November 19, 2014

"It’s probably one of those defense things where my identity is so entrenched in appearances, how I’ve never really felt like a man."

"So maybe that’s part of the gender-bending thing. Maybe I inch closer to the estrogen side, and it gets mistaken for style. I am just a guy, a heterosexual guy, but at the same time I’ve got this very queer sensibility that I’ve just been endowed with. And maybe it comes across as being mismatched in my more recent years. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t really know how I come across at all and I’ve kind of thrown up my hands. I just kind of leave it to the blogs or whoever, to the kids, to write it off as being probably like ‘throwback hipster chic,’ which I guess I sort of patented, inadvertently."

Ariel Pink explains himself. In case you were wondering. I'd never heard of him until Meade sent me that link (which goes to the NYT), but apparently, he's a currently popular singer. I clicked on the first video of his that was linked in the article, "Picture Me Gone," and I stopped in the middle — never to restart — and said 2 things:

1. I don't see why this guy is a singer. I sort of get being interested in his clothes — that caftan reminded me of Donovan (and if this is impressive "gender-bending," Donovan did that 50 years ago) — but he's not just being put before us in the news as a fashion person. We're supposed to be interested in him because he's a "purveyor of eccentric, ironic indie pop." Shouldn't he have a good voice? I don't get it. (Cue the commenters who will tell me for the umpteenth time that Bob Dylan doesn't have a good voice. (I only wrote "umpteenth" because I've noticed no one says "umpteeth anymore, and perhaps because I'm an umpteenager, what with my endless interest in the singer who struck my heart when I was just 14. (And excuse me for shifting to Dylan from my original focus on Donovan, who was "mad about 14" when I was 15.)))

2. Too suicide-y! Picture me gone? I checked the lyrics — which are actually quite clever — to see if my sense that the title/repeated phrase was a suicide threat, and I believe it is. I was surprised to see that it's in the voice of a father speaking to a son. He's taking a "selfie" — I guess this is video, with the song as the audio track — and saying he's put it on his iCloud "so you can't see me when I die." You can't see him because he's going down to Mexico to die: "I left my body somewhere down in Mexico." He recommends using "Find My iPhone" to find the body. That got me thinking about the guy who went to Mexico to kill himself and: "Decided that if I was gonna die anyway I might as well fuck a prostitute before it was all over. After that a cab driver offered to sell me cocaine. One thing lead to another, and I got a room above a whore house equipped with a heart shaped bed, a stripper pole, and a hot tub. Spent a full week snorting coke off tits, popping pain meds, drinking tequila, eating handfuls of Viagra to fight the whiskey/coke dick, and had three FFM threesomes. Somewhere in the midst of my coke-fueled orgy, I decided life wasn't so bad after all." But that story came out too recently (12 days ago) to be considered the source of Ariel Pink's song (posted on YouTube 15 days ago). Viral marketing maybe? The Mexican drugs-and-whores story appeared on Reddit and the song has all these new-media references: selfies, iCloud, Find My iPhone. Just a theory!

28 comments:

Henry said...

Ariel Pink is no Simon Le Bon, that's for sure.

mccullough said...

What is it with going to Mexico to commit suicide?

Laslo Spatula said...

Sometimes you just gotta go with the voice you're given.

Ann Althouse said...

"Sometimes you just gotta go with the voice you're given."

I remember reading an interview with Neil Young -- long ago -- where he was puzzling humorously over the question he's often asked: Why do you sing in that voice?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

So he's an early '70's Bowie? One of the joys of life is watching the same shit come around, again and again.

Wince said...

Flock of Seagulls meets Q Lazzarus.

That's the kind of music that makes me want to go to the pit in my basement and tuck my genitals between my legs.

Put the lotion in the fucking basket!!!

Heartless Aztec said...

Went to see Donovan a few of years ago when he came through town. He was showcased in the old 1820's restored Florida Theater. Beautiful venue. Donovan was a disappointment. I realized how much his recorded music was the product of Mickey Most his producer through all of his great mid 60's hits and responsible for bringing in the ringers, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, et al. Eventually I left rather than hear an hour of cherished memories ruined to the point of never being able to unhear the 2011 go around. Same with Gordon Lightfoot and Bob - stick a fork in them, they're done too. Sometimes knowing when to exit stage left is an important ant part of any act.

mccullough said...

Dylan still puts on a good show. The musicians who play with him are awesome and his voice isn't any worse than it ever was.

Chance said...

The just too old to understand line has been crossed...

Heartless Aztec said...

I think his voice is very much for the worse. His last show was completely undecipherable lyrically. On the one old song he sang - Tangled Up in Blue - my partner had to tell me what it was because the arrangement had been changed - very normal for a Bob show - but the singing was excruciating beyond Bruce Springsteen excruciating. And no one, but no one was there to see any of Bob's sidemen. Ricky Nelson once famously sang that he'd rather drive a truck than just sing memories. At less he could sing. Bob has lost the ability to even gargle out a tune. No more money for Bob shows from my pocket - I've already given him a lifetime's worth.

Tank said...

That was interesting, but interesting in a way that I'd never particularly want to watch it again, or listen to it on my Ipod, unlike this which I showed Mrs. Tank and all the little Tanks (who thought I'd lost my mind).

Roy Lofquist said...

At one time Dylan had a very pleasant voice. This is one of my favorites with a big bonus - Cash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJsLAKy0jYE

Alex said...

Wisconsin receives highest ever business climate ranking under Scott Walker

Eat it garage.

William said...

Androgynous singers have been around since before Marlene Dietrich and Italian castrati. Singing is a transgression of the human voice It's only the last couple of generations they've put on eye makeup and high heels. There's a corresponding transgressive occurrence where singers sound and dress blacker but no longer wear blackface.

Robert Cook said...

@surfed

Given your reference to the Florida Theater, I have to assume you're in Jacksonville or its environs. I grew up at the beaches there. The last time I was in the Florida Theater was sometime in the early 70s to see a Bruce Lee double feature, (and neither of the two was ENTER THE DRAGON).

n.n said...

Sometimes it feels like a man. Sometimes it feels like a woman. Sometimes it feels like both.
It's not gender neutral. It's gender fluid.
Let's normalize it all in equal proportions. It remains a mystery that anything is still tolerated, let alone rejected.

Sigivald said...

Cue the commenters who will tell me for the umpteenth time that Bob Dylan doesn't have a good voice.

Well, it is kind of the utterly obvious retort to someone who's a raging Dylan fan complaining about a pop musician's horrible singing voice.

So obvious that you quite sensibly bring it up.

But at the same time, no answer...

(Leonard Cohen, equally, can write a great song, but is an absolutely intolerable singer.

Covers of Cohen songs are brilliant; the originals are torturous.)

Heartless Aztec said...

@Robert Cook - My mother was Miss Jax Bch of 1946 and my grandmother was Miss Jax Bch (Ruby/Pablo) if 1926. We may have gone to school together if you're around age 60-ish.

Robert Cook said...

@surfed:

I just turned 59 last month, graduated from Fletcher in '73.

Bob R said...

Gah! With all of that processing, how would anyone know what his voice is like? (Sorry if "his" is too judgmental.)

retired said...

And you wonder why the culture is so f'd up and why parents are upset about it.

Heartless Aztec said...

Hahaha...you went to school with all of the Altee's. Small world. You graduated with my sister Priscilla.

Robert Cook said...

"Hahaha...you went to school with all of the Altee's. Small world. You graduated with my sister Priscilla."

Yeah, I didn't know any of the Altee's personally, but I was aware of them. A friend I met at UF in Gainvesville (and who I'm still friends with now...both of us in NYC) had Cam as a classmate in a couple of his classes there.

Small world, indeed.

J2 said...

Looks like he models his look after the Jonathan Rhys Meyer character in "Velvet Goldmine".

Tom said...

If you don't want to overuse "umpteenth," try the Tolkein-ism: eleventeenth.

Jupiter said...

"clever"?

Let's make a toast to glory days
When you were 8 and I was only 41
I dedicate this selfie to the little guy
Who will outlast me when I'm done

Look into my camera lens
And straight through me I see that you're a lot like me
You never get attention
And you never get a pension
Or your dad's money

Picture me gone

I backed up all my pictures on my iCloud so you can't see me when I die
I left my body somewhere down in Mexico
Give "Find My iPhone" app a try

Let's make a toast to glory days
When you were 8 and I was only 45
I dedicate to this selfie to the little guy
Who will outlast me when I'm done

Picture me gone


What the fuck is clever about that drivel?

CatherineM said...

I like "Baby" which might be Donavan's-ish too. It was in the movie "The Specatcular Now" (very good) and I love it.

Anonymous said...

Ariel Pink is awful!