What Are Words For? 8/6

[Railyn]

I'm not really familiar with today's song. I heard it rolling over the credits on an episode of Daria. It's taken me this long to find it. It has a funky beat, and it's more spoken than sung.

It just kind of blew me away when I heard it. It reminds me of so many people I know and have known, and I'm sure that given we're all into music, we probably all know or knew someone like this:

ROCK 'N ROLL LIFESTYLE
By: Cake
Album: Motorcade Of Generosity
Author:

Well, your CD collection looks shiny and costly.
How much did you pay for your bad Moto Guzi?
And how much did you spend on your black leather jacket?
Is it you or your parents in this income tax bracket?

Now tickets to concerts and drinking at clubs,
Sometimes for music that you haven't even heard of.
And how much did you pay for your rock'n'roll t-shirt
That proves you were there,
That you heard of them first?

How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle?
How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle?
How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle?
Ah, tell me.

How much did you pay for the chunk of his guitar,
The one he ruthlessly smashed at the end of the show?
And how much will he pay for a brand new guitar,
One which he'll ruthlessly smash at the end of another show?
And how long will the workers keep building him new ones?
As long as their soda cans are red, white, and blue ones.
And how long will the workers keep building him new ones?
As long as their soda cans are red, white, and blue ones.

Aging black leather and hospital bills,
Tattoo removal and dozens of pills.
Your liver pays dearly now for youthful magic moments,
But rock on completely with some brand new components.

How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle?
How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle?
How do you afford your rock'n'roll lifestyle?

Excess ain't rebellion.
You're drinking what they're selling.
Your self-destruction doesn't hurt them.
Your chaos won't convert them.
They're so happy to rebuild it.
You'll never really kill it.
Yeah, excess ain't rebellion.
You're drinking what they're selling.
Excess ain't rebellion.

You're drinking,
You're drinking,
You're drinking what they're selling.

My Opinion In A Nutshell: As I said, this one kind of blew me away. I like how it speaks in terms of not only the monetary cost of this kind of life, but the costs in terms of your health, etc. How can you afford to toss your health aside? It works on a few levels.

Favorite Line: And how long will the workers keep building him new ones?
As long as their soda cans are red, white, and blue ones.

[lora]

I'm sure hearing this song has a different effect on you than reading the lyrics, but they are pretty powerful. Makes me think about something my mom is always saying. She thinks it's so ridiculous that celebs make so much money for not doing much of anything, and this song kind of plays on that. Now, I'm not big on Cake's sound, but their song lyrics are usually pretty good. Kind of like Bob Dylan, but not. Anyway...

Favorite Line:
Aging black leather and hospital bills,
Tattoo removal and dozens of pills.

[Railyn]

Lora-Forever said:

I'm sure hearing this song has a different effect on you than reading the lyrics, but they are pretty powerful. Makes me think about something my mom is always saying. She thinks it's so ridiculous that celebs make so much money for not doing much of anything, and this song kind of plays on that. Now, I'm not big on Cake's sound, but their song lyrics are usually pretty good. Kind of like Bob Dylan, but not. Anyway...

Favorite Line:
Aging black leather and hospital bills,
Tattoo removal and dozens of pills.

I've never heard of this group at all. I just remembered enough of one line this morning to plug it into a search engine and it popped up.

The thing that caught me was that we had the closed captioning on, and I was reading the words as they went.

As I went through it this morning, it was as good as I remembered it.

You are right. It's kind of like a big machine that just keeps chugging on....

[Boogieman]

One of my favorite bands of the 90's

Unfortunately I'm way too busy to comment now. Tomorrow I'll give my thoughts, good song actually.

[SAT-I need more room!!]

Boogieman said:

One of my favorite bands of the 90's

Unfortunately I'm way too busy to comment now. Tomorrow I'll give my thoughts, good song actually.

You still owe me a post when you have time too, remember!

[H2IZCOOL]

I'm not familiar with the song, but reading the lyrics, I'd summarize it simply by: Get a life before it's too late.

[Railyn]

Boogieman said:

One of my favorite bands of the 90's

Unfortunately I'm way too busy to comment now. Tomorrow I'll give my thoughts, good song actually.

I've made up my mind I'm gonna have to check into these guys further. I was just happy I could find out who it was after all these years.

[Railyn]

H2IZCOOL said:

I'm not familiar with the song, but reading the lyrics, I'd summarize it simply by: Get a life before it's too late.

You are so right. The people this reminded me of were people I knew in college. With the tattoos, the leather jackets, the leather boots, pawning things and not paying bills to buy concert tickets, and little trinkets to show off. Living the epitome of the party hardy life, I once thought they were cool. As the end of our frendship came, I began to see them as so pathetic. Their devotion to this one group that they so idolized almost out of hand. Their idea of a hot weekend was going to Blockbuster, renting the latest self-serving video this group put out, and swapping memories. I would bet money (if I had any) that they are still doing this EVERY weekend, 10 years after I stopped hanging with them, thinking the are the coolest darn people on the planet.

[Dawn]

I'm not familiar with this song, but I agree that the lyrics are pretty striking. It almost sounds as though the writer has had an experience of looking up to someone with this kind of lifestyle, and been disillusioned. I think it's a caution against a lifestyle of excesses, as well as a warning not to let others influence your choices.

[Railyn]

Dawn said:

I'm not familiar with this song, but I agree that the lyrics are pretty striking. It almost sounds as though the writer has had an experience of looking up to someone with this kind of lifestyle, and been disillusioned. I think it's a caution against a lifestyle of excesses, as well as a warning not to let others influence your choices.

I wasn't sure if anyone would even know it or not, but I think it's good to be exposed to new things.

I think you're right. Wanna-be's are not the best role models.