Jon
Kenny
KarenRoom 101 – “American Woman”
For those of you who don’t know the literary reference, Room 101 is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love where the victim is exposed to his/her worst nightmare in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four by our favorite life-of-the-party, George Orwell. It is also the name of a British TV and radio show where celebrities discussed their pet peeves, and the host, whether Nick Hancock or Paul Merton, decided whether said abomination went down the chute into Room 101. What is fun about the show is the arguments both sides present. There are episodes on YouTube, in case you are interested.
I thought it might be fun if one of the three of us could bring out our own nominations, and see if we can get the other two to agree send the item down the chute. Of course, we welcome participation from our readers! The only constraint I would put on it would be that we can’t do easy ones, like small, yappy dogs, Justin Bieber, or small, yappy dogs that look like Justin Bieber. We have to stretch ourselves.
So to get things started, I nominate the song, “American Woman,” by the Guess Who, later remade to sound even worse to me by Lenny Kravitz. I admit this one was particular to me, and it involved the Canadian Air Force when I did a TDY (temporary duty assignment) in Italy. To make a long story short, I managed to get into a debate with a Canadian airman (let’s call him Cam) about women in combat, and I basically subtly reversed Cam’s own argument by wearing him down point-by-point. Cam’s buddies witnessed this and started to sing, “American woman, gonna mess your mind.” It was funny at that moment, but…
They drove the joke to the ground. I must have heard that damn song sung or played at least 15 times a day, and I am not exaggerating. I still spew venom when I hear this song, and this was 16 years ago.
Another thing going against it is that most people take the damn song literally, and never bother to figure out that it is a song criticizing the US during the Vietnam era, and not a very good one at that. To summarize the lyrics…
America, go away.
You are all image.
You have problems.
Fuck off.
You suck.
Fuck off again.
That is some deep stuff there. I guess Canada is too far away from South America to score the really good drugs.
So that’s is the crux of my argument. Any lovers of the song want to debate?
The White Room 
Kenny 1:30 pm on July 14, 2010 Permalink |
“What, Jim Morrison? He’s a drunken bafoon, posin’ as a poet! Ah give me the Guess Who. They have the COURAGE to be drunken bafoons, which makes them poetic!” Couldn’t resist spewing one of my favorite movie lines here.
Actually, I like many of their songs, but A. Woman was never terribly high on my list … and as for Lenny Roker? Well, anything he touches, in my opinion, is bastardized, and therefore tarnished. Matter of fact, I’d say “You are all image” to HIM, but that’s just me … and we are perpetually establishing that the source of my statements is at least significantly “off”.
Karen 2:26 pm on July 14, 2010 Permalink |
So is that a “yes” that the song should be damned? I just want to clarify to avoid misunderstandings. 🙂
Should I tell you again that I am serious about the blog?
Oh, when I was telling you to consider the source of the “not strange” statement, I was referring to me, not you.
Boy, we are reaching all sorts of limits with online communication today.
Kenny 3:28 pm on July 14, 2010 Permalink |
I’m certain we can push them further. Yeah, song be damned. Never particularly liked it to begin with …
Kenny 8:42 am on July 15, 2010 Permalink |
I’d like to nominate Lenny as well. Also, I’d like to throw in the following “musical artists”: Lady Gaga, Don Henley, Neil Young, Jewel (any other people from Canadia?), Billy Ray, Miley and any other Cyrus’s out there, and “boy band” ever invented from The Monkees all the way through to Big Time Rush, Disturbed, Men Without Penises, John Mayer (I know, I just repeated myself), Billy Joel after 1985, Peter Cetera after Terry Kath blew his head off, Lil Wayne, anybody else whose name begins with ‘Lil, perhaps excepting Lil Jon, Martina McBride, Kid Rock, (I know, some of these are obvious), any band that goes out of their way to sound like Pearl Jam, Jamie Foxx (you’re a good actor, dude, but don’t sing), Jessica Simpson and anyone who even remotely looks like her, any band/act/group that hasn’t had a decent song in over 20 years, Bryan Adams, ROD STEWART … and, what the hell, we’ll go with Sting as well, post Police, anyway … any kid from a hit Nickelodeon and/or Disney Channel show … Meranda, we like ICarly in my house, but that doesn’t mean we want to watch a video about your 14 year old ass singing about your love life … this ain’t Verona … which reminds me, any, ANY 14 year old singing about love, B.J. Thomas and anyone else who could never write a song for themselves, any active rapper/hip hop artist that is not Mos Def, Talib Kweli, The Roots, or DEAD! I seem to have contradicted myself, but we all know that every two years or so, a new lost track comes out by 2Pac or Biggie, so in a sense, they’re still active. I have about a billion more, but I’ll just finish by saying EVERYONE FROM FUCKING AMERICAN IDOL!
Karen 7:41 pm on July 18, 2010 Permalink |
The point of Room 101 is to make an entertaining argument. Just listing people you want to shove in isn’t enough. Even if it is obvious why they should be in, the fun is in the justification.
I mean, ragging on John Mayer is worth a post, isn’t it? Especially if you include the pictures of him in the Borat swimsuit.