For some reason, I find this depressing and annoying. Granted, according to the lyrics of America Is Not the World, the day might have come when America has something to say to Morrissey, however, I take issue with some of the judgements here of obsolete lyrics. Well, for instance, this one:
"Gone to the other side with my encyclopedia"
–Tori Amos' 'Cornflake Girl' (1994)
Are encyclopaedias really obsolete now? Do people have that much faith in Wikipedia? Now, I may have got this wrong, but I believe that a normal encyclopaedia is a secondary reference source, whilst Wikipedia is tertiary. Wikipedia entries require citations to back up their supposed facts. An encyclopaedia is the kind of source you'd go to to provide a citation. Ah, no, I think I might have this slightly wrong. An encyclopaedia is generally considered tertiary, too. A Wikipedian discusses this issue briefly here. Anyway, I for one would be far more comfortable treating a bound encyclopaedia as a secondary or tertiary source than Wikipedia, despite the fact that even the former get their facts wrong often enough.
Anyway, I'd like to make my own suggestion for an obsolete lyric. It comes from Walk Like An Egyptian, by The Bangles. Remember that? What was that song about? Anyway, no matter, here is the lyric in question:
All the school kids so sick of books
They like the punk and the metal band
Since when did school kids read "books"? How can you be sick of something you've never actually even seen, touched or tasted?
I think that line should be ammended as follows:
All the school kids so sick of computer screens, Twitter, and things of that ilk
They like to go home sometimes, turn off their phones, and relax with a mug of cocoa and a volume of Algernon Blackwood
Incidentally, I used to think that their song Going Down to Liverpool was about Ilfracombe. A case of misheard lyrics. I thought it was:
Hey there
Where you going with that UB40 in your hand
I said, hey there.
All through this green and pleasant landI'm going down to Little Liverpool to do nothing
I'm going down to Little Liverpool to do nothing
I'm going down to Little Liverpool to do nothing
All the days of my life
All the days of my life.
Ah, those were the days! I remember them well.
They didn't write that song, did they? I never saw The Bangles signing on in Ilfracombe High Street Job Centre.
I was imagining the "Little", apparently, though.
I wish I was Tori Amos. It's not fair.
