Lyrics

Whenever I go to a new city I look to explore a few things. I have an obsession with public transport, (while in holiday in London I used to give travelers directions in metro stations), I always notice the street –name boards, (my favorite are the big yellow ones in south-India), local cricket stadiums etc… Another thing I inevitably check is the quality of local radio stations. I was in Chennai recently and hence decided to go through my city checklist. I was born in Chennai so I know the city decently well. The radio stations were the only things I was too young to remember. So while in my friend’s car I decided to check them out.

I hate Bollywood music but that is unfortunately the ‘genre’ that dominates our countries’ airwaves. Blame in on my ignorance if you like, but I hardly expected Chennai to have anything different (a little Tamil music as well of course).

So it was a pleasant surprise when I tapped onto 104.8 Chennai Live and was greeted with thunderous riff of ‘Another Brick in the wall’. The 30 minutes of FM I listened to that afternoon was far better than anything I had heard on any Indian radio station before. As we drove past Marina beach I had the pleasure of hearing along with Pink Floyd, Audioslave, Pearl jam and the new Foo Fighters album. Also interspaced were less memorable performances by many pop and hip-hop artists whose names sound like a large alphabet soup attached to adjectives. And this stark contrast is what I focus on today.

Call me biased, but I think a large portion of ‘popular’ and ‘hip-hop’ music today is absolute rubbish. Our current ‘artists’ have realized that any song that involves auto-tuning, David Guetta and lyrics about sex, money, and sex for money is going to be a huge hit. A large part of my day is spent either listening to music or trying to play music. Yet I have no qualifications to make any comment on the quality of any song’s music, so I decided to concentrate on lyrics instead, an area that is more easily accessible to all of us.

So, back to my car journey. One of the songs I heard that day was ‘Do the Evolution’ by Pearl Jam. When I first heard this song as a kid I absolutely loved it even though I could not understand a word of what Eddie Vedder sang, but now I understand the lyrics and the song is so much more amazing. Unfortunately I also heard a track called ‘TIK-TOK’ by a certain Sean Paul and Bob Sinclair (rappers make it a point to announce their presence ‘in the house’ at the start of each of their songs, it allows the listener to distinguish between their identical styles, satisfies their egos and also conveniently adds to thirty seconds to their song). What I am going to do today is put forth the lyrics of both these songs and briefly analyze their lyrical quality and the topics they explore.

So first DO THE EVOLUTION

Woo..
I'm ahead, I'm a man
I'm the first mammal to wear pants, yeah
I'm at peace with my lust
I can kill 'cause in God I trust, yeah
It's evolution, baby

I'm at piece, I'm the man
Buying stocks on the day of the crash
On the loose, I'm a truck
All the rolling hills, I'll flatten 'em out, yeah
It's herd behavior, uh huh
It's evolution, baby

Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, he's my clone
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
This land is mine, this land is free
I'll do what I want but irresponsibly
It's evolution, baby

I'm a thief, I'm a liar
There's my church, I sing in the choir:
(hallelujah, hallelujah)

Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, admire my clones
'Cause we know, appetite for a nightly feast
Those ignorant Indians got nothin' on me
Nothin', why?
Because... it's evolution, baby!

I am ahead, I am advanced
I am the first mammal to make plans, yeah
I crawled the earth, but now I'm higher
2010, watch it go to fire
It's evolution, baby
Do the evolution

There is not much left to say, but I will try to be as un-biased as possible. Vedder talks about the human psyche and how we place ourselves on a pedestal. He is critical of the relentless expansion of human habitation and also exposes the ruthless and careless attitude with which we exploit our planet and the poor. The satirical nature of the lyrics makes it a pleasure to read. The song is also memorable for the brief choir singing in the middle. The refrain ‘Admire me…’ is quite haunting and goes really well with the riff Vedder sings over.

Next TIK TOK

Bless up and there aint no stressing! You heard it clear! Sean Paul longside Bob Sinclair! Buaaaa Yow Tik Tok Tik Tok Yow Tik Tok Tik Tok Yow Tik Tok Tik Tok Yow Gal if you give me the sexiest wine Gal_ if you move your body pon time Gal if you give me the sexiest wine Tik Tok Tik Tok The sexiest wine X2

Yow,Its a Friday a yuh birthday
Girl,wild out_ cause dis a not your work day
You a hype one,gal,you a right one
gal just keep on swing it all night long
Just free it up gal..???...

Chemistry,from groove to the vybe and Roll_ to the fiction,roll to the gwat,to the pear ready-ready Thats alright,man Hey girl,ill be your hype man Hey girl,you a me like and You a me type and you a me right and Never leave by my side,gal you tight and Gal you neat and you fit And i wanna take you back home for the weekend Fit,till you fit..brown skin Girl gimme that brown thing

Chorus :
Gal if you give me the sexiest wine
Gal if you move your body pon_ time
Gal if you give me the sexiest wine
Tik Tok Tik Tok The sexiest wine
X2

Girl,if_ you ready fi have a good time Gal,if you give me the sexiest wine When me a spit pon di track Gal bounce it like that,cause di bluffing every rhyme So me tell her she's fine And me want me and her to combine Give her the time,combine it.. Livin on Cloud NINE ::To-deh To-deh:: Bear shot... ::To-deh To-deh:: Bear shot... Speezy the girl over-eazy You eva gwan keep it LIVE None one them can flop me show,stop me do...

[Chorus]:
Gal if you move your body pon time
Gal if you give me the sexiest wine
Tik Tok Tik Tok The sexiest wine X2
Yow,Oh Oh Oh Oh OO FYAH Oh Oh Oh_ Oh OO FYAH Oh Oh Oh Oh OO FYAH Oh Oh Oh Oh OO FYAH

Outro:
YowTik Tok Tik Tok Yow Tik Tok Tik Tok Yow Tik Tok Tik Tok
Sean Da Paul Bob Sinclair
Du-Dutty yeah Buaaa

I shall begin with the positives. For a start TIK TOK’s lyrics merit mention due to their sheer complexity. I have just read the lyrics three times and am still quite lost.

As far as I can tell the song is set in a club on a Friday (it is not a work day as the lyricist clearly states) and is about a girl at a club who the singer finds attractive (she is ‘neat and fit’). The singer then goes on to describe how he and the girl make a good match (they have a ‘chemistry’, they are ‘tight’). Not surprisingly the singer then asks the girl to do a few things for him like ‘bounce that stuff’. He reveals his feeling to the girl by telling her that he wants to see her ‘brown skin’ and spend the weekend with her. My sincere apologies to anybody reading this blog but despite my best effort I cannot for the life of me understand the words of the chorus of this song - ‘body pon time’, ‘sexiest wine’ et al. If anybody makes this linguistic breakthrough please let me know, I am very curius. Well the song is pretty much like every other rap song and I suppose the video has a lot of extremely attractive girls who are dancing for Sean and Bob (quite tame names don’t you think? No adjectives like ‘Li’l’ or letters like ‘T’). Another interesting thing about the song is the amount of words it contains that spell-check does not recognize. I am inclined to believe that ‘Yow’, ‘Do-dutty’ and ‘Buaa’ do indeed have a meaning that is not limited to toddler-talk, unfortunately I have not yet discovered their linguistic depth. I also have no idea what TIK TOK has to do with anything, well is suppose it adds energy to the ‘rhyme’. So before displaying any more ignorance is shall end here. On a parting note though I would like to point out the absence of the word ‘shawdy’ in this song. Now that is indeed a surprise.

So I have evaluated the lyrics of both these songs. I do not intend to impose my opinion on anyone, but I doubt that my opinion (at least in this case) requires any imposing. But if any reader does indeed voice his/her disagreement it will be a cause of happiness for me. Sean Paul would have become the first celebrity to read my blog.