By Uncleben
I imagined that thinking would be a straightforward topic, but it turns out to be a subtle, sinuous and slippery affair. I will now proceed to demonstrate - with the aid of catechism, slide rule and these 13 songs - that thinking is, on balance, a dangerous activity and we are all probably better off without it.
Lyn Collins - Think (About It)
The sisters are tired of their fellas staying out all night and expecting their women to be there when they get home. But is a remedial course of cogitation going to solve the problem? When did logical argument last win the day in a domestic disagreement in your household? Are you sure those pesky menfolk are going to realise the significance of the "it" in parentheses? These quibbles notwithstanding, a humdinger of a song, reportedly recorded in one take and - woo! yeah! - sampled over 3,000 times.
X - I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
A song whose title inspired a book of essays by cultural critic Mark Dery critiquing what he saw as the darker corners of the U.S. psyche. Dery regarded Los Angeles punk rock band X as having nailed the apolitical vacuity of the 1980s, when greed was good, homelessness doubled and US taxes went to fund right-wing counter-revolutions in Central America, but you had to think only good, wholesome thoughts. Could the government install bad-blockers in our minds, I wonder, and would our minds fight back by telling us we had to disable our bad-blocker to view content?
Seun Kuti + Fela's Egypt 80 - African Problems
Kuti begins by declaring that African problems are too much to think about but then changes his mind and resolves to teach the people a new mentality that involves thinking for tomorrow (the thinky, thinky part of the refrain) and fighting for the future of Africa (the fighty, fighty part). Fine Afrobeat from Fela Kuti's youngest son, who has revived not only his father's band but also his political party, Movement of the People. I'm not sure that "thinky, thinky, fighty, fighty" is going to cut it as a political slogan, though.
John Moreland - A Thought Is Just a Passing Train
Terrific bluesy folk-rock with touches of glitch electronica. I imagine philosophers and neurologists would take some issue with the lyrical hypothesis, but let's run it up the flagpole and consider the implications. Does it explain the expression "one-track mind"? Does it make London Liverpool Street the most thoughtful station in the UK? If the train is cancelled, do I get a full or partial refund on my thought? If the Labour government fufilled its promise of renationalising the railways, would we achieve a new state of collective consciousness?
Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band - Think Twice
Sounds initially like reasonable advice. But if your first thought is (say) to rob a bank and your second thought is not to rob the bank, surely that's a draw. Don't you need to flip a third mental coin before deciding on your course of action? And are Norwegian musicians Erlend Sellevold and Tarjei Strøm, who've created this funky confection, calling themselves Ralph Myerz and Jack Herren just to mess with our minds?
Roky Erickson & the Aliens - I Think of Demons
The philosopher David Hume cast doubt on the concept of a nonexistent object, claiming that to think of an object is always and necessarily to think of an existent object. It took Kant and then Frege to refute this bunkum. From an album written partly during Erickson's incarceration at the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, this song neatly encapsulates the mind's power to create more horrifying creatures than exist in the physical world - and those demons' inability to kill us because they feed off our minds.
Ron Moody - Reviewing the Situation
Lionel Bart's Fagin is a more sympathetic portrayal of the character than Dickens's. But as the angels and the demons battle it out in his mind and as each potential route out of villainy is discarded, he thinks he'd better think it out again, eventually running out of alternatives to being a lifelong rogue. A kind of inner Socratic monologue without any ultimate benefit, performed to perfection by Moody who described Fagin as the role of a lifetime.
Paul Simon - Think Too Much (a)
A song that totally embraces the topic, taking in the left/right side dynamics of the brain, the precarious balance between over and under thinking, and the moment of grace when your brain takes a back seat and allows life to dazzle you without a mental filter. From what was originally intended as a new Simon & Garfunkel album, until Paul decided the subject matter was too personal and erased all Art's vocals from the recordings.
The Avett Brothers - Ten Thousand Words
Current theory suggests that we don't think using conventional language, which would otherwise mean an English language speaker thinking differently from, say, a Mandarin, Hindi or Arabic language speaker, but we instead share a common language or syntax of thought. Be that as it may, ten thousand words are swarming around the Avetts' heads, leaving them caught in a mental rut and paralysed by overthinking, although they make it sound astoundingly beautiful.
Girls in Synthesis - Corrupting Memories
We descend deeper into the swirling vortex of our over-stimulated minds, with sense and memory data starting to corrupt and corrode. As you'll gather fairly quickly from the lyrics, Girls in Synthesis are struggling to think straight - and it doesn't sound like a set square is going to help them. From a 2024 album that the band describe as a twisted and angular pop record.
Pere Ubu - Codex
As this week has driven home to me, popular music abounds in singers thinking about their loved one. Pere Ubu deconstruct this trope and convey the full horror of thinking about someone all the time. You'd get no sleep for starters. Just imagine what Marvin Gaye could have achieved if he hadn't been so busy thinking about his baby.
Mclusky - Dethink to Survive
It transpires that the answer to these mounting problems lies in dethinking. As we all know, thinking has a nasty habit of activating the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituary-adrenal axis, intensifying the effects of stress and causing physical ill-health. Mindfulness teaches us how to temper an over-active left cerebral hemisphere by bringing our attention to whatever is happening in the present moment. What this has to do with the 1986 World Cup, Jive Bunny, Charles Dance or Danny Baker, mind you, will have to remain the secret of Mclusky and their producer Steve Albini, one of the musicians who sadly left us in 2024.
Swans - No Words / No Thoughts
All of which leads us to a primal state that exists without thought - a potent, pummelling maelstrom of sound (with some bonus bells left over from our previous topic) that acts as a kind of mental catharsis. From the mighty 'My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky' album, Swans' second coming after a 14-year absence, Michael Gira said he wanted this to sound like a steady gale force wind of hydrochloric acid, wiping your mind clean. And so it does.
Thanks to all this week's contributors. Here's to a successful tenth year for the Song Bar!
The Analytical A-List Playlist:
Lyn Collins - Think (About It)
X - I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
Seun Kuti + Fela's Egypt 80 - African Problems
John Moreland - A Thought Is Just a Passing Train
Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band - Think Twice
Roky Erickson & the Aliens - I Think of Demons
Ron Moody - Reviewing the Situation
Paul Simon - Think Too Much (a)
The Avett Brothers - Ten Thousand Words
Girls in Synthesis - Corrupting Memories
Pere Ubu - Codex
Mclusky - Dethink to Survive
Swans - No Words / No Thoughts
A note on a couple of versions that differ from those posted. There is a fun video of Think Twice, which I recommend watching but I find distracts slightly from the music - and the audio quality is better on the playlist version. The live version of No Words / No Thoughts, a 10-minute edit of the 23-minute version on a 2012 live album, is also strongly recommended, but I've gone with the studio version because it allows the playlist to end with the "To think is a sin" line in the coda.
The Brainstorming B-List Playlist:
The Beatles - Think for Yourself
The Charlatans - Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over
The Lemon Twigs - In My Head
Londonbeat - I've Been Thinking About You
UB40 - Food for Thought
The Smiths - Well I Wonder
Albert Collins - I'm Beginning to Wonder
Parliament - Presence of a Brain
Aretha Franklin - Day Dreaming
Robert Glasper Experience ft Talib Kweli - Thinkin Bout You (KAYTRANADA remix)
Beck - Think I'm in Love
Kevin Ayers - I Didn't Feel Lonely Till I Thought of You
Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
The Guru’s Wildcard Picks:
The Byrds - Thoughts and Words
Boards of Canada - One Very Important Thought
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Consider this: songs about thinking. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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