« Ghosts of TV Christmases Past | Main | Buzz Phrase Overload »

It's All About... Well, You Know...

A few excerpts from a particularly astute piece at the ever-amusing McSweeny's called "Fifty Years of Popular Songs Condensed into Single Sentences":

The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

I want to do it with you.

- - - -

Marvin Gaye, "Let's Get It On"

I want to do it with you.

- - - -

Led Zeppelin, "Whole Lotta Love"

I want to do it with you.

- - - -

James Blunt, "You're Beautiful"

I want to do it with you.

You get the idea. But just about the time you start thinking everything means the same thing, some nuance starts to creep in:

Elvis Presley, "Hound Dog"

You're doing it with everyone.

- - - -

Frank Sinatra, "Strangers in the Night"

I'm drunk and I want to do it with you.

- - - -

The White Stripes, "My Doorbell"

Using metaphor, I want to do it with you.

- - - -

Little Richard, "Good Golly Miss Molly"

I'm doing it with Miss Molly, and she's totally into it.

- - - -

Duran Duran, "Rio"

I'd love to do that chick dancing on the sand.

And my personal favorite, because of the cynical, heartbroken, inescapable quality of it:

Carly Simon, "You're So Vain"

We used to do it, but then you did it with someone else, and now I'm not going to do it with you, although I wish we were still doing it.

Comments

But what about more obscure ones. Like AC/DC's "Giving the Dog a bone", or "Beating around the bush". Or Queen's "Fat bottom girls" and "Bicycle"

Some songs are a little less nuanced than others... :)

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)