Here is a bootleg with sundry non-album tracks (the only overlap with Retro-Boy, Retro-Girl is "National Crime Awareness Week"). There was a point at which this would have been indispensable, and that point was before Island released remastered version of Kimono My House, Propaganda, Indiscreet, and Big Beat with the appropriate b-sides tacked on. It's still good for completists, but aside from some of the aforementioned b-sides, there's nothing on here that screams "essential." "Breaking Out of Prison," a soundtrack contribution from 1984, is reasonably fun and bouncy. "The Great Leap Forward" is a decent Chinese-themed instrumental. But nothing too exciting.
I do, however, have to single out one track for special derision, and that track is--goddamnit--"Minnie Mouse." That's right--THEY DID A COMPANION SONG TO FUCKING "MICKEY MOUSE." There are simply no words. "You can say she's just a mouse (just a mouse)/The Taj Mahal is just a house (what a house!)" Sweet death, take me now. At least Mickey is a significant cultural figure, for better or for worse. Minnie? She's NOTHING! Like Daisy Duck, she's a completely peripheral, vaguely defined figure with NO especial significance! Why, Ron, why?
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Missed the point. The lyrics are Ron's way of saying she's very significant indeed - you only think Minnie is "just a mouse" if you think the Taj is "just a house"...meaning they aren't. These are Sparks lyrics, goddammit - you have to keep up.
ReplyDeleteI did not miss the point. I think if you go back and reread this, it will become apparent that I understand perfectly well that the song is arguing that she's important--I just don't agree. Or, rather, I didn't agree when I wrote it. As my avatar and my other blogs may make apparent, I'm a big duck comics fan, but for a long time I couldn't stand mouse character. Those days are over, though, and now I don't have any particular problem with Minnie, though an entire song seems...eccentric. Then again, "eccentric" is, self-evidently, part of the point.
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