There's a thing on Twitter, a meme I guess, in which people tweet "I was today days old when I learnt that..." and then insert something that is really obscure but interesting to learn or, in a somewhat meta twist of the meme, something really obvious that everyone already knows but that the Twitter user claims to have just learnt, for presumably comic or "like-able" effect.
A common one, musically, is "I was today days old when I learnt that The Only Way Is Up by Yazz is actually a cover of this 1980 soul groove by Otis Clay." The twist with this is that 6Music played the Clay original some months back, then Steve Wright of all people played it on his Radio 2 show a couple of weeks later, as if he had discovered this musical factoid. In other words, this one has transitioned from relatively obscure to quite common knowledge.
But anyway, in case you haven't already guessed where this post is headed... "I was today days old when I learnt that 1992's Cats In The Cradle by Ugly Kid Joe is not an original song, but a cover of this 1974 release from Harry Chapin."
Now the question is, does this fall into the "obscure but interesting" category, or the "really obvious and everyone already knows" category?
I suppose I should also add that I learnt this courtesy of Amazon Music, who served up Harry's original as part of their Rock Classics To Wallow To playlist. And I'm not making that up.
"I was today days old when..." jars with me - I don't think I'll be saying that any time soon!
ReplyDeleteI realise I am probably just showing my age - the fact that I only really think of Harry Chapin's original when I hear the song title also does. I was 11 when it came out and I find that the songs you hear at around that age tend to really stay with you. I was also at the right age for doing 'cat's cradle' with fingers and string. I've no idea if that will mean anything to you or not!
Yes, it's an abomination of a phrase, isn't it? And yes, "cat's cradle" means something, my sister used to do that occasionally.
Delete