(no subject)

[spatch]

One of earliest signs that irony is dead in this country involves those who simply cannot take a song for anything but its literal wordy hook, either because they just can't understand or they're too lazy to listen beyond it. We discussed Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" earlier, but there's also the joy of people who use ironically inappropriate songs for their wedding song or for part of the reception. Love turns people's brains into Cream of Wheat, and that is why songs like REM's "The One I Love" and "Every Breath You Take" by the Police are often used by the moronic-in-love people as "their song."

Hey, awesome. The One I Love calls the object of the singer's affection "a simple prop to occupy my time." And Every Breath You Take, of course, is about a stalker. But they use phrases like "This one goes out to the one I love" and "Oh can't you see? You belong to me" so OBVIOUSLY it's a song that's going out to the person they love.

Earlier today I was pointed to the dominance of Hey Ya! as a wedding song in recent times. Not as a first dance or a "our song" song, mind you, but as a song played loudly at weddings. A good wedding DJ, by the way, is going to understand that there are just some songs you don't want to hear at a wedding reception. Songs that go directly against the proven fact that today, these two are In Love Forever and That's How It's Going To Be. For instance, I remember my aunt's wedding in 1989 and oh, that Tone Loc was such a popular fellow, so they played Funky Cold Medina at her reception. The DJ wisely segued to another song before the third verse, which is all about how Tone Loc uses his Funky Cold Medina sex potion on a girl, but when she starts "...talkin 'bout plans for a wedding" Loc cold dumps her ass. You get the idea.

So what's Hey Ya! about? The death of a relationship held together far too long by atrophy, with lyrics I shall paraphrase to sound a bit more prose-y:

My baby don't mess around because she loves me so, and this I know for sure
But does she really wanna, but can't stand to see me walk out the door?

and

If what they say is "nothing is forever"
Then what makes love the exception?
And why are we so in denial when we know we're not happy here?

That's an excellent song to play at a wedding, because hey, divorce foreshadowing. Brilliant.

Course, nobody listens to lyrics anymore. That's a proven fact. Andre Ice Cold 3000 knows it, and pretty much sums up the whole thing the best:

Y'all don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance.

Truth.

Comments

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

Considering that the "traditional" wedding recessional music is from a play about a fairy queen making sweet love to a donkey, inappropriate wedding songs are par for the course.

Of course, the last wedding I was at was my own, and beyond TacoBell's Canon and Trumpet Processional, I can't for the life of me remember what was played either during the ceremony or at the reception.

[littlegirltoast.livejournal.com]

The #1 best all-time wedding song in history is Angel of the Morning, by which I do not mean the Shaggy & Rayvon atrocity but the real one. It is so amazing that anyone would do that.

I almost wish I believed in marriage, so I could play ONLY inappropriate songs. Sweet Cream Ladies by The Box Tops! Enid by The Barenaked Ladies! Suck My Left One by Bikini Kill!

[kpht.livejournal.com]

I'm going to assume that people just never listen to lyrics. That's just... weird.

[spatch]

The #1 best all-time wedding song in history is Angel of the Morning

You mean the song I love to sing, replacing the phrase "Just touch my cheek before you leave me" with "Just leave me change for the bus back home"?


Enid would be an awesome choice. Oh man, I love the sucker punch that song gives: I could do it all for you -- but I don't want to!

[acsumama.livejournal.com]

That's our plan. "Our song" is Tom Lehrer's "I Hold Your Hand in Mine." Other songs include Weird Al's "Good Enough for Now" and "I'm Right Behind You Now Charlene" by Stephen and the Colberts.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

OR HOW ABOUT THE CHICKEN FUCKING DANCE AT WEDDINGS

WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN ANYWAY,
LINDA

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

HEE I have a stalker-songs mix...

[kpht.livejournal.com]

A friend once told me that she was discussing with a coworker said coworker's wedding, and coworker said "Tears in Heaven" was their song. Friend tried not to twist face into awkward contortions whilst in the presence of coworker.

We played The La's "There She Goes" for processional music, which is absolutely about heroin but we didn't care, since few people actually know that. We had some great non-love songs. We didn't go for the anti-love songs, but we had some random ones. "Down in the Park" went over well.

[phatmike.livejournal.com]

oh and dont forget the bright eyes. yeah, that made no sense, but whatever!

[phatmike.livejournal.com]

it really is what it is. people just wanna dance. at least at the weddings i do, which arent really normal weddings.

kt and i had two songs about drugs for our processional songs. who needs a canon when i'm okay with "here comes your man?" who needs here comes the bride when we have "there she goes?" love for heroin or love for the bride, whichever works. ;) it's not about being lazy, but it's about being able to get away with a good song because they sound happy even though are about something else.

it's more about the feeling than the content for me. someone asked me to play when doves cry once. i refused on the grounds that it was a depressing song.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

i beat you.

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine tells me of his high school homecoming dance, where the theme song was LeRoux's "New Orleans Ladies."

Who says irony is dead?

[28bytes.livejournal.com]

I had "Every Breath You Take" at my wedding. Also, "I Still Can't Get Over Loving You" by Ray Parker Jr., which ends with him threatening the listener. And "Obsession" by Animotion. It was a mid-80s-stalker-music block.

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

The one that always bugged me was back in high school when the girls would go all gaga and swoony over "More Than Words", thinking it was this sweet love song because it was sung in harmony, ballad-style, by a bunch of pretty boys with long hair. In reality the song's lyrics boil down to: If you loved me you would sleep with me.

My husband has always thought it would be funny to play "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" at a wedding. I'm afraid one of these days he's going to bribe someone's DJ.

[amandaruth2001.livejournal.com]

I, TOO, AM IRKED BY "MORE THAN WORDS." The whole undertone of "I really don't care if you love me or not as long as I'm gettin' some." There's also that creepy pedophile ring to it, 'cause those guys were like 30 or something when they recorded it, weren't they?

[zrblm.livejournal.com]

The summer that song was on the radio, I was working a crappy warehouse job. The radio was on CHOM (shit-tastic Montreal RAWK station) all the time, and bygawd, that song was on at least once every couple of hours.

In all that time, I never paid attention to the lyrics. I was too focused on how UTTERLY FUCKING ANNOYING it was.

[cropherb.livejournal.com]

Although, weird counterexample here, as far as the appreciation of irony is concerned. I was a guest at a wedding that actually featured a live acoustic cover of "More Than Words" - during the actual ceremony itself. What made it especially cute was that it was the bride's choice, and she was fully aware of all the ribald lyrical implications, and that's exactly why she wanted it.

[samethreechords.livejournal.com]

I know perfectly well what "Hey Ya!" is about and will play it anyway at my eventual wedding just 'cause I like it that much.

My absolute all-time favorite "our song" is Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which I've heard at at least three or four weddings even though the song gives itself away pretty clearly in its FIRST LINE, which, in case we've forgotten, is "If I should stay/I would only be in your way."

[cursethedark.livejournal.com]

I was always shocked--SHOCKED--by the kind of mushy-headed love people had for Green Day's "Time Of Your Life." Never mind that the song was quite obviously about a bad breakup. Never mind that the ACTUAL TITLE OF THE SONG was "Good Riddance." Gah.

[k-sui.livejournal.com]

Undergrad roommate got married last year -- not really the most traditional ceremony -- he came up to the "altar" to Here Comes Your Man. Brilliant.

Also, the phenomenon goes beyond Weddingville.

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

He came up to the "altar" to Here Comes Your Man.

Oh that's beautiful. Wish we'd thought of that...

[kpht.livejournal.com]

we did that as well(see above). it was teh awesome.

[ketzie.livejournal.com]

I've always loved these ones:

It's Raining Men
YMCA
Super Freak

[arielblue.livejournal.com]

My favorite bad wedding song (I didn't go to this wedding, but I heard about it) was Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You." Which starts out, "Just before our love got lost you said, I am as constant as the northern star, and I said, constantly in the darkness? Where's that at? If you want me I'll be in the bar."

Um.

[coffeebeanben.livejournal.com]

My cousin and her husband chose all the songs to be played at their wedding. Among them was "Another One Bites The Dust". Given the entire Queen catalog at their disposal... GYUHH.

And yes, they're still inexplicably married.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

i remember when reagan wanted "born in the u.s.a." to be a "rallying" song. so does wikipedia.

[ckd]

There's also the famous truth in Windows 95 advertising: "you make a grown man cry".

It's not for me...

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

When Target used Devo's "It's a Beautiful World" I had a chuckle about how they used to perform it to old Civil Defense films about radiation burns.

[grumqa.livejournal.com]

Of course, there'd have to be Motorhead at my wedding...

Well here, babe, look at you, in love with someone else,
Turned out like all the others, leave me by myself,
That's how it works I guess, and you're like all the rest
Guess I can handle it, if that's the way it is

I'm in love with rock 'n' roll, it satisfies my soul
That's how it has to be, I won't get mad
I got rock 'n' roll, to save me from the cold
And if that's all there is, it ain't so bad
Rock 'n' roll

[deridere.livejournal.com]

Had a simialr conversation recently with k_sui, in fact when he asked me what my favourite song the Police performed when we saw them recently was I responded with Every Breath You Take, why? Because of all the utter eejits who use it as a wedding song... *smacks forehead*

[betweenstations.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I went to a wedding where the first dance was that damn Celine Dion song, My Heart Will Go On.

PEOPLE. THE BOAT SINKS. HE DIES.

(For the record, I told the harpist I hired for my wedding when I met her, "Don't embarass yourself by giving me the list of all the crap you learned because you needed to pay tuition. How about some stuff meant for the harp?" Thus, how we ended up with a harp concerto for a recessional. Note also that even though it renders beautifully on harp, we dodged the piece about the Swan from Carnival of the Animals, because, much like Leo in Titanic, the swan dies at the end.)

[spatch]

I went to a wedding where the first dance was that damn Celine Dion song, My Heart Will Go On.

Oh god, I need to tell the story sometime of the wedding musician I talked to during one of my event planning gigs who was basically Gil the Salesman from the Simpsons, only in wedding musician form.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I still think we should have used that as the curtain music for "Chicken Heart".

[alphacygni]

And then there are selections that don't even make sense based on the title alone.

Why was our 1990 prom theme "With or Without You"? I don't think it was because of how ironic it made the tickets look. That interpretation ascribes far too much intelligence to the prom committee.

[quodlibetic.livejournal.com]

The first dance song at my wedding was Al Green's "Let's Stay Together". Picking a song was damned hard, because so many of them are completely inappropriate for weddings. Love songs, sure. Love songs about pure love without sex or a twist or something else controversial, plus getting 2 people with divergent musical tastes to agree on the song? Ow. But the Reverend worked beautifully, and I doubt we could've picked a better song for us. (Awwww.)

[moiety-tx.livejournal.com]

Heh. We used "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits" from the Magnetic Fields. The friends loved it, and the family ignored the more risque parts of the lyrics.

I did, at some point, hear about a wedding where the featured song was "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights". I mean, really.

abbots babbits and cabots

[chadnfrood.livejournal.com]

Great, great choice!

If I ever get married-- at let's pretend here that some poor dumb female can get past the "you gave me herpes without so much as a warning" blues-- I will definitely play some Magnetic Fields at the wedding. And probably something off of the 69 Love Songs (triple) album to boot, which is one of the best breakup albums of all time.

disclaimer: within the past six months I slept with the editor of the 33 1/3 book 69 Love Songs

[allicat42.livejournal.com]

Our first dance was "Can you feel the love tonight" (Elton John / Lion King soundtrack)

As far as Meat Loaf - the last song to be played was SUPPOSED to be "I would do anything for love (but I won't do that)"... however I assumed the reception would go on much longer than it actually did, so it never got played. Not sure which song did get played last, actually...

[glowkitty]

I think it was msn.com that had a top 10 list of horribly inappropriate wedding songs a few years ago. One of my personal favorites was "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins. I mean, SERIOUSLY, people.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I think there are listen-to-lyrics people and listen-to-music people. The people in the latter category maybe notice, at most, the phrase shouted repeatedly in the chorus that seems to be the title, and make assumptions about the rest. They probably notice stuff about the music that I don't, though, as I am an extreme listen-to-lyrics person.

[cropherb.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to plug (again) the Mat Weddle acoustic cover of "Hey Ya" - which really pulls the "death of a relationship" lyrical bathos to the forefront, and is a generally awesome version of a song that was already pretty awesome to begin with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-8nkkOA_AM

[dolphinsolo.livejournal.com]

And hence, why our recessional will be the 1812 Overture. We figure the cannons and explosions are a good analogy.

[bismuthobsidian.livejournal.com]

YMCA

[genarti]

I've never been able to understand 90% of the lyrics of "Hey Ya."

This is, of course, why looking up the lyrics of a song before setting them on the playlist for your Very Very Special Occasion is a good and sensible plan.

[hermitgeecko.livejournal.com]

I confess that Sting's "Fields of Gold" was "my" song at my wedding. It's a bit more subtle, but... the couple's split up by the end of the song. Which was perhaps telling for the marriage.

Still, we had our college's ballroom dance instructor choreograph it, and the result was beautiful.

Lyrics:

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in fields of gold

So she took her love
For to gaze a while
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold

Will you stay with me, will you be my love
Among the fields of barley
We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in fields of gold

See the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth
Among the fields of gold

I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold

[pecosy.livejournal.com]

I don't think every song at the wedding needs to be about love. The first few dances and maybe the slow songs, sure, but a few hours in it's just a party. You gotta play what the people want to dance to!

We didn't have an "our song" wen we got married, so our first dance was "Ain't Love a Kick in the Head" just for a laugh. As the evening wore on musical numbers included Hey Ya, Kung Fu Fightin' and Baby Got Back. My three 80-year-old aunts danced to every one of 'em.

I wanted the last song to be "Let's Get It On" but Reno felt that would be in poor taste. Instead we played "Sexy Thing" but Hot Chocolate. Make of that what you will.