exactly what I said when I saw the totem poles!

I was actually, "uh, wait, why does that beach look so familiar?" in the first shot, with the red tanker across the straits.
posted by mwhybark at 11:09 PM on February 3, 2017




It's no use after-crying (I never thought I'd find Men at Work politically relevant but here we are).
posted by h00py at 12:36 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]


Waiting for the Great Leap Forward.

Here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it

posted by Meatbomb at 1:48 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]


Ever since the Trumpocalypse, I've had Costello's splendidly vitriolic Tramp The Dirt Down running through my head. Originally written about Margaret Thatcher, it contains this verse:

Well I hope I don't die too soon
I pray the Lord my soul to save
Yes I'll be a good boy, I'm trying so hard to behave
Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live
Long enough to savor
That's when they finally put you in the ground
I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down
posted by Paul Slade at 2:19 AM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]


For the last week or so I've had nazi punks fuck off stuck in my head. Now I finally YouTube'd it and am pleased over Richard Spencer punched for every syllable in Nazi Punks Fuck Off.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:24 AM on February 4, 2017 [8 favorites]


Devils Rancher - agreed, except Elvis lives.
posted by Kiwi at 4:58 AM on February 4, 2017


agreed, except Elvis lives.

Hope I wasn't mis-understood - my mention of Cohen's death was just an aside to the comment right before it where Diablevert linked to Cohen's song The Future. Cohen was in no way new wave, but he was subversive as fuck, although his music seemed suffused with a background of hope for The Endeavor.

So I put my iPad down & plugged in my iPod & earbuds, turned out the lights & settled in to The Divine Comedy's Fin de Siécle (another scathingly apocalyptic work which ends on the most glorious moment of hope...) & being on random album shuffle, of course This Year's Model came up next. Elvis' version of Peace, Love & Understanding is blazing & manic, but so is the rest of that damn beautiful album. Easily amongst the top ten strongest of the 80's.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:07 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]


The first time I heard Tramp the Dirt Down I made me cry as a song of hope -- like, don't give in to despair, live, live so you can be part of the victory when we finally beat this, and we will.
posted by brainwane at 6:24 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]


Yes, my mistake- I had Elvis on my mind from further up the thread.
posted by Kiwi at 6:30 AM on February 4, 2017


Life During Wartime
posted by chavenet at 6:47 AM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]


What other songs do you wish were completely irrelevant and hard to understand?

Abraham, Martin and John
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 6:49 AM on February 4, 2017


This is my favorite metafilter post in months. Now I have a project for idle times - assemble a playlist inspired by mentions in this thread.

Thanks freakzoid and thanks everyone else!
posted by djeo at 6:52 AM on February 4, 2017


I think I miss the whole point of this post. No matter, I enjoyed the linked music.

Elvis Costello is just so......cool. period.....

Nick Lowe is, just wow. I'm going to have "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" playing in my head for days.
posted by james33 at 6:55 AM on February 4, 2017


Devils Rancher: "of course This Year's Model came up next. Elvis' version of Peace, Love & Understanding is blazing & manic, but so is the rest of that damn beautiful album. Easily amongst the top ten strongest of the 80's."

This Year's Model (1978) doesn't have What's So Funny on it; that song's on the US release of Armed Forces (1979). (They are both great albums, natch).
posted by chavenet at 6:56 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]


Somewhere on my hard drive is an MP3 I gathered back in the heyday of Napster...it's a live acoustic duet with Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe doing "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding". It's fantastic, and Elvis starts it off by saying "Here's a song that Nick wrote and I stole".
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:08 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]


Mr. Bad Example: ".it's a live acoustic duet with Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe doing "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding". It's fantastic, and Elvis starts it off by saying "Here's a song that Nick wrote and I stole"."

It's fantastic, indeed.
posted by chavenet at 7:11 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]


Jerry Casale from Devo was at the Kent State massacre and ran from the bullets. Two of his friends were killed and his worldview was permanently changed.
Whatever I would say, would probably not all touch upon the significance or gravity of the situation at this point of time? It may sound trite or glib. All I can tell you is that it completely and utterly changed my life. I was a white hippie boy and than I saw exit wounds from M1 rifles out of the backs of two people I knew. Two of the four people who were killed, Jeffrey Miller and Allison Krause, were my friends. We were all running our asses off from these motherfuckers. It was total utter bullshit. Live ammunition and gas masks – none of us knew, none of us could have imagined. They shot into a crowd that was running. I stopped being a hippie and I started to develop the idea of devolution. I got real, real pissed off. ...
posted by maudlin at 7:16 AM on February 4, 2017 [9 favorites]


There are some songs that we wish weren’t still relevant.
Where's Obama gone? (Where's Obama gone?)
Little baby bird (Little baby bird)
Where's Obama gone? (Where's Obama gone?)
Far far away, far far awayayay!

Last night I heard The Donald singing this song
Ooh wee, chirpy chirpy tweet tweet
Woke up this morning and Obama was gone
Ooh wee, chirpy chirpy tweet tweet
Chirpy chirpy tweet tweet chirp

Etc.

posted by comealongpole at 7:31 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]


I've been thinking about the Forgotten Rebels' song Nazis from '79, with its chorus of 'I want to be a nazi'. Think of it as if sung by an alt-righter. It's not a perfect fit. But it does have lines like:

I only wrote this song
Just to screw up the press
You gotta be quite an idiot for believing this mess


&

Ya laugh 'till ya don't think it's funny
Look at me, I got your money


which are more or less relevant, looking back at the arc from the election, from our amusement to our stunned disbelief. Ya laugh till ya don't think it's funny.

(Also, Fascist Groove Thang should be mentioned in this thread, though it seems to me, well, too peppy and optimistic for the moment. I mean, Reagan, the target of the song, was some kind of idealistic saint compared to what we've now got to deal with.)
posted by bertran at 8:03 AM on February 4, 2017


Been humming PWEI's Ich Bin Ein Ausländer a lot recently fwiw.
Welcome to a state where the politics of hate
Shout loud in the crowd "Watch them beat us all down"
There's a rising tide in the rivers of blood
But if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence

If they come to ethnically cleanse me
Will you speak out? Will you defend me?
Freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
Trampled underfoot by the rise of the right.
posted by comealongpole at 8:28 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]


Here's a radio interview in which Nick talks about the Holmes Brother's great version of it -- that part starts at 14:10-ish.
http://www.ttbook.org/book/nick-lowe-profile
posted by DougieGee at 8:34 AM on February 4, 2017


...tell me,
over and over and over again, my friend,
That you don't believe
We're on the eve of destruction....
posted by mule98J at 8:44 AM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]


Hey, the Forgotten Rebels recorded a pretty good cover of that!
posted by bertran at 8:50 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]



This Year's Model (1978) doesn't have What's So Funny on it; that song's on the US release of Armed Forces (1979). (They are both great albums, natch).


Ha, I fell asleep halfway through This Year's Model & was mis-remembering it as a bonus track at the end, but those are actually Radio Radio & Chelsea. I was also still asleep when I wrote that comment. :-) This Year's Model has seen a few permutations between English & American versions & various CD reissues. I've bought it 3 times & the track listing is different on each one. Shit's confusing.

When I saw him in '83, he opened with Accidents Will Happen, even though he was on tour supporting Imperial Bedroom. It was the perfect opener to a freaking amazing show.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:18 AM on February 4, 2017 [3 favorites]


So is someone making the Spotify playlist? I won't have a chance until later today. My contribution is All You Fascists Bound to Lose although the Billy Bragg version is good too.

Also, DKs Stars and Stripes of Corruption.

You say America love it or leave it...

You want a banana republic that bad, why don't you go move to one?

posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:24 AM on February 4, 2017


Seconding davebush upthread, so much of Power in the Darkness, the Tom Robinson Band debut album, is as on point today as it was when the shit was about to go down in the Wicked Witch of Lincolnshire's Britain.
posted by the sobsister at 10:13 AM on February 4, 2017


It's interesting which pieces of pop culture history stick with folks from different generations. I saw Nick Lowe open for Yo La Tengo last year. The twenty-something couple sitting next to me figured out from my enraptured reaction that I must know something about him, and they asked me to explain who he was.

Uh, he wrote 'What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?' Do you know that song?

Un-uh.

Oh, well he produced a couple of Elvis Costello's records.

No reaction.

He was married to Johnny Cash's step-daughter.

Oh cool!
posted by layceepee at 10:37 AM on February 4, 2017 [1 favorite]


Always relevant: Liddle Towers.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:06 AM on February 4, 2017


If I Had A Rocket Launcher
posted by pracowity at 11:38 AM on February 4, 2017 [4 favorites]


I think I saw Nick and Elvis on the same ticket in... Boston? Buffalo? It's been some years.
posted by pracowity at 11:44 AM on February 4, 2017


Lowe stepped in to help out Costello on the latter's 1978 UK tour, when Attractions bassist Bruce Thomas had injured his hand and was unable to play. I saw them live in Penzance that year at the third of seven gigs where Lowe played bass. They encored with Lowe's own Heart of the City.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:26 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]


Lowe stepped in to help out Costello on the latter's 1978 UK tour, when Attractions bassist Bruce Thomas had injured his hand and was unable to play

Well there you go. Subbing for Bruce freakin' Thomas is not something you call just any bass player for.

I wonder if he hurt his hand doing kung-fu? On my shelf of weird books sits Thomas' bio of Bruce Lee - he's really into it.
posted by thelonius at 4:24 PM on February 4, 2017


Ok, here's my attempt at the Spotify play list. Some suggestions weren't available, but I made it collaborative, so please feel free to add.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:05 PM on February 4, 2017


The glasses and the thick voice. I know adults who thought that at first.

Not just the glasses and the voice, but the way he danced too. There was a defiant, ramshackle nerdiness about him that got sanded away by the trappings of celebrity and success -- or maybe it just became more universally cool to be a nerd.
posted by blucevalo at 7:32 PM on February 4, 2017 [2 favorites]


Keep on Rockin' in the Free World.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 7:43 PM on February 4, 2017


The Tracey Ullman show, 1989. Teenage Francesca rebels against an autocratic gym teacher, sings this song.
posted by Orlop at 8:20 PM on February 4, 2017


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