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Rock Art Rock
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Why Rock and Funny Just Don’t Mix
The Barenaked Ladies embody a lot of what’s wrong with rock ‘n’ roll music these days. I’m not saying every song they’ve ever written is pure drivel. That one about the old apartment is sort of catchy and every now and again I catch myself bebopping to “It’s All Been Done.”
It’s more of a big-picture issue. See, the Barenaked Ladies are—for lack of a better way of putting it—silly. They’re slapstick-happy and sandlot-safe. And a lot of their lyrics read like teatime at the Romper Room, which is, quite frankly, really irritating.
To wit: “I could hide out under there / I just made you say ‘Underwear.’”
Bleck.
I mean, if this is the type of angle we’re going for, why not just sing the word “poopie” 15 times or more? Maybe mix it up with “poopie in my pants” every now and again. Same difference, right?
It wouldn’t be so bad if there wasn’t an audience for that type of thing. But there is. The Barenaked Ones have a considerable fanbase (at least they used to). And no matter how many times they play “Pinch Me” live, the crowd continues to eat it up.
There are other examples from the BNL canon, like the “Chickity China, the Chinese Chicken” refrain from “One Week” or the line “I’m so chill / No wonder it’s freezing” from “Falling for the First Time.” But again, this speaks to a much larger issue.
And the issue is this: Rock music and funny just don’t mix.
Never have. Never will.
That’s precisely why you’ll never hear anyone refer to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s music as “timeless,” why guys like Kinky Friedman will always exist on the fringe, why a great show like WKRP in Cincinnati only lasted four seasons.
Rock ‘n’ roll is serious business. It’s about grit and guts, struggle and adversity, triumph and tribulation, love and loss. It’s about the grand themes that govern our lives and keep this crazy world spinning round. Rock music should make you want to drink or drug, fight or fuck, cry or create, to charge through walls of great granite.
It is—after all—devil music, is it not?
That’s not to say that rock ‘n’ roll isn’t about joy or redemption, that great music shouldn’t inspire or amuse. 
But it is to say that cheesy, lighthearted fare really has no place in that arena.
Give that type of music its own genre. Call it “recess rock” or “elevator casual.”
Call it Jimmy Buffett, if you like. ‘Cause that’s really what it boils down to.
Don’t get me wrong. Jimmy Buffett is a talented guy with a string of hits to his credit. But his music sounds like adult contemporary masquerading as acoustic rock. And the whole parrothead thing feels like Mardi Gras for golf enthusiasts—dress up like Hawkeye Pierce, pour a Captain and Coke, and knock around a beach ball for an hour or two.
Be safe. Be predictable. Get home in time for Letterman.
Throw your fist in the air and high-five one another to “Why Don’t We Get Drunk (and Screw)” and belt that shit out like it speaks to something buried deep down in the pit of your soul. But please don’t call it rock ‘n’ roll.
That goes for the next generation of Buffetteers as well—spinning Jack Johnson till the trust fund runs dry. Jack Johnson—much like Dave Matthews—is talented, but he inhabits a space in music reserved for post-grad barbecues and sorority luaus.
It’s light and it’s loose and it’s happy-hour friendly. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But it sure ain’t rock ‘n’ roll.
Never was. Never will be.
There is, of course, a place for humor in rock music. But those who excel at it are more cunning and self-aware, drawn to subtext. Dylan’s lobbed more veiled insults over the years than most people have softballs. Remember when he quipped, “I received your letter yesterday / About the time the doorknob broke,” or that time he waxed poetic about the leopard-skin pillbox hat? There are layers to Dylan, like coats on a canvas. And in many cases, you have to strip them down to the base before you can see the whole picture.
Dylan is art and he’s rock ‘n’ roll and he’s humorous in the sense that we’re all in on the joke. But unlike a one-liner that hits you square in the funny bone once or twice before losing its appeal, Dylan creates a kaleidoscope where a line, stanza, or even an entire song can take on a completely different look or feel depending on the context.
That’s not only satire, it’s brilliant.
The same can be said for the Kinks’ “Lola” or Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing.” The same can be said about “One Night Stand” by the Pipettes or “Westby” by Kathleen Edwards. The same can be said about any number of songs by Tom Petty.
The same cannot be said about any song written by John Mayer.
See how it works?
With country music you either laugh or you cry. Early rap battles were predicated upon one artist’s ability to verbally slam another, and the blues, well, the name says it all. But when it comes to rock ‘n’ roll, you need to earn some points for style before you can even consider serving up a side of sarcasm.
And while punk is definitely a form of rock ‘n’ roll, punks get a pass on the whole “silly” thing because they are—for lack of a better way of putting it—punks. The Ramones have carte blanche when it comes to penning tunes about teenage lobotomies in much the same way the Dead Milkmen are free to sing about bitchin’ Camaros and retards at the zoo.
Blink 182, on the other hand, should have been prohibited from making music altogether. Blink made videos around the turn of the century that were so horrendously unfunny they caused me to doubt the existence of a god. Blink 182 is silly without being smart. Blink is dudes in banana suits and posturing and Tiger Beat pin-ups. Blink 182 is bubblegum pop for suburban soccer chicks. Punk rock rejects them on principle.
In the end maybe it’s just a matter of what one person finds clever or entertaining as opposed to another. There’s obviously a precedent for acting goofy and going for the cheap laugh as a means of achieving celebrity. But sooner or later that type of thing has a way of catching up with you. Just ask the Barenaked Ladies. On May 6th of this year, they released their first children’s CD, entitled Snack Time.
Funny how things work out, isn’t it?
Read more articles by Bob Hill:
56 Comments
The trouble always starts when we try to define or classify any art to others. Everyone will have an opinion, and none of them will ever exactly match mine…
I like humor in my music.
I just draw the line between brilliant and dumb in a different spot than Bob does.
But, I do somewhat appreciate a writer who riles me up enough to visit a website I’ve not been to before just to post a comment back…So, a tip of the cap for that Bob.
wow, they deleted my original comment. how ’bout that.
Dude, Zappa was hilarious. I think rock and un-funny don’t mix, and BNL falls right in there. But Zappa pulled off kickass tunes with a lot of humor embedded straight in there.
Ween?
Spinal Tap proved rock’n'roll and funny could mix. Surely satire counts as ‘funny’ right?
Virtually every significant rock and roll artist, regardless of their popularity or talent, has used humor in their music to some degree, many use it liberally. The Beatles, Elvis, Dylan, The Who, Frank Zappa and many more have been mentioned as examples. Frank Zappa is an especially interesting choice. He is a study in extremes to say the least. Have you ever heard the overt adolescent sexual content that dominates his Overnight Sensation record? A brilliant record nonetheless but exemplifying only one of the innumerable styles he mastered in is tragically abbreviated life. Frank was one of the first musicians to make extensive use of the early digital recorder The Synclavier. He made that computer play things no living musician could, like lightning fast 88 note tuplets that existed only in his mind until technology caught up with him. Zappa could get as “poopy” as they come, while simultaneously composing and performing profound, virtuosic music. He was a genius by many measures but he never took himself too seriously to act like a kid and have good, silly fun, just for the hell of it. Laughter is good for the soul, except perhaps for curmudgeons. If you take Bob Hill seriously, you would have to conclude that Frank is a glaring example of what is (or was) wrong with rock and roll. What a preposterous premise. He posits that rock and funny don’t mix as if it was a fact rather than the opinion of (in my view) one myopic, narcissistic critic. It may be true to him and he is entitled to his opinion but that he has the gall to express it so definitively without shame or embarrassment lead me to conclude that he has serious boundary issues.. This does not make him unique among his milieu, in fact it makes him quite average and artless as a critic or reviewer. As far as BNL is concerned, I couldn’t disagree more with his statements. I have worked in the music and broadcasting industries for about 40 years and had the great luck to work with them briefly several weeks after their debut album was released. I had never heard of them when I was called upon to mix and engineer a radio show where they were interviewed and played several of their songs acoustically. As I prepared for the session by setting up mics for all of their instruments and vocals they suggested I make it simple and just set up a pair of mics and they would distance themselves to make it work. I don’t say this to brag but in the past 4 decades I’ve worked with artists of all levels of talent and success from the biggest legends to the neighborhood newbies. As understandably picky as some artists can be, none had ever made that request of me. I considered it and suggested adding a third mic for the vocalist to keep them centered and well balanced in the stereo spectrum. We agreed, I set up the mics, retreated to my control room, hit record and sat at my mixer with my jaw on the floor when I heard the fantastic sounds they created. They were comfortable, confident, casual, tight, musically skilled, entertaining, moving and yes, they were funny. It was one of the most memorable sessions of my life. On my way home from work I bought the CD and as soon as I got home I put it on the stereo as quickly as I could for my wife and me. It has remained on both of our top 5 favorite album lists ever since. Yes much of their music is heavily humor driven but there is so much more to it than that. Much of their music has a jazzy feel and complexity light years ahead of the glut of derivative 3 chord rock that manages to seep through the researched, focus grouped, consultant approved filters that control which songs and artists make it to the airwaves. It may not be for everybody, but to say it’s the problem with rock and roll today shows that Bob Hill is about as deep as a puddle, in my opinion. Before I go, let me play Bob Hill for a moment. Here’s the topic of an article I could easily believe Bob would write. Angst, fury, rage, whining, complaining and acting depressed are what is wrong with rock today. Ever since that misanthrope Curt Kobain foisted grunge music on us, the smiles, the fun, the good times and the humor have been sucked from the music by the feigned somber affect of today’s bands like dust mites are sucked from our carpets by Eureka vacuum cleaners.
O.K. discuss among yourselves and oh, by the way, it’s just called “rock” these days, not “rock and roll.” The consultants and marketing moguls decreed it thus about 15 years ago so you might want to update your buzz word file Bob. Only old people say rock and roll, you know, like the ones at the concerts by CSN, Who, Aeorsmith, Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Ray Davies, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffett and the rest of the clowns who ruined rock with all their silliness. I have to imagine that the many teenagers, 20, 30 and 40 somethings that compromise a good 30-40% of the audience must have been dragged along because grandpa and grandma want to go laugh, have fun and rock out with their stupid old rock and roll music rather than sit home and babysit so mom and dag can rock with their peers at a Staind, Limp Bizkit or Seven Mary Three show. Nothing funny there, just lots of good old sturm and drang. It’s like Joseph Haydn, but with a whole lot fewer notes.