Songs and the City

Medical jams: From plastic surgery to cancer to sex changes, it's been rockedabout

Plastic surgery can be an obsession in music too.
Courtesy photo
The band's called Morphine. They have a song titled "Cure For Pain." Yes, theyknow a particular brand of medicine.
Billy Bragg sings about a nurse's hard life.
Hopefully, M.D. Anderson can make Joe Jackson's lament about cancer a thing ofthe past.
It's a Songs And The City. Of course, there's a Token Dylan Track.

Music and medicine seemingly make odd bedfellows, but when you think about how many songwriters moan about illness of the heart and mind it makes more sense. On top of that, narcotics (both of the legal and illicit variety) is another prevalent subject matter. So, now that we've established the connection, here's a playlist featuring music about medicine.

"Heart Doctor" by Lee "Scratch" Perry

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This late period track by the legendary (and legendarily kooky) Lee "Scratch" Perry finds the reggae/dub artist and producer doling out "advice" to his patients. Based on the uncontrolled giggling that starts off the track and the litany of narcotics reeled off during the verses, I would venture to say that this is one type of heart doctor you won't find making rounds at St. Luke's.

"A Nurse's Life is Full of Woe" by Billy Bragg

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An unreleased track taken from the sessions of Talking With the Taxman About Poetry, "A Nurse's Life is Full of Woe" finds Bragg taking on the plight of the working class, a cause he's been singing about for over two decades now. A fiery protest singer who is equally adept at churning out a sublime love song (see "Must I Paint You a Picture" or "A New England" for proof), the Bard of Barking is one of the modern era's unheralded lyricists.

"Plastic Surgery" by Maps of Africa

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You can't have a medical themed songlist without a nod to the vain, and there's no better ode to plastic surgery than this psychedelic thumper by Maps of Africa. Granted, it seems as if things have gone horribly wrong for this patient: "I used to be a person/but I've turned into a version/of my plastic surgery."

"Still Ill" by The Smiths

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If you know anything about Morrissey you know that the illness in question is undoubtedly an ailment of the heart. And by heart, I don't mean clogged arteries. As is true with almost any song by The Smiths, there are multiple interpretations of "Still Ill."

Clearly the Moz is lamenting a fading relationship ("Under the iron bridge we kissed/and although I ended up with sore lips/it just wasn't like the old days anymore."), but he also appears to be making a political dig at the rampant individualism of the Thatcher years ("I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving/England is mine and it owes me a living."). But what to make of the repeated lines, "does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body?"

Depression? Knowing Morrissey I would say that's a safe bet.

"Call the Doctor" by J.J. Cale

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Such a smooth groove, this track from J.J. Cale's 1971 debut finds the laid back bluesman ravaged after a particularly rough night of loving: "A shady lady took all my bread/Ravished my body, lord, and messed with my head/I don't know but I've had my fill/Call the doctor and tell him I'm ill/"

"I Tried to Stay Healthy For You" by Palace Brothers

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Like the rest of the Palace Brother's mysterious debut, "I Tried to Stay Healthy For You" sounds like it was recorded in Appalachia during the early part of the 20th century. Will Oldham's quivering wimper and the slow, waltzing plucked banjo and strummed guitars behind him come across like a long lost Louvin Brother's classic or an unearthed gem from the Harry Smith folk collections.

The lyrics, seemingly written from the point of view of an aging coalminer are equally ancient and haunting, "Sing to them all and I'll stand by/Though jealousy it threatens/Smoke's around my blackened lungs/It is my only weapon."

"Cure for Pain" by Morphine

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Morphine is the band's name!

"Sick Bed Blues" by Skip James

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There's nothing worse than lying in bed stewing with sickness. Skip James's haunting blues bristles with despair, his falsetto moan all high and lonesome. Although the protagonist isn't doing too well physically, it sounds like there's more to the story: "Oh Lordy, Lord, Lord, Lord/I been so badly misused/An treated just like a dog."

"Cancer" by Joe Jackson

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Jackson laments that everything give you cancer and that's no cure and there's no answer. Hopefully M.D. Anderson, the nation's top-ranked cancer hospital, will have something to say about that real soon.

"Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues" by The Kinks

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Nobody captures insulated suburban paranoia quite like Ray Davies. Although written in 1971, this ode to the product of fear-mongering is as timely as ever. "They're watching my house and they're tapping my telephone/I don't trust nobody, but I'm much too scared to be on my own/And the income tax collector's got his beady eye on me/No there ain't no cure for acute schizophrenia disease."

"Hospital" by The Lemonheads

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Although he's best known as an early '90's alternative rock "hunk" who temporarily went bonkers and snorted mounds of blow with Oasis brothers Gallagher, there's no denying that Evan Dando knows his way around a catchy melody. But while his hooks are as sweet as the band's namesake candy, Dando's cheeky lyrics can often be shallow and inane as this medical-related track shows: "There's a disease going 'round the hospital/Green green leaves falling from the trees." Hmmm.

"Lady Godiva's Operation" by The Velvet Underground

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"Lady Godiva's Operation" is a terrifying account of a sex-change operation ("... sees the growth as just so much cabbage that now must be cut away") that goes horribly wrong. The menacing cacophony of the droning viola alongside the pulsing drums and jagged guitars provides the perfect backdrop to the harrowing lyrics. Never has the miracle of modern medicine been described in such gruesome terms. Somebody call a lawyer, I think we have a malpractice suit on our hands.

T.D.K. (Token Dylan Track)

"Love Sick" by Bob Dylan

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The most common ailment that has afflicted musicians, poets and artists for centuries (and which has led to some of man's most breathtaking works of art) can be traced back to the germs spread by love. Dylan's bitter rumination on heartbreak ranks among his finest songs of the past thirty years.

Movie Review

Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

Cookie Queens

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

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Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

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