I take songwriting seriously. Very seriously. Really, I do. But sometimes, you just have to get yer silly on. Or your whimsy. Cut loose. Sometimes, it's important to just ... lighten the heck up! A lot!
There we are, industriously scribbling away, trying to write a song that will change the world. (I know I've even said that! What a pretentious twit!) But sometimes, the world is just in need of a really good laugh. Or a snicker. Or a sly smile and (with tip of hat to Monty Python), a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink". Ya know?
In fact, the world of blues music pretty much thrives on double entendres, in addition to the merely explicit. Even though our world has now pretty much pushed all of its acceptable boundaries way way past that (would they have even understood what "twerking" was?), there's still something amusing and fundamentally human about the Itsy, Bitsy, Teeny-Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini ... if only as a piece of musical history. Or Jerry Reed's "When You Hot, You Hot" . And it might be worth reflecting on the fact that Chuck Berry's greatest single of his career was not, as you might expect, Maybelline, or Johnny B Good. It was his cover of a novelty song, My Ding-A-Ling, with a full cargo of double-entendres.
How many people know Lyle Lovett more for his songs like "She's No Lady, She's My Wife" or "Ugly", than for "Walk Through the Bottomland" or "Nobody Knows Me Like My Baby". Even the Beatles managed to fit in "Yellow Submarine" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". And the list goes on. Think Harry Nilsson's "Lime In The Coconut" (which will make you feel better, if you can get it out of your head). Or Maria Muldaur, who had a couple of classics in "Midnight At The Oasis", and "Don't You Feel My Leg". Sometimes you just gotta write what you gotta write, and it doesn't have to make sense to anybody else. Although it likely will!
And by the way, I believe that if you don't write them, if you suppress your silly song ideas, they will burst through where they're not wanted, like water into a mineshaft, right in the middle of a perfectly serious song.
But there, too, is the proof positive that I'm definitely not in a publishing deal, with a publisher to satisfy, and commercial considerations (like a level of investment) challenging me to think about what radio might play. Though, as we've seen ... radio might play a little bit more than we're currently giving them credit for. (Or not.)
But I stand by my heresy: Get yer silly on, and be proud of it. Among other things, music is meant to be fun!
There we are, industriously scribbling away, trying to write a song that will change the world. (I know I've even said that! What a pretentious twit!) But sometimes, the world is just in need of a really good laugh. Or a snicker. Or a sly smile and (with tip of hat to Monty Python), a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink". Ya know?
In fact, the world of blues music pretty much thrives on double entendres, in addition to the merely explicit. Even though our world has now pretty much pushed all of its acceptable boundaries way way past that (would they have even understood what "twerking" was?), there's still something amusing and fundamentally human about the Itsy, Bitsy, Teeny-Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini ... if only as a piece of musical history. Or Jerry Reed's "When You Hot, You Hot" . And it might be worth reflecting on the fact that Chuck Berry's greatest single of his career was not, as you might expect, Maybelline, or Johnny B Good. It was his cover of a novelty song, My Ding-A-Ling, with a full cargo of double-entendres.
How many people know Lyle Lovett more for his songs like "She's No Lady, She's My Wife" or "Ugly", than for "Walk Through the Bottomland" or "Nobody Knows Me Like My Baby". Even the Beatles managed to fit in "Yellow Submarine" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". And the list goes on. Think Harry Nilsson's "Lime In The Coconut" (which will make you feel better, if you can get it out of your head). Or Maria Muldaur, who had a couple of classics in "Midnight At The Oasis", and "Don't You Feel My Leg". Sometimes you just gotta write what you gotta write, and it doesn't have to make sense to anybody else. Although it likely will!
And by the way, I believe that if you don't write them, if you suppress your silly song ideas, they will burst through where they're not wanted, like water into a mineshaft, right in the middle of a perfectly serious song.
But there, too, is the proof positive that I'm definitely not in a publishing deal, with a publisher to satisfy, and commercial considerations (like a level of investment) challenging me to think about what radio might play. Though, as we've seen ... radio might play a little bit more than we're currently giving them credit for. (Or not.)
But I stand by my heresy: Get yer silly on, and be proud of it. Among other things, music is meant to be fun!