You want to know how old I am? I remember when it was considered daring to be irreverent about the Kennedy family.
No. 363 on my most-played songs is a nostalgia trip to my freshman year at Boston University, in 1981. I had come from a Catholic household with conservative musical tastes and a strong loyalty to Democrats and Kennedys, so of course I was fascinated by a local New Wave band that mocked JFK's widow. (I had yet to hear about the Dead Kennedys). The band, Human Sexual Response, didn't last very long and didn't make much of a splash nationally, but it had a fierce following in Boston for obvious reasons and was mourned in the same way as a TV series cancelled too soon.
"Jackie Onassis," their biggest hit, sneered at the idea of someone craving attention and simultaneously complaining about her lack of privacy. (The first lines rhyme "Onassis" with "dark sunglasses.") I'm not sure if this is a fair cop against Onassis, whom I don't recall doing anything as transparent as starring in a TV reality show while bitching about the journalist who moved in next door. The song, like the movie Network, may have seemed like outrageous satire then -- and fairly close to the truth now. Regardless, you can dance to it, at least in the diffident style of the early '80s.
I want my portrait done by Andy Warhol/I'll let them market a Jackie O doll
Just let me be Jackie Onassis/Oh, yeah
A more sentimental take on the same theme -- in a more mainstream '80s pop style --came a few years from New Zealand, of all places. I had forgotten about this until just recently. Shona Laing flips Human Sexual Response on its head for "(Glad I'm) Not a Kennedy." Hasn't aged quite as well.
That Shona Laing video seems like a Flight of the Conchords bit. Maybe it's a New Zealand thing.
Posted by: David | November 17, 2010 at 11:08 PM