Hi there!
I don't know what it was about the Sterling label - maybe it was something about the magazines they advertised in, as it seems to have been for Halmark, whose lyricists had the same tendencies - but they got more than their share of high-falutin', cosmically complex and faux-deep-though-laden lyrics at their doorstep. "The Human Breakdown of Absurdity" is the best example, but there are plenty of others.
Today's example is "The Road of Destruction", performed for us by Norm Burns in his usual, outstanding manner, accompanied sympathetically by the Five Stars. This certainly isn't on the same level as "Absurdity", but in this case, some standard-issue verses about bad things that happen are tied together with a chorus which seems to want to be in another, quite different song, one which seems to suggest there's a moral to his story (ethical and/or religious). However, that moral turns out to be nothing more than "don't drive fast", which, among other things, doesn't really track with the instruction not to "die on sea".
Download: Norm Burns and the Five Stars: The Road of Destruction
Play:
On the flip side, we have the opposite - bland, standard issue lyrics, almost at a greeting card level, all about "Mama", and sung and played with a degree of sincerity that veers on self-parody.
Download: Norm Burns and the Five Stars: Mama
Play:
2 comments:
Both sides are pretty good. I reluctantly admit that I dig "Mama", I only wish the subject or object was something different that the boring Mama syndrome, for instance, what about a pet?
Thanks for this one. I've always loved this blog and although I've only visited sparsely, this song, "Mama" really got to me. I fell off my chair laughing thinking about all the times my Sicilian mamma related the same words to me. I love my mamma. Thank you for this gem.
Dan
Post a Comment