Joe Lies
Lots of things make me laugh --- friends, comedians, political speeches. But there is one thing that has never made me laugh harder in my entire life. Folk singers.
At the last South by Southwest music festival I ever attended, which was about 1990 or 1991, I decided I wanted to see roots rocker Charlie Chesterman, formerly of Scruffy the Cat, above all else at the Cactus Cafe on the UT campus. The problem with trying to see Charlie was that he was on a bill with a whole slew of folk singers. And since there was no order to the performances, I had no idea when Charlie was going to play.
Rob and I both went to the UT campus to sample some of the offerings. I decided to stick it out at the Cactus Cafe and wait it out for my favored performer while Rob went upstairs to another venue to listen to the white boy funk of Bouffant Jellyfish.
So I sit down at a table next to the stage and listen to hack after hack get up on a stool with an acoustic guitar and sing about their problems. Their songs were sincere, pained and really bad. After about two performances, I walk out in the hall for a break from the misery. And Rob is just leaving his show. He asks how the Cactus Cafe performances are. And I tell him this:
"Remember the party scene in Say Anything where Lloyd Dobler's friend Corey breaks out her guitar and sings a bunch of songs about her sorry ex-boyfriend? It's just like that in there. Every song sounds like Corey's original version of 'Joe Lies.' "
That's all Rob needed to hear. He joined me at the table next to the stage. And we both caught a case of world class laughter. We added fuel to the fire by constantly repeating Corey lines from Say Anything.
"I wrote 68 songs about Joe, and I'm going to sing them all tonight."
"That'll never be me, that'll never be me, that'll never be me."
"He likes girls with names like ASHLEY."
"Joe lies. Joe lies. Joe lies, when he crys."
We laughed harder and louder each time one of us would throw out a Corey line. It just wouldn't end.
Finally, some poor schmuck who was pouring his heart out on stage actually stopped during the middle of a song and asked us to shut up. I'm not sure if we did. But I woke up the next morning with a laughter induced stomach ache.
At the last South by Southwest music festival I ever attended, which was about 1990 or 1991, I decided I wanted to see roots rocker Charlie Chesterman, formerly of Scruffy the Cat, above all else at the Cactus Cafe on the UT campus. The problem with trying to see Charlie was that he was on a bill with a whole slew of folk singers. And since there was no order to the performances, I had no idea when Charlie was going to play.
Rob and I both went to the UT campus to sample some of the offerings. I decided to stick it out at the Cactus Cafe and wait it out for my favored performer while Rob went upstairs to another venue to listen to the white boy funk of Bouffant Jellyfish.
So I sit down at a table next to the stage and listen to hack after hack get up on a stool with an acoustic guitar and sing about their problems. Their songs were sincere, pained and really bad. After about two performances, I walk out in the hall for a break from the misery. And Rob is just leaving his show. He asks how the Cactus Cafe performances are. And I tell him this:
"Remember the party scene in Say Anything where Lloyd Dobler's friend Corey breaks out her guitar and sings a bunch of songs about her sorry ex-boyfriend? It's just like that in there. Every song sounds like Corey's original version of 'Joe Lies.' "
That's all Rob needed to hear. He joined me at the table next to the stage. And we both caught a case of world class laughter. We added fuel to the fire by constantly repeating Corey lines from Say Anything.
"I wrote 68 songs about Joe, and I'm going to sing them all tonight."
"That'll never be me, that'll never be me, that'll never be me."
"He likes girls with names like ASHLEY."
"Joe lies. Joe lies. Joe lies, when he crys."
We laughed harder and louder each time one of us would throw out a Corey line. It just wouldn't end.
Finally, some poor schmuck who was pouring his heart out on stage actually stopped during the middle of a song and asked us to shut up. I'm not sure if we did. But I woke up the next morning with a laughter induced stomach ache.
posted by john clarke at 9:02 AM
3 Comments:
I never like to laugh at someone's sincere attempt at art, but shit it was funny.
I feel compelled to defend myself on this a bit more. The guy was not so much singing as yelling, he didn't have a tune in his voice or his guitar, the lyrics were angst ridden and uninteresting, in fact at first I thought he had tourettes syndrome.
I support all aspiring musicians no matter what the skill level, but this cat was trying to pull a bit and we reversed the whip.
It is the one instance where I was the a-hole in the audience.
However, I will defend myself with physics. Laughter is an involuntary action. Talking, using a cell phone or shouting out "Freebird" during a performance is totally free will.
So it would reason that if the performances were worthy, I would not have laughed.
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