Monday, September 03, 2007

Kaiser Chiefs launch attack on Pink

The Kaiser Chiefs want to have a pop at someone, which means they've been seeking a soft target. Unfortunately, they've chosen Pink.

In particular, Simon Rix has called Dear Mr President 'idiotic':

"She's just crap. Fact is, Pink stinks. Take a look at that song Dear Mr President - it's just terrible. The lyrics are idiotic.

"Pink is like a practical joke being played on the world. Can't say I love the girl."

Hmm. Idiotic? It might be simplistic, but at least it's about something, rather than the constant repetition of a girl's name over and over again, or rhyming "you'd be dead" with "shopping basket round your head"; the references to Bush's supposed-former alcoholism and drugs use were enough to get the song banned from some US radio stations and warnings to presenters not to discuss it in interviews, and to directly address some of the hypocrisy of the current White House occupants in a pop song is both useful and - in light of what happened to the Dixie Chicks - rather a brave move. Braver, certainly, than the Daily Mail-rewrites-Misshapes that was I Predict A Riot, anyway.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe a grown man actually used the work "stinks" to insult someone.

Unknown said...

Lets be fair - he used the terms 'not very sensible' in I predict a riot (and the word 'thee' FFS) I suspect he is in fact 63 years old.

wanker

Anonymous said...

Much as I like the Kaisers, they were a band that rose to fame of the back of La La La repetitive noises:

"What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine."

Is in my opinion marginally less idiotic then say:

"Ruby, ruby, ruby, ruby
Do ya, do ya, do ya, do ya
Know what ya doing, doing to me?
Ruby, ruby, ruby, ruby"

(A chorus with 8 different words; well done)

or from The Angry Mob:

"You can choose anything
You choose to lose again and again
You could do anything
Why should you do anything again"

In fact crap, stinks, terrible and idiotic pretty much sums up The Angry Mod and most of the last album. And as I said before I quite like them.

Anonymous said...

I forgot to add:

"Sooooooooooooooooooooooo
Everything is average nowadays
Everything is average nowadays
Everyone would do it if they can
And everything is going down the pan
And everyone is following the craze
And everything is average nowadays"

Which is just shit on so many levels. Not least the basicgrammatical error that's only present in order to provide a rhyme for pan.

Anonymous said...

wait! ruby ruby ruby is soooooooo original, they should get a grammy for that!


NOT!!!!

who are they to slam her?! she has world fame, been on tour now for nearly 2 years, working her ass off almost every day........people say HER lyrics are one of the best, necause they're outspoken and biographical and all her songsare based on true events of her life!!!!!!


oh wait! those guys can't do that! sure they just pick as aim to poke at for publicity suckers!

Anonymous said...

I guess the problem here is a band whose past lyrics demonstrate that they aren't quite articulate enough to voice the frustration that I also feel over people referring with any sort of reverence to the lyrical embarrassment that is Mr. President. It is the sort of thing I'd expect a troubled young 14 year old to type off the top of their heads on their livejournal. Yet I heard my own mother refer to it as "profound". I nearly cried. At least people know what they're getting from the band who told you "Everything Is Average Nowadays" in a song which is presumably intended to be eponymous. Perhaps they've just said it because it'll give some hack somewhere yet another excuse to use the headline "I Predict A Riot!" Oh dear.

Unknown said...

i still find that pink song much easier to tolerate than that shitawful "president talks to god" bright eyes song from two or three years ago.

Anonymous said...

He might refering to the fact that Pink has no idea what she's talking about. Bush never did cocaine and he isn't taking away anyone rights more than any other president has. Yes, I just fact-checked her ass.

I like the line "might" hate his own daughter. Nice way to cover your ass, Pink. Good thing you put "might" in there, or else we might assume you're making shit up about someone you don't know about. Oh, wait...

Pink's lyrics might be better written, but it's better written horseshit.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Anonymous:

No, if he was suggesting Pink was wrong, he'd have said "Pink is wrong" rather than "idiotic".

Oh, and your fact-checking was pretty poor on Bush and Cocaine:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/politics/20talk.html?ex=1266555600&en=ad6540934cd33780&ei=5088

But when Mr. Wead said that Mr. Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Mr. Bush replied, "I haven't denied anything."

I think you're also having trouble understanding the point of Pink's lines about his daughter - which is based on his attitude to homosexuality. Bush has supported some pretty homophobic policies in his time, which would mean it's fair comment that if he had a gay daughter, he might reject her, if his private behaviour followed his public pronouncement. The "might" is a fair acknowledgement that it's possible, like Dick Cheney, he might choose to be hypocritical, supporting anti-gay policies in public and his child in private.

Anonymous said...

But Simon, isn't Cheney's daughter ahem, 'ex-gay'

Unknown said...

I thought that by doing a mundane cover of 'Everybody's Happy Nowadays', and calling it 'Everything is Average Nowadays', the Kaiser Chiefs were showing themselves to be postmodernist japesters in the mould of the KLF?

What's that? They're just dull? Oh...

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