Huey Lewis: The Joke Nobody Got

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Hip to Be Square: a joke nobody got, says singer Huey Lewis
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. (CP) — If you were an ’80s geek and considered Huey Lewis an ally, you’d better mount your banana-seat bicycle, toot your horn and scoot back to PeeWee’s Playhouse, pronto.
Hip to Be Square, the smash hit Lewis and his band, the News, took to the top of the charts in 1986, had nothing to do with eschewing sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll — as many listeners, much to Lewis’s chagrin, thought.
The upbeat number merely mocked baby boomers embracing — and often engineering — the “neo-con” environment of the Wall Street decade, Lewis contends.
“That was a joke nobody got,” says the band’s lead vocalist, harmonica player and chief songwriter, with the same raspy voice that belted out a solid string of hit singles, and whose clean-cut profile graced the covers of a respectable collection of smash albums.
“It was about how these old hippies are now dropping back in. Some people think it’s an anthem for square people. Hey, people thought (Bruce Springsteen’s) Born in the U.S.A. was a patriotic song. Nobody got that one either.”
These days, with millions of album sales under his belt (Sports is considered a multi-platinum classic), Lewis makes the music he wants, tours at his convenience (about 70 gigs per year), even going so far as picking songs for a performance minutes before going on stage. He’s in the Michigan Sault on Friday night at Kewadin Casinos.
“Lord knows, we’ve played enough shows, we’d be foolish not to (mix up material),” Lewis said in an interview from his home near San Francisco, Calif., close to where the rocker grew up.
The veteran performer says he and his old bandmates have remained true to their philosophy: honesty is the best policy.
“Rock, it needs to be true. When the guy sings, ‘I’m going down to Kansas City to get me some crazy little women and I’m gonna get me one,’ you have to believe he’s going to Kansas City, he knows about crazy women and he wants to get him one. And if we do that, bingo, it rings.”
(Sault Star)

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

huey, the eternal subvert:

Hip To Be Square
Huey Lewis and the News

I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around
But I couldn't take the punishment, and had to settle down
Now I'm playing it real straight, and yes I cut my hair
You might think I'm crazy, but I don't even care
Because I can tell what's going on
It's hip to be square

I like my bands in business suits, I watch them on TV
I'm working out 'most everyday and watching what I eat
They tell me that it's good for me, but I don't even care
I know that it's crazy
I know that it's nowhere
But tehre is no denying that
It's hip to be square

It's not too hard to figure out, you see it everyday
And those that were the farthest out have gone the other way
You see them on the freeway, It don't look like a lot of fun
But don't you try to fight it; "An idea who's time has come."

Don't tell me that I'm crazy
Don't tell me I'm nowhere
Take it from me
It's hip to be square

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

There's so many levels, and wheels within wheels within wheels.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

kindly bear in mind that i saw huey shopping in the yogurt aisle at woodlands market in probably the yuppiest neighborhood in northern california: kentfield/ross.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I seem to remember that Brett Easton Ellis got the joke.

― Patrick Bateman, Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Brett Easton Ellis to thread!

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

zzub zzub

― B.E.E. (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

bollocks, my first ever x-post!

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

keep in mind this is from Sault Ste Marie and that:
Sports is considered a multi-platinum classic

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Sports is considered a multi-platinum classic

Ummmm....by who?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Dammit, x-post!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

it IS multi-platinum, considered or not...

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

A friend of mine from college named Jay used to play in a band called the Janitors of Anarchy (and yes, they were as bad as the name suggests), but they used to play a cover of "Hip to Be Square," re-titled "Hip to B.M" (as in bowel movement). Sure, it sounds juvenile, but it was damn funny at the time....especially if you were drunk at the time.

Here, there and everywhere....hip, hip, so hip to b.m.!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"Sports is considered a multi-platinum classic
Ummmm....by who?"

Patrick Bateman is again the only example I can think of here.

Are there any similar Phil Collins interviews protesting the lack of recognition for his epic meditations on intangibility in Invisible Touch?

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Huey Lewis was my first rock concert, at Madison Square Garden in fall of '86. I was 11 years old, and one of the games of the Mets / Red Sox World Series was going on at the same time as the show. Huey was kind enough to give the crowd score updates throughout. It was a good show, as I remember.

― calstars (calstars), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm ashamed to admit I once owned a cassette of Huey Lewis and the News. God they sucked.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Continuing the Brett Easton Ellis-related aspect, has anyone here read Glamorama, and if so what is the significance of the Wings song that's employed to trigger the destruction of the aeroplane towards the end of the book?

I have no particular inclination to go as far as tracking the song down to find out, so I thought I'd take the lazy option and ask here! It's apparently from Band on the Run, and the title is a number (something like '511'). Any ideas?

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

They detonated to ABBA too, didn't they?

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I got the joke!

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 13 November 2003 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't recall Abba being a trigger, but I'm sure that was the case.
Anybody fancy a new thread on this?

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 13 November 2003 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I re-watched a bit of American Psycho (the movie) recently, and I have to say, Bateman's take on Lew & the News was pretty spot-on. i mean, it was a great piece of criticism simply because he praised on exactly the terms that he values in life ('professionalism', etc.). I disagree with his dismissal of early New Wave Huey ("Some of My Lies Are True" is awesome), but that's beside the point.

― Al (sitcom), Thursday, 13 November 2003 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

How does he go from talking about how "Hip to Be Square" was just a joke to saying in the last paragraph that honesty is the best policy and that, "Rock, it needs to be true"?

― Brian Miller, Thursday, 13 November 2003 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

jokes can be true

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 November 2003 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Nothing beats the shot of Bale-man walking down the hall to "Walkin' On Sunshine". And the movie derails around the same place as the book anyway, I couldn't complain about it.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Thursday, 13 November 2003 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude, Huey Lewis doesn't suck. I know it's not cool, but.... I'm sorry, they just don't suck!

I like them. I'm not ordinarily into that "bar band" sort of sound, but they do what they do very well.

― paige, Thursday, 13 November 2003 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Sports is a classic if you're FIVE years old!

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 November 2003 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

*Sports* is a really fine album. (I actually think Greg Tate defended in the Voice when it came out, if that means anything to you.) Best songs: probably "You Crack Me Up," "Walking on a Thin Line," "Bad is Bad." But his best song ever was probably "Workin for a Livin" on his previous album, *Picture This.* Best video: "If This Is It." Best riff later stolen by Ray Parker Jr." "I Want a New Drug." Best coincidence: How, on the cover of their debut album, the News look so much like the Boomtown Rats. Most important band whose name was probably influenced by Huey Lewis and the News: R. Kelly and Public Announcement. Best side project: his band Clover on Elvis Costello's *My Aim is True.* (I think). Also pretty good: Sue Saad and the Next.

― chuck, Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Fore! was the one I (briefly) had on cassette back in the day. Got it for the singles -> Didn't like anything else -> Got tired of the singles -> Got rid of it.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Huey Lewis was booked as the headlining entertainment for this years Indoor Tanning Association World Expo. It was last weekend. Would anyone care to give us a review? :)

― pete from the street, Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it's funny that they're always called a "bar" band. What does that even mean? I've never seen any band in any bar that had songs as good as Lewis's. Favorite: "Heart and Soul". All the "bar" bands I've ever seen do bad covers of people like R.E.M. and the Clash and the COunting Crows. Maybe they mean Lewis's is a Pub-Rock group? Since he played on and wrote "Bad is Bad" for Dave Edmunds Repeat When Necessary lp.

― Broheems (diamond), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Best side project: his band Clover on Elvis Costello's *My Aim is True.* (I think).

Yup, that was the case. And Sports shows them actually IN a bar, so clearly they are a bar band. In the same way that Queen early eighties covers showed they were monochrome caricatures.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Broheems,

They got there start playing bars (not clubs) in Marin Co. and SF. I think they still play bars occasionally in San Rafael (New George's).

Weren't they the band playing in the bar in the first act of 48 Hours?

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Huey Lewis and the News -- the multi-platinum high-energy pop rock band
with dozens of Top 40 hits -- will headline the industry party at the Indoor
Tanning Association's World Expo Nov. 8 in Nashville.

Dozens? Plural?

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, you know...um...there was that "Power of Love" one...and that one from Back to the Future...and...uh...

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Those are the same song, aren't they?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"Back In Time"

― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

YES! Nickalicious - 1, brainfarts - 1,000,000!!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, weren't both of those songs in the movie? I haven't seen it in years.

― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Through 1991 (when my edition of the Joel Whitburn top 40 guide ends) he had 16 Top 40 hits (the last one being "Couple Days Off," which I believe Phil Dellio compared to Husker Du once, in *Radio On*); I DOUBT he's had eight more since then, but what do I know?

― chuck, Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe they're including Canada?

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

They were no Tommy Tutone

― dave q, Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I think they had two hits off of that covers record they did in, um,'94. Altough I doubt Billboard figures supermarket muzak airplay when they compile the charts.

― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Thursday, 13 November 2003 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Hip to Be Square: a joke nobody got, says singer Huey Lewis

....a joke nobody got in spite of the fact that Huey always made sure to mention that it was a joke in every fucking interview he gave at the time.

― Christine 'Green Leafy Dragon' Indigo (cindigo), Friday, 14 November 2003 06:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Sports is a classic, to my dad.

― hstencil, Friday, 14 November 2003 07:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Huey Lewis: The Joke Nobody Got" is the working title of a biographical film to be released in the coming year.

― jazz odysseus, Friday, 14 November 2003 08:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I bought "Couple Days Off" for 25c once. I still like it.

― edward o (edwardo), Friday, 14 November 2003 09:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Course it was a joke. A rubbish joke. And rubbish too.

Bar band? theyre barred from my place for a kick off...

Aside: I was in a pro/am karaoke comp once, the eventual winner was Wattie from the Exploited (in civvies) singing "Doing it all for my Baby", and a fine singer he is too....

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 14 November 2003 10:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Do sixteen threads about improvising Finnish laptop-tuba trios in penance for this one, please.

― Momus (Momus), Friday, 14 November 2003 10:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"If nobody gets it, then is it still a joke?" - Metal Sludge (on, umm, I forget)

― dave q, Friday, 14 November 2003 11:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I think...

Everybody got it, nobody laughed.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 14 November 2003 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Joni Mitchell's "Last Time I Saw Richard" is actually funnier

― dave q, Friday, 14 November 2003 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Think of how different the '80s would have been if people got the joke... no New Kids on the Block, Captain Beefheart would have put out another record & it would have gone multi-platinum... it's like the Twilight Zone, man.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 14 November 2003 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"I got it. I just didn't get it right away." - one of Derek Zoolander's mates.

― M Carty (mj_c), Friday, 14 November 2003 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"Heart and Soul"!!!!!! whatta song!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 14 November 2003 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

ten months pass...

Hip to Be Square: a joke nobody got, says singer Huey Lewis
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. (CP)

Holy Fucking Shit! I NEVER thought I'd see my old hometown mentioned by name in ILM! Amazing. Guess the Soo Greyhounds are my team to support this year. Screw the NHL. Go Hounds Go!
http://www.trubbl.co.uk/Images/SooGreyhounds01.gif

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 06:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Back in Time is so obviously his best song.

And they are a radtacular band, by the way.

― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 06:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I like them. Haven't actually heard them in well over ten years, but I recall a good batch of their songs rather fondly, especially "Heart and Soul," "Doin' It All For My Baby" and "I Want A New Drug." It's kinda aamzing that there can be almost unanimous ILM praise for Hall and Oates (who I also like), but then waves of dismissal for Huey Lewis, Don Henley, etc. ILM is SO fickle sometimes. I mean, if it's hip to be square, then at least be a COMPLETE square, yaknowhutumsayin?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I lived in SAULT STE. MARIE Michigan when I was 6.

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I may need to buy Sports one of these days. Are there any good comps with the BTTF songs on them?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

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