“Ping Pong”
Reader W.S. calls my attention to this Pitchfork item noting that it was a bit odd of Meghan McCain to choose Stereolab’s “Ping Pong” as her September 29, 2008 “song of the day.” The video:
Here’s some lyrics:
It’s alright right ‘cos the historical pattern has shown
How the economical cycle tends to revolve
In a round of decades three stages stand out in a loop
A slump and war then peel back to square one and back for moreBigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
Huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recoveryYou see the recovery always comes ’round again
There’s nothing to worry for things will look after themselves
It’s alright recovery always comes ’round again
There’s nothing to worry if things can only get betterThere’s only millions that lose their jobs and homes and sometimes accents
There’s only millions that die in their bloody wars, it’s alrightIt’s only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing
It’s only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing
Pitchfork wonders if, perhaps, “Meghan McCain completely doesn’t understand sarcasm and truly believes that this song is about how the economy will just work itself out and everything will be all right.” Maybe. It’d be one thing if she’d done something like pick “Bop Scotch” where Stereolab’s lefty politics are expressed in French but I don’t think “Ping Pong” is open to much ambiguity.
36 Responses to ““Ping Pong””
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October 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
RIP Mary Hansen.
I’m still sad.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I hate the fact that no matter what bands you like, there are asshats out there that also like them
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
As I told Matt (I’m W.S.), I found this particularly funny, as this has been the ring tone on my phone for the last couple years.
And Bop Scotch is probably my favorite song off of Margerine Eclipse.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
She probably didn’t understand what the singer was singing — I couldn’t. She just thought it was bouncy pop song,
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I could buy that for the verses, because they kind of have a weird cadence to the words, but the chorus is pretty easy to understand. At least the “Bigger slumps…” part.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
My guess is that she chose the song for the title, which suggests the back-and-forth of a debate. (Not that there was much back-and-forth to that debate, despite Jim Lehrer’s best efforts…)
Still shocking, considering Stereolab is probably the most famously Marxist band in the world.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Maybe she does understand sarcasm, but revels in how the Market [Heavenly chorus: "Aaaah!"], red in tooth and claw, brings the lazy uncreative masses to the wall, and its downturns can lead to that Great Purifier*, War.
I doubt she does, but I don’t know her.
*Nominally sane and civilised people were capable of believing in this; the Great War was seen by some (who bothered to say so at the time) as an opportunity to clean the kruft out of society….sort of Shock Fascism.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
As someone who’s listened to and enjoyed this song many times, I have never been able to decipher the lyrics, nor had it occurred to me to look them up.
Meghan McCain’s still a clown, though.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I really miss the days when lyrics were good. For example, “Yummy yummy yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy, and I feel like loving you!” That was a really good one. Not like the stuff kids are listening to nowadays.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Between “Dancing Queen” and Stereolab, the McCain family can make me a mixtape any old time. Still not voting for him, though…
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
As we all know from the rally in Portland during the primaries, Obama was the followup act to a massive concert put on by Stalinist musical ensemble. McCain’s family, it seems, prefers sounds in a more Maoist-leaning direction.
Truly we are a nation divided.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Stereolab: 1968-school French radicalism sung laconically to analogue synths, Farfisas, Moogs. Wonderful. A pity I missed their benefit gig at the 40 Watt in Athens last week, since it’s the first gig they’ve played in the general vicinity in ages.
Also, a sad reminder of the need for better bike safety, as #1 noted.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
One of my all time favorite Stereolab songs and there are quite a few. Love the way they can distill down complex progressive thinking into easily digestible lyrics. Even the French is great! A class act all the way. We miss you Mary.
Unfortunately, the Republican ticket is anything but classy. Megan may have a modicum of musical taste but it won’t get her father anywhere closer to the White House.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
That’s a bit of poetic justice for you. The whole family’s clueless.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
i understood the lyrics just fine. but i liked the song for years before i actually paid any attention at all to them – because of the shifting language and heavy accents, i usually just enjoy Stereolab vocals for the sound, not for the words.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Love the sample (or is it a recreation?) from the 5th Dimension song “Up, Up and Away” in “Ping Pong”.
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:07 pm
It just confirms my impression that Meghan McCain is a pretty decent girl who loves her father but realizes what a disastrous president he would be.
She’s probably trying to subtly undermine his campaign without doing it in a way that would hurt his feelings…
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Add this to Mitt Romney’s son being MySpace friends with Animal Collective and Of Montreal and Barbara Bush going to the Radiohead concert with her secret service posse.
Is anything sacred anymore?
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Well, I’d like to think that this is a small act of subversion on the part of Ms. McCain. Have some empathy people–it can’t be easy being John McCain’s daughter. Think of Svetlana Alliluyeva . . .
October 4th, 2008 at 1:32 am
an even better stereolab track – ‘tomorrow is already here’ “originally they set out / to serve society / now the roles have been reversed / they want society to serve / the institutions” – how true is that now? they wrote that in 94! genius.
October 4th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Dear God. What next, the Mekons? Billy Bragg?
For Palin: “When Not Being Stupid Is Not Enough” by Built to Spill.
October 4th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Maybe it’s neither? Maybe she’s half a ditz who doesn’t understand the economy and is just a hack for her dad, in the hopes that the next condo he buys her will be in D.C.
October 4th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I think this is more proof that people listen to pop music with half their ears, they mostly ignore the lyrical content and its meaning. The Republicans playing “Everyday People” at their convention?! What?!
“There is a blue one who can’t accept a green one
For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one.
Different strokes for different folks . . .
We got to live together
I am not better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me you know me and then
You can’t figure out the bag I’m in”
Oh yeah, that’s the GOP exactly. Forgive me, but I’m starting to hate this hateful, ignorant fuckers.
October 4th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Er, Matt, I enjoy Dostoevsky’s writing in spite of his right-wing views which I do not share. Need we admire an artist’s politics to appreciate their artistry?
Meghan McCain, by the way, is super-hot. Why doesn’t she have more interesting stuff on her blog though? You can only read so much of ‘if this is Wednesday, this must be Duluth.”
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