Remember: Toto's 'Africa' came out in 1982.

It's a competitive field, no doubt.

Can someone explain why Flo Rida is considered a acceptable hip-hop stage name? I haven't been so confused by a stage name since Ice-T tried to convince me I should be intimidated by a man named after a drink my grandmother might serve me.

I think "Flow Rider" would be a claim of being particularly fluent in his rhyming capacities, and at that point the pun is just sitting there. And hip-hop names have always been largely puns, right?

I like to pronounce his name like my Jewish grandmother says "flahrida". Obviously no one in my life gets the joke, nor do I ever have an opportunity to make it. But hypothetically I'd kill.

I will admit to being kind of shamefully fond of the few Flo Rida tracks I've heard.

On the other hand I have no idea what the '90s song heebie is talking about is. So!

Oh hey wait!

"Only time will tell if we stand the test of time" from Van Hagar's "Why Can't This Be Love" is the worst lyric of the 80s, from the worst song, made all the worse because it comes from one of the great bands, on its deep downswing.

What do you have against Africa? Didn't neb link to a good acoustic cover a few months ago? Or was that ironic linking?

Missing the link in the OP, I googled for the song and the first thing I found was the sped up version.

I should have right clicked on the link in the OP, copied link location, pasted it in the search bar, and clicked on the first google result.

OTOH, let's just take a moment to remember what a great song "Unchained" is. "AND YOU HIT THE GROUND RUNNING.". When I had a BMW convertible I enjoyed playing that at top volume in Silverlake to draw the ire of hipsters.

Speaking of old songs, 3 year old is currently obsessed with this version of the Boxer, 1981 live in Central Park, which I find totally awesome (including verse not in the album version.) Also according to my calculations they're 40 in that video but look much younger- does Paul Simon have no facial hair?

Not only have I never heard of the original song, I can't figure out which of several candidates it is by googling the lyrics.

I think that Africa is a great song, but I also recognize that I am a bad person for thinking that.

To clarify, I find the version totally awesome as well as the fact that he is obsessed with it. I can get into songs, enjoy listening, whatever, but it seems like that version actually changes your mood while listening.

10: that was Stanley, but I do like that rendition.

15: ...when he plays piano innnnn the dark.

I have a soft spot for Simon and Garfunkel in general.

I get Simon and Garfunkel stuck in my head all the damned time.

Sometimes I get El Condor Pasa going on loop but with random nouns subbing in.

"I'd rather be a spaniel than a duck, yes I would, I really would / I'd rather be mick jagger than a boat, yes I would, I really would / I'd rather be Longines than from Merck, yes I would, I really would"

Just on and on.

Holy shit he's really old now.
I should stop talking now- in summer 1995 we took a trip to SF and driving out to Yosemite the Dead came on and I said "What's going to happen to them when Jerry Garcia dies?" and the next day, well, you know.

What do you have against Africa? Didn't neb link to a good acoustic cover a few months ago? Or was that ironic linking?

The lyrics include:

As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti

which jams in more syllables than notes. Also:

There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do

and

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company

Didn't neb link to a good acoustic cover a few months ago?

There is a good version without lyrics.

I do that sometimes with "Hush Little Baby".

Hush little baby, don't say a word, mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird.
If that mockingbird sounds bad, mama's gonna buy you a strapping lad.
If that strapping lad's too shy, mama's gonna buy you a chicken thigh.
If that chicken thigh's too pink, mama's gonna buy you a skating rink.
If that skating rink's too crowded, mama's gonna buy you ... hm.

I am sure I have mentioned here before but once I saw Paul Simon standing next to John Kerry. It was fucking hilarious. Paul Simon looked like a muppet.

26: YES ME TOO YES

which jams in more syllables than notes.

I don't see how that can possibly be an objection to a lyric. God knows frequently there are more notes than syllables.

Ditto 28. The version we learned in elementary school ended with something about prettiest girl in town which seemed like a stupid place to end it.

I had no idea that was such a popular pursuit.

If it's not a popular pursuit, mama's gonna buy you a leisure suit.

If that leisure suit don't swing, mama's gonna by you some bean thing.

If that bean thing's not a pie, mama's gonna buy you a skinny tie.

If that skinny tie ain't rad, mama's gonna take you to Novograd.

28: Yeah, that happens to me too. It's even funnier when you're crooning it to an actual baby.

I don't see how that can possibly be an objection to a lyric. God knows frequently there are more notes than syllables.

Perhaps you could listen to the song and more aptly describe the absurd mismatch of music and lyrics in that line.

I have listened to that cover that Stanley linked. I think the singer pulls the line off creditably, though it's true that the prosody when he gets to "Serengeti" is kind of odd—but that's not a rushed part of the line! It's just melodically weird.

Doesn't seem awful at all.

Gonna buy you an origin that's shrouded.

If were going to doing an Africa covers thread again, I'm submitting Betty White.

And if that Betty White won't submit, papa's gonna buy you a holy writ.

I am more amused by the style of song that repeats a few lines extremely repetitively but in multiple ways so it isn't monotonous. And speaking of Paul Simon, Albert Hammond's first album sounds just like him.

albert hamond thought it never raind in sothern california but whose laughing now?

Sometimes you just use the part you want for your song or whatevs and don't worry about the rest.

Sometimes also the left-out part informs in ways not readily apparent.

piano in the dark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7u5GtSIC5k

Whats that blind piano players name?
the famous one who is also black?
I forgot his name,its right on the tip of my tongue,I tried searching for it but all I know about him is that he's blind,black,and plays piano,so I didnt get much.

Stanley's alternate lyrics have burrowed into my head to such an extent that now I cannot but hear "Sharif don't like it; Lock the task bar! Lock the task bar!" and "I wish I was like six foot nine so I could get with a Yoshi but she don't know me and yo she's really fine"

I feel like I've mentioned it to a few of you in the other place but a really fun thing is to substitute lyrics from Guns of Brixton for the bridge in the Muppet Theme.

It's time to play the music
It's time to light the lights
It's time to meet the muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.

It's time to put on makeup
It's time to dress up right
It's time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight

[Old Men]
You see it means no mercy
They caught him with a gun
No need for the Black Maria
Goodbye to the Brixton son

[Muppets]
But now its getting started
Why don't you get things started?
Its time to get things started
On the most sensantional
Inspirational
Celebrational
Muppet-ational
This is what we call The Muppet Show!

what a great song "Unchained" is

I love that whole album as if it were one of my children.

So it saps you of your will to live?

51: and makes quality time with Mrs. apostropher difficult to come by.

But that's also how the album came about.

That "serengeti" part of Africa has always bugged me. I think it's not the number of syllables but the meter that's off. SER-enget-EE instead of SER-en-GET-i

26: YES ME TOO YES

ME TOO! I used to rock my babies to sleep that way. "If that diamond ring don't shine, papa's gonna buy you a melon rind. If that melon rind is rotten, papa's gonna buy you a bale of cotton has an odor, papa's gonna buy you a front-end loader..."

13: I have a new hobby now. Any other suggestions to draw maximum hipster ire? Def Leopard? Metallica? Poison?

56: Can't go wrong with White Lion.

Oversincere musicians who aren't young anymore. Yes, Billy Joel, Bono.

I would start with Foghat and Montrose.

Grand Funk Railroad. Styx.

Corner case: Sincere and serious from a genre that used to be OK. Lutan Fyah, maybe Talib Kweli

Guysss all of those are ironically appreciable as hell. Except maybe Billy Joel and Bono. Those'll get people complaining. Also it's "Leppard", come on.

dammit. i knew there was some spelling quirk i was missing.

??? Please a single ironic appreciation of Yes. or Mahavishnu Orchestra

62: OK wise guy. Hootie and the Blowfish. Smashmouth.

Good question. What is not even ironically appreciable?

Bryan Adams leaps to mind. I mean, the songs are just dreary. You can't listen with a smile on your face. And you can't say "so bad it's good" because they are impeccably produced.

65: now you got it workin'.

and billy joel is a bridge too far... i dont think i could endure.

Let me sincerely and loudly explain why the Red Hot Chili Peppers are innovative and excellent. AT length.

Europe, "The Final Countdown"; see also:
this, which is a fine example of bronie trolling.

I hate that I missed this thread, for I love it like the child I never had, if I liked children.

I sometimes lately invent verses of this song "Legacy" from On the Twentieth Century, which I'm currently obsessed with. It just seems like lots of funny stuff might rhyme with "To you I leave my cape and my fedora." Like Pia Zadora.

||

It is good there is nobody else in my immediate vicinity to hear me loudly guffawing while reading this.

|>

From the link in 72:

Conduct an observational study. Learn to use the "eyeball" technique to determine if a child is overweight. One afternnon sit outside a seconday public school in your community and as the students exit, make a check in a notebook as to how many out of the first 50 or 100 you would classify as being overweight.

Is there a term for things you don't like without adequate justification, which makes you dislike them all the more, and to seek, at length, an adequate justification?

Oh, yes. Ressentiment.

What is the usual response of the object of ressentiment? I suppose the object might get sad. But my guess: it would be another philosophic term that, to use it here, would cause extra (of both terms).

"Fire, the second safest way to travel!"

Oh my god, I'm crying from reading that site.

I want to see the answer to, "Do natural childbirth and the quadratic equation share a common denominator?" I'm trying to imagine what 2A has to do with natural childbirth.

I'm pretty sure the answer is "no", SP.

Apparently is has something to do with the Wonder Years.

What is not even ironically appreciable?

Sting? John Cougar Mellencamp?

Or, what's the hipster stance on Pink Floyd these days? I was told a few years ago by a friend that he simply couldn't abide them, sorry, no. How about Emerson, Lake & Palmer? (Keith Emerson is actually a pretty good pianist.) I want to ask about Crosby, Stills & Nash, but fear to.

72 is my favorite tumblr in a long time.

72. Oh my god, I'm working from the public library today, and now I'm totally the crazy person in the corner laughing by herself. The kid sitting next to me got up and left to get away from the freak. And yet I can't stop.