Thursday, August 28, 2008

Sometimes I hear that song and I start to sing along

Do you know this song?



There are so, so many things wrong with it.
Here are a few of them:
  • It's by Kid Rock.
  • He rhymes "things" with "things." In the chorus.
  • In the next line, he rhymes "bottle" with "tomorrow."
  • He rips off a minimum of two real classic rock songs, and I think I count a third.
  • He's, like, my age, and therefore I prefer to think it's too early for a "Remember those nostalgic old days when I was 18" song, even though that was 19 years ago. Gimme 25, please.
  • Don't even get me started on the things that are more wrong with the video than the song. That is covered in "It's by Kid Rock."

And yet, I don't care. I love this song.
That nostalgia/classic rock gimmick has entirely worked on me, to the point where I actually think of this as a song I was listening to when I was 18.
A sign of my countrification? Or of my willingness to let Big Music dictate what I should like via the car radio?

8 comments:

Joe said...

I'm with ya. . .it's catchy, but oh-so hokey. . .another example of how originality in entertainment is dying a slow death as of late. . .they remake movies, they sample old songs. . .they're just runnin' out of ideas these days.
I'll give them a little credit. .they know the vintage stuff strikes a chord with thirtysomethings like us, and they play on it. .my wife has been reminding me that there's a "new" Bev. Hills 90210 deubting next week with different characters. . .argh, they need to let some stuff just die.

Anonymous said...

Well, I had NEVER ever heard this song before this link and now I love it. So, I can download as much Cat Power, Thievery Corporation and Wilco as I can and try to be oh so clever about mocking my country-trash roots, but this video is like the better-wardrobed ( a sad comment in itself) clip of the summers between my sophomore and junior and senior year. I distinctly remember driving to Patoka Lake just to meet boys from other schools and go out on their pontoon boats. In fact, this looks like the resort version of what I WANTED my summers to look like. When I see all this frolicking, I feel like I did watching the arcade scene in Karate Kid, pining for a place to go like that in my teen years. maybe it's what teenagers now feel like when they watch Gossip Girl -- if teenagers now suddenly want to live in the Hamptons.
Anyway, someone has to honor that special place where trucker hats were worn when trucker hats weren't cool and where a stop at the gas station could net Big Red soda, bait, broasted chicken, potato wedges and a prom corsage. The best person for that job is a man named "Kid."

Joe said...

He rhymes "things" with "things." In the chorus.
I forgot to mention in my last comment how much that line from your post made me laugh.
OK, now I'm done. I'll be singin' Sweet Home Alabama all the way home. . .

Anonymous said...

Clearly you have gone off the rails since I left KSC. Listen to the drums in this song. What turdalicious casiotone voice is that? And if that is in fact a real drummer, what Hannah Montana recording session did they poach them from?

Look, here's some perspective -- the generation before us got "Boys of Summer" as their nostalgic summer song, which whatever you want to say about Henley's other efforts was a hauntingly beautiful song.

We get this?

Want to know the scary thing? Bryan Adams *faked* a better nostalgia song with summer of 69 than Kid Rock wrote (in the summer of 69 adams was like what? seven?). And Adams is Canadian, which should have worked to his disadvantage.

As a matter of fact, I'd venture that I have a new respect for Adams after understanding *just* how low this genre can sink. Look at this:

I got my first real six-string
Oh, at the five and dime,
Played it till my fingers bled,
Was the summer of Sixty-nine.

That's how you do synecdoche, man. Back right into the hook before the listener knows what happened.

Here's Kid Dumbass:

It was 1989, my thoughts were short my hair was long
Caught somewhere between a boy and man
She was seventeen and she was far from in-between
It was summertime in Northern Michigan

Is there any momentum here at all?

The problem is not so much that he samples Zevon and Skynyrd, but he does it while apparently channelling the aimless counterfeit nostalgia of Bob Seger deep tracks.

Anonymous said...

I mean, really... it that a verse or just a sloppy paragraph?

bzzzzgrrrl said...

I'll have you know that in the summer of 1969, Adams was 9 going on 10.

Surprised to hear "December, 1963" unmentioned. Never mind that in December, 1963, Frankie Valli was nearly 30.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, this made me so nostalgic for those summer days of my youth hanging out on luxury speed boats with bikini-clad models shaking their ta-tas.

It made me want to go listen to Werewolves of London to wash the bad taste out of my ears.

bzzzzgrrrl said...

Cousin, I think I covered that here:
* It's by Kid Rock.
...
* Don't even get me started on the things that are more wrong with the video than the song. That is covered in "It's by Kid Rock."