Skip to main content

Robbers On High Street - "The Price & Style"

These days when I listen to music I'm just looking for any sort of connection, but in my idealistic college days I looked for songs that could speak directly to and for me. I thought that pop music lyrics held the keys to every puzzle in my life. In fact, there was one revelatory morning during my freshman year when I woke up to Wrapped Around Your Finger on the radio and it spoke to me as if Sting specifically wrote it about me. As I scan the lyrics now I'm at a loss as to what it was to which I felt so connected, or even what the song MEANS ("I will turn your face to alabaster"?).

At the time I was interested in a girl who could play me like Earl Scruggs can play the banjo. By that I mean, well. I guess that morning I just got tired of it, and those words: "I'll be, wrapped around your finger" just suddenly meant something.

I think that experience is more common than finding a song that completely says everything you feel. In fact, I think many songs become big hits just because of a line or chorus that connects, regardless of what the verses say. Take Born In The U.S.A. or another Sting composition, Every Breath You Take, as examples. The latter song, as far as I can tell, is narrated by an obsessive ex-lover. But people took it as a passionate love song.

This is the point where I could go into the whole "do lyrics matter?" discussion, but I'll decline to do so. What I will say is that lyrics I like best are ones that are so specific as to not be directly applicable, but still have a bit of universal truth or sentiment as well. Is that too much to ask?

Finally we get to this shuffling, minimal song by New York-based Robbers On High Street. I can't for the life of me figure out what it means. Perhaps it's using a clumsy metaphor of shopping to refer to a love affair. Perhaps that's just how I want to hear it. But as I was walking and hearing these two mantra-like lines: "what I want I just can't have" and "I want to jump in your lake" I couldn't help but feel a complete connection. I'll also decline to detail why this meant so much to me at that moment, and I'll allow it to just be enough that the reason I listen to music was fulfilled, even if only for three minutes.

Album: Tree City (2005)
Fave Moment: The underlying female harmonies.

Comments

Richard said…
Regarding "Wrapped Around Your Finger," a song to which I once also felt a deep connection: I will turn your face to alabaster means, roughly, I will put a pale white look on your face--or, more briefly, I will shock you. Alabaster is hard and white--Sting means that he will freeze a stunned look on the face of the woman who has been controlling him when she realizes that she's the one wrapped around his finger now.
9:11 PM
Paul V. Allen said…
Well thanks for making me feel stupid, Richard. I can always count on you for that!

Anyway, this girl I liked at the time was already very pale in the first place.
6:55 PM
Anonymous said…
Can you guys post a lyrics of this song here? can't get some worns so yeah if u could
7:12 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stuck, or Obsession Cessastion

You may have noticed that things have slowed down around here. I had the summer off from teaching, and I spent it with my 7 month-old son. I gave myself permission to make this blog less of a priority. Well, "less of a priority" is putting it lightly. Initially, I considered an abrupt retirement. But then I reconsidered. Maybe the proximity to Brett Favre is causing this. If you're a long time reader, this is probably not all that surprising to you. Since 2007, it has become an annual ritual for me to soul-search about my waning interest in music. First I blamed an inability to express myself and a lack of quality music . Then in 2008 I cited new technology and the death of the album . Last year I wrote about how my changing life priorities hindered my ability to seek out new music. I've done a lot of thinking about it this summer and in truth I believe this was all just dancing around the issue, a slow realization of something I didn't want to admit to myse...
7 comments
Read more

Billy Joel: 1980 - 1977

When I decided to write about every single Billy Joel studio album I knew had a bit of a leg up in that I'd written reviews of a handful of his records already. What I didn't realize until just now was that those reviews were of albums that had been released consecutively between 1977 and 1980. As I reread those reviews - the most recent of which is 14 years old! - I found that I still stand by them. My writing style has mellowed a bit, and I no longer give grades to albums, but otherwise my opinions then are my opinions now. So here you go... Billy Joel: Glass Houses (1980) Billy Joel: 52nd Street (1978) Billy Joel: The Stranger   (1977)
Post a Comment
Read more

Billy Joel: Greatest Hits, Volumes I and II (1985)

As you may know, I'm something of a connoisseur of compilations. I have three guidelines that I like my greatest hits to follow, though I am open to these rules being disregarded in certain cases. It's not an exact science. Billy Joel's 1985 Greatest Hits Volumes I and II (an odd title for a set that was never sold separately) is proof of that.  It mostly follows the rules. The songs are in chronological order. There are no remixes, just a couple of single edits; there are two live songs, but those were actually were the versions that charted. And there are two new songs - we'll get to them eventually - but both ended up in the Top 40, so in retrospect that was a good decision. My mom bought the double LP when it came out and then dubbed it to a tape that lived in her car for at least three years. It and An Innocent Man were part of the soundtrack of the second half of my first decade of life. So I have a hard time criticizing something so ingrained in my consciousne...
Post a Comment
Read more