TV shows will occasionally bust out the "clip show" episode. They come up with some contrivance that allows for lots of flashbacks so they can just use footage from old episodes, rather than actually provide anything new. This is a terrible thing, and we should scorn those responsible and throw balloons filled with toothpaste at them*.
Fine, we don't have to scorn them and throw things at them if you don't want to. It's not really relevant to the post anyway. The question that came to me last night was what is the musical equivalent to a clip show?
The answer that seemed obvious was a "greatest hits" tour, or "greatest hits" CD**. But I would tend to equate a specific CD (or album, or tour) with a season of a TV show. Which would make individual songs the equivalent of single episodes. So having decided upon that, my vote for the musical equivalent of clip shows would be songs that just tend to rattle off people or place names.
Huey Lewis' "The Heart of Rock n' Roll", or any of those songs where the singer just lists all the different places they've been (or all the people they want to thank) with a one sentence description. I think Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" would qualify, since he spends most of the song just rattling of noteworthy stuff from the previous thirty years, which doesn't impress me terribly much. There's at least a couple of Limp Bizkit songs I can think of, one which I think focuses on places they performed, another on various people they wanted to thank***.
Basically, I think that type of song is pretty lazy, at least from a lyrical standpoint. Which is the same opinion I have of clip shows, which is why I think they're equivalent. But I want your input, because I think most of you know more about music than me. So, if you agree with my idea, what are some other songs that would fit? If you think there's a better musical comparison to clip shows, by all means, tell us.
* Why toothpaste (and it's new toothpaste, not used toothpaste someone spat out)? Well, garbage, or rotten vegetables, or animal waste would by unhygienic for everybody. I don't want to make them ill (and I don't want to become ill either), I just want to humiliate them.
** Though I own lots of greatest hits CDs for various bands, because it's a good way to get a variety of their work, theoretically from across their entire history.
*** Which, hey, it's swell that they want to thank people for their success, let them know they care, but I don't think it makes for the best song.
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2 comments:
Actually, "We Didn't Start the Fire" is even more specific and schematic than you suspect. It's rattling off a list of things that appeared on the cover of "Life" Magazine.
More than the greatest hits album, I think the B-Sides/rarities album is the musical equivalent. It's music that wasn't good enough to get on any of the albums, but since the musician is broke up/on hiatus/needs more drugs, they put out something that's probably sub-standard, knowing the fans will eat it up anyway.
This is not to say that clip shows/b-sides albums are always bad, The Simpsons clip shows were always a hoot.
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