Musical gender musings...
Apr. 10th, 2006 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishI finally found a station that streams the Dr. Demento Show. I’ve missed the strange and funny novelty song lineup since the only station carrying it in the L.A. area (WorldClassRock 101.9) was sold to Spanish language broadcasters quite a few years ago. *Shakes head* He’s based in Culver City, ferchrissakes, and not a single L.A. station can carry him? The excuse is that the market is so geared to specific niches that cannot deviate from their formats that he doesn't fit anywhere. The station I did find (the only one in the entire state of CA!) is in Fort Bragg at KOZT.com, which is nice because it’s at least in the the same time zone.
The good doctor’s theme Sunday night was “Alternative Lifestyles,” and the top of the Funny Five was Willy Nelson with “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other.” I found it not so much funny as rather poignant; he sings it completely seriously, without a trace of satire. I believe I’d heard it mentioned, but hadn’t actually heard it until now. According to this article, he recorded it as a way to let someone close to him know “that everything is OK.” Good on ya, Willie, although you lose a few points by only making it available on iTunes and saying you're probably not going to include it at any of your shows.
Continuing with the musical theme, I put a buttload of CDs on the iPod this weekend. Since the kids arrived, our CDs have resided in boxes, because cruisers and toddlers just love to pull that kind of stuff off shelves and break it. Many of them have been sadly neglected - I'd carry around my case of 25, and I didn't change them out very often, unless I got a very strong craving for something. So I've sort of been rediscovering music I haven't listened to in a long time. Also, since there's a function for adding the album art, I've been looking all the artists up on Amazon to get a picture to put with the songs. In the process, I'm finding how behind I am. For instance, I first heard a folky young woman named Dar Williams on the above station (or maybe it's predecessor, KSCA, which had the same format, many of the same DJs and suffered the same fate), and bought her first album, The Honesty Room. Come to find out that was 10 years ago, and she's done a bunch of albums since.
However, I was sitting here at my desk summarizing squid bycatch for 2005, and trying to figure out why the edited document I just got from La Jolla won't shift past page 28 when there are 49 pages in it, and When I Was a Boy came up on the playlist. And suddenly I found my eyes full of tears, had to grope for some tissue and turn my back to the aisle lest anyone notice.
When I Was a Boy
I won't forget when Peter Pan
Came to my house, took my hand
I said I was a boy, I'm glad he didn't check
I learned to fly, I learned to fight
I lived a whole life in one night
We saved each other's lives out on the pirate's deck
And I remember that night
When I'm leaving a late night with some friends
And I hear somebody tell me it's not safe
Someone should help me
I need to find a nice man to walk me home
When I was a boy, I scared the pants off of my mom
Climbed what I could climb upon
And I don't know how I survived
I guess I knew the tricks that all boys knew
And you can walk me home,
But I was a boy, too
I was a kid that you would like
Just a small boy on her bike
Riding topless, yeah, I never cared who saw
My neighbor come outside to say
"Get your shirt," I said "No way
It's the last time I'm not breaking any law"
And now I'm in this clothing store
And the sign says, "Less is More"
More that's tight means more to see
More for them, not more for me
That can't help me climb a tree in ten seconds flat
When I was a boy,
See that picture, that was me
Grass-stained shirt and dusty knees
And I know things have gotta change
They got pills to sell, they've got implants to put in
They've got implants to remove
But I am not forgetting
That I was a boy too
And like the woods where I would creep
It's a secret I can keep
Except when I'm tired, except when I'm being caught off guard
I've had a lonesome awful day
The conversation finds its way
To catching fire-flies out in the backyard
And I tell the man I'm with
About the other life I lived
And I say now you're top gun
I have lost and you have won
And he says, "Oh no, no, can't you see
When I was a girl, my mom and I we always talked
And I picked flowers everywhere that I walked
And I could always cry, now even when I'm alone I seldom do
And I have lost some kindness
But I was a girl too
And you were just like me,
And I was just... like you"
Well, I never rode my bike topless, but I'd forgotten just how much I identified with this song; it was the whole reason I bought the album after all. I do wear my hair long and have a fondness for jewelry and dangly earrings (the odder the better), but those are about my only nods to femininity. I've never much cared for fashion (I'm wearing a hockey jersey to work right now). As a kid, I was happier playing with Tonka trucks, and scorned the Barbies my mom carefully knitted outfits for - although Bryer horses and other animals were still ok. I never cared for baby dolls, and completely lacked a maternal instinct until I actually had kids. I fidgeted when being made to try on dresses; while I own a few now, I rarely wear them. I still dislike trying stuff on - if I can hold it up to myself and see that there's enough room, I won't bother. And the guy at the end could be my brother or John - he said before we had kids he wanted a boy he could teach to cook and sew and a girl to teach throwing baseballs and fixing cars. Although I'd rather both genders of my offspring did all of the above. ;)
I guess I find it poignant because it seems the woman speaking in the song feels she has to keep her tomboyishness a secret, now that she's an adult. I'm not entirely sure whether "I know things have gotta change" is meant facetiously. Whereas, I know I'm not the most feminine person in the world and the "boy" that I was is still there, not a boy at all really, but just me. And I refuse to push part of me away and hide it. And from the song Willie covered above,
Well I believe in my soul that inside every man there's a feminine,
And inside every lady there's a deep manly voice loud and clear.*
We're not completely one or the other. Just wholly human.
____________________________
*...heh, I've been told I sing in a tenor's range, if not lower. ;)
The good doctor’s theme Sunday night was “Alternative Lifestyles,” and the top of the Funny Five was Willy Nelson with “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other.” I found it not so much funny as rather poignant; he sings it completely seriously, without a trace of satire. I believe I’d heard it mentioned, but hadn’t actually heard it until now. According to this article, he recorded it as a way to let someone close to him know “that everything is OK.” Good on ya, Willie, although you lose a few points by only making it available on iTunes and saying you're probably not going to include it at any of your shows.
Continuing with the musical theme, I put a buttload of CDs on the iPod this weekend. Since the kids arrived, our CDs have resided in boxes, because cruisers and toddlers just love to pull that kind of stuff off shelves and break it. Many of them have been sadly neglected - I'd carry around my case of 25, and I didn't change them out very often, unless I got a very strong craving for something. So I've sort of been rediscovering music I haven't listened to in a long time. Also, since there's a function for adding the album art, I've been looking all the artists up on Amazon to get a picture to put with the songs. In the process, I'm finding how behind I am. For instance, I first heard a folky young woman named Dar Williams on the above station (or maybe it's predecessor, KSCA, which had the same format, many of the same DJs and suffered the same fate), and bought her first album, The Honesty Room. Come to find out that was 10 years ago, and she's done a bunch of albums since.
However, I was sitting here at my desk summarizing squid bycatch for 2005, and trying to figure out why the edited document I just got from La Jolla won't shift past page 28 when there are 49 pages in it, and When I Was a Boy came up on the playlist. And suddenly I found my eyes full of tears, had to grope for some tissue and turn my back to the aisle lest anyone notice.
When I Was a Boy
I won't forget when Peter Pan
Came to my house, took my hand
I said I was a boy, I'm glad he didn't check
I learned to fly, I learned to fight
I lived a whole life in one night
We saved each other's lives out on the pirate's deck
And I remember that night
When I'm leaving a late night with some friends
And I hear somebody tell me it's not safe
Someone should help me
I need to find a nice man to walk me home
When I was a boy, I scared the pants off of my mom
Climbed what I could climb upon
And I don't know how I survived
I guess I knew the tricks that all boys knew
And you can walk me home,
But I was a boy, too
I was a kid that you would like
Just a small boy on her bike
Riding topless, yeah, I never cared who saw
My neighbor come outside to say
"Get your shirt," I said "No way
It's the last time I'm not breaking any law"
And now I'm in this clothing store
And the sign says, "Less is More"
More that's tight means more to see
More for them, not more for me
That can't help me climb a tree in ten seconds flat
When I was a boy,
See that picture, that was me
Grass-stained shirt and dusty knees
And I know things have gotta change
They got pills to sell, they've got implants to put in
They've got implants to remove
But I am not forgetting
That I was a boy too
And like the woods where I would creep
It's a secret I can keep
Except when I'm tired, except when I'm being caught off guard
I've had a lonesome awful day
The conversation finds its way
To catching fire-flies out in the backyard
And I tell the man I'm with
About the other life I lived
And I say now you're top gun
I have lost and you have won
And he says, "Oh no, no, can't you see
When I was a girl, my mom and I we always talked
And I picked flowers everywhere that I walked
And I could always cry, now even when I'm alone I seldom do
And I have lost some kindness
But I was a girl too
And you were just like me,
And I was just... like you"
Well, I never rode my bike topless, but I'd forgotten just how much I identified with this song; it was the whole reason I bought the album after all. I do wear my hair long and have a fondness for jewelry and dangly earrings (the odder the better), but those are about my only nods to femininity. I've never much cared for fashion (I'm wearing a hockey jersey to work right now). As a kid, I was happier playing with Tonka trucks, and scorned the Barbies my mom carefully knitted outfits for - although Bryer horses and other animals were still ok. I never cared for baby dolls, and completely lacked a maternal instinct until I actually had kids. I fidgeted when being made to try on dresses; while I own a few now, I rarely wear them. I still dislike trying stuff on - if I can hold it up to myself and see that there's enough room, I won't bother. And the guy at the end could be my brother or John - he said before we had kids he wanted a boy he could teach to cook and sew and a girl to teach throwing baseballs and fixing cars. Although I'd rather both genders of my offspring did all of the above. ;)
I guess I find it poignant because it seems the woman speaking in the song feels she has to keep her tomboyishness a secret, now that she's an adult. I'm not entirely sure whether "I know things have gotta change" is meant facetiously. Whereas, I know I'm not the most feminine person in the world and the "boy" that I was is still there, not a boy at all really, but just me. And I refuse to push part of me away and hide it. And from the song Willie covered above,
Well I believe in my soul that inside every man there's a feminine,
And inside every lady there's a deep manly voice loud and clear.*
We're not completely one or the other. Just wholly human.
____________________________
*...heh, I've been told I sing in a tenor's range, if not lower. ;)
