Let’s continue our journey through humour and music. Lets list some more songs, hilarious lyrics, painfully honest confessions and absurd descriptions of equally absurd situations. Lets forget seriousness for a bit and have another half an hour of laughter.
I have a soft spot for Weird Al. I don’t think his work is childish. His musical parodies are pretty clever, and he makes fun of the rich and famous. He’s a court jester, in the most classical sense of the word. Personally I like his early work best; ‘Eat it’, but also ‘Like a surgeon‘ and ‘Fat‘
Jarvis Cocker (what’s in a name…) is the ultimate Brit, observing life with dry wit and a good dose of self-humour. Wanna have a masterclass in irony? Then listen to this little gem about a bored rich girl who wants to live like the common people. Rumour has it that Danae Stratou, the wife of former Greek Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, was actually the inspiration for this song.
Johnny Cash – A boy named Sue.
Johnny Cash and humour? Really? Yes, listen to this elegantly written tale of a father who named his boy Sue, just to make him tough.
Mountain Goats – The best ever death metal band in Denton
Denton is a city in Texas with just over 100.000 inhabitants. It supposedly has a very active music scene. Mountain Goats founder and singer John Darnielle must have thought: why not situate the fictional tale of a couple of friends forming a death metal band in an average city like Denton. The lyrics of the songs always make me smile, especially the part where the guys (unsuccessfully) try to come up with a name for their band:
“The best ever death metal band out of Denton
Never settled on a name
But the top three contenders after weeks of debate
Were Satan’s Fingers, and The Killers, and The Hospital Bombers”
Welcome to the wicked world of Peaches. Beware, not suitable for guys, it will make you feel inferior. Women are stronger than we are, we are like wax in their hands, and we always date our mother because basically we want to crawl back into the womb 🙂
Robyn – Don’t fuckin’ tell me what to do
A long list of things that are killing the storyteller (most likely Robyn herself): “My smoking is killing me, my diet is killing me, my heels are killing me, y shopping’s killing me, my ego is killing me, can’t sleep, it’s killing me” etc. Funny in its creativity. Never thought there were so many annoying things.
Jens Lekman – Argument with myself
Jens Lekman is truly the king of self-reflection. Here he sings quite hilariously about having an argument with himself while walking the streets of a city.
Presidents of the USA – Peaches
A silly story about canned peaches. Right?
The Sparks – This town ain’t big enough for the both of us
The Sparks = quirky and intelligent humour, sophisticated and clever lyrics, and a good deal of parody. This song, and the accompanying video, is so over the top it feels like the funny twin sister of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Everything about Devo is funny; their outfits, their song writing and lyrics, their use of science fiction themes. And face it: Whip it! is a classic video. Equally funny: Devo’s treatment of ‘Satisfaction’
Toy Dolls – Nelly the elephant
The Toy Dolls have their own genre: Funpunk. Silly, but so addictive
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Great posts. Some things I don’t know there so something to listen as well.
I would love to add a song to this list: Sultans of Ping FC – Where’s me Jumper.
I could post the whole lyric will keep to this:
It’s all right to say things can only get better
If you haven’t just lost your brand new sweater
Pure new wool and perfect stitches
Not the type of jumper that makes you itch, oh no
Sultans of Ping…I almost forgot about them. Weren’t they a bit of a funny version of Carter USM? Will have a listen again, after a long time