The poll of the lyrics for the song "Signs"

Woah-oh-oh vs Ugh! vs Wooo!

So I took off my hat, I said "Imagine that. Huh! Me workin' for you!"

So much confrontation. The guy gave you a job even though you wore a goddamned hat to the interview!

The hat not only hides his hair but also keeps him from being freaky.

And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house, "Hey! What gives you the right?"
And then the owner shot me
Ow
Call an ambulance

I voted for
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind

These lyrics are kind of anarcho-Christian, aren't they? Also, I forgot that the intro to this starts out faster than the rest of the song.

voted Whoa-oh-oh

Yes, me too, re: the intro. It's a like a Spencer Davis rocker grafted oddly onto the rest of the song. One of many things I love about it. (xpost)

(Also somehow forgot these guys were from Ottawa!)
xpost

What kind of asshole wears a hat to a job interview?

Ha, I missed How's Life post up there, but yeah seriosuly this guy is a jerk I wouldn't hire him. Also, spoiler alert: he doesn't pass the drug test.

One of two heavyweight contenders for cheesiest taking-on-the-man song of the early '70s, the other being Jonathan Edwards' "Sunshine"...must be others, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScfUfsUlGro

I like them both!

I sort of get that the target of his ire is a manager who explicitly accepts or rejects people based strictly on their appearance.

(Not saying that was the greatest social injustice of 1970 or anything.)

Ugh!

aw, the poignancy of him making up his own little sign.

gotta go with "ugh"

"Signs" had just fallen off the CHUM chart around the time I was starting grade 5. (I checked.) I can still remember one of my Beavis and/or Butthead friends at the time explaining to me that the "Ugh!" meant they were "doin' it."

(Not really explaining who "they" were, seeing as the singer's alone and just about to step into a church...)

when Jesus is your right-hand man, you're never alone

yeah i kind of love this song, it's so ridiculously self-righteous and petuland

I picture the pastor at this church seeing the singer's note in the collection plate and being all "Ugh!"

And the sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply" is an amazing opening line. Voting for it.

Points for any song that starts with the world "and"

word, i mean

Roland Barthes and Umberto Eco heard "Signs" and said, shit just got real.

And the sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply" is an amazing opening line.

OTM. It gets in my head a lot.

And my sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply"
A man with a hat came up to the desk and asked me why
I said "You look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you'll do"
He took off his hat and said "Imagine that. Huh! Me workin' for you!"
WOAH-OH SNAP

Albert Hammond's "Free Electric Band" obviously inspired by The Five Man Electrical Band. One of the last of those kinds of songs to make the charts too.

i think maybe my favorite line is "If God was here he'd tell you to your face, Man, you're some kinda sinner" for the combo of "wait til my dad gets home" attitude and accidental atheism ("if god was here" - oh i thought god was everywhere)

i thought this was going to be the justin timberlake & snoop dogg song and was all ready to vote "venus and serena in the wimbledon arena" :(

Points for any song that starts with the world "and"

― da croupier

i was thinking the same thing

hahaha lex

ooh I picked "If God was here" too....in the sequel the guy should turn into Charles Manson.

The Albert Hammond song is funny as fuck too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKlUfVb90Y

It probably helps to be Canadian to remember their previous hit "Half Past Midnight" (1967, when they were called the Staccatos) or their follow-up hits: "Absolutely Right," "Money Back Guarantee," "I'm a Stranger Here," and "Werewolf" (the follow-ups did chart on Billboard). The second was about the best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJUReTLNNYA

When i was 14 or 15, whenever this would come on the local classic rock station we were for some reason frequently tuned to, my one friend and I modified the chorus so that the title came out phonetically:

"Sijjuns, sijjuns, everywhere sijjuns / watch out for those overhead pigeons."

Adolescence was a lonely time for me.

Probably helps to be old, too. (Best of the ones that came after "Signs," that is; "Half Past Midnight" was better than all of them, "Signs" included).

good song, clemenza, sounds very middle 60s who

I'd never thought about the Who before, but yeah, I can hear that a bit. Here they are, your sign-hating Jesus freaks when they still wore matching suits (truncated live clip):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR5wYR9w8kE

I sort of get that the target of his ire is a manager who explicitly accepts or rejects people based strictly on their appearance.

Having said that, it is kind of hilarious to think of turning down a job offer as a major blow to the manager. Was the economy really like this in 1970??

(Ha, I'm from Ottawa and I don't know any of those, clemenza!)

i think you guys are confused, the target of his ire is signs

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i thought this was going to be the justin timberlake & snoop dogg song and was all ready to vote "venus and serena in the wimbledon arena" :(

― lex pretend, Tuesday, July 31, 2012 1:19 PM Bookmark

^^^^

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Huh!

I'm surprised and impressed that "Ugh!" beat "Whoa-oh-oh" and "Wooo!" so convincingly. They all have strengths and weaknesses in about equal measure for me.

it always amused me that a cover of this song was a hit in 1990, which probably represents the peak of mainstream acceptance of long-haired freaky people in US society