Monday 19 May 2008

Lyrics & their meaning Part 11 - I started a joke

Ever wondered what your favorite song was about? Probably not, which is good because a nice melody and tune are far more enticing than words. Church hymns have truly inspiring lyrics and meaningful messages but don’t really jump out of the record stores. At last a biased attempt is being made to determine what some of the best-loved tunes are really about. We will have a look at the background of these songs and see if history can tell us if any light can be shed on these cryptic verses, poignant prose or just Grade Two poetry



PART 11
I Stated a Joke - The Bee Gees (1967)



A timeless classic that reminds us the Bee Bees really were good once and maybe that Disco period thing can be just seen as when they were possessed by evil spirits. Although the songs singer Robin Gibb has claimed that the melody was inspired by the sounds he heard in a jet engine, he has always steadfastly refused to explain the mysterious lyrics.
Brother Barry has been quoted: "there was a lot of that in those days. there was a lot of pschedelia and the idea that if you wrote something, even if it sounded ridiculous, somebody would find the meaning for it, and that was the truth".
In the monstrous 2000 Unauthorized biography The Bee Gees - Tales of the brother Gibb, The authors describe I Started A Joke as ".... (the) prime example of the pure abstract Gibb lyric that everyone can read something into and, it would seem nearly everyone did"
This must of been a sixties thing, I remember growing up and thinking the song was about Adolph Hitler, because he was the only person I thought who could make the whole world cry, and everyone was happy when he died. But after an exhaustive search through heaps of Bee Gee web sites I couldn't find one reference to the songs meanings ( with the exception of the melody/aeroplane link) anywhere.



© 2004 Shidot Prod.

Sunday 4 May 2008

The list of useless lists

A comprehensive list of nothing in particular. Some are factual others fanciful. Great for boring interludes at work or on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
These are great because they always lead onto something else as interesting.

THE WORLD

List of all countries in the world


List of Presidents of the United States


List of Australian Prime Ministers


List of all states of the USA


List of Richest people in the world


List of Popes


List of Endangered Animals


List of Serial Killers


List of the 10 worst pollution spots


List of the most populous countries


List of World’s tallest buildings



MUSIC

Ten Most controversial record albums


Lists of best selling music artists


List of Best Selling Albums of all time


List of Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Inductees


List of all Bob Dylan’s songs


List of world’s worst album covers


List of Rolling Stones Albums


List of the 500 greatest albums of all time


List of ”Paul is dead” Theories (The Beatles Paul McCartney)


LITERATURE

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries


Books you’ll always see in Thrift Stores


List of famous banned books



List of the best selling books ever


List of Stephen King Books


List of books in the Bible


List of Agatha Christie books


List of the worlds largest circulating newspapers



MEDIA

100 Scariest Movie Scenes


Highest grossing movies of all time


The 20 Best Zombie Films


List of Logie Hall of Fame


List of Best Picture Oscar Winners


List of annoying Movie characters


List of Celebrity’s children’s names


SPORT