how Martin Luther King justifies my love of creepy things
I like creepy. The slow-tilt "Someone take these dreams away / that point me to another day" and the Skinny Puppy and most songs that are disturbing, they remind me that the obnoxious negative peace that gets generated by the false placidity of most pop songs is shallow and worthless to me. I don't hate love, I just think that it's easier to perpetuate myths about fluffy bunnies than it is to dig up deep truths about the odder nooks of the human psyche. Even harder is to get all the way out. I hate that pop and almost all radio have lost sight of the "persona" song where someone plays a character. I don't understand why so many pop songs are people pretending to pour out their innermost selves. But I'm occasionally stuck listening to the radio and pop culture keeps on calling me, so I listen. I could deconstruct paint drying, I really could.
Once again, I've stopped paying attention to my own subject line. Dr. MLK Jr., in the Letter from the Birmingham Jail wrote about how letting things slide, letting civil rights get trampled because you want everything to be fluffy bunnies, is "obnoxious negative peace" which does nothing but foster resentment in the long run. However you look at it, I'd rather hear "Red Right Hand" ten times a day for the rest of my life than Whitney Houston always loving you-ooh-ooh because it's a lot harder to sell the great undoing.
Dismantling reality or even going all the way out to cosmicism is a technically trickier move if you're into sweating the technique. It's harder to do. Petting the commonplace and making sure it's still there is a lot easier, from my perspective, than ripping a hole in the sky. It's like how people use the word "universal" to mean something that, from the eyes of the universe, is actually a teensy inconsequential blip of an occurrence on this teensy inconsequential blip of a planet. The universe is big. It doesn't care about the lyrics to "Disturbia."
Sometimes I hear a pop song and I dig it because it's creepy. Now, mind you, I can convince myself that "Pocketful of Sunshine" is a song about the joys of heroin, but "Disturbia" impressed me. I figured it had been written for Manson or something. Like "Coming in the Air Tonight" or "Possession" it was the kind of pop hit that I figured would have a creepy urban legend attached someday, but it's not a legend now...
What's wrong with me?
Why do I feel like this?
I'm going crazy now
No more gas, in the rig, can't even get it started
Nothing heard, nothing said, can't even speak about it
On my life, on my head, don't wanna think about it
Feels like I'm going insane, yeah
It's a thief in the night to come and grab you
It can creep up inside you and consume you
A disease of the mind, it can control you
It's too close for comfort
Put on your pretty lies, you're in the city of wonder
Ain't gon' play nice, watch out you might just go under
Better think twice, your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise
Your mind's in disturbia, it's like the darkness is light
Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight?
Disturbia, ain't used to what you like
Disturbia, disturbia
Faded pictures on the wall, it's like they talking to me
Disconnecting on calls, the phone don't even ring
I gotta get out or figure this sh** out
It's too close for comfort, oh
It's a thief in the night to come and grab you
It can creep up inside you and consume you
A disease of the mind it can control you
I feel like a monster, oh
Put on your pretty lies, you're in the city of wonder
Ain't gon' play nice, watch out you might just go under
Better think twice, your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise
Your mind's in disturbia, it's like the darkness is light
Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight?
Disturbia, ain't used to what you like
Disturbia, disturbia, disturbia
Release me from this curse I'm in
Trying to maintain but I'm struggling
If you can't go-o-o
I think I'm gonna ah, ah, ah, ah
Put on your pretty lies, you're in the city of wonder
Ain't gon' play nice, watch out you might just go under
Better think twice, your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise
Disturbia, it's like the darkness is light
Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight?
Disturbia, ain't used to what you like
Disturbia, disturbia
I liked it because it was darker than pop usually gets to be. It lacked the aghast self-distancing that even most dark acts have.
To find out that Chris Brown wrote it about himself and then decided the version with his vocals was too disturbing so he gave it to Rihanna makes it far more disturbed.
I liked it more when I thought it was a "persona."
Once again, I've stopped paying attention to my own subject line. Dr. MLK Jr., in the Letter from the Birmingham Jail wrote about how letting things slide, letting civil rights get trampled because you want everything to be fluffy bunnies, is "obnoxious negative peace" which does nothing but foster resentment in the long run. However you look at it, I'd rather hear "Red Right Hand" ten times a day for the rest of my life than Whitney Houston always loving you-ooh-ooh because it's a lot harder to sell the great undoing.
Dismantling reality or even going all the way out to cosmicism is a technically trickier move if you're into sweating the technique. It's harder to do. Petting the commonplace and making sure it's still there is a lot easier, from my perspective, than ripping a hole in the sky. It's like how people use the word "universal" to mean something that, from the eyes of the universe, is actually a teensy inconsequential blip of an occurrence on this teensy inconsequential blip of a planet. The universe is big. It doesn't care about the lyrics to "Disturbia."
Sometimes I hear a pop song and I dig it because it's creepy. Now, mind you, I can convince myself that "Pocketful of Sunshine" is a song about the joys of heroin, but "Disturbia" impressed me. I figured it had been written for Manson or something. Like "Coming in the Air Tonight" or "Possession" it was the kind of pop hit that I figured would have a creepy urban legend attached someday, but it's not a legend now...
What's wrong with me?
Why do I feel like this?
I'm going crazy now
No more gas, in the rig, can't even get it started
Nothing heard, nothing said, can't even speak about it
On my life, on my head, don't wanna think about it
Feels like I'm going insane, yeah
It's a thief in the night to come and grab you
It can creep up inside you and consume you
A disease of the mind, it can control you
It's too close for comfort
Put on your pretty lies, you're in the city of wonder
Ain't gon' play nice, watch out you might just go under
Better think twice, your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise
Your mind's in disturbia, it's like the darkness is light
Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight?
Disturbia, ain't used to what you like
Disturbia, disturbia
Faded pictures on the wall, it's like they talking to me
Disconnecting on calls, the phone don't even ring
I gotta get out or figure this sh** out
It's too close for comfort, oh
It's a thief in the night to come and grab you
It can creep up inside you and consume you
A disease of the mind it can control you
I feel like a monster, oh
Put on your pretty lies, you're in the city of wonder
Ain't gon' play nice, watch out you might just go under
Better think twice, your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise
Your mind's in disturbia, it's like the darkness is light
Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight?
Disturbia, ain't used to what you like
Disturbia, disturbia, disturbia
Release me from this curse I'm in
Trying to maintain but I'm struggling
If you can't go-o-o
I think I'm gonna ah, ah, ah, ah
Put on your pretty lies, you're in the city of wonder
Ain't gon' play nice, watch out you might just go under
Better think twice, your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise
Disturbia, it's like the darkness is light
Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight?
Disturbia, ain't used to what you like
Disturbia, disturbia
I liked it because it was darker than pop usually gets to be. It lacked the aghast self-distancing that even most dark acts have.
To find out that Chris Brown wrote it about himself and then decided the version with his vocals was too disturbing so he gave it to Rihanna makes it far more disturbed.
I liked it more when I thought it was a "persona."