{"id":23715,"date":"2020-07-15T09:35:16","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T13:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=23715"},"modified":"2020-07-15T09:35:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T13:35:24","slug":"extend-that-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/extend-that-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"Extend That Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I\u2019ve been listening to a lot of old soul music lately (not an unusual occurrence) and happened to have a sequence of three metaphor songs in a short spell. All three are great greats songs from the \u201860s, and it\u2019s easier to just put up the YouTube videos than to try and explain in words what I mean by this type of song.<br \/><br \/>First up is <strong>Mel &amp; Tim<\/strong>\u2019s classic \u201cBackfield In Motion.\u201d Sports infractions are the metaphor for cheating in love. The metaphor covers football (\u201coffside &amp; holdin\u2019\u201d), baseball (\u201cbalkin\u2019\u201d), boxing (\u201cyou hit me below the belt\u201d), and basketball (\u201cdouble dribble\u201d). This video has all the lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mel &amp; Tim - Backfield in Motion (with lyrics)\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8KkS0D48tdE?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there\u2019s <strong>100 Proof Aged In Soul<\/strong>\u2019s sole hit \u201cSomebody\u2019s Been Sleeping.\u201d  This was one of the early hits on the Hot Wax label, formed by the team of <strong>Holland-Dozier-Holland<\/strong>, after they left Motown in 1968. Here the metaphor is the Goldilocks &amp; The Three Bears fable. And it\u2019s an interesting metaphor in that it is both metaphor and not metaphor. Somebody has been sleeping in his bed! Here\u2019s the lyrics video for this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"100 Proof (Aged in Soul) - Somebody&#039;s Been Sleeping in My Bed (with lyrics)\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/52GazjJsF9M?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By the way, this is the album version, which I didn\u2019t hear until many years after this was a hit in 1970. When I first heard this version I definitely preferred the single edit; now I love the album version and don\u2019t want to hear the song without the instrumental break that comes 2 minutes in \u2013 a minute and a half of pure funky soul horns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third is \u201cAgent Double-O-Soul\u201d, <strong>Edwin Starr<\/strong>\u2019s first hit from 1965. This was on the Ric-Tic label, which was bought by <strong>Berry Gordy<\/strong> a few years later. <em>Bond, James Bond<\/em> is the metaphor here. Here\u2019s a great (albeit lip-synced) performance video from a 1960s teen dance program; sorry, I couldn&#8217;t find one with lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Edwin Starr Agent Double-O Soul\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CHJXfM91B0g?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want lyrics, you can find them in the description at this video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Agent Double-O Soul - Bachman &amp; Cummings (With Lyrics In The Description)\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y60JOCrxZjs?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now be honest, who knew that <strong>Randy Bachman &amp; Burton Cummings<\/strong> covered this song?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My question to the Hall is&#8230;<em>Are extended metaphor songs like these the province of soul songs?<\/em> I know there are plenty of rock &amp; roll songs that use cars or the road as a metaphor but I\u2019m looking for ones more like these three where the metaphor extends through the whole song.<\/p>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/extend-that-metaphor\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/extend-that-metaphor\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a><\/nav>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been listening to a lot of old soul music lately (not an unusual occurrence) and happened to have a sequence of three metaphor songs in a short spell. All three are great greats songs from the \u201860s, and it\u2019s easier to just put up the YouTube videos than to try and explain in words <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/extend-that-metaphor\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[204,293],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}