Darkoshi

In that Pat Benatar song, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, the lyrics always sounded to me like "Hit me with affection". It makes sense to me that way, as in showering someone with affection, or simply having a lot of affection for them.

With the actual lyrics, "Hit me with your best shot", I'm not sure I understand what is meant. I guess the singer is saying, go on and try to break my heart; it's not that easy; I might break yours instead? But I guess either way (my version or that one), they are saying they want to have a relationship or entanglement of some kind with the other person.

I hesitate posting anything related to Michael Jackson, because of the child abuse allegations that were brought against him. I still don't know what to think about them. I haven't read or heard anything compelling enough to make me think that he was most likely guilty (or at least not without also reading other things that made me think he was most likely not guilty). But I can't be sure that he was innocent either. I would like to think he was innocent. But anyway, he is dead now (it's been 9 years already), and I still admire the skill and talent he had, and still feel awe when watching some videos of him. Even if he was imperfect and flawed in other ways, it doesn't wipe out the amazing things he did.

This post is about this song:
Slave to the Rhythm - lyrics. The song is catchy, but the lyrics are sad. They seemed somehow specially poignant to me when I first read them, but it's been over a month now, and I don't quite remember why.

Here is a video of Michael Jackson "performing" the song at the Billboard Music Awards:


Video title: Michael Jackson - Slave To The Rhythm
Posted by: michaeljacksonVEVO
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDRTghGZ7XU


When I first watched that video, I thought it was a live performance. Then I found out it was after his death, and that it had been a "Pepper's Ghost" illusion that was put on for the show. Wow. Watching the video again a few times, I wondered how it could have been done, and decided that the video at least, must have been real, and must have been taped before his death. And that they must have just made it look like he was there on stage, even though it was just a video of him. But no.... According to this page: Michael Jackson Hologram Rocks Billboard Music Awards, the whole video must have been created after his death. I still don't know how. Is it a computer animated image of him? Is it a composition of various snippets from performances he had done in the past? A mixture of both? It looks so real. But apparently the real Michael Jackson never performed it.

Related video about these kind of "performances":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0L8YlgnGpc

Driving home, the Peter Gabriel song "Sledgehammer" came on the radio. I suppose the lyrics have always seemed nonsensical to me, but it's a nice catchy song to mentally sing along to. But today the thought struck me, "Wait a minute. This doesn't make sense. What is this song really about?"

When I hear the word "sledgehammer", I think of one of those big heavy things they have at fairs, which you heave up in the air and smash down with all your force against a target, to make the whatchamacallit go up, and if hits the bell at the top, you get a prize. It also makes me think of Tom and Jerry cartoons, where Tom runs after Jerry with the sledgehammer, trying to smash Jerry on the head. Or maybe that was some other cartoon.

So, I interpret the lyrics to this song - "I wanna be your sledgehammer" as "I want to smash this big heavy object down on your head and kill you". Or maybe as, "I'll do that to other people for you". But neither of those really make sense in terms of the rest of the song.

Then it occurred to me that a sledgehammer wasn't what I was thinking it was. Wasn't it one of those things construction workers use, to break up the asphalt, those things that go up and down, bang bang bang against the ground? (After looking up the words up now, I realized that is a jackhammer, not a sledgehammer. My original idea of a sledgehammer was correct.)

But anyway, thinking of a jackhammer, I suddenly realized the song must be about sex. Ohhhhhhhhh. Sledgehammer, as in I want to fuck you. With that realization, came disappointment. Another fun old childhood song turning out to be about sex. Now it won't feel the same, singing along to it. Unless I forget tonight's line of thought, which may happen. A sledgehammer as a phallic symbol still really doesn't make sense to me. People don't smash other people on the heads with giant phalluses.