Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
What I’ve heard of the Democratic convention reminds me of some lines from Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado:
Sent to hear sermons by mystical Germans
Who preach from ten till four
Unfortunately, the Republican convention will probably come across the same way.
Lex and I are having a friendly back and forth on love songs, and we have been concentrating mostly on rock. I recently introduced a little ambiguity into the discussion, and Lex brought out some (what used to be called) alternative rock in his last post. Some big guns have been pulled out recently, with Lou Reed and REM entering the discussions.
Not only will I pull out another big gun in this post, I will introduce us to a completely new genre of music as related to love songs – while pulling myself out of the ambiguous and bringing the discussion into the obvious.
Dan recently put a note of ambiguity into our duel of love songs. The vagaries of the human heart, from the sublime to the carnal and all points coincident or appertaining thereto, provides the choicest fodder for poets and singers. Lou Reed, a man of many angles and edges, may have been singing about a real person, an imaginary person, a memory, or even his drug habit, current or recollected. Dan playing a Lou Reed card raises the stakes.
Concede this to me: The predominant perennial theme of love songs is “I love someone who does not love me”. This is pretty much the default love song framework. For one thing, it best allows the singer to address someone referred to only as “you”. This in turn has the advantage for the songwriter that it allows either men or women to sing it, therefore opening up the prospect of more royalties. Plus damn near everybody has lived through it at least once, so it is almost a universal category. And since there is no resolution beyond “getting over it”, it is perfect for singing about.
One of my all time favorites in this categories is the beautiful and strange song “I am Superman”.
Lex has attempted admirably to try to force my hand as far as popular love songs go. His last post was a very good one, and he has admittedly made me start to unveil some of my aces in the hole. Here is a love song unlike too many others. Perfect Day.
Slow, nice, does he love her? Does she love him?
“You just keep me hanging on”…are they really in love? Is he going to kill himself?
“You made me forget myself. I thought I was someone else, someone good.” I love this line.
Is it two people? Drugs? It is for you to decide. I know my feelings on it. Lou Reed, “Perfect Day”, live.
Touche, Lex, I await your next play.
Staggering. These take me back 35 years, to childhood, hearing these songs on the AM radio at night, in the dark: Gems of power pop perfection. Cynical exploitation of teen lust? Of course. Stipulated. But that merely? No, sir. No. Love songs, too, in their fashion. Pop hymns of youth and happiness and a world where consequences don’t exist, but only here and now and maybe forever, but not tomorrow, nor next month or next year. The Raspberries are chewing gum and smiling. They know they are being naughty. What a blast it must have been to be a Raspberry, for a few glorious years. Note that these guys seem NOT to be lip-syncing. Can a rock band possibly be this tight?
(I am seeing and raising Dan’s Death Cab for Cutie post.)