Monday 12 November 2012

My Top Ten "I Don't Wanna..." Songs


Pop stars, eh? A bunch of petulant teenagers, the lot of them. Here's 10 things they just do NOT want to do...

10. Sham 69 - I Don't Wanna

Sham 69 pretty much don't wanna do much of anything. Punks.

9. Eddie Grant - I Don't Wanna Dance

Can't say I blame him. I never was much of a dancer.

8. Harry Chapin - I Don't Want To Be President

Left over from last week's American President Top 10...
Time is a march where the powerful are drummers
Big business, big labour, big oil
And soon I was meeting with the men who ran the country
The men who owned the sky and the soil

7. The Airborne Toxic Event - I Don't Want To Be On TV

If you've ever met anyone who works in television, this song will make perfect sense to you.

6. Rod Stewart - I Don't Want To Talk About It

Or, should you prefer it, the Everything But The Girl version.

5. The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Want To Get Over You

From the album 69 Love Songs, Stephin Merritt's finest hour.

I could listen to my therapist
Pretend you don't exist
And not have to dream of what I dream of

I could listen to all my friends and go out again 
And pretend it's enough
Or I could make a career of being blue

I could dress in black and read Camus 
Smoke clove cigarettes and drink Vermouth 
Like I was 17, that would be a scream 
But I don't want to get over you.

4. Elton John - I Don't Want To Go On With You Like That

He doesn't want to be just a feather in your cap.

3. The Ramones - I Don't Wanna Grow Up

...And they never did.

The Ramones could have filled an entire album with songs about things they didn't want to do. See also... I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You, I Don't Wanna Live This Life (Anymore) and, of course, I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement.

2. Belle & Sebastian - I Don't Want To Play Football

Could well have been my theme song in school PE lessons...

I don't want to play football
I don't understand the rules of the game
I don't want to play football
I don't understand the thrill of running, catching, throwing
Taking orders from a moron
Grabbing for the sweaty crotches
Getting hit by people I don't know
Sugar, I'd rather play a different sort of game
Sugar, the girls are just as good as boys at playing

1. Elvis Costello - (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea

Despite being devoted to this song for nigh on 25 years, I still have no idea what it's about. Unless Elvis just really doesn't want to go to Chelsea...

They call her Natasha
When she looks like Elsie
I don't want to go to Chelsea...




Go on, tell me your favourite... unless you don't wanna.

10 comments:

  1. Pop stars..they're all teenagers...and I have a song running round my head that I can't quite remember...it's most frustrating! I'm off to Chelsea now

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  2. Elvis's song meaning? Well, there's 3 pages of possible explanations here. (Some written by the inmates of Chelsea asylum by the sounds of it!) http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/77680/

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    Replies
    1. Wow. Some people have far too much time on the hands. (Says the bloke who inflicts his boring music lists on people three times a week.)

      Delete
  3. Oh .. and 'I' don't wanna miss a thing'. Bet you like a bit o Aerosmith?

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  4. Yes Aerosmith... Prefer that over all of these. Rod Stewart was first into my head though, followed by Ramones. This seems very wrong, I've trying to put a hunk of chocolate cake ontop of a squirt of cream.

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    Replies
    1. That's a very interesting use of metaphor. Freud would have something to say about that.

      And the Aerosmith song reminds me too much of Armageddon.

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  5. My dad was a fan of Eddie Grant. Because of that it didn't feel right to like him myself.

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    Replies
    1. I'm sometimes glad that my parents, being so much older, never tried to inflict any of their own pop taste on me. The closest my dad ever got was whistling Frank Sinatra.

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