Hi everyone. For the six of you that read my blog, I'm sorry that I've been silent for so long! Broke my finger and started a new job n' stuff. Hoping to get back to it on the reg in the next few weeks, but in the meantime here's a lightning-fast post for ya. So, without further ado, here are
The Four Best Uses of the F Word in Music
(according to me)
(selected based on band significance and context of word in the song)
Range Life
by Pavement
volume to play it at: medium
Pavement - along with bands like Pixies, R.E.M., The Smiths, and Neutral Milk Hotel - were power players in the early history of indie music. Range Life is an excellent song from their excellent second album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and it chronicles the life of an aging musician lamenting his existence and looking for a quieter one; a home on the range, where he would settle down if he could. In the last verse, lead singer Stephen Malkmus quips:
"out on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins/nature kids, they don't have no function/ I don't understand what they mean/and I could really give a fuck."
Besides sounding very appropriately bitter and sad within the context of the song, this f-word is important because it sparked a major feud between Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Malkmus. Corgan took it as an insult and broke off their tour with Pavement, while Malkmus insisted that it was the voice of the song's character, rather than his own. They still have beef.
Oxford Comma
by Vampire Weekend
volume to play it at: medium loud
An Oxford comma is a comma that may or may not be placed between two items at the end of a list. For instance:
Oxford comma included: "Bread, milk, and eggs."
Oxford comma excluded: "Bread, milk and eggs."
Ezra Koenig hears about this Facebook group called "Students for the Preservation of the Oxford Comma." He then wonders/proceeds to write a song about why one would give a fuck about an Oxford Comma. He gives a shout out to Lil' Jon. Ezra Koenig and Lil' Jon become friends.
I don't even need to add anything to this story.
Monster (explicit)
by Kanye West
volume to play it at: MAXIMUM
Ok, so there are a lot of f-words in this song. I'm specifically talking about the one and the end of Nicki Minaj's verse. So Nicki gets on the track and starts talking about how her and M.I.A. are bad bitches and how they're better then all of the competition. Standard rap braggadacio, right? Except this is really, really good. Scary good. This was before Nicki was well known and even before she had released an album, a fact that she notes bout halfway through her verse. Her multiple personas are all in play, she uses some wicked clever puns to put her haters in their place ("I'm on a diet but my pocket's eatin cheesecake"), and she makes it very clear that she's here to stay. Nowhere else are her rapping chops on display as they are here; by the time she gets to the end of the song, lets out a primal scream and yells "I'M A MUTHAFUCKIN MONSTER," you feel like one too. Like you wanna jump out of your chair and break something. Bonus for Bon Iver fans: he sings the intro and the outro (and then went on to do extensive collaboration with Ye on Yeezus.
I Want to Be Well
by Sufjan Stevens
volume to play it at: loud
Sufjan Steven's grand electronic album Age of Adz has been hailed by some potentially correct people as his magnum opus, and hailed by some idiots as a flop. In either case, it is undoubtably a challenging and poignant concept album that chronicles Sufjan's journey through physical issues:
"The Age of Adz, is, in some ways, a result of that process of working through health issues and getting much more in touch with my physical self." - Sufy Jay
I THINK that this "getting much more in touch" is a nod to an acceptance of some homosexual attraction. If I ever do an Age of Adz analysis, I'll delve into that theory at length. However, whether Suf is getting through sickness or admitting something to himself, "I Want to Be Well" is the breaking point of the album; its when the singer stops speaking in allegory, when he stops alluding and storytelling, and finally speaks openly and honestly. Halfway through the song, Sufjan lets loose with an anguished cry of "I'm not fucking around" which he repeats until the end of the song. He's no longer joking. If there is one thing he wants to communicate to his listeners it's that he wants to be well.
If you know anything about Sufjan's fan base, you know that a goodly percentage of his listeners are Christian kids who like him because he pairs spiritual ideas and subject matter with genuinely creative, extremely enjoyable music, something that very rarely happens in the world of art (see also Terrence Malick). Pardon my French in advance: Shit hit the fan when this particular demographic heard "I Want To Be Well" for the first time. Cries of "I can't believe he gave in to secularism" and "I guess I can't listen to him any more" and even "he must not be a Christian" resounded through the infosphere and sparked many a heated facebook/Christian college dorm room debate. I think that it's pretty obvious where I fall on the issue; I would venture to say that, in the broad context of Sufjan's discography as well as in the microcosm of Age of Adz itself, this f-bomb might be the most moving, significant use of the word in music history. When you never pull it out and then suddenly use it to say "I'm not fucking around" in the middle of an intensely personal album, the emphasis is clear, and the use goes far beyond any kind of "selling out" or "cheapening of language." All good naysayers...shut up.
