September 30, 2014

My spellcheck's questioning of the word "mystifyingly" — in the previous post — has me looking up the lyrics to the old Critters song, "Mr. Dieingly Sad."

"And when the leaves begin to fall/Answering old winter's call/I feel my tears, they fall like rain/Weeping forth the sad refrain/Blue, dark, and dim it may seem/You mark a grin, a moonbeam/Brightens your smile, pray tell me/How all the while you can be/So mystifyingly glad/I'm Mr. Dieingly Sad...."

Yes, of course, it's terrible poetry. And the video, should you accept the challenge to watch it, demonstrates how wiltingly douchey The Critters were, but there's something refreshingly delightful about plunging into this disturbingly proto-Emo pop song:



Spelling brought me to this darkeningly dismal corner of 60s music, so I've got to register my dismayingly pedagogically prissy objection to "Dieingly" instead of "Dyingly."

As long as we're talking about The Critters, here's the song you know if you only know one Critters song, "Younger Girl." I love this video, with the trippy op-art scenery into which the keyboard player camouflages. And I really think there's a moment — 1:36 —when the singer shows some shame at the pedophiliac lyrics:



The lyrics are by John Sebastian, and The Lovin' Spoonful also recorded this song: "A younger girl keeps a-rollin' 'cross my mind/And should I hang around, acting like her brother/In a few more years, they'd call us right for each other/And why, if I wait I'll just die, yeah."

All of this music is from 1966, my favorite year in music. I was 15. (In real life here at Meadhouse, Meade, who was 12 in 1966, is ad libbing "A younger boy keeps rolling across Ann Althouse's mind/He's only 12 years old and he hasn't even quit Boy Scouts yet...." That's so inappropriate and so not the slightest bit sexy.)

43 comments:

Mary Beth said...

Not douchey so much as cheesy.

Meade said...

"That's so inappropriate and so not the slightest bit sexy."

Give him 40 or 50 years.

madAsHell said...

That must be Ian Stewart on piano. The manager made him turn the piano towards the drums.

Ann Althouse said...

I mean it is at least marginally sexy that you would entertain me today by singing that comically, but the idea of myself as 15 being interested in a 12-year-old boy…

madAsHell said...

It uses the same chords as "Do You Believe in Magic", and sounds very similar. How many times did John Sebastian re-arrange that piece of music??

Ann Althouse said...

At what age did I feel interested in someone 3 years younger than I am?

I think the earliest possible age for me to be interested in Meade was 27 (for me).

I'm asking Meade that question and he's imagining me thinking: "Well, give him a few more years." And he comes up with 18 for me (15, then, for him).

Carol said...

I used to love Sebatian's Darling Be Home Soon. Oh how I cried over that one.. *sniff*

Meade said...

18 and 15 could've worked. 3 years of only holding hands and talking on the front porch until I'm legal. And then - our long-awaited first kiss.
True love means planning a life for two
Being together the whole day through
True love means waiting and hoping that soon
Wishes we've made will come true
My love, my love

Ann Althouse said...

Hey, Hey Laurence, I want to marry you…

Hey, hey, hey Laura, I want to marry you too….

Brando said...

"Douchey"? Or "totally awesome"?!?! The Critters were where it was at!

I wasn't alive when those songs came out but spent my youth listening to great oldies radio (WCBS FM New York, with Cousin Brucie) so these bring me back to my own childhood. I don't know if they still do radio like that, what with Pandoras and satellites.

tim in vermont said...

I saw John Sebastian in a concert a couple of years back. He performed alone with just his guitar and told stories between songs of his days in Greenwich Village. I really enjoyed the concert, my wife hated it because he couldn't really sing anymore, but he could make his acoustic guitar sound like the whole Lovin' Spoonful.

m stone said...

AA: "And I really think there's a moment — 1:36 —when the singer shows some shame at the pedophiliac lyrics"

I disagree. It's too bad we even introduce pedophilia to a love song from 1966. We don't know from the lyrics even how old she is. She may be 18.

Regardless, it seems to me to be a skewed judgment, not only of the singer, but of how men look at "younger girls" today.

Must there always be a dysfunction associated with behavior?

Just for the record, younger girls are simply fascinating to older men, dredging up lots of memories when life was a little less complicated. Youth is simply enchanting.

Fess up Meade. Do you look?

Heartless Aztec said...

Women need to understand that no man is far away from being 12 years old again. Of course it's nor sexy Althouse - he's twelve and acting snotty. Good to see the Meade has the ability to reach there on the fly.

MikeD said...

OK,I'm coming at this from a generational disconnect from our lovely & gracious hostess, I was well into my conservative 20's then. Music changed between '63 & '65, one era was 45 single oriented, the next was the LP album era. Sometime in that span, radio (FM or AM) started playing album tracks instead of singles.
Anyway, mid-late 60's produced a lot of music I loved, except for the totally no talent abortion, still being lionized, Grateful Dead. "Gag me with a spoon" as Valley Girls were apt to say a decade plus later.

Meade said...

"Fess up Meade. Do you look?"

I confess — I look at everyone. But my lovely wife is the only person I ever gaze at. Her beauty is timeless and endlessly fascinating.

m stone said...

The perfect answer, Meade!

FullMoon said...

Ann Althouse(paula) said...

Hey, Hey Laurence, I want to marry you…

Hey, hey, hey Laura, I want to marry you too….


I hate you for that, here is my revenge
She wore Blue Velvet,
Bluer than velvet were her eyes...... barf barf barf..."

Wilbur said...

I do like one Vinton record: "Blue on Blue", a Bacharach-David song that he performs creditably.

That Critters song - "Mr. Dieingly Sad" - wow, I used to hear it on the radio and wonder what in the hell was their problem. 50 years later, I feel about the same. Just too cloying for me.

traditionalguy said...

Things change. 150 years ago most 15 year old women in Agrarian America were married and working on a family.

William said...

If you were a teen ager when the song came out, it's not inappropriate to groove on it now. It's not like you're some kind of Miley Cyrus fan. Likewise it's ok to watch Tuesday Weld and Ann Margaret movies on TCM for their prurient content,, but it's totally wrong to click on the Jennifer Lawrence pix even if you just do it to be informed.

Hazy Dave said...

I made a spreadsheet that proved 1966 was the peak of popular music a while ago. At least 20 years ago. Not that anything's changed since.

Hazy Dave said...

The shape of the curve was not a hockey stick, but it was proved, just the same. And I actually didn't have the conclusion predetermined before I ran the data through the complicated statistical analysis of counting how many Top 40 songs were worth a shit in the critical 1955-1980 time period.

Caroline said...

Yes it was 1966...! I'm still humming We Five...you were on my mind. Wasn't that the year Rubber Soul came out?

azbadger said...

Benny Mardones was more direct about the girl's age in "Into the Night." "She's just 16 years old / leave her alone they say."

fbsakamoto said...

Thanks Ann
You did it again. I am in the middle of late night youtube music bender...Grace Slick at Woodstock, Mamas and Papas, Eric Burton.......

tim in vermont said...

She comes on like a dream
peaches and cream
lips like strawberry wine
She's sixteen, she's beautiful
and she's mine



OR

Go away little girl,
Go away little girl
I'm not supposed to be alone with you.
I know that your lips are sweet
but our lips must never meet...


Sting finally got it right with

Just like that
Old man in
That book by Nabikov
Please don't stand so close to me!



The way everybody seems to shave everything, if the internet is to be believed, it seems like people are more into Cub Scouts than Boy Scouts though.

sykes.1 said...

In all the standard dictionaries and in the law, pedophilia refers to sex with prepubescent children. It does not apply to sex with post pubescent teenagers. So chill out.

PS. The infamous Catholic Church sex scandals consisted of homosexual assaults on and seductions of teenage altar boys and had nothing to do with pedophilia. For true pedophilia one has to go to the public schools.

Anonymous said...

Almost all love songs fall primarily into two categories: Jailbait songs and Stalker songs.

In Jailbait songs the conflict arises from a society that attempts to thwart the Love with morals and/or laws. Sometimes the conflict is explicit with mentions of specific ages, but often it is alluded to by mentions of 'little', 'baby' etc etc.

In Stalker songs the conflict comes from a person (usually a woman) that attempts to thwart the Love by being uninterested in said Love, or misunderstands the Overwhelming Desires, and the ensuing ramifications, of this Love.

To use the Sting quote from above:

"Don't Stand So Close to Me" is a Jailbait Song.

Meanwhile, Sting's "Every Breath You Take" is a Stalker song.

Of course, some are not so easy. Sting's "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" is both a Jailbait song and a Stalker song. Analyze amongst yourselves.

Robert Cook said...

Yep: Greatest Dead = Worst Band...Ever!

The Crack Emcee said...

My sister sang with the Lovin' Spoonful.

And "wiltingly douchey" is as accurate a description of white culture as I've ever seen.

When you leave out all the theft and murder, that is,...

RMc said...

In my years as a radio programmer, I devised what I call the "cultural sweet spot": between the ages of 12 and 22, which for Althouse would be 1963-73. So it's no accident her favourite music (and books, movies, TV shows, etc.) are largely from the mid-to-late 60s.

I was born in 1965, so my sweet spot runs from 1977-87. You'd guess my faves would be from the 80s, and you'd be right...but I also have great affection for the 60s, from listening to oldies stations as a kid!

Ann Althouse said...

@Rob McLean

We are bizarrely vulnerable to new music at that age!

Older people can stick with the music they learned to like back then or pick up on some of the new things the kids are listening to.

Unknown said...

I identify more with the Beatles way of singing about girls:

"You better run for your life if you can, little girl.
Hide your head in the sand, little girl.
Catch you with another man, that's the end, little girl."

Classic ...

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann Althouse,

"Older people can stick with the music they learned to like back then or pick up on some of the new things the kids are listening to."

What the adults of today are listening to doesn't matter, of course. It's never a part of the conversation. Frank Zappa (as usual) said it best:

"No one has forced Mrs. Baker or Mrs. Gore to bring Prince or Sheena Easton into their homes. Thanks to the Constitution, they are free to buy other forms of music for their children. Apparently, they insist on purchasing the works of contemporary recording artists in order to support a personal illusion of aerobic sophistication."

God, I loved that man.

"Maturity" will never enter the consciousness - or be the goal - of some Americans.

It's a pity,...

victoria said...

Mr Dieingly sad is one of my favorite songs. I have it on my IPOD. have for years. The critters were Villanova undergrads when they were recording in the mid '60's. One of my favorite music years too, Ann. Born in late '51.... Ouchy



Vicki from Pasadena

victoria said...

Favorite Spoonful song, "6 O'clock"

Vicki from Pasadena

Scugger said...

According to John Lennon of the Beatles, Ticket to Ride actually refers to Hamburg prostitutes who are periodically cleared by the local health authorities and given a "Ticket to Ride".

Unknown said...

"That's so inappropriate and so not the slightest bit sexy."

P'haps, but it's funny as hell!

RonF said...

I'm 61 and I haven't quit Boy Scouts yet. Plenty of kids who are 15 and 16 and 17 in our Troop haven't quit Boy Scouts yet - and are learning a lot more useful things than the kids who quit a while back and are spending their time playing video games.

RonF said...

OMG. Crack Emcee and I have the same personal favorite rock artist. Although Frank would likely have puked at being called an "artist". I saw him in concert about 4 times, including once when his warmup act was none other than Chuck Berry. Now THAT was a show.

Ann Althouse said...

"Favorite Spoonful song, "6 O'clock""

Great choice.

I wish my head had been working right/We'd have gone for coffee and talked all night...

ken in tx said...

Abba--When I kissed the Teacher. I once had a girl in my class ask me, Mr. Ken in SC, does your wife treat you nice?

Unknown said...

I was 13 in 1966 and I loved the music particularly the Lovin' Spoonful and "Younger Girl".