Reply To: Best JoCo lyric
Skullcrusher Mountain & Future Soon are by far, my favorite songs, eliciting tremendous emotion every time I listen because they touch that hidden awkward child and that secret inner insane side of me as if he were singing their anthems. "Killing me softly with his songs…" = |
If you think about it, the characters in these two songs could be the same tortured soul, just warped to a different future of henchmen and mountain lairs as opposed to robot armies and space stations. 
"…and I'm all alone during couples skate when she skates by with some guy on her arm but I know that I"ll forget the look of pity in her face when I'm living in my solar dome on a platform in space!"
"…It's gonna be the future soon, never seen it quite so clear. When my heart is breaking I can close my eyes and its already here"
"I'll probably be some kind of scientist, building inventions in my spacelab in space" (This line delivers as truly being from a middle schooler)
"…building them one laser gun at a time..I will do my best to teach them about life and what its worth. I just hope I can keep them from destroying the Earth!"
"…steel and circuits will make me whole, but I'll still feel so alone, until Laura calls me home….I'll see her standing by the monorail. She'll look the same except her bionic eyes. She lost the real ones in the robot wars…I'll say I'm sorry, she'll say it's not your fault…or is it? She'll eye me suspiciously…hearing the whir of the cirvos inside, she'll scream and try to run, but there's no where she can hide when a crazy cyborg wants to make you his robot bride!"
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"His appearance is quite disturbing, I assure you he's harmless enough. He's a sweetheart, calls me Master"
"…what's with all the screaming? You like monkeys, you like ponies…"
"…so maybe you could cut me just a little slack! Would it kill you to be civil? I've been patient, I've been gracious…and this mountain is covered with wolves…"
"I'm so in to you but I"m way too smart for you, even my henchmen think I'm crazy, I"m not surprised that you agree…you'd see the voices that control me from inside my head say I shouldn't kill you…yet."
Such cordiality and class mixed in with all that rage…its beautiful.
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Tom Cruise Crazy: We start out with just a hint at the big rumor, like if you didn't already know it, you might not get what this lyric refers to….you know, inuendo…
"…its probably not the way he'd choose to go. But a lifetime of longing looks would cause too much distraction…"
Then…bam! The next line just throws it out there like a big old splash of red paint:
"…good thing that he's not gay any more…"
Every time I hear it I think, "OMG I can't believe he just said that! haha"
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I respond to irony in a big way, and JoCo's stuff is chalk full of irony everywhere you turn. Funny, intelligent, telling of deeper real emotions, but told through stories outside reality. I was reading the thread a few minutes ago that talks about JoCo's use of dissonance. Those points in the music very often occur near the best points of lyrical irony.
Some of my other favorites:
"Code Monkey think maybe manager wanna write god damned login page himself…"
"Code Monkey just keep on working see your soft pretty face"
"Code Monkey think someday he have everything even pretty girl like you
Code Monkey just waiting for now, Code Monkey say someday, somehow"
"…big warm fuzzy secret heart, Code Monkey like you" (and Spiff has him under his desk playing with kitties…)
"Take a point called Z in the complex plane, Z1 be Z squared plus C, Z2 is Z1 squared plus C…" (This entire song is just awesome…nerdy mathematicians everywhere rejoice!
"Enjoy yourself, do the things that matter, Cause there isn’t time and space to do it all. Love the things you try, drink a cocktail wear a tie. Show a little grace if you should fall "
"I run the God damned pretzel store at Buckingham Mall" (Is this not one of the most fantastic song openers ever? I mean, you can just hear the inner rage!)
"I’m not surprised to see you haven’t thought it through enough, you never had the head for all that bigger picture stuff. But Tom, that’s what I do…" (Zombie with managerial training out maneuvering his ex co-worker. Brilliant.)
Ok, I seriously need to stop before I just bring the entire catalog to this post.