When The Turtles sat down to write "Elenore", it was supposed to be a big joke. Reportedly, they tried to cram in every bubble gum trope about teenage sweet hearts such as "let's turn the lights way down low/maybe we won't watch the show." Howard Kaylan called the song an "anti-love letter" to the label. However, the joke actually turned out to be on them. People loved the song in a non-ironic way because, *newsflash* people love over-the-top for their pop songs! The song climbed the 1968 charts to #6.
I will never stop loving The Turtles because they are awkward as as all hell and I identify with awkward. These guys are not participating in any beauty pageants and there's no need to lock up your daughter in their presence. Everything about them screams "I'll take what I can get" and that makes their songs even more desperate. As everyone knows in pop songs: the more desperate the lyrics = the more identifiable! No one likes a pop song in which the singer is "too cool." It's basically the opposite of real life. I guess people are into Bon Iver now or whatever, but...ugh. I've included both the studio version and a live performance. If you close your eyes and listen to the studio version, you can pretend it's some hot guy. However, the live version provides a lot more LOLs.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment