Music

Song Lyric Sunday — Hip-Hop/Rap

Fandango6 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams has given us hip-hop/rap music. I really don’t listen to or know much about hip-hop/rap music, so I found a site, Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time. I scrolled to the number one song, a song I never heard before, and decided to feature it here. The song is “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

“The Message” was released as a single by Sugar Hill Records on July 1, 1982, and was later featured on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s debut studio album of the same name. Written by Clifton “Jiggs” Chase, Edward “Duke Bootee” Fletcher, Melle Mel, and Sylvia Robinson, it was an early prominent hip-hop song to provide social commentary. The song’s lyrics describe the stress of inner-city poverty. In the final verses a child born in the ghetto without perspective in life is lured away into crime, for which he is jailed until he commits suicide in his cell. The song ends with a brief skit in which the band members are arrested for no clear reason.

According to Songfacts, “The Message” changed rap music’s tone and content forever. With its hard-boiled chorus (“It’s like a jungle sometimes / It makes me wonder how I keep from going under.”) and unflinching observation of the perils and anxieties of contemporary urban life, “The Message” pushed hip-hop records away from their early emphasis on party anthems and empty braggadocio and toward the fearless social commentary that has dominated many of the form’s most important recordings since.

Ed “Duke Bootee” Fletcher, who was a staff songwriter as Sugarhill Records, started writing this song on a piano in his mother’s basement in 1980. He made a demo of the song with his own raps and took it to label boss Sylvia Robinson, who asked Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five to record it. Flash would later speak of the song as a landmark in the evolution of rap, but he and the group wanted nothing to do with the song at the time, and even ridiculed it when he heard the demo. “The subject matter wasn’t happy. It wasn’t no party shit. It wasn’t even some real street shit. We would laugh at it,” said Flash.

With the band balking at recording the song, Robinson decided to record it with the group’s rapper Melle Mel trading verses with Fletcher. At this point, Flash asked Robinson to let the entire group perform on the track, but she refused. Melle added some additional lyrics to the song as well.

“The Message” was named the Greatest Hip Hop song of all time in a 2012 list compiled by experts for Rolling Stone. The magazine said it was the first track, “to tell, with hip-hop’s rhythmic and vocal force, the truth about modern inner-city life in America.”

Here are the lyrics to “The Message.”

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Broken glass everywhere
People pissin' on the stairs, you know they just don't care
I can't take the smell, can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away but I couldn't get far
'Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car

Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head, ha-ha-ha-ha

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Standin' on the front stoop, hangin' out the window
Watchin' all the cars go by, roarin' as the breezes blow
Crazy lady, livin' in a bag
Eatin' outta garbage pails, used to be a fag hag
Said she'll dance the tango, skip the light fandango
A Zircon princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peep show watchin' all the creeps
So she can tell her stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so-so siditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own

Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head, ha-ha-ha-ha

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

My brother's doin' bad, stole my mother's TV
Says she watches too much, it's just not healthy
All My Children in the daytime, Dallas at night
Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors, they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I'm not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station
Neon King Kong standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm goin' insane
I swear I might hijack a plane

Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

My son said, "Daddy, I don't wanna go to school
'Cause the teacher's a jerk, he must think I'm a fool"
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it'd be cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
Or dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
'Cause it's all about money, ain't a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey
They pushed that girl in front of the train
Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again
Stabbed that man right in his heart
Gave him a transplant for a brand new start
I can't walk through the park 'cause it's crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun 'cause they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say, "You want some more?"
Livin' on a see-saw

Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head, say what?

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smilin' on you but he's frownin' too
Because only God knows what you'll go through
You'll grow in the ghetto livin' second-rate
And your eyes will sing a song called deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alleyway
You'll admire all the number-book takers
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers
Drivin' big cars, spendin' twenties and tens
And you'll wanna grow up to be just like them
Huh, smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers
You say I'm cool, huh, I'm no fool
But then you wind up droppin' outta high school
Now you're unemployed, all non-void
Walkin' round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did
Got sent up for a eight-year bid
Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag
Spend the next two years as a undercover fag
Bein' used and abused to serve like hell
'Til one day, you was found hung dead in the cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young

So don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head, ha-ha-ha-ha

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under, ha-ha-ha-ha
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under, ha-ha-ha-ha

WDYS — Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?

Fandango10 Comments

🎶 If you want my body and you think I’m sexy,
Come on, sugar, let me know. 🎵

Bow wow!

🎶 If you really need me, just reach out and touch me.
Come on, honey, tell me so. 🎵

Bow wow!

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo crédit: Grin @ Unsplash.

Thursday Inspiration — Hold On Loosely

Fandango4 Comments

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has instructed us to respond to this challenge by either using the prompt word, hold, or or going with the above picture, or by means of the song “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” from The Bee Gees, or by going with another song that we think fits.

I’m going with the song by 38 Special titled “Hold On Loosely.” Written by Don Barnes, Jeff Carlisi, and Jim Peterik, it was released on the band’s 1981 studio album, Wild-Eyed Southern Boys. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart, and number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song was written about adult relationships. Lead singer, Don Barnes, was going through a difficult time in his marriage. He lamented that his wife was not being more supportive of his career aspirations. He presented a seed idea for a song to co-writer Jim Peterik, asking what he thought of the title “Hold On Loosely,” to which Peterik came back with, “…but don’t let go.”

Even though the song was about an adult relationship gone bad, when I saw the photo of the mother and the newborn, I realized that some of the lyrics present sound advice to a young mother.

Your baby needs someone to believe in
And a whole lot of space to breathe in

It's so damn easy, when your feelings are such
To overprotect her, to love her too much

Just hold on loosely
But don't let go
If you cling too tight babe
You're gonna loose control
Your baby needs someone to believe in
And a whole lot of space to breathe in
Don't let her slip away

Song Lyric Sunday — Disco

Fandango17 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams has given us “disco” music. According to Wikipedia, disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States’ urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.

Sure, I thought of picking almost any song from the movie “Saturday Night Fever,” or focusing on well known disco artists like The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, KC and the Sunshine Band, Kool and the Gang, and a whole host of others.

Instead I’m going with a group that was my favorite back in the early sixties. A group not known for its disco music. Except for this one song in particular: “December 1963 (Oh What a Night)” from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

“December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” was recorded by the Four Seasons. It was written by original Four Seasons keyboard player Bob Gaudio and his future wife Judy Parker, produced by Gaudio, and included on the group’s 1975 album, Who Loves You.

The song features drummer Gerry Polci on lead vocals, with Frankie Valli, the group’s usual lead vocalist, singing the bridge sections and backing vocals, and bass player Don Ciccone singing the falsetto part. It was a huge worldwide hit, reaching number 1 in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and a number of other countries.

Co-writer Bob Gaudio said that the song was originally set in 1933 with the title “December 5th, 1933,” and it celebrated the repeal of Prohibition. Neither lead singer Frankie Valli nor co-writer (and later, Gaudio’s wife) Judy Parker were thrilled about the lyrics (and Valli objected to parts of the melody) so Gaudio redid the words and Parker redid the melody until all were content with the finished product.

The group had to play down the sexual overtones in this song to appease conservative radio stations, and kept referring to it as a nostalgic love song. But Frankie Valli admitted that, “it was a song about losin’ your cherry” — about a guy having sex for the first time.

As I said earlier, The Four Seasons were not considered a disco group, but this song definitely fit into the disco genre, which is why I chose it. Billboard magazine said that it had “the flavor and fun of ’60s rock with a disco feel.” Record World called it a “disco flavored item in [the Four Seasons’] timeless harmony mold.”

Here are the lyrics to “December 1963 (Oh What a Night).”

Oh, what a night
Late December back in sixty-three
What a very special time for me
As I remember what a night.

Oh, what a night
You know I didn't even know her name
But I was never gonna be the same
What a lady, what a night.

Oh I, I got a funny feelin' when she walked in the room
Yeah my, as I recall it ended much too soon.

Oh, what a night
Hypnotizin', mesmerizing me
She was ev'rything I dreamed she'd be
Sweet surrender, what a night.

I felt a rush like a rollin' ball of thunder
Spinnin' my head around 'n' takin' my body under
Oh what a night.

Oh I, I got a funny feelin' when she walked in the room
Yeah my, as I recall it ended much too soon.

Oh what a night, why'd it take so long to see the light
Seemed so wrong, but now it seems so right
What a lady, what a night.

Oh, I felt a rush like a rollin' ball of thunder
Spinnin' my head around 'n' takin' my body under
Oh what a night (do do do do do, do do do do do)

Oh what a night (do do do do do, do do do do do)
Oh what a night (do do do do do, do do do do do)
Oh what a night (do do do do do, do do do do do).

Thursday Inspiration — Yesterday, Today, Tonight, and Tomorrow

Fandango12 Comments

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has instructed us to respond to this challenge by either using the prompt word, today, or anything else that we think fits.

Im going with the story of a man and a woman who meet and something magical happens between them. Or at least it seems that way.

Yesterday we talked on the phone for hours and it was like we’ve known each other for years.

Today we met at the cafe for coffee and it was like magic.

Tonight I’ll be cooking dinner for us at my place for our first date and you’ll be mine completely.

But tomorrow, when the sun comes up in the morning, will you still love me?

Or will my heart be broken?

Oops, I screwed up. Instead of duplicating my May 11th Thursday Inspiration post in order to create this new post, I overwrote it. And that’s why some of the comments on this post are comments meant for my May 11th Thursday Inspiration — Sea of Love post, which if you want to read, click here.