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[graculus]

Meanwhile, what's the point of cover songs that sound exactly like the original? If I wanted a song that sounds like the original, I'd... well, I'd play the original, wouldn't I?

I always thought the idea of a cover was to take the original and make it your own, not force yourself into the exact same working of it as when it turned up the first time around.

Yes, Oingo Boingo, I am looking at you and your so-called cover of 'Turning Japanese' which is apparently about masturbation though I have no idea where people got that idea from since it's a theory I'd never heard until last week and it seems a bit far-fetched to me... not convinced.

Comments

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

I actually had reason to look up this little urban legend recently. From Allmusic.com:

A senior member of the All Music Guide family once appeared on a VH1 talking-heads show discussing the "true story" behind the Vapors' sole U.S. hit single, which a generation of junior-high students knew in their hearts to be about masturbation. (See, the guy's been at it so much that his O-face is becoming a permanent expression....) The final consensus was "maybe, maybe not," mostly because Vapors singer/songwriter David Fenton keeps changing his story on what his lyrical intentions were.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I began to be unconvinced when I had a minor search myself and discovered that the phrase 'turning Japanese' was supposed to be an English expression - we Brits have many many colourful expressions for masturbation and that sure as hell ain't one I have ever heard before. ;)