For more of my random posts on random topics (PSAs, Ads, music, miscellany), click HERE:
Hook
Written by John Popper
Performed by Blues Traveler
Released August 29, 1995
It doesn’t matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel I’ll convey
Some inner truth or vast reflection
But I’ve said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don’t matter who you are
If I’m doing my job then it’s your resolve that breaks
Because the Hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The Hook brings you back
On that you can rely
There is something amiss
I am being insincere
In fact I don’t mean any of this
Still my confession draws you near
To confuse the issue I refer
To familiar heroes from long ago
No matter how much Peter loved her
What made the Pan refuse to grow
Was that the Hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The Hook brings you back
On that you can rely
Suck it in suck it in suck it in
If you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn
Make a desperate move or else you’ll win
And then begin
To see
What you’re doing to me this MTV is not for free
It’s so PC it’s killing me
So desperately I sing to thee
Of love
Sure but also of rage and hate and pain and fear of self
And I can’t keep these feelings on the shelf
I’ve tried well no in fact I lied
Could be financial suicide but I’ve got too much pride inside
To hide or slide
I’ll do as I’ll decide and let it ride until I’ve died
And only then shall I abide this tide
Of catchy little tunes
Of hip three minute ditties
I wanna bust all your balloons
I wanna burn all your cities to the ground
I’ve found
I will not mess around
Unless I play then hey
I will go on all day. Hear what I say
I have a prayer to pray
That’s really all this was
And when I’m feeling stuck and need a buck
I don’t rely on luck because
The Hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The Hook…
On that you can rely
_____________________________
This is one of the greatest cynical satirical songs of all time. Maybe I’m biased due to my love of the harmonica. Even so, it is knowingly and overtly about nothing and it mocks the listener by explaining that they’ll listen anyway… and they do. (Well, they did thirty years ago.) They celebrated the song. Hook is making fun of the emptiness and meaninglessness of the genre in which it exists while simultaneously being a hit in that genre.
As an informed listener, you end up with dueling feelings. “Yeah, he’s right, this genre is all drivel” while simultaneously celebrating something that is telling its listeners “I am drivel.”
There are weird little moments in time that are hard to explain to anyone who comes after. Blues Traveler – the band – is one of those things. There was a small period in the 90s where this overweight guy playing harmonica was a massively popular rockstar. Then it all kind of vanished very quickly. As a result, you can really pinpoint this band to the mid-90s in a way that is harder to do with some other musicians, whose music reminds you more of an era than a moment.
But what is this song about? It’s telling us something while telling us nothing. The underlying message is that there’s a kind of hypnosis at work with popular music. The listener can be fed lyrical garbage by a musician, and will dine happily on that garbage, if “the hook” is good and the music is right. Popper’s lyrics imply that this has been going on a long time and that it’s not going to stop. In fact, he can even tell you what the trick is and you won’t care and you won’t change your consumption standards.
Honestly, the whole thing kind of reminds me of the food safety discourse in the U.S. right now. Everyone has known forever that our food was unhealthy. Only very recently has anyone decided to do anything about it. A cynic might guess that the wave of caring will produce temporary changes but that eventually we’ll be in Upton Sinclair’s Jungle again within a few decades.
Will it be that way with music? I don’t know. I don’t think we’ve hit the moment of widespread cultural caring yet. The magic spell of bad food eventually produces diabetes and cancer. The magic spell of garbage music produces bad outcomes that are harder to define and more difficult to diagnose. Hence, the Hook always seems to bring us back.
(more on the song via wiki)
“Hook” is a song by American rock band Blues Traveler, from their fourth studio album, Four (1994). The title of the song is a reference to the term hook, a short musical riff that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to “catch the ear of the listener”. The lyrics are a commentary on the banality and vacuousness of successful pop songs, making “Hook” both a hit song and a satire of a hit song. Commercially, “Hook” peaked at number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 40 on the Canadian RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart.
Structure
The chord progression of “Hook” is very similar to the basic structure of Pachelbel‘s Canon in D, (D-A-Bm-F♯m-G-D-G-A, or I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V), but transposed to the key of A major. This chord progression is widely used in popular music, often as the hook, leading to other satirical takes on the use of this chord structure.
There are several allusions in the song, one to the story of Peter Pan and his nemesis Captain Hook “no matter how much Peter loved her, what made the Pan refuse to grow, was that the Hook brings you back”.
Satire
The first chorus of the song’s lyrics, aimed directly at the listener, assert that the lyrical content of any song is effectively meaningless, as the song’s musical hook will keep listeners coming back, even if they are unaware of the reason. In the introduction, John Popper sings:”It doesn’t matter what I say / So long as I sing with inflection / That makes you feel that I’ll convey / Some inner truth or vast reflection.”
The second verse admits the singer is “being insincere” and describes how the lyrics are intended to manipulate the listener. These lyrics are a satirical take on the formulaic way much popular music is generated. Further on during the bridge, the lyrics become even more blatant by criticizing MTV and claiming formulaic music is an easy way to make money: “When I’m feeling stuck and need a buck/ I don’t rely on luck, because/ the hook brings you back…”
The musically “lazy” chord structure viewed in combination with the meta-lyrics reveal the true extent of what a critic for The A.V. Club describes as song’s “genius”: “the commentary is a big joke about how listeners will like just about anything laid on top of the chords of the infinitely clichéd Pachelbel canon, even lyrics that openly mock them for liking it.”
Music video
The music video was directed by Frank W. Ockenfels and depicts a man, played by game show host Ken Ober, channel surfing through late-night television. He first watches a beauty pageant whose contestants lip sync the song as the host (erroneously credited as Milton Berle on IMDb) interviews them. For the second verse, a character modeled after Charles Foster Kane lip syncs at a campaign rally. The band appears in each of these segments, then plays the bridge of the song in the man’s apartment, with John Popper taking his place on the couch. During the final portion of the song, the man starts changing channels quickly, often returning to see Paul Shaffer lip sync the lyrics and play keyboard with the band. Finally the man turns off his TV set and starts to read a book about the American Civil War.
Shaffer was bandleader for Late Night with David Letterman, which gave Blues Traveler critical early exposure. Shaffer contributed backing keyboards to “Stand,” another track on Four. During the final sequence of channel changes, several split-second clips from the video for the previous single “Run-Around” are seen.
Charts
Weekly chartsChart (1995–1996) Peak
positionCanada Top Singles (RPM) 40 Canada Rock/Alternative (RPM) 12 US Billboard Hot 100 23 US Adult Contemporary (Billboard) 28 US Adult Pop Airplay (Billboard) 22 US Alternative Airplay (Billboard) 13 US Mainstream Rock (Billboard) 15 US Pop Airplay (Billboard) 8
One other thing that I enjoy about this song is that not only is it about nothing, its rapid-fire lyrics are permanently lodged in my brain. Do I remember where I left my shoes (I was wearing them 10 minutes ago)? No. Can I give you every word of these lyrics as though I’ve been training for Blues Traveler karaoke night for years? Probably. Maybe if I took my shoes off in a more musical way…
The official video for this song is also very visually mid-90s ish. It’s fantastic. It builds on the message of the song, giving us a picture of a guy who is kind of hypnotized by his television, with weird little subliminal messaging that seems to appear, too. Maybe there’s hope though because as the video ends, he turns the TV off and picks up a book.
