Tuesday, September 18, 2007

iTunes Word Search: "John"

My life, right now, is largely the digestion of John Barth's novel "LETTERS," and the self-imposed task of reading all his subsequent books. I'm worried that I might get sick of Mr. Barth. I do not want this to become "work" as opposed to "pleasure."

To divert myself, I wondered what songwriters think about "John." An iTunes word-search did the trick:
  1. Angry Johnny (Poe)
  2. Dear John (Aimee Mann)
  3. Dear Johnny (Poe)
  4. John Cope (Talk Talk)
  5. John E. Smoke (Butthole Surfers)
  6. John the Revelator (Depeche Mode)
  7. Johnny B. Carcass (Gogh Van Go)
  8. Johnny Come Home (Fine Young Cannibals)
  9. Johnny Said: Silver (Nits)
  10. Johnny Yen (James)
  11. Little Johnny Jewel (Chrome Cranks)
  12. No Xmas for John Quays (The Fall)
  13. Not Now John (Pink Floyd)
  14. Stories of Johnny (Marc Almond)
  15. Surabaya Johnny (Maat)
Not surprisingly, "John" is an all-purpose name...but is there a trend here anyway? We've got morally ambiguous boyfriends named Johnny, we have a mystical John E., we have potential references to the Biblical John, we have lots of of working-class Johns, a junkie "John Quay," and a soldier John.

To answer my own question: nope, probably no trend, John just sounds good and doesn't disrupt the rhyme.

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