Songs About Stupidity

In late 2005, Dorian Lynskey, a music writer at the Guardian, started a new Friday feature in the newspaper. Every week he would post a topic on the Guardian website's music blog. He asked readers to suggest songs on that topic. Then he would go through the suggestions and put together a 10 song playlist accompanied by an article threading the songs together. The feature was called Readers Recommend. His goal wasn't to create a list of the best or most popular songs but "to create a diverse and engaging listening session."

Lynskey continues, "The idea is to introduce everyone to some more obscure pieces of music, reaffirm some old favourites and satisfy my own capricious whims, all at the same time. Nor do I select songs I already know: each week I seek out some of the more intriguing recommendations and include some that I've never heard before."

The Guardian made it a web only feature in 2011. It became a volunteer effort in August 2012 and was discontinued completely in 2018. But it has been carried on at a website called the Song Bar, operated by a former RR writer, Peter Kimpton. Peter writes a weekly intro to a topic and a volunteer from the community listens to the suggestions, draws up a playlist and writes an article connecting the songs. I have been a volunteer 29 times so far. And on Thursday I start my 30th stint as a volunteer music guru. The column below was my very first effort as a volunteer at the Guardian and published on March 7, 2013.

There is an embedded Youtube Playlist at the end of this article.

Idiot! Knucklehead! Dimwit! Cabbage head! Dumbass! Goofus! Braindead! Airhead! Fool! Pinhead! Stupid jerk! Sucker! Stupid cow! Weirdo! Shit for brains! Nincompoop! Those are some of the epithets we like to hurl at people we regard as stupid. Each is also a song title submitted for this week's topic.

But what do we mean by stupidity? Consider Forrest Gump, played so brilliantly by Tom Hanks: teased by his classmates, his momma wisely tells him "stupid is as stupid does". It's not mental capacity that makes us stupid. It's what we choose to do, or not do, with what we have.

Several themes emerged from this week's suggestions. The most common was that love makes us stupid, or at least a little foolish. The giddiness and light-headedness of love is captured perfectly in Zoobi Doobi from the top grossing Bollywood movie of all time, appropriately called 3 Idiots. Sung by Sonu Nigam & Shreya Ghoshal.

But a dark side also emerged. An undercurrent of misogyny with five songs entitled Stupid Girl to one called Stupid Man. Two songs displayed an outright contempt for women. Meiko Kaji laments this sorry state with her Urami Bushi (My Grudge Blues) featured in the movie Kill Bill 2. "When you cry, he'll make you cry more," she sings. "You decide to wake up but fear to be fully awake. Stupid. So stupid. I go stupid singing my grudge blues."

Another theme was the stupidity of the common man, some songs declaring we are all stupid. "Sisesiqhingini – Everything is Stupid, Stupid, Stupid," sings Ladysmith Black Mambazo. But others focused on the subsets of humanity known as trailer trash and rednecks. "One of them little shits broke my window last spring," sings Todd Snider. "I told his momma, she didn't do anything." No wonder he's got the Double Wide Blues. Meanwhile Tim Minchin has disdain for flaky new-age types such as the woman he meets at a dinner party, a woman named Storm.

Drug use comes in for its share of attack. "Hey Stoopid!" belts out Alice Cooper, "You stick a needle in your arm, you bite the dust, you buy the farm."

Of course, stupidity is great fodder for comedians and entertainment. Witness movies such as Dumb and Dumber or TV shows such as Jackass, Jerry Springer, Jersey Shore, or the dreadful Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. It's all Moron TV declare Primus.

But the print media don't escape criticism. The tabloids feast on stupidity in their own little Moronland according to Robb Johnson. "Boy meets girl, girl gets legless," he mocks. "Tabloid tits and tabloid bums. Welcome to the land of the moron".

Religion comes in for a slagging as well. We're "Dumb All Over," says Frank Zappa. Particularly by following stupid religions that justify the folly of war. The horror and stupidity of war is captured by Paul Hardcastle in 19, the average age of conscripts in the Vietnam war.

Of course, a man of faith might argue that it is our stupidity that makes us prey for the devil, as do Dutch symphonic metal rock band Within Temptation. Satan is a Deceiver of Fools they declare. An incredibly beautiful song and my find of the week.

The temptations to be stupid are myriad. Lupe Fiasco sings about important issues, but his acolytes tell him "You be shedding too much light, Lu. Dumb It Down!" Lupe ends the song with a defiant "I flatly refuse, I ain't dumb down nothing."

The moral of this song and this column – don't be stupid!

The playlist (I was unable to embed the playlist so just click the link)

1. Sonu Nigam & Shreya Ghoshal – Zoobi Doobi
2. Meiko Kaji – Urami Bushi (My Grudge Blues)
3. Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Sisesighingini (Everything is Stupid, Stupid, Stupid)
4. Todd Snider – Double Wide Blues
5. Tim Minchin – Storm
6. Alice Cooper – Hey Stoopid
7. Primus – Moron TV
8. Robb Johnson – Moronland
9. Frank Zappa – Dumb All Over
10. Paul Hardcastle – 19
11. Within Temptation – Deceiver of Fools
12. Lupe Fiasco – Dumb It Down

As noted in the Introduction, I'll be doing my 30th music column this week. The topic goes up Thursday, so do drop by and suggest a tune or two. Anyone can join. Song Bar

Links of Interest

Here are previous music columns posted at Vocal.

• Songs About Iron and Steel
• Songs About Immigrants and Refugees
• Songs About Youthfulness
• Songs Featuring Steel Guitar
• Songs About Zombies and the Undead
• Songs About Propaganda
• The Creative Renewal of the Steel Industry – a detailed look at the reasons behind the collapse of the domestic steel industry lamented in some of the songs.
• My Vocal Profile Page – lists all of my non-fiction essays as well as a collection of short stories and poems