Last Saturday night, party animals that we are, some friends and I went on Rhapsody and searched for pop songs that mention "hurricanes." Sweet Jesus, there were a lot of them. And a large percentage used "eye of a hurricane" as a bad love metaphor.
So we were inspired to make a hurricane music soundtrack, which we'll be playing today at my D.C.-based party for Storm World. For pop culture mavens (like Sheril), here are the songs, beginning with the classic "The Hurricane" by Bob Dylan--which, of course, isn't really about a hurricane, and which is the best song of the bunch IMHO. After the jump, I've included some lyrical selections, chosen mostly for their incredible badness:
Hurricane, Bob Dylan
(And She Said) Take Me Now, Justin Timberlake
Eye Of The Hurricane, Blue Oyster Cult
Hurricane, Joan Osborne
Hurricane Eye, Paul Simon
One Of The Survivors, The Kinks
Hurricane, Bette Midler
Hurricane, Bush
Sky Is Falling, Blackalicious
Rock You Like A Hurricane, Scorpions
Lost And Found, The Kinks
Pancake, Tori Amos
The Word "Hurricane," Air
Hurricane, Lisa Loeb
Rain, KISS
Ain't Wastin' Time No More, The Allman Brothers Band
Hurricane Years, Alice Cooper
Strength To Endure, The Ramones
Cannibals, Mark Knopfler
When You Were Young, The Killers
Life Goes On, The Kinks
Otis Redding, Sara Evans
Savannah Fare You Well, Jimmy Buffett
(Hurricane) The Formal Weather Pattern, Something Corporate
All Hands, Blues Traveler
Lost In The Flood, Bruce Springsteen
Feels Like Rain, Buddy Guy
Novacane, Beck
It's The End Of The World As We Know It (...R.E.M.)
And now some lyrics. We turn to Justin Timberlake:
I'm like a hurricane
Just coasting along
You better grab me girl
I hope you take me now
Huh? On to....The Kinks:
Waiting for the hurricane
To hit New York City
Somebody said it's hit the bay
This is the nitty gritty
Such effortless rhyming. And here's Neil Young:
You are like a hurricane
There's calm in your eye.
And I'm gettin' blown away
To somewhere safer
where the feeling stays.
I want to love you but
I'm getting blown away.
See? I told you these lyrics were bad. Still, I don't think Young is quite as unabashedly awful as the classic from the Scorpions:
It's early morning
The sun comes out
Last night was shaking
And pretty loud
My cat is purring
And scratches my skin
So what is wrong
With another sin
The bitch is hungry
She needs to tell
So give her inches
And feed her well
More days to come
New places to go
I've got to leave
It's time for a show
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane
What can you say about a song like that? Better not to, I think.
On to the most meteorologically explicit lyrics, from Air:
The word hurricane is the name given to natures strongest storm.
A hurricane occurs when high pressure and low pressure masses of air come in contact with one another.There is often a significant difference in temperature between the two masses.
One mass is warm, while the other is cold.
The warmer air rises, and the cooler air falls.
Likewise, the low pressure area slides down the sides of the high pressure area.They swirl in and around one another, creating the beginnings of the storm.
This just so happens to be spectacularly, totally wrong. Air doesn't know the difference between hurricanes and extratropical cyclones. I've been complaining about bad hurricane metaphors, but bad hurricane facts are even worse.
I'll leave you with something kind of profound, in its simplicity, one again from the Kinks:
Tornado, cyclone and hurricane
Can batter the houses with the thunder and rain.
Blizzards can blow; the waves hit the shore,
But the people recover and come back for more.
- Log in to post comments
How about the '06 cover of the Skids The Saints Are Coming by Green Day and U2? It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group.
Ah...but it doesn't mention "hurricane"...and was therefore missed by our search.
Might want to add Led Zeppelin's version of the classic blues song "When the Levee Breaks," which doesn't mention hurricanes directly, but it's about a New Orleans flood...and you know it rocks.
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break,
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break,
When The Levee Breaks
I'll have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Lord, mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.
Don't it make you feel bad
When you're tryin' to find your way home,
You don't know which way to go?
If you're goin' down South
They go no work to do,
If you don't know about Chicago.
Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
You missed one that *really* describes a hurricane: Mike Oldfield's Five Miles Out (based on a true story of him trying to land a plane in a heavy storm). From 1982.
What do you do when your falling you've got 30 degrees and your stalling out
And its 24 miles to the beacon there's a crack in the sky and the warnings out
Don't take that dive again
Push through that band of rain
Five miles out
Just hold your heading true
Got to get your finest out
Your number 1 anticipating you
Climbing out
Just hold your heading true
Got to get your finest out
Your number 1 anticipating you
[ spoken, through vocoder to sound like radio ]
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday
Calling all stations
This is Golf Mike Oscar Victor Juliet
IMC CU.NIMB.ICING
In great difficulty
Over
The traffic controller is calling
Victor Juliet your identity
I have lost in the violet storm
Communicate or squawk emergency
Don't take that dive again
Push through that band of rain
Lost in Static 18
And the storm is closing in now
Automatic 18 - Got to push through - Trapped in living hell
Your a prisoner of the dark sky
The propeller blades are still
And the evil eye of the hurricane's
Coming in now for the kill
Our hope's with you - Rider in the blue
Welcome's waiting, We're anticipating
You'll be celebrating, when you're down, and breaking
Climbing out - climbing climbing
Five miles out - climbing climbing
Five miles out
Just hold your heading true
Got to get your finest out
Climbing Climbing
[ repeats through fade out ]
Hm, I agree in principle, except that Neil Young is a genius even when he is bad--just look at his output from the eighties (Trans, anyone?).
A couple more for ya.
Beastie Boys' "Sure Shot" includes the lyric:
And there's also John Fogerty, "Walking in a Hurricane":
To bad you couldn't get Johnny and the Hurricanes, an instrumental rock group from the late 50s and early 60s, whose big hit, "Red River Rock" still turns up every now and then on oldies radio.
My surefire hangover helper: aspirin _while_ you're drinking, Chris. When your body metabolizes alcohol, it takes an OH- group to do it. Aspirin is a good replacement.
I have goobery botany stories behind aspirin too, but for another time. Enjoy the party sir.
Best,
D
Adding one to the list:
http://ryanlion5.imeem.com/music/HymJbZtG/katrina_clap/
"Dollar Day for New Orleans (Katrina Klap)"
by Mos Def
Listen homie, It's dollar day in New Orleans,
It's where there water everywhere and people dead in the street (eet eets),
And Mr. President he 'bout that cash,
He got a policy for handlin' the bruthas and trash,
And if you poor you black,
I laugh a laugh, they won't give when you ask,
You betta off on crack, dead or in jail, or with a gun in Iraq,
And it's as simple as that,
No opinion my man it's mathematical fact,
Listen, a million poor since 2004,
And they got illions and killions to waste on the War,
And make you question what the taxes is for,
Or the cost to reinforce the broke levee wall,
Tell the boss he shouldn't be the boss anymore
Chris,
Have you listened to Young's Like a Hurricane or just read the lyrics? It's not only a great song but perhaps his best ever. It's the song that made me a Neil fan over 25 years ago.
Folks,
Thanks for all the suggestions.
David--I admit the Neil Young song is much better listened to than read.
Let me add another song, "Betsy," from my fav New Orleans singer-songwriter Mike West:
You also missed Eye of the Hurricane by The Alarm. The album includes the title track and the song Rain in the Summertime. Here are some lyrics from Eye of the Hurricane:
Love forsaken man, love forsaken land
For god's sake don't look back
Into the crucifix night
The storm of a cross
I live to love again and again
All my life
Oh eye of the hurricane
I walk away in the wind and the rain
Into the eye of the hurricane
Face to face
The view from the hill looks bleak from where i stand
The waters are come in unto my soul
I can't cry no more my eyes are bone dry sore
There's a river of tears flowing down to the sea