Music Monday – Seven Deadly Sins
(Image by Marta Dahlig)
This time of year you see people walking around in good shape, in good mood, in good clothes, just generally good while admittedly easier to dress well it warm weather (after all, you’ve fewer clothes to start with), you can’t help feeling uncomfortable with all the good stuff surrounds you. There needs to be a counter balance. Well like any dutiful person, here I am with my contribution, and it is an old school contribution. Seven tracks to make your week, that’s seven sins apiece, and all in alphabetical order no less (smugness is not technically a sin, but given the chance I reckon I’d make a bloody good go of it).
Avarice: The Ramones – I Wanted Everything
The song starts off showing how quint-essentially infantile greed is. The ridiculousness can be accurately be surmised by the indignant child’s screech, “Mine!”. Still the song very quickly broadens it’s horizons, looking at the desperation of those with low prospects. Small wonder disinherited American youth of the 70s loved this band. Sins are ultimately the expression of a human need, something this song realizes brilliantly. And even if that goes over a listeners head and least he/she has a tune fit for head-banging.
Envy: Rick Springfield – Jessie’s Girl
My first instinct was John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’, but then envy and jealousy, while often regarded as synonyms, aren’t the same thing (as Homer makes transparently clear). So, with a view to being terminologically accurate, I turn to Rick Springfield. Taken from the album ‘Working Class Dog’, ‘Jessie’s Girl’ tells of an experience common to adolescence. The video is very of its time, not to mention the song itself but, leeway notwithstanding, it still rings as true now as it did in 1981.
Gluttony: Little Shop Of Horrors – Feed Me (Git It)
Now I had to come up with something less predictable than ‘My Favorite Things‘ or still more obvious ‘Food Glorious Food’. That would be inexcusable. Then again I am going to stick with musicals. Little Shop Of Horrors. When a flesh eating plant learns to talk you know that appetite has gone a little wrong. Still, it’ll take more than a cantankerous carnation or a pushy petunia to put me off my grub.
Lust: BB King – Rock Me Baby
A towering figure in American music history, King has been much in the news of late for his health and the legal ramifications thereof. Meanwhile, it seems strange to be sighting a song that is so affirming of life. In fact, Lust, like Gluttony, is oddly placed as a sin. Uncontrolled, they can be potentially destructive for certain (heart-disease, STDs). Yet unlike the other sins, these two are what make life worth living. On what occasion have you felt more fulfilled than when you were lying replete with your lover, your belly full of food? Indulge invigorates. This, BB knew.
Sloth: Dire Straits – Money For Nothing
The universal symbol of excessive greed, ‘Money For Nothing’ might spell avarice to some. Still the key word is “nothing”. Having met a few musos, I am aware life on the road is no picnic. They earn their wage. Still the song is about the popular (naive) impression of the ‘Rock Star Lifestyle’. Easy. The irony is heightened of course by the song’s recent use in Kingsman: The Secret Service, a film that is as funny as it is frenetic.
Vanity: The Kinks – Dedicated Follower of Fashion
In Devil’s Advocate Al Pacino remarks: “Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.”. I think I made my preferences clear already. Still, it’s a good line and paves the way to ‘Paint It Black’ by the Rolling Stones. Still, good though the song is it does fit the bill exactly. Fashion has long been a form of vanity, whose chasing has been cautioned many a time, though few have done so with the pnash or incisiveness of Oscar Wilde, “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”. Taking pride in your appearance is perfectly understandable (and other qualities) but it can certainly get out of hand. Then again this very website has regular content concerning dress (Style Saturday) so to avoid stepping on any toes I’ll end here…
Wrath: Disturbed – Indestructible
This is Malcolm Reynold’s sin, so no pressure. Just what you need after a trying day – a song to remind you how hard you think you are. Or what you need when you’re at the gym; elliptical treadmill adrenaline pumping! Of course, the irony there is that this is probably a tune that those around you got fit to in the first. Strange then that it should be used to counter-balance the good figure it got them. And presto, I’m back where I started.
What do make of this weeks line up? Let us know in the comments below.
