Patrick SaysBlessid Union Of Crap…
The other day, I was driving around. It’s what I do. Anyway, a song comes on the radio. And I wince. It’s ‘Hey Leonardo’. Remember this crap-tacular song? Let me refresh your memory, but don’t listen to the whole thing unless you’re a glutton for punishment.
Musically, it’s a fine song. But the lyrics are so unbelievably cheesy that they make ‘My Humps’ look like John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Yeah. I said it. It’s that bad…
But what really floors me is that this is same group who created the deep and beautiful masterpiece, ‘I Believe’. The lyrics of that song were so friggin’ powerful. How does that same band produce these two lyrical tidbits:
I’ve been seeing Lisa now for a little over a year
She said she’s never been so happy but Lisa lives in fear
That one day daddy’s gonna find out she’s in love
With a nigger from the streets
Oh how he would lose it then but she’s still here with me
‘Cause she believes that love will see it through
And one day he’ll understand
And he’ll see me as a person not just a black man.
And then this:
She likes me for me
Not because I sing like Pavarotti
Or because I am such a hottie
I like her for her
Not because she’s phat like Cindy Crawford
She has got so much to offer
Why does she waste all her time with me
There must be something there that I don’t see.
I suppose every band is entitled to make bad songs. Savage Garden based a whole career on that concept. In the end, they can’t all be gems. Even the Beatles had their ‘Octopus’s Garden’.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
This song is fine for the first two seconds, and I was about to write a defense of its bubble-gum 90’s popness. And then it kept going and it made me want to listen to anything else, at all. Good call on Savage Garden - that’s exactly how I feel about them.
EDWs last blog post…They can’t take that away from me
June 18th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I actually prefer “Hey Leonardo” because its more pure pop and unpretentious, but I find “I Believe” cloying and unconvincing. It’s empty pop moralizing, Top 40 gospel. The medium can’t sustain the message. Makes me skin crawl. And the nasal lead vocals drive me crazy.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:16 am
I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that it may fall into the ‘parody’ category. You know, like some of the oldies that were just made for a joke but turned into hits “It’s My Party”, “Dead Man’s Curve”, and many many more! There’s another that was a big hit (late 70’s) because the band members were making fun of one of their own who had a stuttering problem…trying to get my brain to recall what that is…but you all know it!
June 19th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Hilarious song :D, I had totally forgotten it.
June 24th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Wow, I had successfully blocked out that song until now. Thanks.
diesels last blog post…Vote!
June 25th, 2008 at 12:02 am
You, sir, are welcome!
June 28th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Just sitting here shaking my head. Very funny. I feel that way about Queen. Not Pop I know but one minute they are really rocking it out, then they do the cheesy anthem rock with We Will Rock You and We are the Champions then…Another One Bites the Dust??!? I mean really, were they really the “Bad A–es of the 80s with that one or what?
July 4th, 2008 at 10:07 am
That is one amazingly brilliant songwriting!