| Say Anything – Died a Jew Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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I usually love all say anything songs, but the lyric calling out black people was Max punching down, and I despise it. It ruins the entire song. Punching down is never a commendable thing, and I understand that he had a dispute with a rapper, but he decided to make it a "you/your people" thing and talk to all black people. The different types of slavery were not even comparable, but to mention it, add hip hop afterwards, then half-assed be like "haha, I'm a brother too and I laugh at white people" was just poor taste. Namely, comparing slavery that came about as a means to pay debt (where you can become free after paying it off), then equating it to slavery where people were kidnapped and permanently sold as chattel on the basis of skin color is a false equivalency; so it's of poor taste to bring up, but it's also illogical in general. I thought Max was better than that, but seeing as though he still performs this song (last performance was in late 2020, I believe), I guess not. In keeping that lyric, he decided to exclude and demean his black fans. Also, he should take a hint towards how implicitly biased the lyric is, because somehow majority of these fan comments under the song were able to use his lyrics to be anti-black (an important fact being that a majority of Say Anything fans are white). I only say all of this, because I love Max's songs and lyrics, but this song was such a miss because he decided to attack a group of already disenfranchised people, instead of just the person he had a dispute with. (Btw, none of this has to deal with me being "soft," "pc," "Identity politics," or anything like that. I just gave a brief critique based on history, sociology, and philosophy/logic/rhetoric. Max could have done better as a human, so if you love that lyric, I implore that you do the slightest introspection as to why. You might find that you harbor stereotypes against black people, which you should work on getting rid of.) |
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| Say Anything – Slumming It With Johnny Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| Over a decade and a half later and no one put an interpretation of the song's meaning, lol. This song seems to be Bemis illustrating the frustrations of late stage capitalism. At the beginning, you have the "slumming it with johnny," where Bemis places himself outside of his bubble and witnesses the commonplace extremes of wealth inequality (aka the definition of "slumming it" with someone). Later on, he returns to his life and holds disdain for the social norms and rituals adopted by the benefactors of the system he has witnessed. He points out how mundane he believes wealthy life is, and how that life breeds consumption/consumerism of anything and everything, but still leaves you feeling empty. At the end, he sort of condemns humanity as a plague to the earth, seeing as though we solely act as such under capitalism. He urges everyone to "free yourself from mental prostitution," because we are all fooled into mindlessly perpetuating and never recognizing the systems around us. Capitalism is mental prostitution, and this is one of the most straightforwardly punk songs Bemis has written. I love it. Also, I think Max being from california really drives this point home, because the wealth inequality there is extremely palpable; one block may be "marble mansions" while a camp of homeless people sit around the corner, only separated from the wealthy by a golden fence and security code number pad. | |
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