Huffy Flounce

Mal Shot First wrote:That apostrophe-D in "Why'd" really bothers me. It seems to be the official spelling of the song title, but the contraction doesn't quite make sense in the context of the song. The way I see it, "why'd" can stand for "why would" or possibly "why did." They intend it to mean "why do" - it should be written "Why d'you only call me when you're high."

I meant to add something to this months ago, but I got too wrapped up in talking about the Led Zeppelin song. The thing I had intended to say was that a person looking only at the title could be tempted to argue that they meant the "you're" to be a contraction for "you were." It's a non-standard contraction, and the majority of grammarians would consider it flat-out wrong. It seems to be happening more and more, though, so who's to say whether or not it will still be considered wrong in thirty years?

If it were meant as a contraction for "you were," the title, expressed without contractions, could be read thus: "Why Did/Would You Only Call Me When You Were High?"

You might be able to come to the conclusion that they meant this if you were only given the title. It's a harder conclusion to come to if you listen to the song or read the lyrics.

Maybe it can be chalked up to some quirk of colloquial Sheffield English. Maybe it's a conscious grammatical flub for effect. Maybe they're going for something like what the Beatles did when they tried to approximate African American English.

Maybe Alex Turner's just kinda dumb.

I made an editorial decision and changed the thread's title from "." to "[DOT]"--mostly to make it easier for people with smartphones to click on it. Hope you're cool with that, Spacey.

If not, you know what to do!

The Swollen Goiter of God wrote:I made an editorial decision and changed the thread's title from "." to "[DOT]"--mostly to make it easier for people with smartphones to click on it. Hope you're cool with that, Spacey.

Totes.

Actually I was going to rename it the Music Thread or suchlike myself.

If I ever got around to updating it at all, which I have been shockingly negligent in doing.

Feel free to rename my renaming of it.

This is what desperation looks and sounds like, kids.



PS: Chappelle did it!

She still rocks her khakis with a cuff and a crease.

Look at me! I'm still relevant!!

Fuck yo couch! I'm Rick James, bitch!!

Who is that dancing grandmother with so many famous friends?

Oh God........ It's like watching your drunk mum try and rap at karaoke.

Actually, that's a good way of putting it: It's like Madonna performing a Miley Cyrus song at a karaoke bar.

Hmm, I think I've heard this intro somewhere before...


The song does have a pretty catchy chorus, though. It's got this infectious 80s-pop energy. Unfortunately, the YouTube video only has the first 40 seconds of it, but you can listen to the whole thing here if you're interested.

He's no Young Turk. He's a middle-aged Bosnian.

That hair is so special.

You haven't even seen the cover yet for the album the song is from:



This was the coolest kid in 1988.

Young hearts, be free tonight. Time is on your side.

They look like Duran Duran after a six year smack addiction.

That's not the look of smack addiction. That's the look of hard Southeastern European living.

It's the kind of living that might make a body want to migrate.

Or take refuge, even.

They had to take refuge from New Wave pop, which was still ravaging large parts of Yugoslavia in the late 80s.

The New Wave destroyed everything in its wake. It's surprising Hari Mata Hari was able to make as big a splash as it did.

I'm constantly surprised by the amount of musical plagiarism that went on in former Yugoslavia. I keep coming across pieces of music that were obviously lifted from other sources. In most instances, I've been familiar with the Yugoslavian songs since I was a kid, but the plagiarisms didn't become apparent until I encountered the sources later in my life.

This is another example from Hari Mata Hari:



Sound familiar? Maybe it's not immediately apparent, but it's very obviously this Morricone tune:

It was definitely immediately apparent.

More Grimes aka Claire Boucher.

Definitely hearing more from her in the near future: