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    Music and lyrics mismatch

    Might have been done before, but just heard Feargal Sharkey's "You Little Thief" for the first time in ages and struck me that the lyrics and music don't really seem to match at all. Sure there are better examples out there though...

    The video also convincingly proves beyond all doubt that the urban myth is 100% true that Snoop's mid-90's haircut (best seen at 4:25 here) was inspired by the ex-Undertones singer...

    #2
    The Delfonics' "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)" sounds like a sweet love song but is actually a delivering a pretty brutal break-up message.

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      #3
      Ping Pong - from the Stereolab album Mars Audiac Quintet - is a jaunty, upbeat Francopop number with lyrics about the business and economic cycle.

      But they might generally be a tad 'arch' for inclusion here.

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        #4
        A fertile subcategory here might be dark songs covered inadvisedly by lightweight performers, with subsequently inappropriate arrangements, such as Paul Young covering Joy Division.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
          A fertile subcategory here might be dark songs covered inadvisedly by lightweight performers, with subsequently inappropriate arrangements, such as Paul Young covering Joy Division.
          The two builders in 24 Hour Party People "doing" Joy Division feel essentially like the first incarnation of Nouvelle Vague.

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            #6
            EDIT: I totally got the wrong end of the stick about the subject.
            Last edited by Giggler; 16-10-2017, 13:59.

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              #7
              He's Misstra Know It All has far too gorgeous a tune to have been wasted on it's subject matter - Richard Nixon apparently. I've never understood why it's Misstra and not Mister though. Anyone know?

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                #8
                In blissful pre-Google ignorance, we leapt onto the dance floor at student discos as soon as OMD's infectious beat began. A woman called Enola Gay was doing something at 8:15, we didn't know what, but it got us bopping.

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                  #9
                  I guess that there's no reason why people who went to school outside of the US to get the reference.

                  I share Artificial Hipster's views on Misstra Know It All and don't know the answer to his question.

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                    #10
                    I imagine that Wonder might have heard somebody pronouncing "Mister" as "Misstra", liked it and used it. It seems that Stevie was hanging around with Latin Americans at the time; there are repeated Spanish lines in some of his songs. It's conceivable that a Spanish-speaker might mispronounce the word "Mister" that way. And, let's face it, "Misstra Know It All" sounds a damn sight cooler than a preppy "Mister Know It All".

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                      #11
                      A few years ago Romanian pop star Smiley came out with a song called Dead Man Walking (sample lyrics: "You killed me when you left me, now you're looking at a dead man walking" "There's no death there's no life" "You killed all my dreams, you killed everything"). Fairly pained stuff you might think. But no he set it some kind of upbeat circus tune which made the whole thing utterly bizarre https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKeN6B11bY

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by tee rex View Post
                        In blissful pre-Google ignorance, we leapt onto the dance floor at student discos as soon as OMD's infectious beat began. A woman called Enola Gay was doing something at 8:15, we didn't know what, but it got us bopping.
                        D'oh! Should've been straight in with that one, I was listening to them loads last week – actually, I've got the Architecture and Morality album in my CD player right now.

                        ursus, I certainly learned about the plane of the same name – and its deed – in school History lessons in the UK in the mid-'90s when we covered the Second World War. I would've discovered OMD at about the same time, in fact.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by G-Man View Post
                          I imagine that Wonder might have heard somebody pronouncing "Mister" as "Misstra", liked it and used it. It seems that Stevie was hanging around with Latin Americans at the time; there are repeated Spanish lines in some of his songs. It's conceivable that a Spanish-speaker might mispronounce the word "Mister" that way. And, let's face it, "Misstra Know It All" sounds a damn sight cooler than a preppy "Mister Know It All".
                          I've always wondered too, but I'll certainly take that as an explanation. Nice one, G-Man.

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                            #14
                            Sowing The Seeds Of Love - an anti-Thatcherite diatribe set to psychedelia.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                              A fertile subcategory here might be dark songs covered inadvisedly by lightweight performers, with subsequently inappropriate arrangements, such as Paul Young covering Joy Division.
                              I see you Young's Love Will Tear Us Apart and raise you the whole of Duran Duran's Thank You album.

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                                #16
                                Stevie has two other anti-Nixon tunes, Big Brother (1972) and You Haven't Done Nothing (1974). Former is pretty (perhaps a "Misstra Know It All" precursor), the latter a down and dirty funk/brass workout. When You Haven't Done Nothing was released as a single, Big Brother was put on the B-side, despite being from two years (two albums) earlier.
                                Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 16-10-2017, 15:59.

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                                  ursus, I certainly learned about the plane of the same name – and its deed – in school History lessons in the UK in the mid-'90s when we covered the Second World War. I would've discovered OMD at about the same time, in fact.
                                  Rush's Manhattan Project for me.

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                    Stevie has two other anti-Nixon tunes, Big Brother (1972) and You Haven't Done Nothing (1974). Former is pretty (perhaps a "Misstra Know It All" precursor), the latter a down and dirty funk/brass workout. When You Haven't Done Nothing was released as a single, Big Brother was put on the B-side, despite being from two years (two albums) earlier.
                                    AND: "You Haven't Done Nothing" features those nice Jackson 5 boys on backing vocals.

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                                      #19
                                      Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free". Lovely, bouncy tune and lyrics of resentment, bitterness and regret.

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                                        D'oh! Should've been straight in with that one, I was listening to them loads last week – actually, I've got the Architecture and Morality album in my CD player right now.

                                        ursus, I certainly learned about the plane of the same name – and its deed – in school History lessons in the UK in the mid-'90s when we covered the Second World War. I would've discovered OMD at about the same time, in fact.
                                        Someone must have already written a book (or at least a good essay) on WWII History in '80s Synthpop. Between OMD, Thomas Dolby and a few others, how could you not learn a little something?

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                                          #21
                                          Jimmy Helms - "Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse". On the surface a sweet love song but the lyrics declare ownership and are quite threatening.

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