Hall and Oates

One of the nice things about having a long drive to work is that I get to listen to a lot of music during the commute. The bad things include the sadness I feel when I see vehicle owners who have been so badly hurt by the recession that they can't afford to have their turn indicator lights fixed...and have to drive their Lexuses (Lexii??) down the highway without functional signals. I'd donate to the cause, if I only knew which charity it was that provides assistance to these poor, underpriviledged souls. Perhaps when Congress gets done saving the automakers, banks, and pog manufacturers, they can fund a bailout for the blinker-impaired.

Anyway, in the 1-hour commute I'm doing while on my current proposal, I can flip stations to listen to a wide variety of tunes, from Channel 93.3's ultra-modern scream rock to KEZW's rare recordings of tunes from before the banjo was invented. Being a lover of diversity and cross-cultural interchange, I usually search for foreign music (Led Zeppelin, the Guess Who, Men at Work, etc.) But occasionally I'll pause on stuff by more local artists.

Yesterday, I heard Hall and Oates' "Maneater", and was actually surprised to find my toes tapping to the tune. It made me think about how many bands from the past I disliked intensely when they were popular, but have come to tolerate (or even admire) with the passage of years. Bands like Fleetwood Mac, the Bee Gees, and Tom Petty provided motivation for instant station changes in the old days, but now...

Aw, I can't lie -- I still think Tom Petty sucks. And while there are a few Bee Gee songs I can listen to without reaching for the Pepto Bismol, they still deserve derision for their role in the Disco movement. John Travolta was able to overcome the stigma of being associated with that abomination (thanks to movies like "Battlefield Earth"), but the Gibbs will just have to hope their billions of dollars can mollify the sting they must feel from being laughed at as the poster boys for the most shameful period in American history.

And on a not-completely-unrelated subject, I have found that I like Peter Frampton a WHOLE lot better now that he's bald.

Anyway, the point is that the Hall and Oates song made me wonder why most Americans pronounce the same word in two different ways depending on its context. In "Maneater" there's a line that I always thought contained the words "pearly jaguar". A little research among the internets revealed that it's really "the purr of a jaguar", which I suppose makes a little more sense. In the song, you know they're talking about the brand of vehicle rather than the cat (even though the lyrics are heavily oriented around the carnivore metaphor). But whenever the word is pronounced with 3 syllables, you know they're talking about the car -- jag-you-are. If you're talking about a jungle predator, it's pronounced more like jag-wire.

When I started to write this, I had a couple of other such words in mind to discuss, but that picture of Hall and Oates disturbed me so much that I've lost my train of thought. They just look a little too friendly with each other, if you know what I mean. And Oates, for some reason, conjures up images of both Tony Orlando and Erik Estrada...both of whom totally creep me out. So I think I'll create my own mental image of Hall and Oates (using Anthony Michael and Warren), just so I can sleep easily at night while I ponder the depth and meaning of their thought-provoking lyrics.

If I think of the other words that were supposed to be part of this discussion, I might expand on this topic in future entries. Or not...with my particular brand of A.D.D., I'll probably forget about all of this on the way to work this morning. Especially if they play songs with lyrics like "hornswoop me bungo pony dogsled on ice". We can hope so anyway; let's all enjoy the music, and have a great day!