May 20, 2007
Sunday Song Lyric
Given all of the talk about feminism, I should be showcasing a song by a woman ... but alas, the press of current events means that will have to wait until next week.
This week's lyric is inspired by two recent events. The first is that I just finished watching season two of the Venture Brothers on DVD. That show is just increidbly awesome for about eight jillion reasons -- one of which is that it cast David Bowie as a supervillain with Iggy Pop and Klaus Nomi as his sidekicks. Note to the uninitiated -- the comments are starting to get into SPOILERS for the Venture Brothers. You have been warned.
Klaus Nomi! How cool is that!? Who the heck even remembers Klaus Nomi -- let alone has the brilliance to recognize that he should be an animated adventure show villain? The geniuses behind the Venture Brothers -- that's who!
But I'm not giving you a Klaus Nomi lyric this week because of our second current event -- tomorrow is the season finale of Heroes. Who will live? Who will die? Will saving the cheerleader save the world? Will Hiro be able to save Ando? Will Sylar and Peter confront each other? Will Nikki find Micah? Will we get to see Candace's true body (and do we want to)?
I don't have the answers to any of those questions, but I do have some lyrics for you inside the jump:
Heroes
David Bowie
I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing will
Drive them away
We can beat them
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
And you
You can be mean
And I
I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers
And that is a fact
Yes we're lovers
And that is that
Though nothing
Will keep us together
We could steal time
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
For ever and ever
What d'you say
I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
Will keep us together
We can beat them
For ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes
Just for one day
I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing
Will drive them away
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be us
Just for one day
I
I can remember
Standing
By the wall
And the guns
Shot above our heads
And we kissed
As though nothing could fall
And the shame
Was on the other side
Oh we can beat them
For ever and ever
Then we can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
We're nothing
And nothing will help us
Maybe we're lying
Then you better not stay
But we could be safer
Just for one day
Posted by Jason Fliegel at May 20, 2007 12:33 PM
I've always found this to be a very inspirational song and performance by Bowie, and even with its original Berlin Wall context no longer operational, it doesn't miss a step. But I've always been mystified by the few lines about dolphins. Is this Bowie declaring that if he could have any superpowers he'd go for the Aquaman/Sub-Mariner model?
The lines about dolphins have always evoked a sense of freedom to me. Why dolphins instead of birds? Beats me. But if I had been writing the song, it would have been:
I wish you could cling to walls and exhibit proportionally increased strength
Like the spiders
Like spiders can cling to walls and exhibit proportionally increased strength
Doesn't scan as well, but Spider-Man's powers beat Aquaman's powers any day of the week.
For what it's worth (and I think it's enough to spell that phrase out), in that episode of Venture Bros., I happened to watch with the closed captioning on. At one point Phantom Limb directs them to attack, "Klaus! Iggy! ..." only on closed captioning, it read, "Klaus! Jim!"
I thought it was very clever.
"Total Eclipse" by Klaus Nomi
Big shots argue about what they've got
making the planet so hot, hot as a holocaust.
Blow up, everything's gonna go up
even if you don't show up in your Chemise Lacoste.
Total eclipse, it's a total eclipse,
it's a total eclipse of the sun.
Can't come to grips with the total eclipse
Just a slip of the lips and you're done.
Fall out, nobody left to crawl out
If someone calls, we're all out, turning in to French fries
Last dance, let the entire cast dance, do the dismembered blast dance
as we get atomized!