Zevon Song of the Week #31
haro...@yahoo.ca
Category: Social Commentary
"Down In The Mall" twists a knife in the back of consumerism.-Duke
Egbert
"You buy everything you want, and then you want more." Leave it to
Warren Zevon to get to the heart of a particular matter, in this case
our love of shopping, in such a pithy and witty manner. I suspect that
Down In The Mall is somehow considered second-tier Zevon by many of us,
but I don't make those distinctions. I love the fact that Warren saw
fit to compose the song, and I very much like the song itself. Granted,
I pretty well like all of them, but this one is a favourite.
As with so many others, DITM has an upbeat rhythm and seemingly
innocuous lyrics, but the knife referred to in the lead quote above is
definitely there, gently stabbing us in our acquisitive brains as we
wander through our vast suburban shopping malls looking for ways to
improve our lives by buying more stuff. (The full review of Transverse
City by Mr. Egbert, both complimentary and astute, can be found at
http://www.dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=2247).
Good timing to discuss this song-been to a mall lately? It's a trip,
all right. I wish somebody could explain how the wall-to-wall (and
mall-to-mall) hordes one encounters there at this time of year have
anything at all to do with the birth of one of mankind's greatest
religious figures. I don't get it, but there's a lot I don't get.
I doubt Warren was much of a mall goer, but he was obviously intrigued
by them and what they represent. The notion of "We'll shop up a storm
'til we can't shop no more" describes the behaviour, and that's as deep
as Warren goes in the song, but you have to wonder what he thought was
the motivation behind it all. He stays mum on that, which is smart,
because it enables him to toss in some satiric jabs-"We'll put it on
a charge account, we're never gonna pay"-that probably go right over
the heads of most listeners.
Here's another reason to love Down In The Mall: you get a David Lindley
quadruple play. Not only does he play lap steel guitar, saz, and oud
(just typing in saz and oud makes me want to rush out and get a falafel
sandwich), but he also sings harmony. Any song with Lindley
participating gets huge bonus points in my little universe. If you
haven't played the track in a while, have another listen and just
groove to what Mr. Dave does with his instruments. He sets the tone
right away with his opening chords, and the instrumental bridge later
on is amazing. It's magic, I tell you, magic.
Also, Richie Hayward, one of Little Feat's founding members and a very
well-respected session drummer, does stellar work on Down In The Mall
and all the other songs he plays on for the Transverse City album.
So, happy shopping everyone. And enjoy those escalator rides, every one
of them.
Categories to date
---------------------
Addiction and Recovery: 3
Cover: 2
Family: 2
Geopolitical: 1
History: 1
Law and Order: 1
Love-Gone-Wrong: 6
Mortality: 2
Party: 1
Satire: 3
Social Commentary: 8
Sports: 1
Joanne Corsano
>Down In The Mall
>
>Category: Social Commentary
>
>"Down In The Mall" twists a knife in the back of consumerism.-Duke
>Egbert
>
>"You buy everything you want, and then you want more." Leave it to
>Warren Zevon to get to the heart of a particular matter, in this case
>our love of shopping, in such a pithy and witty manner. I suspect that
>Down In The Mall is somehow considered second-tier Zevon by many of us,
Not me! I love that song, love it. It is just so funny in such a dry
Zevon way. And it's hummable. I am NOT a mall shopper but I did go
to the Cape Cod Mall to buy a specific gift this year (it was before
Thanksgiving so the hordes were still relatively small), and well, as
soon as I got out of the car I was quietly singing out loud to my
shopping buddy: "down in the mall, I'll be your man, we'll go shopping
babe, it's something we can stand." I don't go to a mall often but
whenever I do, literally whenever I do, those phrases pop out of my
mouth. I can't help it.
>I doubt Warren was much of a mall goer, but he was obviously intrigued
>by them and what they represent. The notion of "We'll shop up a storm
>'til we can't shop no more" describes the behaviour, and that's as deep
>as Warren goes in the song, but you have to wonder what he thought was
>the motivation behind it all. He stays mum on that, which is smart,
>because it enables him to toss in some satiric jabs-"We'll put it on
>a charge account, we're never gonna pay"-that probably go right over
>the heads of most listeners.
The song is very satirical without really going deep into the subject
it's satirizing, but that's okay. You can say an awful lot in a 3
minute pop song. I think this song is one of the most succinct and
effective jabs at consumerism ever recorded in a rock 'n' roll format.
>
>Here's another reason to love Down In The Mall: you get a David Lindley
>quadruple play. Not only does he play lap steel guitar, saz, and oud
>(just typing in saz and oud makes me want to rush out and get a falafel
>sandwich), but he also sings harmony. Any song with Lindley
>participating gets huge bonus points in my little universe.
Oh yes, you're right about that. The guitar is absolutely killer on
this song. And Guess What! I get to see Mr. Dave soon! He's coming
to the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, which is pretty much
my local venue, and he's also coming to Johnny D's in Somerville
(which is local enough for me to travel to in order to see someone of
the stature of David Lindley in my musical universe). Now I wish I
had bought one of those Zevon 100 T-shirts that were created by
someone on this group some years ago because I would wear it to see
Lindley.
Joanne
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Howard Roseman
> Zevon way. And it's hummable.
Absolutely.
> And Guess What! I get to see Mr. Dave soon!
On a balmy Sunday night in late July of 2001, Warren played the Commodore
Ballroom in downtown Vancouver. Guess who the warm-up act was? Yep, Mr.
Dave. He didn't finish until close to midnight, and Warren played until the
wee hours (both had full bands), but Ellen and I were within touching
distance of his keyboard and overall it was one of the best shows I've ever
been at.
Mr. Greene Genes
Howard, what constitutes "balmy" in Vancouver?
Doug
"Howard Roseman" <hros...@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:Bhboh.561811$5R2.250002@pd7urf3no...
Howard Roseman
> Howard, what constitutes "balmy" in Vancouver?
>
About 75 F. It rarely gets over 80 here.
Of course, like the rest of the world, we call it 25-30 C.
Dan
I was one of those kids in the USA who was told the future is metric so
all our math instruction switched to metric. Then two years later they
said "oh sorry, we switching back to english units". I guess the
Engineering Community resisted the switch at the time.