the Four Tops :: It’s All in the Game
One day I listened to this record that I have three copies of because I heard the Four Tops mentioned on an episode of television’s hit sitcom Martin. I was expecting nothing, but low and behold, I discovered this little beauty. I was 19 at the time… my first guilty pleasure. It’s now my secret weapon. Do do do do…do do. Wait for it…
It’s All In The Game
the Four Tops (wikipedia)
Daniel Johnston :: Like a Monkey in a Zoo
Daniel Johnston is one of those notorious figures that you’re either completely sick of, or completely oblivious to. If you do know who he is, you either love him or hate him. Basically, he’s manic and recovering. He had a brief encounter with fame in the early 90s followed by a documentary that recast him as an “outsider” figure, forever cute and novel.
This particular song embodies something that I feel has been completely sucked out of modern music. In this case it’s a synthesis, but what Daniel generally offers is mistake. Or rather, to those who have come to see perfection as polish and grace, this song may sound a bit flawed. He sings off key, you can hear the cassette tape he recorded on warble and distort, his piano is out of tune… the list goes on. But, when I hear this song, and when any one who likes Daniel Johnston hears this song, its flaws are precisely what make it great. Its flaws are its perfection. And, in a society where everything we do is gauged by the swiftness and order in which we do it, it kind of makes sense why music like this would appeal to at least a few of us.
Personally, I hate our flawlessness, our perfection; I can’t do a single thing without double and triple checking my results. It’s inhuman. It is inhuman to strive to be so perfect and to feel flawed from failure of achieving an impossible goal; what Monkey in a Zoo represents is an alternative. Daniel presents failed flawlessness as human perfection. Or rather, his failed perfection is all too human to be denied for lack of beautiful. He’s proud of it. Daniel Johnston taps our inner essence by never polishing, the first take is just how the song goes, and that’s just how he sings it. He hits record and lets it fly, censorship be dammed. He’s raw emotion. And all this would be enough, as it usually is, to make a classic Daniel Johnston original, but this song offers more. This Monkey in a Zoo is self-aware. The lyrics are precisely about this idea of societal flawlessness. We’re all monkeys in a zoo, chained to the wall that is other people and a projected sense of perfection. And it’s not like he’s just riffing on some little emotionally felt ditty either; the structure of this song is pure pop, straight out of a Beatles songbook. Listen to the bridge. I can’t quite put my finger on which Lennon song it sounds like, but I just know it is one.
So in an effort to be brief, I dutifully submit for the approval of the midnight society this humble approach to the greatest song ever, Monkey in a Zoo.
Like a Monkey in a Zoo
Daniel Johnston (homepage)