Best Song Lyrics and Movie Lines – Some Quick Facts and A New Fancypants Word
Blog No 133
July 13, 2021
READING TIME: 9 Minutes
By Mack W. Borgen
Author, The Writings of a Lifetime (2021); Dead Serious and Lighthearted – The Memorable Words of Modern America (Three Volumes) (2018-2019); and The Relevance of Reason – The Hard Facts and Real Data about the State of Current America (2 Volumes) (2013). As Advertised in The New York Review of Books and Recipient of Eight National Book Awards
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(Today’s) Quick Facts
As of the early 2000’s “the average family does 20 more weeks of paid labor (every year!) than it did in 1975, … (and) this added labor more than anything else … explains why many Americans can afford more….”
This is a complicated subject, and there are many circumstances which necessitate such additional work. However, one writer has correctly noted that a substantial part of this “added labor” results from the standardizing of the two-income family income model in America. But, this “added labor comes at a price” which is paid by children “who get 800 fewer hours of parenting a year.”
This is serious. This is consequential. Run the math. 12,000 hours less “parenting” in the child’s first 15 years of life!
We must respect the inevitable need sometimes for a single parent or for both parents to work. However, 12,000 hours less parenting usually has consequences. It is here suggested that the “added work” resulting from the two-income family model oftentimes — albeit definitely not always — has many serious and adverse effects upon the tone, style, ethics, morals, and attitudes of America’s younger generations. Sadly, maybe that too is oftentimes inevitable.
Based upon and data excerpted from the brilliant, New York Times Bestseller, Perfectly Legal, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Cay Johnston. (2003) p. 24.
Best Song Lyrics – Part 20
Song lyrics are the real poetry of Modern America. The lyrics of our favorite songs roll around in our heads for decades. Almost unconsciously, every day we honor the words of America’s songwriters who said something in that perfect, poetic, or clever way.
Here is Part 20 of my assembled list — done over the last nine years in conjunction with my research for my last series of books, Dead Serious and Lighthearted – The Memorable Words of Modern America. To order copies of my books, just go to http://mackwborgen.com/shop/ . Just clock “Book Ordering” – quick, safe, and easy – and Summer Special Prices. (Or, as always, on Amazon — but please remember to leave a review. Thank you!).
But now, … The Best Lyrics of Modern America
– From 1957 through 2015 –
Enjoy.
Fortunate Son (1969) (Credence Clearwater Revival) (Years Active: 1959-1972) (Including John and Tom Fogarty, Stu Clark, and Doug Clifford).
“Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they’re red, white, and blue,
And when the band plays ‘Hail to the Chief’
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord.
– –
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son,…
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one…
. . .
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no millionaire’s son,
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one.
…
Some folks inherit star-spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord,
And when you ask them ‘How much should we give?’
Ooh, they only answer ‘More! More! More!’”
In the Air Tonight (1981) (Phil Collins) (B: 1951, Middlesex, England).
“Well, if you told me you were drowning,
I would not lend a hand
I’ve seen your face before my friend
But I don’t know if you know who I am
Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So, you can wipe off that grin,
I know where you’ve been
It’s all been a pack of lies”
Gloria (1982) (Laura Branigan) (B: 1952, Brewster, NY – D: 2004 El Quogue, NY) (Age 52).
“Gloria, you’re always on the run now
Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow
I think you’ve got to slow down before you start to blow it
I think you’re headed for a breakdown. So, be careful not to show it.
…
Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria)
I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you’ve been living under (Gloria)
But you really don’t remember, was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head calling? (Gloria)”
Sweet Child O’ Mine (1987) (Guns N’ Roses) (Years Active: 1985 – Present) (Including Axl Rose and Slash).
“She’s got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood melodies
Where everything was a fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I stared too long, I’d probably break down and cry.
. . .
Whoa-ah-oh! Sweet child o’ mine
Whoa, oh-oh-oh! Sweet love of mine.”
Best (or At Least Most Memorable) Movie Lines of All Time
“Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round
So that we would not see too far down the road.”
Meryl Streep, speaking to Robert Redford in Sydney Pollack’s touching romantic drama, Out of Africa. The movie, based roughly upon the 1937 autobiography of Danish writer Karen Blixen about her time living in Kenya, received seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Excerpted from Mack W. Borgen’s Dead Serious and Lighthearted – The Memorable Words of Modern America (Vol II) (1976-1993) (Published 2019), p. 201.
Fancypants Word of the Day
Spoonerism (Noun): 1) The transposition of the initial letters of two words, 2) Any error in speech that swaps two syllables between two words.
Examples of uses in sentences:
Serious Example: “He was so nervous to give his speech that he started out with a spoonerism, ‘Welcome, fear dends.”
More Humorous Example: “Every time these politicians speak these days, they ramble so much that they stumble over their words as they utter intellectual spoonerisms.”
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