Handlebars and Bob Seger

Two weeks ago my friend told me to listen to to “Handlebars,” a startlingly popular, too-literate, “message-oriented” hip-hop song by Flobots. I believe my exact words were “sounds kinda hipster,” and I refused to listen to more. Also, they had a sound like 21st century rap-rock, something that should have never been allowed to continue. But then, just yesterday I listened again. Why? I didn't like the song much the first time I heard it, and I had no desire to get into the music itself. Perhaps I saw a reference to handlebars somewhere, which put the catchy first line and popular facebook status “I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handlebars, no handlebars” into my head. This time though, instead of streaming the song on their myspace, I watched the music video on youtube. For some reason I liked the song much better. Ironically, the video should have made me dislike the song more. I generally don't like the animation style used, and the preachy message of two friends taking different paths in life, with the corporate and dictatorial friend ordering the riot police on the protesters that contain his former companion, is something I find annoying in music. Music that tries to be more political than it has to be. Once Rage Against The Machine did political rap-rock, then it was over. I guess some people didn't get the memo. Either way, I vow not to listen to that song again, no matter how much I liked it the second time.

I also listened to Bob Seger's Greatest Hits recently, on the advice of the same friend. A few things struck me. First: Seger's lyrics contain some of the most tired, stupid old clichés that I've ever heard. I can't even count the number of times love and/or sexual desire was compared to a fire or burning sensation. I think once Johnny Cash sang Ring of Fire all other comparisons of that nature sort of lose their meaning. (I also think that there hasn't been a truly bad-ass song written since Folsom Prison Blues – everyone who writes a bad-ass song after that is just expanding on Cash's having shot a man in Reno, for the purposes of watching his death. But I think Chuck Klosterman may have already written about that.) Anyway, I also noticed that Seger sounded like a half-hearted version of Bruce Springsteen, both lyrically and musically. Hard driving riffs backed by piano, songs about normal people in love or getting by in life, often attempting some sort of narrative but always lacking that power and brilliance that makes a Bruce song great. Having said that, I think some of the songs on the album were pretty good. “Old Time Rock and Roll” is always a fun song, if only because of the image of Tom Cruise dancing around in Risky Business. “Turn the Page,” too, is a classic. “Night Moves” and “Main Street,” while both major Bruce-rip-off-offenders had a nice sound to them.