tim. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} o_song) wrote,@ 2007-03-07 16:31:00 |
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Shackin' up with the Hussy.
Crystal Skulls - "Hussy"
(4:39, 6.04mb)
Track 2, Blocked Numbers, 2005.
While the music of "Hussy" sonically resembles Spoon in its musical economy and attention to the groove in service of the song, and while lead singer Christian Wargo vaguely resembles the lead singer of the Walkmen in that there's a similar amount of gravel in his voice, they're something different than the comparisons suggest. The Crystal Skulls have a certain cold, measured feel to them. It's not that they're unemotional, but its more than they're not giving it away just yet.
The lyrics are full of ambiguous sexual politics - the chorus goes "you took the hand of an honest man/ you tried to make him understand you're not a hussy anymore", but the lack works entirely because of this detached approach, though. In the hands of other singers, the lyrics could take on a smirk (e.g., "you're still the same hussy you were when you were with me, you're just in denial"), or an overly moralistic tone (e.g., "hussies are bad! i'm glad you're not bad anymore"), but Wargo's singing seems curiously unemotional, as if he's not making any judgements about hussies one way or another, but is instead just describing.
Kenny Loggins - "I'm Alright"
(3:48, 6.94mb)
Caddyshack Original Soundtrack, 1980.
"I'm Alright" appears as an important plot point in the video podcast mockumentary series Yacht Rock, which documented the genesis of the smoothest tunes in the period from 1976 to 1983. As a genre, yacht rock is Hall and Oates, Michael McDonald and the Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, and Toto. And Loggins. "I'm Alright", though, doesn't quite fit in the genre; the producers of Yacht Rock use it to show that Kenny Loggins has tossed aside the raw power of smooth music, and embraced the heady embrace of rocking out.
Rocking out is relative. It's not Slayer by any stretch of the imagination. "I'm Alright" is nonetheless fascinating. While its prominence as a theme song to a popular comedy and its radio-ready sheen made it one of the biggest hits of Loggins' career, it's quite a bizarre song, schizophrenic, and oddly structured. It sounds more like 5 songs in a megamix than one song, rapidly cycling through different sections. The jerky drum rhythms and even the tone of Loggins' voice suggest Lindsey Buckingham's off-kilter work on Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. Elsewhere there's a Beach Boys-styled a capella breakdown, new wavey rhythms, Mellencamp-esque stadium rocker rootsy rockabilly rhythms, and odd "dub dub dub dub" vocals. Lyrically it's the kind of libertarian defiance 80s stadium rockers could toss off in their sleep - "I'm alright/ Don't nobody worry 'bout me/ You got to gimme a fight/ Why don't you just let me be".
The schizophrenia of the song can be read, it occurs to me, as either Loggins asserting his alrightness - I'm gonna do what I want, and if that includes random Beach Boys a capella breakdowns, then dammit, I'm doing that - or Loggins negating the lyrics with off-kilter, non-alright music. Maybe it's both.
The best bit in the song, though, comes just as the song is about to settle back into the catchy section I'd call the chorus. Loggins sings "I'm..." as if he's about to start the chorus ("I'm alright/ Don't nobody worry 'bout me"), and then waits for the rest of the bar, as a noticeably droll bass vocal sings "boom boom boom", before continuing. He's a trixy hobbit, isn't he, precious?
tim.
Crystal Skulls - "Hussy"
(4:39, 6.04mb)
Track 2, Blocked Numbers, 2005.
While the music of "Hussy" sonically resembles Spoon in its musical economy and attention to the groove in service of the song, and while lead singer Christian Wargo vaguely resembles the lead singer of the Walkmen in that there's a similar amount of gravel in his voice, they're something different than the comparisons suggest. The Crystal Skulls have a certain cold, measured feel to them. It's not that they're unemotional, but its more than they're not giving it away just yet.
The lyrics are full of ambiguous sexual politics - the chorus goes "you took the hand of an honest man/ you tried to make him understand you're not a hussy anymore", but the lack works entirely because of this detached approach, though. In the hands of other singers, the lyrics could take on a smirk (e.g., "you're still the same hussy you were when you were with me, you're just in denial"), or an overly moralistic tone (e.g., "hussies are bad! i'm glad you're not bad anymore"), but Wargo's singing seems curiously unemotional, as if he's not making any judgements about hussies one way or another, but is instead just describing.
Kenny Loggins - "I'm Alright"
(3:48, 6.94mb)
Caddyshack Original Soundtrack, 1980.
"I'm Alright" appears as an important plot point in the video podcast mockumentary series Yacht Rock, which documented the genesis of the smoothest tunes in the period from 1976 to 1983. As a genre, yacht rock is Hall and Oates, Michael McDonald and the Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, and Toto. And Loggins. "I'm Alright", though, doesn't quite fit in the genre; the producers of Yacht Rock use it to show that Kenny Loggins has tossed aside the raw power of smooth music, and embraced the heady embrace of rocking out.
Rocking out is relative. It's not Slayer by any stretch of the imagination. "I'm Alright" is nonetheless fascinating. While its prominence as a theme song to a popular comedy and its radio-ready sheen made it one of the biggest hits of Loggins' career, it's quite a bizarre song, schizophrenic, and oddly structured. It sounds more like 5 songs in a megamix than one song, rapidly cycling through different sections. The jerky drum rhythms and even the tone of Loggins' voice suggest Lindsey Buckingham's off-kilter work on Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. Elsewhere there's a Beach Boys-styled a capella breakdown, new wavey rhythms, Mellencamp-esque stadium rocker rootsy rockabilly rhythms, and odd "dub dub dub dub" vocals. Lyrically it's the kind of libertarian defiance 80s stadium rockers could toss off in their sleep - "I'm alright/ Don't nobody worry 'bout me/ You got to gimme a fight/ Why don't you just let me be".
The schizophrenia of the song can be read, it occurs to me, as either Loggins asserting his alrightness - I'm gonna do what I want, and if that includes random Beach Boys a capella breakdowns, then dammit, I'm doing that - or Loggins negating the lyrics with off-kilter, non-alright music. Maybe it's both.
The best bit in the song, though, comes just as the song is about to settle back into the catchy section I'd call the chorus. Loggins sings "I'm..." as if he's about to start the chorus ("I'm alright/ Don't nobody worry 'bout me"), and then waits for the rest of the bar, as a noticeably droll bass vocal sings "boom boom boom", before continuing. He's a trixy hobbit, isn't he, precious?
tim.
