It occurred to me, walking up 8th Ave in Brooklyn this morning, that "Dumb It Down" off the last Pernice Brothers album, might be my favourite song of the last couple of years. I still marvel at how some brilliant pop songs can do this - a handful of words, a chiming guitar, a couple of handclaps, and whole worlds of thought open up.
The beauty of this particular song is that it is itself condensed, simplified, dumbed down (OK, it has one long word in it): the very things it rages against, so prettily.
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Dumb it down ‘cause I’m terrified
Dumb it down I’m anaesthetized
Dumb it down for an easy fit
Dumb it down ‘cause I’m used to it
Dumb it down I can’t love a thing
Dumb it down I love everything
Dumb it down for the average Joe
Dumb it down I don’t want to know
I don’t want to know
I don’t want to know
I don’t want to know
1 comment:
Yeah, that really IS an amazing song. Except I always think it sounds like he's singing "Dumb it down for the average Jew."
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