Now That's What I Call Inappropriate!
Thanks to my family (no, really - thanks), I was fortunate enough to watch the "London 2012 launch party" on Sunday and was struck by the decision to have McFly cover "The Winner Takes It All". Aside from the word "winner" in the title, what makes this beautiful, bittersweet song about the breakdown of relationships and divorce right for a party? Any party?
It reminded me of other badly chosen songs witnessed at various occasions. My favourite is "I Will Survive", played at several weddings. Huh? And I've mentioned before round here the sheer thrill one Sunday of hearing Leona Graham announce that "we're going to kick back and relax to the soothing sound of The Verve", and then play "The Drugs Don't Work".
So, what are your favourite inappropriate songs?
(Originally a comment here but I thought the subject deserved its own thread!)
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Ronald Reagan
famously using 'Born In The USA' in his election campaign.
Andrew Collins has an good old rant on his blog at the moment about the wisdom of using 'London Calling' as a celebratory song about the capital hosting the Olympics.
Barely on topic...
In 1985 I was at Sheffield Poly. Born in the USA was a staple of our small Totley site discos and often ended up with the whole crowd chanting along - "Born In The USA".
Fed up with this misplaced jingoism and factual inaccuracy one night I made a point of chanting something different: "Born In Swindon Wiltshire".
Would you believe that within a few moments the whole crowd had taken up my idea. Now, rather than chanting "Born in the USA" they were all, to a man and woman, chanting "Born In Swindon Wiltshire".
At which point I gave up.
Even less on topic:
That reminds me of being at student discos and bellowing, "F___ you, I won't tidy my bedroom!" at all the individuals singing along to Rage Against the Machine.
Take
A Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed. How did it ever get clearance for radio airplay? Glad it did, brill song.
"Even when she was given...WHAT!"
And to think they would not let Mott sing Marks & Sparks in All The Young Dudes...
Given?
Giving, surely?
Or have I been mishearing (and totally misunderstanding) the song for thirty-odd years?
Look it up
"She" was a transvestite...
If Mary Whitehouse were alive today, she would be rolling in her grave.
she'd be even more horrified to think
that the bloke who played on/wrote "Grandad", by Clive Dunn, was also involved in this FILTH...
Another 'first dance' fave at weddings
is U2's 'One', which suggests rather a sketchy understanding of the lyrics.
Ditto the Police's 'Every Breath You Take'.
I'd just like to say...
...I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. The friends we had round at the time just rolled their eyes at my TV-directed rant.
Rich
There She Goes...
Oft used in Chick Lit/Rom Com films populated by Hugh Laurie/Grant.
Along with Another Girl, Another Planet, the best paean to Heroin in recorded music.
New to me!
I didn't know "There She Goes" was about heroin. (Subsequently denied, according to the ever-reliable Wikipedia.) But I never was very good at understanding lyrics.
I always thought
that "racing through my brain, pulsing through my vein" gave the game away somewhat.
Me too.
Well, that and Mavers hoofing skag into every available pinprick, orifice and pore on his body for years.
They should have played
"The Drugs Don't Work" during the London Olympic 2012 launch party.
What about something appropriate for athletes
who "forget" their tests?
Patrice Rushden - Forget Me Nots?
Turning Japanese
My covers band played this live several times without realising what it was about. We kept this secret from our female singer until a member of the audience in a Glasgow pub we were playing improvised a rather graphic dance to it.
We still haven't told her about Pump It Up.
Blimey ...
... I'm learning stuff today. Never knew that about "Pump It Up" either! (Note to self: must work on listening to lyrics more.)
My six-year-old son likes singing along to "Turning Japanese". It's very entertaining. And very healthy, I'm sure.
Songs About Masturbation
I admit I didn't know until I looked them up.
At risk of running the gauntlet of obvious comments about anyone who would do such a thing, someone has compiled a list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sj/Archive/List_of_songs_about_masturb...
Really?
Now who'd have thought that a song entitled "Been Caught W&nking" by TISM would have been about onanism?
Some people need to get a life don't they...? (Not you, Mr Tiler, but the composers of that list.)
Also appearing at www.needtogetalife.com...
...are the guys on the radio the other night who spent 3 months going round the USA using Tippex and pens to correct punctuation and spelling errors in road and shop signs
Maurice Chevalier's "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" from Gigi...
... takes on a rather different hue this century, especially when you see the movie, with our Maurice going about the town and the park "admiring" them all.
See also...
"Walk This Way"
Roy Harper
Did a song called "Forbidden fruit" which was specifically about sex or near-sex with a 13-year-old girl. It even had what sounded like a children's choir singing the chorus. Lovely tune though!
Young Hearts Run Free
by Candi Staton...heartbreaking lyrics that never seem to get noticed, same with Band of Gold by Freeda Payne
re Mr Chevalier see also Young Girl by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
Me and Mrs Jones
Isn't that all about adultery? I've heard that as a First Dance at a few weddings.
Doh!
Mentioned it in another thread but...
...always amazed at how many times our function band gets asked for "Easy" as a first dance - synopsis... you're an old cow who's done nothing but try to grind me down no matter how much I've tried to make this so-called relationship work, so tomorrow morning I'm off for good and I couldn't give a toss! Good riddance. Again, how romantic.
As an aside, in our town there's a bridal shop called "Belle de Jour". I'm asuming that they've never actually watched the film the title of which they've taken as their brand...
Two inapropriatenesses in one short shop name
It's 30 years since my French 'O' Level, but shouldn't it be "Belle du Jour"?
And I bet they thought long and hard to come up with that.
The film
is called "Belle de Jour", fwiw. No idea what's correct French grammar though.
Er, um, er
I was confusing it with the TV series (which I've just discovered) at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479824
Belle de Jour...
1967 film by Luis Buñuel. IMDB plot summary is as follows...
"Severine is a beautiful young woman married to a doctor. She loves her husband dearly, but cannot bring herself to be physically intimate with him. She indulges instead in vivid, kinky, erotic fantasies to entertain her sexual desires. Eventually she becomes a prostitute, working in a brothel in the afternoons while remaining chaste in her marriage."
Catherine Deneuve stars...
I think it would depend, writes a pedant,
on what you meant. "Belle de jour" would be something like 'daytime beauty', while "belle du jour" would be 'beauty of the day' as in 'soup of the day'. Either is correct French. The TV series seems to be American - you can rely on our colonial cousins to mangle their French; viz the famous nightclub in LA called La Mirage, when French words of more than one syllable ending"...age" are always masculine, as any fule no. (So "Le Mirage".) You always wanted to know that, didn't you?
Lynching Narrowly Averted
And talking of functions, playing in a social club in Glasgow, we noticed one couple particularly enjoying the first set. Chatting with them at the break, it transpired that the woman's mother had just died, and she asked us to dedicate a song to her. Keen to oblige a supporter, we decided that Aztec Camera's Somewhere In My Heart would be appropriate, and our singer amended her notes to remind her to do the dedication when that song came round.
There followed the only time we've ever had to stop mid-song. Lesley started to read the dedication as drummer and I were pounding out the intro to... Psycho Killer.
Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs
One of the limited pleasures this show offers is when some poor sap dedicates a bittersweet or otherwise tragic song to the love of (usually) his life because he misheard the chorus.
Love is indeed deaf.
Robin Hood
Is this a good time to bring up the old favourite about the couple who wanted "Everything I do" by Bryan Adams as the tune for the Bride's entrance (stop that schoolboy sniggering). The rather aged church official had never heard of Mr Adams so they explained it was the theme to Robin Hood. Hence on the day the Bride had a jolly gallop down the aisle to the strains of "Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding through the Glen..."
Still makes me giggle.
See also...
... the one about the bereaved family asking for "I Will Always Love You" to be played at the dearly departed's funeral. "You know, the theme from The Bodyguard". Slight misunderstanding ensues, and the coffin makes it's final departure to the strains of "I could be so good to you, Love you like you want me to..."
Thank you for
Making my lunch time Diet Coke reappear through my nose.
Inappropriate duet
Brilliantly done in Arrested Development when male 40 year old and 14 year-old female niece sing "Afternoon Delight" together on Karaoke.
Male - Thinkin' of you is workin' up my appetite
Female - looking forward to a little afternoon delight.
Male - Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ingite
Female - and the thought of rubbin' you is getting so exciting.
Both - Sky rockets in flight...etc...
It descends into embarrassed mumblings
Everybody hurts
Our au pair's fiance got a Ukranian girl up the stick (very much a no no in Slovak circles) and married her instead. The wedding video was unintentionally hysterical, featuring grim 1970s communist tower blocks and drunken party goers who clearly hated each other. The best bit though was the first dance for the groom and heavily pregnant bride. To drown out the sound of them arguing the video editor overdubbed REM's Everybody Hurts... it probably sounds quite romantic if you don't understand the words. I wish I had kept a copy. Quite cheered our au pair up!
More REM
I remember "The One I Love" was often misused as a romantic request back in the day when people had heard of it.