I’ll take a coffee break before the final 6, who were all great picks so kudos for the ones not out yet.
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My favorite is “I’m not crying”
“Business Time” is great, but “Think About It” is my favourite, I think. It’s quite amazing that they’ve done many funny songs and no one else has done any.
In 6th place with 8 points
Cass McCombs - Bobby, King of Boys Town
Finally, we’ve reached the part where I liked all the songs. Never heard of Cass McCombs and not usually into singer/songwriters type, but this was really good.
It has a strong Lou Reed vibe and the lyrics are pretty cool. I’m not entirely sure what the song is about. Are we Bobby? Is Bobby a jerk? Is it a song about a gay kid in a religious Oklahoma city? Dunno. Still liked it a lot.
This is quite literally a burn I used as a teenager:
Where’d you learn to smoke?
Cause you’re doing it all wrong
Nice pick all around. setting the tone for a great top 6.
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6th place = 8 points 
In 5th place with 9 points
Slick Rick - Children’s Story
Okay, story time first.
In the distant era of the mid-late 90s, the only way a kid in Israel could listen to music that was not played on the radio or on MTV Europe was stealing it on the interwebz. Sadly, Napstar wasn’t invented yet, so the best way to get music was through sketchy channels on IRC. Many of you might know this, but it’s my reveal. One of the channels I used was named something like #00GoldenAgeHipHop00w4r3zL33t (I might have made up the last part).
You would get a list of songs from the bot, ask for it to be sent to you via DCC (direct client to client). You would then wait in a queue for an infinite amount of times until you get the send request and watch your internet fail 99% of the time. Rinse, repeat.
One of the first songs I can remember successfully downloading was Slick Rick. I didn’t know the song or the artist, but the name sounded cool. None of my friends heard of it and it wasn’t played on the radio ever, so for a few years I was sure I was the only teenager in the world who knows this guy.
So yeah, it’s a huge hit. It’s been sampled a gazillion times. Probably used in an Ikea commercial or something. But I still love it and it’s still my song.
Unnecessarily long story aside, Slick Rick’s flow is unmatched. The lyrics are decent and while the subject is more serious than it appears, the humor is everywhere. He even produced it himself.
This is what I considered the only story telling song. I get that others view their picks differently.
5 Likes
I, for one, appreciate “Storytime with Yuv”. I remember IRC being a pretty good resource in the early days of “acquiring” mp3’s.
Also, Rick gotz him some flow.
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In 4th place with 10 points
Smog - Dress sexy at my funeral
Smog is one of those artists people always tell me I really need to listen to. I nod, make a note of it and never ever do for absolutely no good reason.
Humor isn’t always really easy to define, especially when not in pure comedy form. The situation of a dying man asking his wife to showboat herself and his life for his funeral is brilliant in my opinion…
The melody and delivery are great and as much as I want to hate on nearly 6 minutes songs, I didn’t notice it after the first time.
Dress sexy at my funeral my good wife
And when it comes your turn to speak before the crowd
Tell them about the time we did it
On the beach with fireworks above us
This isn’t the type of music I’m drawn to usually, but if the rest of Smog’s stuff are as good, I will definitely say that i’ll listen to it and probably never do again cause there’s Top Chef on TV or something.
Just narrowly missing the podium.
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That’s me. You should listen to Smog (and Bill Callahan, as he goes by these days).
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As I said (i think), it was really a 4-place podium to me. We don’t have one built yet, but you can stand there proudly
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In 3rd place with 11 points
Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso
How good is this song? It was covered by John Cale, David Bowie and Iggy Pop. That’s a good sign.
As mentioned by the submitter, this was produced by Cale and heavily influenced by The Velvet Underground. Then again, who wasn’t?
The lyrics are great, but I could have listened to this song all day even if they weren’t. It’s a perfect example of somewhat of a ‘comedy song’ that can stand on its own, even 50 years after it was written.
And while I can’t really prove it, I got a feeling this song was pretty influential for many bands I liked growing up that used a lot of humor. If it’s King Missile on one end or even The Descendants and many others on the other, I think you can find direct or indirect effects of this track.
Well he was only 5’3"
But girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not in New York
Great pick, haven’t listened to this probably since the Bowie cover came out.
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Ive just finished a zoom pub quiz night and I’m still in, yay!
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I’m glad you liked it. I like how this category is turning out.
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It’s down to me and you, Swanky old chap!
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In 2nd place with 12 points
John Cooper Clarke - Evidently Chickentown
This is an amazing poem that I would have memorized to death at 16 if I knew it.
I can pick any line to quote here and it will be (bloody) brilliant. I chose this clever opener to the 5th verse, but you really should listen/read it on your own if you’re unfamiliar:
The bloody pies are bloody old
The bloody chips are bloody cold
The bloody beer is bloody flat
The bloody flats have bloody rats
The pace and rhythm with which he delivers those lines over the new-wavey eerie beats is hypnotizing. This should be the anthem for bored angry kids in the suburbs (granted, I’m not sure what ‘chickentown’ means. I took it more as a cowtown in the US).
I only later realized this was on the Sopranos so it might be more well known than I thought. Either way, I’m a big fan. Also a testament to how fucking good the Sopranos were.
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And here’s the scene from the Sopranos which I totally forgot about:
I really thought Chickentwon was Jalfrezi. Congrats to both.
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Boom! It is with some jubilation that I tell you my submission is yet to be revealed.
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And the curse works. Congrats to Seities
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In 1st place with 13 points
Dream Warriors - Wash your face in my sink
Okay, how did I miss this gem? I blame it on them being Canadian and therefore invisible to the rest of the world.
Somewhere in high-school I discovered that girls aren’t very interested in hearing my stories about how Crass are actually anarchists who live in abandoned buildings. For a few very fun months I moved my musical interests from angry punks to late 80s early 90s “jazz-rap” or whatever you wanna call it.
I downloaded all the a tribe called quest, de la soul, arrested development, jurassic 5, pharcyde, digable planets, brand nubian I could find online.
Turns out it wasn’t the music’s fault.
I don’t know if “Wash your face in my sink” is a Canadian saying, but it really should be. I think they mean it in a ‘mind your own business’ way or maybe musical plagiarism, either way it’s really a good catchphrase.
Loved every second of this. The jazzy sample at the beginning sounded almost ‘ska’ to me. The delivery is perfect and humorous as fuck (even the way he says “when doves cry” or “you just can’t reach”). The cute twist on the last verse.
A great song from start to finish.
I’m not sure the person who sent it thought it would win, but he did write - “I think this captures the spirit of your category”. It sure did. Congratulations on a well deserved win, you actually undersold the track in your commentary.
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