Signs of Evil

[vovat]

Have I been picking on recent music too much recently? After all, it's not like there wasn't plenty of terrible stuff in the past as well. So today, let's go back forty years and look at one of the worst lyrical compositions I know of, "Signs," by the creatively named Five Man Electrical Band. Our narrator here is an anti-authoritarian hippie who thinks signs are just an attempt by The Man to keep us down. I'm not sure whether he makes exceptions for road signs or not, but I think a fitting fate for this dude would be to slide off a bridge because he didn't heed the "bridge may be icy" sign. And this song doesn't just get stupid eventually, but starts right in with the dumbness.

And the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply

Are you SURE that's what the sign says, or are you just having an acid flashback? Besides, if that IS what it says, I'm not sure how to parse it. Does that mean SHORT-haired freaky people are okay? And what about people with well-maintained long hair? Questions, questions, everywhere a question.

So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why
He said you look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you'll do
So I took off my hat I said imagine that, huh, me working for you

Wait, so he goes in to complain about their hiring policy, and they offer him the job? The economy must have been a lot better back in 1970. And a hat is all it takes to make a freaky hippie dude look like "a fine upstanding young man"? This hat must be more impressive than Clark Kent's glasses!

And the sign said anybody caught trespassing would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the fence and yelled at the house, Hey! what gives you the right
To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep mother nature in
If God was here, he'd tell you to your face, man you're some kinda sinner

Sorry, one-fifth of the Electrical Band, but if I criticize people claiming to know the will of an ineffable being in order to promote their right-wing agendas, it's only fair that I do the same for your bizarre pseudo-anarchist position. I think what gives the landowner the right is that he paid for it. Hey, I have some socialistic tendencies, but I think the band's argument is rather flawed. Do you think the singer guy would like it if somebody was squatting on his lawn, claiming that God said it was okay? If He were here, I think He'd tell you to your face you're a friggin' hypocrite.

The song goes on in this manner, and I don't think there's any point in dissecting the rest, but this line is definitely deserving of mention:
Sign said you got to have a membership card to get inside Uh!

It's like, "I don't even need to bother elaborating on this. I'll just grunt, and that will get my point across just as well." To be fair, I think the song as a whole would have made just as much sense if they'd just grunted the whole thing. Finally, our long-haired freaky narrator talks about going to church and leaving a note in the collection plate because he doesn't have any money. I'm sure the pastor appreciated that. So this guy hates seemingly arbitrary rules and regulations, but is okay with mainstream religion? Yeah, I think there might be a significant flaw in that way of thinking.

So that's "Signs." No relation to the M. Night Shyamalan film of the same name, although they're both pretty bad. And they both mix religion into the story in a horribly awkward way. Hmm, maybe there's more of a connection than I thought.

Comments

signs of your genius

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think i just busted a gut laughing. Thanks, I needed that.

I remember thinking even then that the people/pastor of the nameless church would be just as likely to kick his longhaired, freaky butt out as anybody, especially if he didn't cough up for the coffers.

this song doesn't just get stupid eventually, but starts right in with the dumbness

I think the song as a whole would have made just as much sense if they'd just grunted the whole thing.

UH!!

Re: signs of your genius

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think i just busted a gut laughing. Thanks, I needed that.

You're welcome. I'd been planning this post for a while, but sort of wanted to get the theme of song analysis down first.

I remember thinking even then that the people/pastor of the nameless church would be just as likely to kick his longhaired, freaky butt out as anybody, especially if he didn't cough up for the coffers.

Yeah, churches can sometimes be even worse about keeping up appearances than the business world.

Knee-slapping funny, but...

[1womp.livejournal.com]

OK, OK; so I know that this was just a bit of goofing on a truly silly song, but the thing is that, when discussing songs, the lyrics are at least partnered with, if not subservient to, the music. No one can defend those insipid words as though they were factual reports of a hippie's journeys through the mainstream world. Much in the way that Steve Allen (whom I loved, don't get me wrong) used to make fun of earlier Rock and Roll songs by reciting their lyrics like poetry (with straight-face; "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog, cryin' all the time"), your take on "Signs," gut-busting as it is, is a teensy-bit incomplete, in that the song, as is heard not read, has its own "logic," almost in spite of some of the lyrics. The music, the beat, the emotional "feel," and the reflection of the times in which it was created, are as important to "Signs" as are the lyrics. That it sounded like cheeky social rebellion was probably more important than the specifics of the words sung. Especially for the era in which it was written and then popularized, "Signs," as a whole, hits its intended mark. Like a professor who challenges students with radical concepts to which she herself may not subscribe, I believe that the writers of "Signs" (including the instrumental aspects) wanted to chide and challenge, not necessarily espouse truly specific views of (then) modern society. You are probably too young to remember those far gone days, but it was quite common for popular artists of all media to proffer wild, sometimes indefensible, points of view, while not endorsing any of it. The point was to shake people from their seeming trances, causing them to actually think about that which they took for granted. "Signs" may be a pretty stupid song, but, taking into consideration the instrumentals, the beat, the phrasing, and the period in and for which it was created, the whole is still much better than the sum of its parts.

Besides, I can still remember a sign on the front door of our local hardware store that actually read "NO SHIRT? NO SHOES? LONG HAIR? NO SERVICE!" Even back then, when I was a little kid, I wondered "Why not?" That memory, in "feel" if not specifically lyrics, is how "Signs" continues to resonate within me.

Re: Knee-slapping funny, but...

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm not so big on appearance requirements myself. I've heard of businesses that say they want to maintain a certain image for the customers, but I tend to think any customer who wouldn't buy something from a guy with long hair or crazy face piercings would probably find some other excuse if that weren't the case. There's no pleasing shallow people.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yaaay. I have ALWAYS hated this fucking song. And inexplicably, Tesla covered it! Actually, not inexplicably, because Tesla's pretty shitty. Nikola Tesla may deserve a band, but NO ONE deserves Tesla.

Re: Knee-slapping funny, but...

[burningofroissy.livejournal.com]

I always thought that was stupid. What is the big deal with everybody having to look professional [and more often than not, being expected to look polished and professional while being paid shit wages]? Why care what someone looks like as long as they're clean, don't smell, and can do the job? Conversely, you can put any idiot in a nice shirt and tie and tell him to smile and he'll look professional; it doesn't mean he has any idea what he's doing.

Fortunately 99% of the people who won't buy something from a guy with long hair or crazy face piercings will be either dead or in a nursing home in the next 10 years.

[burningofroissy.livejournal.com]

And the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply

So I turned around and went home.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Oh, great, now it's going to be going through my head for the next week; I'll probably catch myself singing it in the shower. And me, a capitalist!

Re: Knee-slapping funny, but...

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

Fortunately 99% of the people who won't buy something from a guy with long hair or crazy face piercings will be either dead or in a nursing home in the next 10 years.

QUOTED FOR TRUTH. Though, actually, even Big Corporation seems to be changing in a small way. When I worked at Macy's. they allowed some people to have gauges in their ears or small but still noticeable facial piercings. However, when I worked next at McDonald's, it took me the longest time to figure out that one employee didn't actually have a sprained wrist, but he was wearing bandages on his forearm to cover up a half-sleeve tattoo.

Re: Knee-slapping funny, but...

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

when discussing songs, the lyrics are at least partnered with, if not subservient to, the music

I wholeheartedly disagree. There are many (IMO) great songs that have marginal and even terrible music that are great because of the lyrics. I can think of several punk classics, a few rap lyrics, etc.

Part of the reason I found this OP so very funny was the fact that I DO remember this song in time/space/culture context, and thought it was lame and insipid then. Homogenized and bland, the things this song "protested" against were see-through compared to the stuff I saw in the town I lived in. The signs there, when you went to the dentist, said "Colored Waiting Room" and "White Waiting Room."

I think it is totally legit to consider the lyrics of a song as separate from the music, and vice versa, as long as one considers the whole sometimes does trump the sum of the 2 parts.

Re: Knee-slapping funny, but...

[1womp.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Like a single actor's performance can be reviewed independently from the context of the play or movie in which they performed, it is legitimate criticism to single out any particular aspect of a creative work for specific critique. My point was merely that the "Signs" song, as a whole, was a notch or two above its lyrics alone on the Crap Scale (or would that be a notch or two BELOW on the Crap Scale?). Oh, and I should have said that "when discussing SOME songs, the lyrics are at least partnered with, if not subservient to, the music." Like all creative endeavors, each song may have unique ingredients, in unique proportions. More lyrics in Rap, more twang in Country, more Roll in Rock, and so forth. The final mix, however, should be taken into consideration when reviewing a song. For example, the most famous parts of Handel's Messiah are, as prose, CRAZY repetitive...like Rain Man lines or something...but, in context and performance are often jaw-droppingly powerful, their repeting nature pounding and pulsing like the heart of a great, choral beast. Hmm. I think I just compared "Signs" to the Hallelujah Chorus! Well, that comparison may be over the top, but you get my meaning. Oh, and "Signs" is bad. It really is. Even so, like I mentioned, it still evokes the actual sign that I saw when I was a kid, and the feelings that it stirred in me. As a native of Wisconsin who never traveled further from home than Wisconsin Dells during the era of segregation, I'm fortunate to have never seen a "Whites Only" sign outside of a museum, but I can see that having been exposed to that level of prejudice would make the cloying pretense of "Signs" nearly insufferable for you. That, I suppose, is the "power" of Art (and, again, I can hardly believe that I am putting "Signs" in that category). Even crap can strike a resonant chord, an unfortunate connection, or a raw nerve.

Re: Knee-slapping funny, but...

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I think I just compared "Signs" to the Hallelujah Chorus!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even crap can strike a resonant chord, an unfortunate connection, or a raw nerve.

You speak the truth!! I love this line so much!! Some of my favorite songs in the world don't make sense lyrically/are in foreign languages I don't bother to translate. I like the patterns, I like the alchemy of some words with some melodies. I like stabs at creativity, even if nothing is new under the Sun.

PS, when I saw the Colored Waiting Room sign, I knew it was there because the dentist thought it was kewl, not because it was enforced: I don't imagine any blacks in Clarksdale, Mississippi went to him for dental care. It still wounded my soul, and made me desire to become a hermit when I grew up. Gag.

[chu_hi.livejournal.com]

Giggling and giggling, out loud. :^)