The Lyrics of Sunday Night Target

At last, I can post blog entries from home. And look, I'm already taking it for granted, this is the latest I've posted an entry in days. I blame all the long lines I encountered unexpectedly this evening. I guess everyone likes to shop at the Trader Joe's and Target in Mission Valley on Sunday nights. Everyone certainly looked comfortable. In Target, I saw three women and their two little girls in swimsuits, each wrapped in a white towel, even the little girls had tiny, kid sized towels. As far as I know, there are no swimming pools in proximity. The white towels say "hotel" but I don't think there's a hotel in walking distance. Did everyone just get out of the pool and climb into the car? They seemed so at ease. Maybe I'm the prude that thinks it's weird.

Hey, I guess it's pretty hackneyed to say rap music kind of sucks but . . . rap music generally kind of sucks. Well, I do like Nicki Minaj. And Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. And M.I.A. M.I.A. actually has some decent lyrics. I mention it because twice in parking lots to-day I was treated to blasting music and my initial thought was, "Oh, nice, some young people are listening to The Clash," before realising it was some inarticulate guy saying angry things over a recording of a Clash song.

I do think I miss the point. The Clash and other punk groups were certainly about attitude at least in part. And jeez, early punk artists certainly didn't have a reputation for crafting melody. But evidently they made something that lasted well enough for people to be riding their coat tails now.

Last semester in the class I took on John Milton the professor, Peter Herman, mentioned hearing a Kanye West song that sampled Nina Simone's version of "Strange Fruit". He mentioned it as evidence of Kanye West's lack of talent, or maybe downright stupidity, as the sample is used for an incredibly trite song about West and his girlfriend. Looking at the lyrics now, I can definitely see Professor Herman's point.

These bitches surroundin' me
All want somethin' out me
Then they talk about me
Would be lost without me
We could've been somebody
Thought you'd be different 'bout it
Now I know you not it
So let's get on with it

When The Sex Pistols covered "My Way", it was a send up of the arrogance and self-importance inherent in the song, a take down of the kind of ego that sees itself as having a kind of majesty for supposedly doing everything without reference to others. Kanye West took a song about people failing to see slaves as fellow human beings and turned it into a song to serve his ego. Modern rap isn't the new punk. It's the new Paul Anka.

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