get outside

Way back when, about 1972-73, my junior high English teacher, Mr. Howard, taught a class called "English Through Rock Lyrics," the coolest class in high school. He would mimeograph (huh? what's that?) lyric sheets of songs by Dylan, CSNY, and others. He would play the songs, we would follow along with the lyrics, and write reports interpreting them. That was the class. Cool, huh?

We picked our own songs for interpretation sometimes; the only one I can remember choosing is Robert Palmer's "Get Outside." ("Sneaking Sally Through The Alley" was too long.) It goes something like this:

"If your vision is holding you
If you can't fathom out what to do
If you can't read what you write
If you find yourself waking in the middle of the night

Get outside
Get outside
Get outside

If you can't decide what you wanna do
If you can't stand what people say to you
If you can't see when your eyes are open wide
If you ask yourself what you're doing and there's no reply

Get outside
Get outside
Get outside"

Clearly the take-away interpretation of this song is "get outside." I don't remember what else I could have said about it, but I'm pretty sure it was probably a load of bullshit.

Mr. Howard was the best teacher imaginable, young and funny. He entertained the class with his cartoons, and once drew a cartoon for me featuring the citizen hippies of Wenonah clearly stoned or tripping and marveling at a nearby squirrel, saying "Look at the squirrel, man." "Cool." "Far out."

How positively quaint.

I'm pretty certain I didn't learn much in that class, aside from learning to listen to music lyrics more critically, searching for subtext. Happily, I don't have to work so hard interpreting lyrics today. Whew! No clever irony or nuance here!

"You can find me in the club, bottle full of Bud
Mama, I got that X, if you into takin' drugs
I'm into having sex, I ain't into making love
So come give me a hug if you into getting rubbed

When I pull out up front, you see the Benz on dubs
When I roll 20 deep, it's 20 knives in the club
Niggas heard I fuck with Dre, now they wanna show me love
When you sell like Eminem, and the hoes they wanna fuck"

--"In Da Club" by 50 (or "fiddy", as the kids call him)-Cent

Now, let me think...what exactly is Mr. Cent trying to say?