Can we talk about... My Parties :)

[Lis]

Hi... how are you?   

Yup, I know this is not a universal favorite   but this song just makes me happy.  MK parodies the nouveau-rich superficial and materialistic host with his biting humor, and I am more than a little curious about the back-story for My Parties.   I often thought that MK wrote My Parties specifically in disgust of music industry executives.  I have no substantiation, and I could be completely off-base, but I just wonder.  This song seems like a good opportunity to "stick it to them" with the last of the DS albums. 

Thought I'd bring this up, especially after I read Lestroid's recent comment on the 2014 MK RECORDING DIARY thread:

"For what it's worth, I am quite certain that MK will never discuss in public any dispute with a record company.  But a couple of the songs on Privateering seem to give some insight into his thoughts.  The lyrics to "Don't forget your hat" sound a lot like the expression from the American south "Don't let the door hit you on the way out" which is said when you are glad to be rid of someone you don't like.  The rest of the lyrics support that thought.  That sentiment could apply to a record company executive with whom you are having a dispute."

I would love to hear what you have to say about My Parties... 

[dmg]

Well I like it lots!  The only one I'm not so keen about on the OES album is TTH but I love the whole album to be honest.  I hadn't actually listened to MP for quite a while until fairly recently but I had OES album on my CD player and gave it another listen and thought it was pretty good.  Some nice licks from Mark on it and good playing by Chris on the sax on the play-out. 

The lyrics are pretty amusing but there is one verse where they kind of drop a bit below par I think. The one that starts: "Boy, this punch is a trip - it's o.k. in my book," however I'm prepared to forgive this tiny lack of judgement!  However the chorus is very catchy and the rest of the lyrics are good.

I've always thought it to be about a company that organises parties for people calling themselves "My Parties."  I've never really thought about it though because it's a lighthearted number and never really looked into it.  It was really the line in the chorus that gave me the thought: "It's casual entertaining - we aim to please...At my parties."  Also a knock at all the useless products we all buy and wasted expense in the consumer world.

PS:  This is probably substantially more "off-base" than the above post! 

[yontwocrows]

and "My Parties" is a cross between Randy Newman and Rodney Dangerfield-a singing tour of a rich moron's house: "Step inside my home/That's a brass toilet tissue holder with its own telephone/That's a musical doorbell-it don't ring, I ain't kiddin'/it plays `America the Beautiful' and `Tie a Yellow Ribbon.' "

Knopfler has decided to drop "My Parties" from the album because he thinks the joke will get old after a couple of listens. This is appalling to the others, who consider "My Parties" a great track. The final decision's not open and shut; for this album, Knopfler has for the first time shared record production with Illsley, Fletcher and Clark.

Quoted from an article about Dire Straits in Q-Magazin, Oct 1991. Here (http://www.odabasi.net/dsint1.htm) you can read the full article, which is very interesting (I've read it hundred years ago, but couldn't remember it anymore)

[Suprlinda]

Hi, all.  I always laugh at the irony in this song.  I have suspected it was inspired by Mark's time in Hollywood when he worked on film scripts.  The Princess Bride came out just a few years before On Every Street, and I know he worked with Reiner, so thought maybe there was a connection.  I'm sure he met his share of people just like he wrote about during that time, and it probably struck a chord.  It may also have been about Warner, too, but I thought the unreal world of Hollywood seemed a better bet.  That seems to me to be the only place you might find someone with "a brass toilet tissue holder with its own telephone" or a doorbell that plays Tie a Yellow Ribbon!   

[LoveExpresso]

I am pretty sure I read somewhere many years ago that MK mentioned in an interview that he was inspired for My Parties by one of those catalogues lying out in planes about all sorts of articles for casual entertainment  in a millionaire-like style. I am sure those two words were mentioned in that interview which I probably found somewhere on Thomas Molin's page. More I don't know.

LE

[dustyvalentino]

MK was right. Should have been a bside. Joke did indeed get old very quickly.

[TheTimeWasWrong]

I never understood why so many people disliked My Parties. I always found it a great song, sarcastic lyrics and great guitar melody!

[dmg]

I never understood why so many people disliked My Parties. I always found it a great song, sarcastic lyrics and great guitar melody!

I agree.  Ticket to Heaven is the weak link on that album IMO.

[Tally]

He should have ditched My Parties and added Millionaire Blues and Kingdom Come instead. And, of course, recorded I Think I Love You Too Much while he was at it.

But Millionarie Blues is a similar song to MP, just better musically.

[Pottel]

ain't running outta nothing, in my deep-fareezzzzeee....
love that.

[LoveExpresso]

Always loved that song. Another good thing about My Parties is that it is followed by Planet of New Orleans.   

LE

[Silvertown]

Very nice song indeed! Also, I think that lyrics are timeless. I think that it is irony picture of some posh people arranging their parties with those classic lines like "Ah, here comes the dip - you may kiss the cook" and great: "Now don't talk to me about the polar bear, don't talk to me about the ozone layer, ain't much of anything these days, even the air, they're running out of rhinos - what do I care?"

[Lestroid]

I always thought that the lyrics to Early Bird were very similar to My Parties with Simon Cowell showing off his fancy estate to a guest. I figured that was why it didn't make the album.  That and the fact that it is likely to become dated

[Lis]

Thanks yontwocrows for the article, a nice read that I was not aware of.   

...I have suspected it was inspired by Mark's time in Hollywood when he worked on film scripts.  The Princess Bride came out just a few years before On Every Street, and I know he worked with Reiner, so thought maybe there was a connection.  I'm sure he met his share of people just like he wrote about during that time, and it probably struck a chord.  It may also have been about Warner, too, but I thought the unreal world of Hollywood seemed a better bet.  That seems to me to be the only place you might find someone with "a brass toilet tissue holder with its own telephone" or a doorbell that plays Tie a Yellow Ribbon!   

Hahaha!  Superlinda, I completely agree...  the host sounds very 'West Coast' in general, and the expressions Mark uses are expressions I remember hearing, including dmg's not-so-favorite: "Boy, this punch is a trip - it's o.k. in my book".  Weak, perhaps... but very typical for the time (sorry, folks... California offers a lot of silly, forgettable expressions to the English language...). 

And yet, I can still visualize Mark actually being chatted up by his host at one of these parties.  And Mark, just trying to absorb all the ridiculousness (kind of like his observations on Money For Nothing)... 

Well, nonetheless, I am quite glad it made it on OES.  I love the song -- the lyrics, catchy melody, the personae Mark is able to invoke, the perfect use of the sax - and even the "Weeeee" of the party favor at the end.  And like LE, I am also happy that PONO follows it 

Thanks all for the input...  I found myself pondering this song, and it's great to get additional insight!! 

[sweetsurrender]

I never understood why so many people disliked My Parties. I always found it a great song, sarcastic lyrics and great guitar melody!

I love the song from the first listening.