Like a Radio Jew

I'm listening to the new Pernice Brothers album right now. Discover a Lovelier You. It's a great album. Very laid back, very dreamy indie pop. Right up my alley. They remind me of The Shins, kind of, not so much in the vocal department, but in the consistantly solid songwriting and overall, I don't know...tone.

Again, you see why I don't write about music all the time.

Anyhoo, there's a song on the album called "Dumb It Down" I really like, but listening to it just now, I could swear he sang..."Dumb it down for the Average Jew."

I was like, "really"? The average Jew needs things to be dumbed down? Then, I played it back and realized, of course, that he's saying "Dumb it down for the Average Joe." Which makes a lot more sense, in kind of a satirical way. So, okay then.

It reminded me of another time I made that mistake. Back when I was in high school, in the early mid 90's, Duran Duran had a brief return to popularity with the release of a new album. One of the singles, "Come Undone," featured a line in which Simon LeBon actually said, "Like a radio tune/I swear I've heard before." But my friends and I all were positive he was saying "Like a radio Jew/I swear I've heard before." Which doesn't seem like it would make a lot of sense, but when you consider that Howard Stern, a noted half-Jew, is the most popular radio personality in America...

Okay, it doesn't make any sense. And he's clearly saying "radio tune." But I was 15, what the hell did I know?

Anyway, thinking about that reminded me of this whole conversation I had at a speech tournament in high school about The Beatles. A bunch of us, somehow, got on the notion of..."What if the Beatles were all anti-Semites? How would their songs differ?"

We wound up with a whole lot of funny song titles. I don't remember most of them. In fact, the only ones I do remember are my own. (Why, I don't know...Maybe I only listen when I'm speaking, and when others are speaking I zone out and think about what I'm going to say next. I should probably work on that.)

- For the Benefit of Mr. Kike
- Magical Mystery Tour of Dachau
- While My Guitar Gently Heebs

Others had funny ones, I'm certain. But, then, they don't have their own blogs...do they...

[By the way, if you can think of hilarious anti-Jew Beatles songs, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. I have no idea why I find the idea funny. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm a self-hating Jew, which wouldn't really bother me if it wasn't such a hideous, lame cliche.]