There is a piece on the homepage today to which NRO readers contributed. It is called “Waxing Lyrical: In appreciation of some weird and wonderful lines.” Those lines come from pop songs — and NRO readers fed me a great many of them, when I invited them to.
It all started when I reflected on a line from a Beach Boys song, “Good Vibrations”: “I don’t know where, but she sends me there.” Isn’t that a marvelous lyric? “It is borderline nonsensical,” I wrote, “but so wonderful.”
Here on the Corner today, I would like to quote some responses from my colleagues — some responses to “Waxing Lyrical.” Fred Schwarz says that that Beach Boys lyric reminds him of a lyric from a Sex Pistols song, “Anarchy in the U.K.”: “Don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it.”
Yes, same category, for sure.
Categories aside, Nick Frankovich writes:
One of the loveliest pop songs that I ever heard and that, alas, never caught on is “Rock and Roll Girls,” by John Fogerty. It includes this Dantesque line: “But there is a place / Sweet as you will ever know / In music, in love, / In things you never tell.”
Dang, I’ll say.
Finally, Justin Shapiro said he wanted to give me a “fun fact,” seeing as I mentioned They Might Be Giants in my piece: “The daughter of one of the guys in They Might Be Giants was on my little sister’s volleyball team.”
That is a fun fact. I think of a phrase: “reflected glory.” Also a phrase from David Letterman — who used to do a segment called “Brush with Greatness.” In this segment, audience members told of encounters, or near encounters, they had with celebrities.
Anyway, “Waxing Lyrical” is, again, here, and my thanks to all who chipped in.