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I'm a fan of wit. Mark Twain? Genius. Dennis Miller (before he got all political and weird)? Brilliant. So I love it when people are funny without beating you over the head with it. The kind of funny that makes you work a little bit to get the most out of it. And I'm a pop culture nerd who loves the inside jokes that populate so much of the best movies, music, TV, etc. That's why "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies was made for a guy like me.
It's filled with so much lyrical pop-culture fodder that there's even a website devoted to all of the references in the song. It's also a song that the band did almost as a throw-in. Ed Robertson, guitarist and co-lead singer of the band, wrote a song that he thought "might be a cool b-side." (For those younger readers out there, a b-side is a... oh forget about it. I feel old enough already. Go look it up on your internets out there, with your googlums and wahoo.) Instead of a cast away that wouldn't even make the album, it became their greatest hit and one of my very favorite songs.
So many parts of this song throw convention out of the window. Firstly, it opens with the chorus, right out of the gate. There's no slow, acoustic opening that builds to a crescendo of a chorus that is both uplifting and profound. The chorus, lyrically, is the only part of the song that really makes any sense. It's about a man who's had a big fight with his significant other and knows he's wrong, but just wants to save face. Like so many of us, even when we know we're just as much at fault, we don't be the one to apologize. So, we, like Ed says in the song, "sit back and wait till you say you're sorry." But it's not the chorus that brings us to the table here. It's the improvised verses that Ed rap-sings with a nonsensical, yet deliciously funny, abandon.
Musically, the song isn't as musically complex as a lot of BNL songs. Give credit to the band, though, because they knew that the lyrics were the star of this one and didn't want to get in the way too much. So in the verses the music is very sparse, just adding atmosphere to Ed's rap. During the choruses, though, the band lets loose quite a bit more and gets to release some of their pent up energy. The chorus groove is so catchy that the band often just jumps up and down in place during it at their concerts. Even when I'm listening (and no one's watching) my head and shoulders bop up and down with them. Bassist Jim Creegan probably gets to have the most fun musically during the song, but drummer Tyler Stewart gets to shake up his playing style throughout the song.
There are so many interesting and fun lyrics that I could quote, but I'll try to restrain myself. Here are some great samples:
As I make you stop, think.
You'll think you're lookin' at Aquaman
I summon fish to the dish,
Although I like the Chalet Swiss
I like the sushi 'cause its never touched a frying pan
Hot like wasabe when I bust rhymes
Big like LeAnn Rimes
Becasue im all about value
Then, later, Ed delivers what may be the coolest adlib ever:
Chickity China the Chinese chicken
Have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'
Watchin' X-Files with no lights on
We're dans la maison
I hope the Smoking Man's in this one
Like Harrison Ford I'm gettin' frantic
Like Sting, I'm tantric
Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy
Like Kurasaswa, I make mad films
Okay I don't make films,
But if I did, they'd have a Samurai
I have no idea what made his brain jump from a subject like Asian bird flu to the X-Files, then back to Asia with a killer Akira Kurasawa lines, but I wish I could have been there to see it. It's a lyrical mish-mash that makes almost no sense, but it's all so fun to listen to. In the past few years, the band has been doing a fun bluegrass version of it in concert that slows it down and is much more of a crazy barbershop quartet version of the original.
It just goes to show you musicians out there that you shouldn't abandon a song idea that you may think doesn't quite work or is too quirky for the general public. The bottom line is, if it's good, we'll listen, for the most part. Sure, some great music never reaches the ears of the general public, but to crib a line from the lottery, "Why not you?" So keep it up and keep writing those quirky songs, because at least in me, you've got a fan.
(Fun Fact #617: While Wikipedia does a quick version of the references in the song, this one is a more comprehensive one. (http://www.davidrickard.net/bnl.org/html/one_week_references.html).)
I'm going to post a bunch of videos for this one. First is the official video of the song, the second is the bluegrass version that I talked briefly about, and the third, just for fun is a Morgan Freeman impersonator (I checked and it is NOT Morgan Freeman, but man, does it sound like him) doing the second group of lyrics from my post. It is so funny, I couldn't help it.)
It's filled with so much lyrical pop-culture fodder that there's even a website devoted to all of the references in the song. It's also a song that the band did almost as a throw-in. Ed Robertson, guitarist and co-lead singer of the band, wrote a song that he thought "might be a cool b-side." (For those younger readers out there, a b-side is a... oh forget about it. I feel old enough already. Go look it up on your internets out there, with your googlums and wahoo.) Instead of a cast away that wouldn't even make the album, it became their greatest hit and one of my very favorite songs.
So many parts of this song throw convention out of the window. Firstly, it opens with the chorus, right out of the gate. There's no slow, acoustic opening that builds to a crescendo of a chorus that is both uplifting and profound. The chorus, lyrically, is the only part of the song that really makes any sense. It's about a man who's had a big fight with his significant other and knows he's wrong, but just wants to save face. Like so many of us, even when we know we're just as much at fault, we don't be the one to apologize. So, we, like Ed says in the song, "sit back and wait till you say you're sorry." But it's not the chorus that brings us to the table here. It's the improvised verses that Ed rap-sings with a nonsensical, yet deliciously funny, abandon.
Musically, the song isn't as musically complex as a lot of BNL songs. Give credit to the band, though, because they knew that the lyrics were the star of this one and didn't want to get in the way too much. So in the verses the music is very sparse, just adding atmosphere to Ed's rap. During the choruses, though, the band lets loose quite a bit more and gets to release some of their pent up energy. The chorus groove is so catchy that the band often just jumps up and down in place during it at their concerts. Even when I'm listening (and no one's watching) my head and shoulders bop up and down with them. Bassist Jim Creegan probably gets to have the most fun musically during the song, but drummer Tyler Stewart gets to shake up his playing style throughout the song.
There are so many interesting and fun lyrics that I could quote, but I'll try to restrain myself. Here are some great samples:
As I make you stop, think.
You'll think you're lookin' at Aquaman
I summon fish to the dish,
Although I like the Chalet Swiss
I like the sushi 'cause its never touched a frying pan
Hot like wasabe when I bust rhymes
Big like LeAnn Rimes
Becasue im all about value
Then, later, Ed delivers what may be the coolest adlib ever:
Chickity China the Chinese chicken
Have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'
Watchin' X-Files with no lights on
We're dans la maison
I hope the Smoking Man's in this one
Like Harrison Ford I'm gettin' frantic
Like Sting, I'm tantric
Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy
Like Kurasaswa, I make mad films
Okay I don't make films,
But if I did, they'd have a Samurai
I have no idea what made his brain jump from a subject like Asian bird flu to the X-Files, then back to Asia with a killer Akira Kurasawa lines, but I wish I could have been there to see it. It's a lyrical mish-mash that makes almost no sense, but it's all so fun to listen to. In the past few years, the band has been doing a fun bluegrass version of it in concert that slows it down and is much more of a crazy barbershop quartet version of the original.
It just goes to show you musicians out there that you shouldn't abandon a song idea that you may think doesn't quite work or is too quirky for the general public. The bottom line is, if it's good, we'll listen, for the most part. Sure, some great music never reaches the ears of the general public, but to crib a line from the lottery, "Why not you?" So keep it up and keep writing those quirky songs, because at least in me, you've got a fan.
(Fun Fact #617: While Wikipedia does a quick version of the references in the song, this one is a more comprehensive one. (http://www.davidrickard.net/bnl.org/html/one_week_references.html).)
I'm going to post a bunch of videos for this one. First is the official video of the song, the second is the bluegrass version that I talked briefly about, and the third, just for fun is a Morgan Freeman impersonator (I checked and it is NOT Morgan Freeman, but man, does it sound like him) doing the second group of lyrics from my post. It is so funny, I couldn't help it.)
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