Escape (the Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes
If you wanted to establish your I-don't-take-music-too-seriously bona fides, this was the song to do it with.
No, you don't hate it, so stop pretending you do. Yes, I'm sure you heard it too often but you haven't heard it in a while.
A narrative song is a hard trick to pull off in pop music because everyone already knows the story the second time they hear it and a song has to be a song you'll want to hear again and again in order to be a pop song. That goes double when the whole thing depends on a twist ending as is the case here.
It's a goofy song that doesn't take itself seriously. Why it's even terribly self-conscious irony, the defining attitude of the 1980s. Only it's carried off with considerably more ease and grace than the two Davids (Letterman and Byrne) could ever manage. Any seriousness in this song is a lot like the rum in a Pina Colada, the creamy confection overwhelms it so you can barely taste it.
Added: It's odd to think there was an era when a man would refer to the woman he loved as "my old lady". Yechhh! On the other hand, they at least had the sense to realize that anyone who was really "into yoga" was not going to be very smart. Something lost and somethings gained ....
The series starts here.
The next song is here.
If you wanted to establish your I-don't-take-music-too-seriously bona fides, this was the song to do it with.
No, you don't hate it, so stop pretending you do. Yes, I'm sure you heard it too often but you haven't heard it in a while.
A narrative song is a hard trick to pull off in pop music because everyone already knows the story the second time they hear it and a song has to be a song you'll want to hear again and again in order to be a pop song. That goes double when the whole thing depends on a twist ending as is the case here.
It's a goofy song that doesn't take itself seriously. Why it's even terribly self-conscious irony, the defining attitude of the 1980s. Only it's carried off with considerably more ease and grace than the two Davids (Letterman and Byrne) could ever manage. Any seriousness in this song is a lot like the rum in a Pina Colada, the creamy confection overwhelms it so you can barely taste it.
Added: It's odd to think there was an era when a man would refer to the woman he loved as "my old lady". Yechhh! On the other hand, they at least had the sense to realize that anyone who was really "into yoga" was not going to be very smart. Something lost and somethings gained ....
The series starts here.
The next song is here.
Also, the source of one my favorite obscure music trivia questions: Where do they meet by tomorrow, noon?
ReplyDelete(It's like the name of the horse in Jingle Bells - you know it, but not until you sing it.)
Well, now I'm prepared if it ever comes up.
ReplyDeleteLooking it up, I see that a while lot of people have tried to figure out where the "real" O'Malley's is. It's in Kokomo of course.