Friday, August 17, 2007

Memories of "Solomon Grundy" (Blinded by the Light)

It is interesting how often I find myself singing away to a song and all of a sudden thinking, "What!?! That can't be the lyrics, that makes no sense at all!" And then I try to figure out what exactly they are saying and if I can't I have to come home and look up the lyrics online. Like that one time when I couldn't understand the Solomon Grundy song.
Tonight I was coming home from a quick errand to the grocery store and the song "Blinded by the Light" was on. And I am thinking to myself, "What the heck are these people singing, because the second line that I'm singing is - wrapped up like a duschen like a river in the night - which makes no sense." (Yes, I know that there is no such word as a "duschen" which makes my point that it couldn't be the words!) So the first thing I did when I got home was come to the laptop and look up the words to the song. DH came up from downstairs just then and asked what I was doing and I told him I was looking up lyrics to a song that started "Blinded by the light..." He exclaimed that that was the song - the one that gets stuck in your head that you can never figure out what the second line is. See, it's not just me.
I did find them, right away. Oh, the band who sings it and made it popular is Manfred Mann's Earth Band, though it was Bruce Springsteen who wrote it and recorded it originally (read all about it at Wikipedia). Wow, he was not only amazing with words, but the guy who sings it did an amazing feat getting the tongue twisting rhymes out! No wonder I have never been able to figure out what is being said and sing along! Have a read for yourself:
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night(3x)
Madman drummers bummers,
Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older,
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin,
the calliope crashed to the ground
The calliope crashed to the ground
But she was...
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
runner in the night (4 xs)
Some silicone sister with a manager mister told me I go what it takes
She said "I'll turn you on sonny to something strong,
play the song with the funky break"
And go-cart Mozart was checkin' out the weather chart to see if it was safe outside
And little Early-Pearly came by in his curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride
Asked me if I needed a ride
But she was...
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night,
Blinded by the light,
she got down but she never got tired
She's gonna make it through the night
She's gonna make it through the night
But mama, that's where the fun is
But mama, that's where the fun is
Mama always told me not to look into the eye's of the sun
But mama, that's where the fun is
Some brimstone baritone anticyclone rolling stone preacher from the east
Says, "Dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in it's funny bone,
that's where they expect it least"
And some new-mown chaperone was standin' in the corner,
watching the young girls dance
And some fresh-sown moonstone was messin' with his frozen zone, reminding him of romance
The calliope crashed to the ground
But she was...
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night (9 xs)
Blinded by the light
Madman drummers bummers, Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older,
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin,
the calliope crashed to the ground
Now Scott with a slingshot finially found a tender spot and throws his lover in the sand
And some bloodshot forget-me-not said daddy's within earshot save the buckshot, turn up the band
Some silicone sister with a manager mister told me I go what it takes
She said "I'll turn you on sonny to something strong"
Here is the video from YouTube in case you'd like to watch it.

So there you have it. Sorry to pass on my stuck song to you. I know the first two lines will be going through my head for the next few days.

2 comments:

TheButterfly2 said...

Thanks for your comment on "Confessions of an extended breastfeeder". It's nice to know others have felt the same!

Michael said...

Thank God you put the video here. I have had this stuck in my head for days too (no thanks to you) and was hoping I could find it to listen to it this morning.