Sunday, November 18, 2007

Animal Bar

Party Shuffle gave me "Animal Bar," by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (from Stadium Arcadium)—what is it with songwriters these days, suddenly including references to "great" novelists? (See also my post on Bright Eyes, "Gold Mine Gutted")

never 21 when everyone's a sailor
coming up strong with the animal bar
ever loving more with mr. norman mailer
turn another page at the animal bar
and it wont be long
no it wont be long
no it wont be long
because it can't be long

The extra touch of irony here, of course, is that Mailer died last week.

7 comments:

swiss said...

stumbled across your site looking for stuff about henrik nordbrandt.nice. will have a more detailed look at a later date.

agree re bad science. fall into the other camp re marquez tho! lol

Donald Brown said...

from Cracker's "Where Have Those Days Gone" (2006):

"In Mendocino County thought I saw Thomas Pynchon at the end of the bar / No, that's just Rob Breszny writing his Real Astrology column"

I don't understand why it's "ironic" that Mailer died last week. Because you happened to hear a reference to him, in a pop song, after he died? Maybe it's "apropos" because of that, but "ironic"?

Andrew Shields said...

Does Rob B. look like Thomas P.? Nobody knows, so maybe Rob B. IS Thomas P.

"Ironic" in the sloppy popular sense; "striking" might be a better word.

I'm slapping my wrist because I dislike that colloquial use of "ironic," too!

Andrew Shields said...

Hi, Swiss, who are you and where are you? Send me an email at andrew dot shields at unibas dot ch.

mrjumbo said...

Long as we're on the topic, who is "Norman" in Warren Zevon's "French Inhaler"?

The french inhaler
He stamped and mailed her
So long, Norman
She said so long, Norman

The rhyme would be "Mailer," and the line trails off as if it's waiting for one more word to finish it off.

In my mind, anyhow, I always fill in "Mailer" at the end. Too late to ask Warren.

swiss said...

me and my doings are here

http://theswisslounge.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I have always thought "so long, Norman" was the B-girl having misheard Warren's name (the Warren in our story/song/lyrics that is) there as the light came up at closing time. Go figure, but I like the Occam's Razor answers. And it fits with Mr. Zevon's sense of humor. And pathos. So long, Warren - we miss you.