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#1: Katydid (kmeifert) on Oct 12, 2007

Great puzzle - so elegant in its simplicity!

I was pleasantly surprised by the picture by such a small puzzle.

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I love this. LOL I'm still cracking up. Funny bit of information too. That sounds about right!
Great fun Sarah.
Thank you so much for the fun and the levity! ox

My partner says it's the best puzzle ever. I like it too.

Thanks!

Cute :o) and very good.

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That's cute.

Once upon a time, for reasons I do not care to recall, I had my iPod set to play "Walk Like an Egyptian" repeatedly for hours and hours.

I gradually came to believe that the song is a bit more sinister than the super-cheerful tune might tend to suggest. "Walking like an Egyptian" is not, actually a cool thing to do. It means behaving the way your culture expect you to. It means conforming. In the song, lots of people are telling you to "Walk like an Egyptian", but notice who is doing the telling:

All the Japanese with their yen
The party boys call the Kremlin
And the Chinese know (oh whey oh)
They walk the line like Egyptian

Japanese, Russians, and Chinese are were not exactly the folks generally thought of a free spirits at the time of this song. And the Chinese are not just walking like egyptians, they are "walking the line" like Egyptians.

It's not actually a very good way to walk. It's clumsy and unnatural:

All the old paintings on the tombs
They do the sand dance don't you know
If they move too quick (oh whey oh)
They're falling down like a domino

So it actually limits your ability to move quickly and freely. But you gotta do it anyway. "Life is hard you know," so "strick a pose on a Cadillac" and if "you drop your drink, then they bring you more". Who is "they?" The school kids are sick of their books, but "when the buzzer rings, they're walking like an Egyptian". After all, "All the kids in the marketplace say walk like an Egyptian". Every kind of social pressure is being applied to the sand dance.

Who else is advocating walking like an egyptian? Why the "cops in the donut shops". "They spin the clubs and cruise down the block" saying "walk like an egyptian". If you don't, will they use their clubs?

And all the time the "bazaar men by the Nile" "got the money on a bet" and the "gold crocodiles snap their teeth on a cigarette." They say "walk like an egyptian". Yup, the commercial sector is in on the act too. Did they bet they could get everyone doing a silly walk and make a bunch of money off it?

So, the song is actually acute social criticism. Except nobody but me believes this. Maybe you have to listen to it twenty million times in a row to get this paranoid about it.

Oh well, at least I've ensured that the tune will be stuck in your head for another day or two.

Oh whey oh!

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Well, that's kind of a disturbing song too. "Walking Like a man" in that song seems to be about walking away from problems, which may be a good idea at times, but doesn't strike me as a particular expression of manliness. My sense of that phrase has always been (1) that it stands in opposition to "walking like a child" not to "walking like a woman" and, (2) that it has to do with not shrugging off your share of the weight of the world.

I guess I've always suffered from the listening-to-the-lyrics disease. I'm always amazed at how some people have no idea what their favorite songs are about.

Hi Jan - Impressive! Your explanations makes sense to me. Now I know who to ask when a song doesn't make sense!I haven't listened to the entire Walk like an Egyptian song. I only knew the chorus. It was one of the songs on Don't Forget the Lyrcis and the phrase "sand dance" had a nice sound to it. How in-depth is your song knowledge? What types of music do you listen to?

No one believes that the Bangles were actually a pretty good band. Pop and talent? No one does that! How come teh Walk like a Man guy sings like a girly falsetto? Same for that Peter Cetera "i am a man whou would fight for your honor" thing.

I like misquoted lyrics. I know a woman who swore the song "alive and kickin'" was "I love it kinky"

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I'm no kind of music expert. As I teenager I pretty much listened only to classical, so I missed making the connection to "my generations" music that so many people do. Then I spent nearly 20 years living alone, and started buying music to fill the dead air. I had the advantage of having an amazing public radio station, WDET, that dodged the usual public radio defaults of jazz and classical, and played everything that nobody else was playing. (They've since shifted more to talk radio.) I also had the world's most fabulous record store a block away from my home (Schoolkid's records, long gone) and enough spending money so that I could buy any LP that looked interesting. Music listening pretty much shut down when I got together with Valerie, since she mostly just finds background music distracting (even the sound leaking from my iPod headphones can be distracting to her). Can't say I miss it terribly.

But my iPod's right here and I can type in some of what's on it in near alphabetical order.

The Balanescue Quartet's "Possessed" album was the music I used to use to grade papers to, and is still some of the best background music for working that I know. It's a string quartet that does acoustic versions of various tunes originally written for synthesizers by groups like Kraftwerk and David Byrne. I think this is the first thing I copied onto the iPod when I got it.

Let's see. The Bangles (just Egyptian), Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Betty, Blowzabella, Caetano Velosso, Caperaillie (celtic - I'm especially fond of their "Sidewaulk" album).

Oh yeah, Dry & Heavy. It's a Japanese Reggae band, and needs to be heard to be believed. I love that.

The Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong version of "Summertime". Way too much music from Ennio Moricone's spaghetti westerns, which totally cracks me up. Gilberto Gil. Gomez (love the "In Our Gun Album"). The soundtrack to Flashdance (Valerie and I used to exercise to that). Lots of Holly Cole, especially from her album of Tom Waits covers, Temptation. The Horsefly's "Human Fly" album which is kind of a Celtic/Rock crossover. Igrid Karklins who was kind of a Laurie Anderson spin off (did I mention I love Laurie Anderson?). Iris Dement's "Our Town". Jim Kweskin's jug band music. Some Laura Love, but not too much. Quite a bit of Lyle Lovett. He and Robert Earl Keene are the country guys I really like, which probably just proves that I don't like country.

The Legendary Marvin Pontiac is a bizarre figment of the imagination of John Lurie and a real favorite. Michelle Shocked has long been a favorite, especially her Arkansas Traveller album. Miriam Makeba's Songoma. Oh, the Morells, the greatest one album bar-band in history. Wow, wait, Amazon says they released another album in 2001. Their first one dates from 1982. Cool. Jerry Mungo, "In the Summertime". Neville Brother's "Dancing Jones". Outback, a very cool didgeridoo band. Lots and lots of Paul Simon, especially "Graceland". There's also lots of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, which is actually what lead me to Paul Simon, talk about backwards. Petula Clark's "Downtown". All of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" which is pretty much the last hold over of my fascination with Classical. I will always love a big theatrical piece like that. Love Leonard Bernstein's Mass too, but it's not on the iPod. Quite a lot from folk-singer Sally Rogers. I learned all the lullabies I sang to my kids from her "Quiet O'Clock" album and I've got a few on the iPod because they remind me of when the kids were babies. Some Sinead O'Conner. Amazing voice but doesn't quite do for me what she used to. Some Squirrel Nut Zippers. Also Steve Ferguson's "Jack Salmon and Derby Sauce" song. Some songs from "Two Nice Girls" including most of their "Like a Version" album, which has covers of things like the "Speed Racer" theme song and "I spent my last $5 on birth control and beer". (Wow, Amazon says that album goes for $50 used. Worth it.) The Ventures, "Walk, Don't Run" (you know it, even if you've never heard of it). Some XTC and some Beatles too.

Well, you asked.

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What a neat little image!

And a neat big discussion.

I did ask and got quite an impressive answer! Summertime is one of my favorite songs. I only recognize a few names so that limits any sort of intelligent response from me.

Gypso,
hopefully you will have a better response than I.

Yeah, I've found that my musical tastes aren't really particularly useful for creating bonds with other people. They are kind of perpendicular, the product of my own random walk through the musical world. If they were informed by any philosophy or deep understanding of music, they'd probably have redeeming conversational value, but as it is, it's just a bunch of stuff I picked up along the way.

I think in many ways we are perpendicular people and you may meet more of us on the road than you expect. You have, in just being yourself created a safe place for introverts and allowed us to share with one another. Yay for perpendiculars.

I admit that most of your musical artist and song list I do not recognize. But I disagree that it has no redeemable conversational value. It says a lot about you and gives the reader the opportunity to search out new music and possibly form questions about it. I haven't had the time yet to follow up on your list but I do look forward to browsing through your interests some day soon. Thanks Jan.

Jan - I know a lot of songs where the lyrics don't make a lot of sense - maybe you can decipher them for me!!

A recent one my son keeps asking about is One Headlight by The Wallflowers. (lead singer is Jakob Dylan, son of Bob and an excellent first album that I recently discovered IMHO. They have a couple other albums since then that are OK, but the first album is the best so far) Here's the lyric that my son keeps asking me to explain (the song sounds like it's about losing a loved one):

Me and Cinderella
Bring it all together
We can drive it home
With one headlight

Hmmm...I've never thought of myself as an expert at song interpretation. I just heard WLaE too many times and it started meaning something else.

Looked up the rest of the lyrics of this song. It seems like it is about being down in the dumps and trying to find a glimmer of hope that things will be better in the future. The death (possibly suicide) of a loved one is as much the circumstance as the subject.

Cinderella, of course, starts out stuck in a miserable life with her step mother and step sisters. Her story is the escape from that to a life of love and luxury in a castle. A trip from darkness into light. That image seems especially appropriate because regaining to happiness seems like a fairy tale at the moment.

Driving home with one headlight is about finding the way out of darkness even though your own light is mostly broken.

Actually hearing the song instead of just reading the lyrics would probably help.

Hope you don't send me a bill for the psychoanalysis - although this could be another way to pay for your growing PBN website. I'll show my son your explanation - he should get a kick out of it (and maybe he won't groan when I play that song in the car).

I was just testing your talents with this one, and you convinced me. I won't challenge you with the random sounding lyrics from some Golden Earring and Steve Miller Band songs, among MANY others.

You could always try this interpretation as well Robert. Or it might just be more confusing once you've read it. :)


http://www.songcrossfire.com/the_wallflowers-one_headlight.php

Just wanted to add this for Jan. http://icanhascheezburger.com/?s=walk+liek

Very funny M2. :)

JC (#13) I thought it was "I like it kinky" too until very recently! LOL!

And I love ACDC "Dirty deeds and the thunder cheif"

I can't believe I missed this puzzle until I did a search for small puzzles!

Well, another similarity between Jan and myself (is this getting scary?!) What I didn't mention is that while I was "breaking into" the computer lab at college I was studying music, a tuba major to be specific (I'll leave out the part where I didn't get my degree). If you were to check my CD cabinet you'd find the gammet from classical to country and hip hop (only 1!) to hard rock, not to mention jazz, easy listening, acapella, sound tracks and etc. I've resisted the iPod urge - the radio in the car and other peoples' noise gets me by in quieter moments.

Jan - your analysis of the song is right on, it's about the restrictions of society, double standards and stereotypes - including the one that an all girl band can't possibly being playing the music themselves or be any good. Also, Sussana Hoffs is pretty darn cute! (And Jane Wheelen is pretty weird!) Can you tell I had the album? I think an ex-girlfriend absconded with it. I'll have to look for a replacement.

Oh, and the puzzle? Pretty cute.

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Jan they say the memory is the second thing to go :)
byrdie, that sounds like my music selection, but no hip hop & I still have oh so many cassette tapes that I play on a regular dasis

Have to admit I bought the hip hop album for one song, otherwise I'd not likely have any.

Wow. what a rich conversation sparked by a fairly simple puzzle. love this site!

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Cool puzzle, Sarah! It was just the right level of difficulty for me.

Oddly, I was a fan of "Walk like and Egyptian," but never really studied the lyric. What a spot-on analysis! I am now amazed by the depth of what I thought was a fun little song, sort of like dumbing down "let's get physical" to an exercise song!

Very good puzzle, Sarah, and what a discussion afterwards!! I'm glad I finally found all of it.

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<3

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