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Since this is a site regarding Elfman’s music, I thought it would be a healthy shift to discuss some of his lyrical content. I think there is a direct corolation with Elfman’s musical intensity and his passionate views regarding society which he has clearly displayed both in the tone of his musical expression and in his lyrics.
I have selected lyrics from a few of his songs to support this observation. In my own humble opinion, with the way things seem to be headed in America, I think it is worth dusting off his lyrics and contemplating it’s meaning.
1.There’s nothing wrong with Capitalism
There’s nothing wrong with free enterprise
Don’t try to make me feel guilty
I’m so tired of hearing you cry
There’s nothing wrong with making some profit
If you ask me I’ll say it’s just fine
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to live nice
I’m so tired of hearing you whine
About the revolution
Bringin’ down the rich
When was the last time you dug a ditch, baby?
If it ain’t one thing
Then it’s the other
Any cause that crosses your path
Your heart bleeds for anyone’s brother
I’ve got to tell you you’re a pain in the ass
You criticize with plenty of vigor
You rationalize everything that you do
With catchy phrases and heavy quotations
And everybody is crazy but you
You’re just a middle class, socialist brat
From a suburban family and you never really had to work
And you tell me that we’ve got to get back
To the struggling masses (whoever they are)
You talk, talk, talk about suffering and pain
Your mouth is bigger than your entire brain
What the hell do you know about suffering and pain (you dumb…)
(Repeat first verse)
(Repeat chorus)
There’s nothing wrong with Capitalism
There’s nothing wrong with Capitalism
There’s nothing wrong with Capitalism
There’s nothing wrong with Capitalism
Oingo Boingo, Capitalism (written by Danny Elfman)They say you’re stupid
That you’re too young to vote
They say you’ll swallow anything
That they shove down your throat
They say you can’t think
That you haven’t got a brain
That you’re just there to listen
That you’re just being trained
But there’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
They say you lost the ability to even think
That your tiny little brain
Slipped down the kitchen sink
They say that you’ll buy anything
That they turn your way
That you’ll listen to everything
That they decide to play
But there’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
Grey matter, grey matter, ooh . . .
Grey matter, grey matter, ooh . . .
Grey matter, grey matter, ooh . . .
Grey matter, grey matter, ooh . . .
I think you like it like it
To be told what to do ain’t that true
I think you’re better better better off
Stone cold dead without your head
They say you’re stupid
That you’re too young to vote
They say you’ll swallow anything
That they shove down your throat
If they say lie down, you’ll do it
If they say buy it now you’ll do it
If they say turn around you’ll do itIf they say hit the ground you’ll do it
If they say bite the big weenie
If they say wasn’t that good
If they say bend over baby
If they say take it and like it!
But there’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
There’s something inside your head
Grey matter, grey matter, ooh . . .
Grey matter, grey matter, ooh . . .
Grey matter, grey matter, ooh . . .
Oingo Boingo, Grey Matter (written by Danny Elfman)People raise your voices, don’t get caught in that mess
Like a fly in a spider’s web, is it true more is less
Herded like a happy flock to the big T.V. slaughter
“Why don’t you break that leash,” said the heifer to the sheep
It’s a new generation
It’s a hallucination
It’s a mystic vibration
It’s just intimidation
It’s the will of the people
It’s the church with the steeple
It’s the sacred devotion
To an unhealthy notion
People raise your voices, don’t get caught in that trap
When your friends and your neighbors push
Why don’t you push them back?
Don’t you think the time has come
To stand up and be heard?
Ain’t no use to try and wait
For the magic word
It’s a new generation
It’s an infatuation
It’s a beautiful body
Both erotic and deadly
It’s the fear of the future
It’s just surgeons and sutures
It’s a spandex obsessionIt’s a lasting impression
Do you feel the power?
Do you feel the power?
Baptized in electronic water
Prodigal sons and beautiful daughters
With smiles and bows and rosy cheeks
And the righteous bath
Death to the freaks!
Do you feel the power?
Do you feel the power?
From the man whose voice sounds reassuring
Completely firm and so alluring,
Like’s he’s lived a thousand times before
And seen the world from shore to shore
With the calmness and tranquility
that oozes credibility
With the wisdom and confidence
that seem to scream out common sense
And it makes you feel just like a babe
Daddy holding you tight and safe
Hush babe everything’s all right,
Daddy’s gonna stay with you tonight
Now he’s got you by the balls,
he can sell you anything at all
From morality to diamond rings
to genocide to magazines
From religion to cosmology
to the end of a democracy
It’s a new generation
It’s divine inspiration
Always ready to follow
Ever willing to swallow
All the doctor’s prescriptions
All the mystic inscriptions
It’s the spandex obsession
It’s a lasting impression
It’s the calm meditation
Of a tranquilized nation
It’s a hallucination
It’s a new generation
Oingo Boingo, New Generation (written by Danny Elfman)“Only A Lad” would be another good song expressing some similar views.
Yeah, I agree with that…
Here’s another one he could have written yesterday.
‘I’m so sorry, please forgive me
who do I pray to to straighten out this problem? (problem)
Straighten out this problem (problem), straighten out my mind (Mind)
Straighten out …this crooked tongue…(x3)My mind has wandered, from the straight and narrow
my mind has wandered from the flock you see
My mind has wandered, the man just said so
my mind has wandered I heard it on TV
and the flock has wandered away from me.(Chorus 1)
All around the world now
like a big bright cherry cloud
Traveling from home to home
TV sets and telephones
Here it comes just like a storm
bathe in it and be reborn
Time to let the world know
welcome madness, …say hello…(x3)Like a wave we cannot see
washing over you and me
Hiding here and hiding there
madness hiding everywhere
Such a curiosity
here it comes to set us free
Plenty left for you and me
say hello insanityI am the virus, are you the cure?
I am morally(morally), I’m morally impure(Impure)
I am a disease and I am unclean
I am not part of God’s well oiled machine
Christian nation(Nation), assimilate me(me)
Take me in your arms and set me free
I am part of a degenerate elite(elite)
dragging our society into the street -yeah-
Into the abyss and to the sewer don’t you see
The man just told me, he told me on TVDo you think you’re better than me
Do you want to kill me or befriend meAnd the alcoholic bastard waved his finger at me
And His voice was filled with evangelical glee
Sipping down his gin & tonics
While preaching about the evils of narcotics
And the evils of sex,(sex) and the wages of sin (Sin)
While he mentally fondles his next of kin andMy mind has wandered from the flock you see
And the flock has wandered away from me
And he waved his hypnotizing finger at me(Chorus 2)
Let’s imitate reality (Insanity)
Let’s strive for mediocrity (Insanity)
Let’s make believe we’re all the same (Now that’s for me)
Let’s sanitize our little brains (Insanity)I’d love to take you home with me and tuck you into bed
I’d love to see what makes you tick inside your pretty head
I’d love to hear you laugh tonight, I’d love to hear you weep
I’d love to listen to you while you’re screaming in your sleep.Christian sons, Christian daughters
Lead me along like a lamb to the slaughter
Purify my brain and hose down my soul
White perfection, perfection is my goalDo you think you’re better than me
Do you want to kill me, or befriend meChristian nation(nation), make us alright
Put us through the filter and make us pure and white cuz’
My mind has wandered away from me
and the flock has wandered, away from meLet’s talk of family values while we sit and watch the slaughter
Hypothetical abortions on imaginary daughters
The white folks think they’re at the top, ask any proud white male
A million years of evolution, we get Danny Quayle(Chorus 1 & 2)
I’d love to take you home with me, I’d love to tuck you in
I wish I could protect you from the wages of our sin
I’d love to hear you scream tonight, I’d love to hear you cry
Protect you from the madness that is raining from the sky(Chorus 2)
I’d love to take you home with me and tuck you into bed
I’d love to see what makes you tick inside your pretty head
I wish that I could keep you in a precious Chinese box
On Sundays I would pray for you so it would never stop
I’d love to hear you laugh tonight, I’d love to hear you weep
I’d love to listen to you while you’re screaming in your sleep
I’d love to soothe you with my voice and take your hand in mine
I’d love to take you past the stars and out of reach of time
I’d love to see inside your mind, to tear it all apart
To cut you open with knife and find your sacred heart
I’d love to take your satin dolls and tear them all to shreds
I’d love to mess your pretty hair, I’d love to see you dead.’Insanity by Danny Elfman
Also, War Again could fit into this category, also, couldn’t it?
Insanity is brilliant.
War Again by danny Elfman
Don’t you know we got smart bombs, it’s a good thing that our bombs are clever.
Don’t you know that the smart bombs are so clever, they only kill bad people.Don’t you know though our kids are dumb, we got smart bombs, what a joyous
thing.
Here we go so let’s drink a toast, to those clever bombs, and the men who
built them.(Chorus)
There they go now, there go all my friends
There they go now, marching off to war again
With their bright flags waving in the wind
There they go now, marching off to war again
Smiling proudly, with their heads in the clouds.Don’t you know this is better than any video friend. It’s an action movie.
Here we go watch the bad guys get their butts kicked. Really makes me feel
good. Here we go watching CNN, the adrenaline rushes through my veins.
Don’t you know it’s a feel good show, electronic bliss. It’s a video, video…(Chorus)
Aren’t you glad we got smart bombs, it’s a damn good thing our bombs are clever
It’s a shame that our kids are dumb, but our bombs are smart, what a lucky
thing now
Don’t you know it’s a feel good show and it’s suitable for the whole darn family
Come on out everybody shout, give a big salute to our ingenuity
Don’t you know this is better than, any video friend, it’s an action movie…
Here we go, watch the bad guys get their butts kicked, and it makes me feel good.
Don’t you know it’s Nintendo, really gets the blood flowing thru my veins now
Don’t you know it’s a feel-good show, electronic bliss, it’s a video, video“Here’s another one he could have written yesterday.”
Why could he have written that yesterday? Did something happen yesterday?
Wow…
…lyrics .
“‘Here’s another one he could have written yesterday.’
Why could he have written that yesterday? Did something happen yesterday?”
LOL
“LOL”
LOL
“‘LOL’
LOL”
LOL
Well, pretty much all of Danny’s songs are snazzy. And yeah, you could say that they’re his point-of-view on things and all–but you have to be careful. I mean, when people write stuff, it’s not always from their viewpoint, you dig? Then again, artists put a lot of themselves in what they do.
So, I guess what I’m saying is this: you’ve gotta pay attention and not confuse the writer with the narrator, because they’re not always the same person. And, you’ve got to take into consideration that everything a writer writes is true–but at the same time, never trust a writer (they’re fantastic liars).
As for Danny’s songs being as relevant today as they were back when he wrote them….well, the boy has always been ahead of his time, you know.
W T F is so funny?!
>W T F is so funny?!
LOL
“Why could he have written that yesterday? Did something happen yesterday?”
LOL”
Did you just laugh at your own joke?
Um….no. I laughed at another person’s joke.
I don’t think there is any confusion here as to what Danny’s view point is. He’s pretty straight forward with what he is expressing. It’s really not that difficult to figure out what or who Danny is railing against in the song Insanity. In my opinion, and from what I can decipher from the vast majority of his songs, he is clearly anti-right wing govrnment. I would not be terribly surprised if he is at home in his studio right now, contemplating a return to song writing and performing. I wouldn’t even be that surprised if he were to re-unite Oingo Boingo and launch a short tour to help spread the word against re-electing our current leaders who are in the process of doing the very thing he had been warning us about all these years, ‘Sanitizing our little brains.’ By the way, he also rails against the left in the song, Capitalism. So, if I had to guess where he is coming from politically, I would have to say he is a Libertarian, purely based on his lyrics. keep in mind this is only my opinion. I only hope he is planning a new album with a new batch of songs. After all, it was during the last Bush administration that he was inspired to write the songs for the last Boingo Album. He could title his return album, I Told You So, You Dumb Fools!… I’m certain he would have a lot to say regarding the current state of affairs in the world. Then again, it’s not like he hadn’t already warned us.
Yes, well, like I said–Danny could be the narrator in some songs, no argument there. But, if you listen to some of his other songs, like Piggies–well, it’s just a story, and nothing more, you dig? So, that’s what I mean by the writer not always being the same person as the narrator. (And granted, sometimes the writer is the narrator–like I said, it just depends).
As for him getting back with Oingo Boingo? Well, while it would be saucy as hell, I’d be very, very, very, very surprised if it were to happen. Sadly, the band is obsolete. Has been for quite some time, and I’m thinking they will be, indefinately. Nuts to that, but there it is.
“…I wouldn’t even be that surprised if he were to re-unite Oingo Boingo and launch a short tour to help spread the word against re-electing our current leaders who are in the process of doing the very thing he had been warning us about all these years…”
That’s a wonderful sentiment, but wishful thinking, sadly. Farewell means farewell. Oingo Boingo isn’t coming back.
Well, sadly, you are probably right, but, one can only hope…
“>W T F is so funny?!
LOL”
W T F is so funny?!
Hey!
Hey, I’ve got a commentary without much to say
You know those damn kids drive me crazy every day
But all I ever think is something to complain…
And I wish that they would all just go away
‘Cause all I really want is to be just like them
Just wanna be just like them…
Just wanna be just like them…
Just wanna be them.Hey, I’ve got a commentary without much to say
If you forgive me I’ll be getting on my way
And I forgot the whole damn point of this whole song
And I’m complaining now, complaining for so long…
For so long…
For so long…
I really want all those things that I can’t have
All I really want is to have you so bad.Hey, Those stupid kids have really gotten out of hand
And now I think it’s time we all take up a stand
And then together we will raise our voices high…
Our voices high…
Our voices high.Hey, though at this moment I can’t think of what we’d say
I guess we really want to be just like them…
Just want to be just like them…
Just want to be just like them.Hey, I’ve really thought a thousand times about this day
I’ve been expecting it in each and every way
The possibilities preoccupy my mind
And I’m so fortunate to be so very kind…
So very kind…
So very kind.What I really want is all those things that I can’t have
What I really want is to have you so bad
I’m so jealous I can barely see straight from my head
And it burns from the inside ’til I wish I was dead.Please, mama don’t be angry with me.
Please, papa don’t be angry with me.And I’m so sick and tired of all those stupid things you say
And this monkey sitting on my back won’t go away
And I’m standing here with my dick in my hand
Waiting for an invitation to the promised land.Please, mother don’t be angry with me.
Please, father don’t be angry with me.Hey, I’ve got a commentary without much to say
And all those damn kids drive me crazy every day
But all I ever think is something to complain…
To complain…
To complain.Hey, I really wish that they would all just go away
‘Cause all I really want to be just like them
Just wanna be just like them…And I’m so sick and tired of all those stupid things you say
And this monkey sitting on my back just won’t go away
And I’m standing here with my dick in my hand
Waiting for an invitation to the promised land.Please, mother don’t be angry with me.
written by Danny Elfman
LOL ;O
wow, danny elfman really has some, hmmm… how could I put this, umm… Lyrical Intensity, yeah.
Yeah. For example, look at the way there’s, um… so many of them… yeah.
Hey, question: the backwards lyrics in Cry of the Vatos are definitely Christian. Is Danny a Christian, and if he’s not, why do you think he wrote it? Just wondering.
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