Monday, June 20, 2005

I am so offended...

by this James Blunt single called You Are Beautiful that I downloaded the lyrics just to make sure my queasy feeling was based in the world of fact. The plot goes like this, James Blunt (or another wanker) is on the subway when he sees a beautiful girl. Catching her eye fills him with longing and desire. Knowing they can never be one he laments. "But we shared a moment that will last till the end." This drivel then proceeds through one final verse and ends by pointing the finger of blame at an angel.

The first time I heard this on the radio I nearly crashed. A bloke sees a girl on a train, she sees him, he falls in love with her, he gets off (presumably at his stop though it's not made clear, in such a deranged state it might have been an earlier station) he's depressed, he blames God.

Interstingly we never hear the woman's view. More likely she catches his eye and thinks, 'Fucking hell, who's that perv looking at. Jeeze it's me. Better look away. Poor bugger, even surgery wouldn't put that right. Oh thank God he's getting off.'

Quod erat demonstrandum, methinks.

7 comments:

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I am offended by a lot of the drivel they play for music today.

Where is the poetry, the hello darkness my old friend, the Across the universe in songs today?

Or maybe they're there and we're just not hearing 'em?

I'm glad to see you at your sarcastic best again.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Haha...that's probably exactly what the object of affection, the girl in the song, is thinking.

Dan Flynn said...

Gyal,

Honest, the first time I heard this shite it made me want to puke. I find the lyrics cannot work precisely because we don't hear the girls point of view. If love is real then two is a minimum requirement, honest. Sting's 'Every Breath You Take' sung from a single pov is a brilliant song about obsession. You Are Beautiful hides it's obsession behind the woman's silence, the story requires her silence. It's sexism dressed as love. take my word for it. If she was allowed to react to an obsessive loon slavering over her on a train, she'd probably jump right off, even if they were between stations. My suggestion to anyone who becomes fixated on strangers is get your medication checked cos your dosage has slipped.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

That's true, what you say about getting fixated on strangers...but I wonder if this guy was trying to copy Savage Garden's "I knew I love you before I met you." I think that one was filmed on a train too!

Maybe he thought he was being romantic? What do women think about the song? Is it a hit?

P.S. Dan, people are bugging me to tell you to let them post...people who are not bloggers.

They're posting to you on my blog now, hahaha, how it amuses me. People like my cousin, Analis.M. And Twine too, when she's not busy with her studies.

Anonymous said...

Dan,
I posted this earlier on Guyana-Girl's blog...now you've 'fixed' yours it's here on yours too.

WEll...yes loads of music suck these days!

But to defend the music of today, recently my brother came by and he put on a CD ...Simon and Garfunkle. Now they are like from way back in the 70s, right?

I have never heard a song that SO disturbed me (obviously not in the same way as the song offended Dan)as this one called Down in the Willow Garden! (I was told that it was a poem but to music) (arggh)

WHO...WHO, I ask you would write a song/poem as MORBID as that and WHY would ANYONE sing such a song.

My brother (weird cause he's my older brother...aren't they supposed to be weird?) LOVES this song and knows all the words to it.

HIGHLY disturbing.

I agree with you about perspective being very important though....and YES "Every Breath You Take" is so creepy in a stalker-ish kinda way but so intense its amazing!

I've always wanted to hear other people's ideas on the Police song "Tea in the Sahara" (one of my faves)

Dan Flynn said...

Analis.m,

Don't know the Police song Tea in the Sahara but do think that Sting once knew how to write great numbers. The James Blunt thing just wound me up because it was shite dressed up as profound. Was it you who mentioned that great Simon and Garfunkle single The Sound of Silence', now there is a song! I like songs that compliment the listener. At the moment I'm listening to the new album 'Outlaw' by the Alabama 3. Great name for a band who are not from Alabama and who number more than three. In fact they hail from Brixton in South London and their first album, Love on Coldharbour Lane was sheer genius. Their musical style is country/bluegrass but their lyrics are a piss take of those right wing preacher hypocrites from the Southern States who preach one thing and do another. Marvelous stuff. Also listening to Jem and to Anthony and the Johnsons. Some good music around. What about yourself?

Anonymous said...

I live in Tampa (as well as Guyana) and so I am very familiar with the holier than thou RED NECK types that eat road kill but think they are so damn superior to everyone else because they are American and white.

I haven't heard any of the stuff you're listening to now. I've been listening to the same CD for days now...a Canadian singer, Esthero. She has a great voice and her lyrics are sometimes jarring...yet her songs are stuck in my head all day.

Tea in the Sahara is on the Synchronicity CD. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Is it true that Sting was getting a PhD in Psychology (that would make a lot of sense wouldn't it??)