I’m rather pleased with myself.
After almost a year of trying to figure out exactly what the lyrics of Shivaree’s very catchy yet disturbingly violent song Daring Lousy Guy are actually about, I’ve cracked it. The answer? Nothing really.
It should be noted that I cannot actually claim to have reached this stunning conclusion through anything but sheer blind luck, specifically my stumbling over a page on www.rinkworks.com that explains it all. Not that the page is actually about Shivaree, or indeed song lyrics, it’s in their “Things People Said” section, and lists a number of appalingly bad English subtitles from Hong Kong martial art films. On perusing this list it became astoundingly clear to me that most of the song lyric is built from these quotes, strung together to create at least a semblance of a storyline.
For example, the song….
And I feel very cold,
Just what gives you the nerve to die here?
End my game and fold,
The quotes…
“Fatty, you with your thick face have hurt my instep.” — Pedicab Driver
“The bullets inside are very hot. Why do I feel so cold?” — Lethal Panther
“Who gave you the nerve to get killed here?” — Armour of God
Putting aside for a moment the concept of a film called “Pedicab Driver”, it may be noticed that there doesn’t appear to be a quote about ending games or folding. We can probably put this down as improvisation neccessary for the rhyme. In any case I leave a full comparison between the lyrics (tip – it helps to select them with the mouse before reading) and the quotes to those interested enough to check them out for themselves.
So, does this mean Ambrosia and Duke are readers of Rinkworks? Or did Rinkworks and the band both harvest the information from one of those annoying novelty emails that float around the net pointing out the failures of other cultures to deal with our insanely complex language? I dunno. I’m just happy that I can finally sing along without worrying about exactly what kind of hideous massacre I might be advocating.
It is a shame that they couldn’t work Brain Theft’s immortal line “A normal person wouldn’t steal pituitaries” into the lyric though…
