Pop Song Philosophy--My Way

A friend, after reading the post on The Greatest Love, wondered if it was comparable in "philosophy" to Sinatra's "My Way" (written by Paul Anka, and recording by him as well almost immediately after Sinatra recorded it).

It's one of my least favorite songs ever and so I can hardly muster the energy to say anything about it. Recorded in 1969, written in 1968, and according to the Wikipedia page (which appears to lack reliability), expressly with Sinatra in mind--and the "rat pack" mentality--as a voice of the "tough" who, at the end of life, has "no regrets". Anka apparently said something like these tough-talking "celebrities" acted "mob" but were scared of their own shadows. Whatever.

It is a song so full of bullshit it strikes me as a "plea" against the realization that the man has lived a life full of "me" (as Anka notes it was written as a comment on the "me" generation) and in the end has only his bullshit to attend him on his deathbed.

It's a truly awful song and if not for its massive popularity I would think as a writer you'd want to disown it. HOWEVER...as Anka makes clear, or as the Anka quoted in Wikipedia makes clear, it is written FOR Sinatra, in the VOICE Anka believes is true to Sinatra. So, maybe this is a very cruel joke by Anka on Sinatra. That's the way I'm going to read it from now on and anyone who sings it with sincerity is ALSO being "joked".

I mean, come on, "without exemption"? Is this a song about taxes? In the end, I prefer Joe Piscopo--and that's saying something!

I'm not sure how to compare it to the The Greatest Love as a song...but it does seem to speak to a generational shift in "performance". I don't think anyone in "reality" would sing this song as an Ode to Self (especially if you have to say "then he has not")...and so it seems unique as a "construction" of an Ideal Individualist. The DREAM of the Western Tough or the Reagan Republican. I don't think anyone could really embody it emotionally. Perhaps mentally some guys might want to imagine they could say this on their death bed but there is nothing in it to praise.

Times had changed 15 years later in order to give us The Greatest Love. But as our culture (and life in general) seems to ebb and flow in a cyclical way...perhaps we're back in the "My Way" mentality and Frank's paean to the Fuck All of You Self will reclaim its eminence--maybe there's video out there of CPACsters at a karaoke bar singing it...or GWB?

And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Regrets I've had a few
But then again too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption

I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Yes there were times I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out, I faced it all
And I stood tall and did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now as tears subside
I find it all so amusing

To think I did all that
And may I say not in a shy way
Oh no, oh no, not me
I did it my way

For what is a man what has he got
If not himself then he has not
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way

Yes it was my way

Pop Song Philosophy--The Greatest Love

I am very serious about this. And maybe all those damn liberal institutions are right to study pop culture...BUT they should study it not as a kind of entertainment but rather as a diagnostic for prognoses; it should be studied in political and moral philosophy courses because, let's face it, there is not philosopher that rules our world nor even one that informs our world leaders (unless we count the vile Rand and the glorifiers of greed); it should be studied in abnormal psychology courses and early childhood education. Our world order is based on the consumption of toys and this includes the consumption of entertainments. All is infantile mania and it is very easy to sell toys to toddlers.

Imagine a time when our future elites (we call them leaders) were taught in schools where the curriculum was actually called Paideia and the students (not children, not kids, students) were taught Latin and Greek and read the philosophy of the ancients in the original languages. Yes, you can argue with me about elites, about Greek and Roman slavery, about any number of things...but I'm not arguing that students were taught how to recreate these societies--rather they were taught how to think about humanity, about the polis...not to manipulate and abuse them for greater wealth and power.

I have not studied this issue in the least and so really can only speak to my moment and dissect what is happening now in our states (you really need to be aware of what's happening in states like Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan--it seems worst in Michigan), particularly those with Republican governors.

First, my education--standard and I honestly remember little of it all the way until about sophomore year of college. I liked to read but that reading was limited to Stephen King and Dean Koontz and was centered in escape and emotion.

I'd like to take really just a brief look at Whitney Houston's The Greatest Love--lyrics and Youtubes follow. This track is off her debut album. Be sure I don't "blame" Houston for this song, nor the songwriter, this is the kind of ethos that was in the air; as I said "of the moment" in the same way that "Workin' for the Weekend" was. But these entertainments are pervasive and invasive...we sing them to ourselves and in the presence of our children--we were, thank you Journey, Raised on Radio, and radio, pop songs in the mainstream, invade our minds and become the under-song of our living. I believe that this is the strength of Limbaugh--he is a constant chant of resentment, hate, prejudice, racism, weakness...all posing as wisdom from a godly servant of righteousness.

So to the song (and the video is wonderfully self-referential as well--and more beautifully "performative" as her education seems to be "on the stage"). I don't really want to go through it line by line (and you probably don't want me to either!) but just think--this is the "paideia" of our popular mind.

What are we teaching the children that gave birth to this song in 1985? What are the lessons that inform our popular mind and lead us into our current moment?--Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, b. 1967.

Self-love WITHOUT commitment to community; without family love--it is even without the Xtian community--it is me alone with myself and that pretend Jesus who is everyone's personal savior (commentary of the times offered by Depeche Mode in 1990?)--and I am RIGHT and Justified in my love of self. But can't you tell this is the resentment of the meek? "I'll show you when I finally get to the point where I can show you!" This is the ethos that leads to self-justified rapacious destruction.

It's a conflicted ethos--We teach the children, we teach "them" to "lead the way", but to what?

The Greatest Love
I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be
Everybody searching for a hero
People need someone to look up to
I never found anyone to fulfill my needs
A lonely place to be
So I learned to depend on me

[Chorus:]
I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be

[Chorus]

And if by chance, that special place
That you've been dreaming of
Leads you to a lonely place
Find your strength in love

A Farm-Yard Conception

Found this today while looking for something else. Seems to me to be glimpse into our small-minded denizens of this world.

Yesterday I posted on FB a blog article about HR3, a bill that "is actually an attempt to shut down abortion coverage through all private insurance, including employer-provided insurance, which means that it’s beyond even the dreadful Stupak-Pitts amendment/executive order."

That article goes on to detail the clear misogyny and class warfare inherent in the Republican party (White Christian Men and their female servants).

And so this from Shaw is gentle in comparison but speaks of a "true" marriage as defined against a false institution offered by those whose conception of marriage is, as Shaw says, "a farm-yard or slave-quarter conception..."

Monogamy has a sentimental basis which is quite distinct from the political one of equal numbers of the sexes. Equal numbers in the sexes are quite compatible with a change of partners every day or every hour. Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farm-yard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and calves, and that men and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock. Accordingly, the people whose conception of marriage is a farm-yard or slave-quarter conception are always more or less in a panic lest the slightest relaxation of the marriage laws should utterly demoralize society; whilst those to whom marriage is a matter of more highly evolved sentiments and needs (sometimes said to be distinctively human, though birds and animals in a state of freedom evince them quite as touchingly as we) are much more liberal, knowing as they do that monogamy will take care of itself provided the parties are free enough, and that promiscuity is a product of slavery and not of liberty.

WikiQuotes-Shaw