Saturday, February 23, 2008

I'm NOT Making This Up...

A large dive-bar / tourist trap in my city has recently taken to hosting concerts by those on the "has been" list. Recent shows include Rick Springfield, Men At Work, Warrant, etc. Upcoming shows include such has-beens-hanging-on-by-a-thread as Bret Michaels, Eddie Money, and... prepare yourself... Foreigner.

I've argued elsewhere that Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" has the absolute worst lyrics in rock music. I will not rehearse those arguments here. It is worth noting, however, that Foreigner's performance in my city is part of their "Feels Like the First Time" tour. The tour is sponsored by AARP. Repeat: Foreigner's tour is sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons. As you may know, the AARP serves people who are 50 years old and older.

8 comments:

Imipolex_G-Unit said...

Holy crap! I shit you not: just five minute before reading this post I spent $00.99 to purchase "Hot Blooded" on iTunes. I'm sure that you can guess exactly the temperature of the fever I now have. "Checkin' to see" indeed.

Spiros said...

Questions: Isn't it the case that whether one is hot blooded depends on one's *average* temperature relative to the average temperature of one's typical environment? If so, having a fever of 103 does not make one "hot blooded." Does a fever raise the temperature of one's blood, anyway?

"You don't have to read my mind,
to know what I have in mind." Poetry.

Imipolex_G-Unit said...

I think you're right about the meaning of "hot blooded" and average temperature.

Regarding fevers, I think probably all your bodily fluids are pretty much the temperature that the thermometer in your mouth, ass, or armpit says.

Spiros said...

I accept that one's blood is the temperature that a thermometer indicates.

But, seriously, "Hot Blooded" could have been written by a 12 year old boy. Like Spinal Tap, Foreigner is "treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry."

Imipolex_G-Unit said...

True about the retardation. But here's a question: What's funnier, "Hot Blooded" or "Sex Farm"?

Knowing that the authors of the latter are in on the joke thereby perpetrated somewhat diminishes the yuks. As long as I and my loved ones are unscathed, I often prefer a real trainwreck to a simulated one.

Spiros said...

But here's a question: What's funnier, "Hot Blooded" or "Sex Farm"?

Good question. Assuming you mean "Spinal Tap's recording of 'Sex Farm'" (Cf. Derek Smalls's reaction to Nigel's announcement that "It appears that 'Sex Farm' has made the charts in Japan"), I think "Sex Farm" is definitely funnier. Simulated stupidity can be funny. Non-simulated stupidity seems to me to just be, well, stupid.

I think the train-wreck analogy isn't quite right. There's a kind of self-reflexivity in Spinal Tap that goes beyond simulation. To be sure, a simulated train-wreck is, in some sense, *about* train-wrecks. But it is not self-reflexively so. That is, the more the simulated train-wreck points to itself as a simulation, the less effective it becomes. But the Spinal Tap case seems different in this respect: the more it "winks" at us, the funnier it is.

Anonymous said...

Now that's fuckin' funny!

Spiros said...

As a pre-teen, I knew a kid who took himself to be a metal songwriter. One of his lyrics ran as follows:

*Like a dog in heat, you beg for the meat.*

I think that's pretty much at the same level of the Foreigner lyric. Consider:

*Now you move so fine,
Let me lay it on the line,
I wanna know what you're doing,
After the show.*