I had an early love of humorous songs. Junkfood Junkie, The Streak, and Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road were favorites long before I was even a tweener. I wasn't content just to enjoy the funny ones either. Occasionally I'd rework a sad song I heard on the radio to amuse myself. When I was 8 years old Terry Jack's Seasons in the Sun was all over the radio. In case you don't recall it the main lyric was, "We had joy we had fun we had seasons in the sun," but I would delightedly sing "weiners in our buns!" instead. I was still innocent enough to mean hot dogs and bread at the time, and then as now I did indeed think of hotdogs as both fun and joyful. Soon I had my sister singing it along with me, and on one deleriously special occasion my mom and dad both joined in! Of course as time went by I enjoyed my substitution even more when I realized it could also have a dirty connotation.
In retrospect what really interests me about this memory is that I'm still very much like that 8 year old. Seasons in the Sun is really a damned morose song, sung from the perspective of a man soon to die bidding farewell to his parents, wife, and child. In the face of such sadness, my younger self found a way to laugh and enjoy himself. I usually think of myself as being 17 at heart, but laughing and having fun in the face of sadness is essentially a description of me at any age; 8, 17, 23, or even 42.
3 comments:
My buddies and I used to make up lyrics to the song "hot child in the city." All the freaking time. I wish I remembered what we said. All childish innocent stuff like "hot child in the city, stepped on insects itty bitty" or whatever. not a single use of shitty in the collection, I'd bet, as we didn't know that word yet. So I still have a fondness for that song too. We always used to act out a hot child in the city, as far as we knew the song was about a kid who was overheating. so our lyrics were most likely always about using ice, a fan, jumping in the lake, etc etc. Ah the innocent days.
Ha! the Streak was one of the first vinyl 45's I ever purchased for myself "back in the day". (geez THAT dates me). And I STILL love Seasons in the Sun.
damn this blo is as unupdated as the 30 or so blogs i undoubtedly have scattered all over, and i dont even remember how to access them. but i still remember Hot Child in the City (sand paper nitty gritty)
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