Hip-hop marmalade spic and span

[koganbot]

Just posted this on Dave's tumblr, my disagreeing with his designating LFO's "Summer Girls" a novelty song and with his contention that LFO are trying to be really stupid:

The song doesn't feel like a novelty to me, but rather just what it seems to be, a summertime song that's steeped in a haze of free-associative nostalgia. And none of the lyrics come across as stupid or strange in that context, since their premise is that a particular time and place, and friendships with particular people, will call forth particular associations. So New Kids had a bunch of hits (yeah, OK, a summer ten years earlier, more or less), Chinese food makes him sick (a reference to a particular incident, you can see it happening among him and his friends), Shakespeare and Paul Revere (not as clear a picture, maybe Will S. is assigned summer reading; LFO are from Massachusetts where Paul Revere's ride is part of official local history, the Boston Marathon run each year on the ride's anniversary), the mixture of references we understand and those we don't making perfect sense given this premise. Rather skillful, I think, more effectively dreamy than it would be without the idiosyncrasies. But not a novelty, given that summer songs are something you get every summer.

Comments

[koganbot]

(But I don't necessarily see the song referencing a particular summer to the exclusion of others; rather, just calling forth times and feelings, perhaps a number of summers.)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

to me it's a novelty because they were one hit wonders (something i don't think dave gives enough weight to, but i would say is pretty key) and because the lyrics are really really odd, not dumb, but just referenceing a whole world of things i didn't know about (there was 0 abercrombie & fitch in the UK at that point).

also "i like kevin bacon, but i hate footloose".

and it's the music, not the lyrics that made it a hit i'd contend, it's a gorgeous chorus, regardless of what's being sung over the top of it.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Lies! They were two-hit wonders; the other one was 'girl on tv' which is in the same vein. I have both on my iPhone since I am obviously extremely cool.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm still not entirely sure what I'd define as a 'novelty' song, because I can always find a counter example in each definition/category that I would not class as 'novelty':

- Charity songs? [half the Children In Need singles seem to be charitable as an afterthought - cf Spice Girls comeback single]
- One-hit wonders? [any number of anonymous chart-topping bosh DJs that are never heard of again eg Tomcraft]
- Stuff for kids? [would hardly call the Disney juggernaut novelty given its ongoing & total success]
- Songs sung by people who were famous for doing something else before they took up singing? [This is more like it, the only counter-eg I can think of is Lily Allen who wasn't really *that* famous as a celeb sprog before her pop career started - well outweighed by awful comedians/Jamster ringtones/Bob the bluddy Builder]
- Doing something *novel*? [HAHAHAHAHA no-one these days wastes a good new idea on a novelty tune]

Probably a combination of two or more categories above is needed. I think I'll go back to Dave's original list and see just how many of them I'd let through my novelty filter...

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Left a few more comments on this one at the Tumblr, but to paraphrase here:

(1) I fundamentally agree with how Frank characterizes the song, and my use of "stupid" is too harsh. "Arbitrary and strange" is more accurate. But

(2) That still qualifies it as a novelty for me, as not every novelty has to shove its literal novelty in yer face ("Girlfriend" shoves everything in your face but still essentially sounds like a Dr. Luke derivative, and "Tap That" is both better AND more novel!). I can't imagine any other song that "reads" anything like "Summer Girls," except

(3) Then I remembered someone mentioning that "steal your honey like I stole your bike" is a quote from the Beastie Boys song "New Style," and looking at those lyrics, the similarities in lyrical approach slapped me in the face. LFO were looking for the union between the Beastie and Backstreet Boys, and damned if they didn't find something interesting. "Paul Revere" could well be a Beasties nod as well. I'm going to do a line by line look and try to reconstruct the free-associative jam session Rich Cronin ("said my name was Rich!") may have gone through to write the song in the first place, since as far as I know no one has ever actually looked to see how these lyrics might fit together before.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

And even if "stupid" is definitely the wrong word for it (my issue with that word is that can confer actual stupidity on the writer, which isn't my intention here) I think it's hard to argue that "Summer Girls" isn't very silly!

LFO

[(Anonymous)]

Summer Girls was just a fun song and turned out to be a big part of the summer for a lot of people. It's humorous how it bothered some people so.

Brad - LFO

twitter.com/thereallfo