SMOOCH May 2024
A memorable song outro calls for boldness and finesse: a commitment to an exit we didn’t see coming and don’t want to end.
PEACE OUTROS OUTROS OUTRO OUTR OUT
dive in
Parliament, “I Just Got Back”
Can you imagine being George Clinton: In this world but not of it; singular but familybuilding? The Parliament/Funkadelic show I saw opened with Eddie Hazel clad only in a diaper and wailing “Maggot Brain”; and ended with Clinton and a constellation of bandmates covering “Let’s Go to the Hop.”
Normally I can’t turn a song off fast enough if there’s a dramatic piano score, scatting, or whistling. The wholesome “I Just Got Back” contains all three, and jovially whistles its way out.
Caetano Veloso,
“Bobagens, Meu Filho, Bobagens”
“Fantasy Island,” the 1980s TV drama, followed guests whose secret fantasies sometimes played out in slightly threatening ways, despite the watchful glittering eye of Mr. Rourke and the balmy setting. “Bobagens” similarly lulls into sophisticated relaxation, only for its outro to set off for the place Parliament just got back from. It’s a wondrous experience, but you hesitate to repeat it.
Steely Dan, “Aja”
But it feels good to croon and classes everything up. A water bottle becomes a champagne flute, a box of Cheez-Its a selection of petits fours.
Life offers scant opportunities to be blasé: to say something and trail off, gesturing at the air; or to sing “up on the hill” with authority and disdain without being told to come down from it at once.
“Aja” inhabits that chilly mood. Even the spectacular drumming in its outro sounds unattainable.
Sting,
“I Burn for You”
I wonder if Sting wrote “I Burn for You” before or after he started practicing tantric sex. Or during.
The attuned and mature lovemaking the outro conjures left me slack-jawed when I was 17. Even now when I hear it I think, I can’t wait to be an adult.
Deerhunter, “Desire Lines”
A Spanish cab driver in his mid-60s introduced me to this song, turned all the way up on his radio. He grooved in his seat and drummed the steering wheel, and when there were no more lyrics he sang the guitar outro. Then he said, Remind me where we’re going again?
SMOOCH
Text, photos, design by Catherine
Lowe
Albums:
Parliament, ‘Up for the Down Stroke’
Caetano Veloso, ‘Uns’
Steely Dan, ‘Aja’
Sting, 1985 ‘Bring On the Night’ tour Deerhunter, ‘Halcyon Digest’
LinkedIn www.internationalpajamas.com IG: the lowe end theory SMOOCH