too much analysis, again
June 23, 2009
Starship’s “We Built This City” is generally considered to be one of the worst (successful) songs of all time. I heard it again recently after doing all my research on the late sixties San Francisco rock scene. And it sounded. . .different.
Starship used to be Jefferson Starship, which used to be Jefferson Airplane, which was one of the bands that broke out during the 1967 Monterey Pop festival and Summer of Love. The song seems to reference that, obliquely (“Don’t you remember…”) I think there’s a subtext to “We Built This City” that says, Look at all those dreams we had, all that work we did, we were trying to change rock forever, and look what it’s all turned into. Deeply sad and ironic. However cheesy the song might sound, I’m convinced the band meant it to sound exactly like that, irony included.
June 23, 2009 at 1:29 pm
interesting read:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2009/06/23/vampire_fiction/index.html
June 23, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Hey Carrie just thought I would drop by and let you know of some great were books I have gotten addicted too (In the wait of Kitty’s hose of horrors) Karen Macinerney Tales of an Urban Werewolf. Alrighty that’s it for now off to see Transformers Revenge of the fallen. Tell you about it later!!
June 23, 2009 at 6:37 pm
That’s pretty interesting. I never really thought of it that way. One of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs is Volunteers. Juxtapose the lyrics of the two songs and talk about irony. It’s funny how we all end up where we do.
Keep writing good books!
June 23, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Oh, you broke one of the cardinal rules: never look at the lyrics of a rock song you heard on the radio in the 80’s. If it made it to the radio, it has no real redeeming value as poetry.
June 24, 2009 at 9:08 am
You just can’t these songs too literally….
June 24, 2009 at 9:10 am
Wow…that was unexpected. Feel free to delete if you don’t want YouTube vids cluttering up your comments.
June 24, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I still think that is a HORRIBLE song. The only song they EVER did that was good was White Rabbit.
June 24, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I actually liked the song, and got to see them perform it live. There are a LOT worse songs from the 80s than that one. Is it a favorite? Not really, but i also do not switch the song off either if i hear it on the radio.
I blame VH1 and their “I love the 80’s/Worst song ever” specials. Those things seem to say “If you liked this during the 80’s, you were a BAD person and deserved to be ridiculed by C-list actors and out of work Commedians.
Is it because,20 years later, it is ok to hate songs that came out before the current 18-21 generation was born? I remember seeing this same bias against 50’s and 60’s music in the 80’s, and now the same thing occurring with 70’s and 80’s music.
It just feels like a teen/twentysomething attack upon their parents music in a attempt to say “we are better than you were,and will never become you” until the next generation shows up and does the same.
It’s ok to admit you like a song some tv show says is bad. Just be yourself and enjoy your likes.
June 24, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Hmm. Sometimes a song is just a song. And while I’m neutral on this one (there are better, there are worse… and from the 80s, you can find MUCH worse) there could be something to this.
Of course, it could also have been a general backlash to the beginning of 80s corporate culture and rampant consumerism. If Wikipedia is to be believed (take a shovel full of salt), the song is supposed to be about LA, although it could also be San Francisco, New York, or Cleveland.
It’s not great literature, but I don’t know why Blender branded it as being Worst Song Ever; anything William Hung covered would better fit the title.
June 25, 2009 at 8:06 am
I used to love that song when I was a little kid. Now it’s just…there. Not good, but not bad either. I really like Jefferson Airplane though–their 60’s stuff.
June 25, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I left the youtube video in because those “literal” videos are so much fun…
June 25, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Actually, Grace Slick has said as much in interviews.
Of course she’s a gigantic self serving egomaniacal narcissist and alcoholic… so take that with a grain or two of salt.