HEY STARSHIP, WHAT CITY DID YOU REALLY BUILD?

(Preliminary note: The following entry was written for us by Paul Davidson, author of the upcoming book The Lost Blogs and creator of this wildly entertaining blog. Enjoy.)

Lately, I don't know that I'm fully 100% on board with Starship's claim that “They Built This City.” Let's be honest with each other first and foremost -- any band who initially calls themselves Jefferson Airplane, then becomes Jefferson Starship, then becomes Starship, then releases a song called “WE BUILT THIS CITY” isn't necessarily a trustworthy band in the first place. They're obviously having identity issues and as we all very well know, people with identity issues usually lie about crap to make you like them more, which in turn, makes them feel better.

It's a vicious circle that never really results in anyone being better off, more sane, or feeling better about their own personal worth. And in Starship's case -- making ridiculous claims in their songs just makes me pity them even more.

Now, don't get me wrong -- rock n' roll artists through history have made a variety of claims in their songs that range from you not loving them, them not loving you, them being sorry for you know what and them wishing you'd be sorry for what you did. They cry (in a lyrical song-like fashion) about losing you, missing you, wishing you didn't do what you did (shame on you) and hoping you might just change your mind and come back.  Bands have claimed that they would pour some sugar on you, that they could walk this way and talk this way and that they were sometimes on the highway to Hell.

But building a city, and then going even further to claim that you build said city on rock and roll?

I'm no contractor or builder or city planner, but I'm smart enough to know that building a city requires permits, city approvals, a ton of workers (you've seen Extreme Home Makeover haven't you?) and piles and piles of wood, mixing cement and some kind of retrofitting equipment. Building a city requires hard work, hard labor and hard times.  I'm no expert, of course, but there's no way in HELL that you could build a city on rock and roll.

Starship is totally lying, much like a junkie lies to get more money for that next fix, hoping you just won't question them and let them do what they want to do.

But me?  I'm not signing off on this building the city on rock and roll crap.

Go ahead, troubleshoot or fact check other band's claims. Yes, it's totally reasonable that WHAM might really want you to wake them up before you go-go. It's pretty feasible that the ROLLING STONES can't get no satisfaction. I'd buy into the whole fact that THE KILLERS really do have a friend name Jenny who is “a friend of mine.” I can troubleshoot a million rock songs and have no issues whatsoever...

Except for Starship.

Let this be a cautionary tale of sorts for bands in the midst of writing their new breakout hits. Like a famous writer once said, you've got to write about what you know, or else your words will come across as untrue lies that will smell of dishonesty and turn your potential fans away in droves.

Building a city on rock and roll? I think not. Shame on you Starship, or whatever the hell your new name is.

Shame on you.

Comments

[jmorrison]

oh man. this god-damned song!!! probably in the running for worst song ever. made me remember something very silly though. when i was in grade school a friend of mine and i used to record weird-al type recreations of songs. we did a bunch of prince tracks, some bowie i think, but we hated this starship song so much we did one for it as well.

tile: we built this shitty on beans and corn.

i know, i know. but we were like 10! cut me some slack pauly.

[Tvindy]

Well, rock does make for a good solid foundation upon which to build a city. (You certainly wouldn't want to place a city on sand.) As for roll, if you go to dictionary.com and look up the 17th definition of the noun form of that word, you'll see that it can mean money. That's probably how Starship was able to pay all those contractors.

[Henry (the Netherlands)]

Starship - We build this city, is a super song, it's one of the best songs of Starship.tYPICAL 80's, Ilove it.The music of the 00' sucks.