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The Stories Behind the Songs on the New Single
Sat., Nov. 2. 2019 1:12pm EDT
J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
Our new single, "You're All Like Troglodytes" and "Trilobite Love," spoofs two classic-rock songs that usually get played back-to-back on the radio, because they were positioned that way and segue so well on the original album from which they came. Classic-rock radio has a number of songs like that in regular rotation, and we've spoofed five others before this:
Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid - Led Zeppelin
(HardLabor/Living Loving Faith)
No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature - The Guess Who
(No Shepherd Tonight/New Other Nature)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band/With a Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles
(Such Impressive Loving Smart Close Friends/With Little Help from My Friends)
We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions - Queen
(We Will Walk Through/We're More Than Champions)
Eruption/You Really Got Me - Van Halen
(Konniption/He Really Got Mad)
Some other famous ones we haven't spoofed include:
Feeling That Way/Anytime - Journey
Lovin, Touchin Squeezin/City of the Angels - Journey
The Load-Out/Stay - Jackson Browne
Waitin' for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago - ZZ Top
Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go - Soft Cell
Foreplay/Long Time - Boston
Fallin' in and Out of Love/Amie - Pure Prairie League
This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide - The Kings
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - Elton John
Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away - Chicago
Moving in Stereo/All Mixed Up - The Cars
Threshold/Jet Airliner - Steve Miller Band
Brain Damage/Eclipse - Pink Floyd
Venus and Mars/Rock Show - Wings
I've seen these type of songs referred to as "two-fers" and "Siamese twin songs," and the tricky thing about spoofing them is carrying a theme through two songs or at least making both parodies about related topics.
I was surprised at how many of our fans didn't know "You're All I've Got Tonight" and "Bye Bye Love." Each of those songs has its own Wikipedia entry, for goodness' sake! :) They came from The Cars' eponymous, ubiquitous debut album.
So many songs from that album got played (and still get played) on rock radio that Cars lead guitarist Elliott Easton once said, "We used to joke that the first album should be called The Cars Greatest Hits."
Sadly, The Cars' lead singer and songwriter, Ric Ocasek died on September 15. But that happened just over two weeks after we put this parody into production, so it had nothing to do with us doing these two songs. It was just an unhappy coincidence.
As I mentioned previously in one of our newsletters, I saw The Cars in concert in 1984. My friends and I were so disappointed when they closed the show with "You're All I've Got Tonight" and didn't go straight into "Bye Bye Love." Ironically, they had started the show with "Hello Again." How can you start with "Hello" and not end with "Bye Bye"? Sigh.
Anyway, I think I got the idea for "You're All Like Troglodytes" about the time we did "Jephthah You Needed" (late 2015), but the title was all I had. And there was no way I wanted to do it without also spoofing "Bye Bye Love." :) In the meantime, I got more fully formed ideas for "You Might Stink" and "Taken Up," so we released those in 2017 and 2018.
But I couldn't get that "Troglodyte" title out of my head, so I dug it back out on August 29 and texted the other band guys, asking if they liked the two original songs, and they all gave their resounding approval. I went to work, and the lyrics started flowing immediately, including the follow-up line that gets repeated in the chorus, "I lead you to light."
Merriam-Webster defines "troglodyte" as: 1. a member of any of various peoples (as in antiquity) who lived or were reputed to live chiefly in caves or 2: a person characterized by reclusive habits or outmoded or reactionary attitudes. Both definitions apply in this song, and that's why the line "I lead you to light" works so well both allegorically and spiritually.
I got the title for "Trilobite Love" that same day, too. I wasn't even thinking of the nice rhyme and alliteration of "Troglodyte" and "Trilobite." It was all a gift from God. We hope you enjoy both songs.
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