In addition to being the anniversary of Mexico's victory in the Battle of Puebla and a great excuse to get blind on margaritas, Negro Modelos, fajitas and guacamole, Cinco de Mayo is also a holiday in the rock blogosphere as it is the birthday of Rock Turtleneck founder TCB Walsh.To mark the occasion, I’ve made a point of playing “Cinco de Mayo” by Liz Phair at least once every May 5 since its release in 1994.
Though it wasn’t a post-feminist manifesto masterpiece like her debut Exile In Guyville, Liz Phair’s sophomore LP Whip-Smart is full of juicy, quirky pleasures. “Cinco de Mayo,” with its circular melody and quirky instrumentation is one of the juiciest and quirkiest.
Beyond it being of Ms. Phair’s many fresh indie-rock takes on the breakup song, perhaps with an older gentleman, I have no idea what “Cinco de Mayo” is about. It has less authentic Mexican flavor than the salsa verde at Applebee’s. But I love it anyway.
And now you can too. Herewith Liz Phair’s ode to May 5 in audio and video form. Muy caliente!
mp3: Liz Phair, “Cinco de Mayo” Whip-Smart
YouTube: Liz Phair, “Cinco de Mayo” MTV’s 120 Minutes, 1994
Stupid Google discarded my lengthy comment.
ReplyDeleteI agree this song is awesome, but I think we can say more about it, because to me it's clear that Cinco de Mayo is meant to set the scene. Bad things happen (the hint is that it's betrayal). They are denied. The rest of it is seemingly reflective. I think we'd have a better sense of what else she's trying to get across if we knew what Rome was meant to reference. Italy? The ghost town in Ohio? Some other place?
For me, aside from its pain at missing the passion of this previous relationship, what I enjoy is the word play, pairing "Blowout. Denial." with "Burnout, Ohio." and the "fun this time" "me this time" pairing. She's really good more generally at showing all the sides of passion.