Kenny Rogers was emo when emo was uncool
My friends often tease me about being a total emokid. They level this accusation at me because of my perfectly innocent Ben Gibbard fetish. Of course, because we’re all nerds we argue about all sorts of things like what song is cooler “London Bridges” or “Sexyback.”
Right now I am trying to convince my westerbuddy Monkey that Kenny Rogers is totally cool and was emo when emo was uncool. My evidence thus far:
•Lucille: She leaves the hubby, four hungry kids, crops in the field to hook up with some guy in a hotel bar and the husband follows her and begs for her to come back
•Coward of the County: A dead criminal father, a raped girlfriend, being called yellow, and finally poor Tommy rises up and much Gatling boy assed is kicked
•Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town: A paralyzed Korean War vet begs his wife not to go out hooching about town with her fancy schmancy hair, rues the day he lost use of his penis and the ability to please her, and wishes he could get his gun and get out of bed
It doesn’t get more emo than Kenny Rogers.
Jodi, listen to the Monkey.
Kenny Rogers was never emo. & Most importantly never, ever cool.
27 Sep 06 at 12:58 pm #Oh drop the hipster act Placemat. You know KR is cool and the next gen Ryan Adamses and Paul Westerbergs will be totally name-checking Kenny the way they all name-check Johnny Cash and Hank Williams now.
27 Sep 06 at 1:25 pm #Please stop, you’re making me shudder.
All I can picture is gaggles of 20somethings sporting bushes of white facial hair!
“Lady, I’m you knight in shining arm chair, & I love you.”
& FYI, if you could see my outfit today, you’d pass on calling me a hipster.
27 Sep 06 at 3:41 pm #I’m with you on this one, Jodi. Good call. My friend has a velvet painting of KR hanging in his office. Under a spotlight. The younger kids, they don’t appreciate the K-Man. But I’m 33 and was raised on his stuff. I challenge you to find a better duet than Islands in the Stream.
27 Sep 06 at 6:41 pm #Man, you know, I get this too. From one friend particularly. I have a crazy varied taste in music (everything from Tool to Elliott Smith and the Mountain Goats) and yet because I listen to Death Cab and I’m a little bit in love with Ben Gibbard I’m emo?
If I’M emo, well then, I just don’t know. It’s all very confusing.
29 Sep 06 at 3:09 am #I hear ya Karen. And how can anyone not be a little in love with Ben Gibbard? He’s just so cute I want to squish him.
29 Sep 06 at 7:37 am #You are implying that emo is cool now.
29 Sep 06 at 10:19 am #Dude, if I weren’t emo, I’d totally kick your ass. However since I am, I will just go write poetry about how insensitive you are and how you don’t understand me.
29 Sep 06 at 10:21 am #