Museum Music, Part II

In my previous post on the topic of songs that mention museums, I lamented the dearth of the aforementioned, but I spoke too soon. A closer listen to some songs in my iTunes library revealed these gems:
1. Belle & Sebastian, "Funny Little Frog", 2006
You're my fashion tip, a living museum,
I'd pay to visit you on rainy Sundays,
And maybe tell you all about it, someday.
I'm still not sure what this song is all about, but I like the mention of fashion and museums in a single line, so it's more or less the theme song to my thesis.

2. Cole Porter (performed by many people including, according to Wikipedia, Dame Diana Rigg), "You're The Top", 1934
You're the top!
You're the Coliseum.
You're the top!
You're the Louvre Museum.
...
You're the Tower of Pisa,
You're the smile on the Mona Lisa
...
You're the National Gallery
You're Garbo's salary,
You're cellophane.
...
You're an O'Neill drama,
You're Whistler's mama!

Apart from containing a bad "yo mama" joke, this is a roll call of both high and low culture of the period.

3. George and Ira Gershwin (first performed by Fred Astaire), "A Foggy Day", 1937
A foggy day,
In London town,
It had me low,
And it had me down
I viewed the morning,
With much alarm,
The British museum,
Had lost its charm...

Ah yes, cursed be the day when the BM loses its charm, I tell ya... But the song is about love and museums, so it should be right up Amy's alley! :-)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well I'm going to second the call for Emmy the Great's 'On The Museum Island', because it's something of a treasure in my book. (It doesn't hurt that her album also contains 'city song', making it the most relevant thesis-album I've come across for my work on city museums).

Seems like an excellent procrastination technique to put these all on a spotify playlist somewhere...
The Attic said…
Marvellous idea! I need a procrastination tool...

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