Friday, August 03, 2007

An iTunes Word Search: "Hair"

Do people actually write songs about "hair?" I did a search on my iPod to find out.
  1. Bad Hair (The Legendary Pink Dots)
  2. Bernice Bobs Her Hair (The Divine Comedy)
  3. Devil's Haircut (Beck)
  4. Hair of the Dog (Bauhaus)
  5. Hairless Domotron (Intercom)
  6. Hairstyles and Attitudes (Timbuk 3)
  7. Hairy Piano (Moodswings)
  8. Hairy Trees (Goldfrapp)
  9. Hanging By His Hair (The Residents)
I'm not sure what "Bad Hair" is all about, good luck figuring out Beck and Goldfrapp...any "hair" in their songs is more likely a stream-of-consciousness piece of beat consciousness than anything even remotely concrete. "Hairless Domotron" and "Hairy Piano" are just titles that sounded nifty, I think. And "Hair of the Dog" is just a hairless metaphor.

Which leaves us with three songs that are ACTUALLY about hair. "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is about a woman who cuts her hair in order to feel empowered, but instead feels insecure. "Hairstyles and Attitudes" is a typically irreverent Timbuk 3 song that attempts to link...well, hairstyles and attitudes. "Hanging By His Hair" is some sort of biblical reference to somebody who really did -- so we're told -- hang by his hair.

2 comments:

Eric Little said...

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is also the title of a 1920 F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. So you get two literary allusions: the song title and the group's name.

Adam Thornton said...

Aha, you never know what's going on with these too-clever-by-half singer-songwriters...