Walk like an Egyptian

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my funday
My I don't have to runday
It's just another manic Monday

Doesn't it matter that I have to feed
The both of us - employment's down.

All of my nights
Why did my lover have to pick last night to get down?

Blame it on the train, but the boss is already there.

I really find it funny, because of the way she called Sunday an 'I don't have to run' day, just so that it rhymed with 'Sunday' and 'fun day'.

If it were sunday, the next day would just be monday again! Why would you want it to be sunday if the next day would just be Monday? I'd wish it were Tuesday so that it would be the longest possible time untill its Monday again!

This is the second time that a Bangles number has felt my ice-cold throttling grasp.The first time was many months ago in a commentary on Walk like an Egyptian,which,as far as I'm concerned,could well be in the top ten most nonsensical numbers of all those I've written about for Am I right,and that number is considerable.Come to think of it,it could probably find itself in the top ten most nonsensical numbers of all time.Take a good hard look at the lyrics of Walk like an Egyptian,and you'll see what I mean.It makes the dead parrot sketch in Monty Python seem sane in comparison.Manic Monday,whilst not aspiring to the insane heights of codswallop as Walk like an Egyptian,is,nonetheless,talking out it's own backside for all that.I'll show you why in a moment.The Bangles were one of the most successful groups ever,emerging in the early 80s.Big bucks writers and producers sat up and took notice,and a highly influential musician with the moniker of Prince Rogers Nelson was amongst them.This guy has always had the reputation of being a chronic workaholic,churning out song after song like some kind of human conveyor belt system.All I can say on that particular score is that by the time he wrote Manic Monday for the girls,he must have been busting his hump a damn sight even harder than usual,and was in need of a rest big time.Check it out-She starts by saying it's six o'clock and she's fresh out of a dream which involved snogging Valentino beside a beautiful stream in Italy-[One is given to wonder what way this girl's conscious world operates,if her unconscious is visited with such dreams.]-I can't be late for work,'cause I guess I wont get payed-[Actually there's no GUESS about that.]-These are the days when you wish your bed was already made-[An already made bed would denote you've had to first get out of there to go to work,so what's with wishing for such a thing?]-Just another manic Monday-[Manic?OK,nobody's too chuffed come Monday morning and all it might involve,but,manic?The choice of word seems well over the top.]-I wish it was Sunday,'cause that's my funday-[What's with SUNDAY being her funday?OK,so maybe she works Saturdays.Trouble is that isn't actually stated here,nor are we informed just what this Sunday fun consists of,apart from the fact that she calls it her I dont have to run day.]I have to catch an early train.Got to be to work by nine-[BE to?]If I had an airoplane,I still couldn't make it on time,cause it takes me so long to figure out what I'm gonna wear-[So what's with Got to catch that early train stuff if you're already late?Like,it's that MANIC MONDAY again,lady,so why all this codswallop about taking an age to prat around and keep yourself late?Yes.Doesn't it begin to sound like it's not so much Mondays themselves but this lady's dire lack of brain?]-She talks about her boyfriend turning up out of the blue on the Sunday evening and sleeping over,with the result these two have been up half the night doing what lovers do-[All this in spite of the fact that that MANIC MONDAY is scant hours away-Point of fact it's already here.This whole thing seems to be going well beyond that Monday morning feeling.We seem to have a girl here suffering from some sort of psychiatric problem.She doesn't seem to have the first clue about business and pleasure not mixing,and has been contradicting herself and generally talking crap all along.Come to think of it,perhaps manic is the right word here after all,only it aint Monday.It's HER.]

When I had a good read through the lyrics of Walk like an Egyptian,I could scarcely believe my eyes.Back in the 80s when this thing first bled out of the wounds of stupidity,I wasn't much interested in pop as such.I'd hear the numbers now and then on the radio,of course,and,as is the nature of so many of the beasts,couldn't really make out much of the lyrics.What I could nearly always make out,however,were the titles.Back then I remember thinking,What sort of flim-flam is that for a song title?Walk like an Egyptian?HULLO? What am I listening to here?Then,the years go by,and new interests come along.You know,things like pop songs,and wondering if they really were as daft as they sounded back then.People,I'm here to tell you that the item in question gives even nonsense a bad name.Like,we're dealing here,guys,with irritating,mind-numbing excrement of the highest degree.The above lines I've illustrated are but a small sample of one of the greatest exercises in foolishness it's ever been my misfortune to encounter.According to the author you'll see everyone around doing this Egyptian walk thingy.Some may care to argue that a lot of songs are meant to be daft and funny in the first place.If that's so my answer is this-Daft-YES-Funny-NO.The early 80s were a very dark time for many with much unemployment.Had the stupid gone out of business as well? Sadly not.

Rudolph Valentino

Salvation Army

"Going Down To Liverpool" was the song that started the Bangles on their road to success. Released on an early lp of the group's, back in 1984, it didn't reach into the pop charts but was a minor hit on alternative radio charts of the time. And the video was played a few times on MTV. The video featured the Bangles being chauffeured (the chauffeur was at times annoyed by the group's antics in the back of his car) by none other than Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock from "Star Trek"). The video was Leonard Nimoy's son, Adam's first adventure into directing, and one or more of the Bangles were best friend's of Adam's (may have been dating), and Leonard became a family friend to the Bangles and agreed to the role in the video. It would be re-recorded by the group, Katrina & The Waves ("Walking On Sunshine"), the following year of 1985, and that group would take the song into the top ten in Britain (although it would again fail to chart in the U.S.). The place that is mentioned (both in the chorus and the title of the song) is Liverpool, a mainly working class city in northern England. Liverpool is also where the group the Beatles were from.

"Walk Like An Egyptian" was the first #1 tune for the California four woman band known as the Bangles, and became one of the best known party/dance tunes of the New Wave 1980's (1986). In the eighth and next to the last verse as I have posted above are shoutouts to Japan (through Japanese), China (through Chinese) and Egypt (through Egyptian) and the Kremlin a real life fortress part of the city of Moscow in Russia that was the home of the KGB spy agency during the cold war and time that the Soviet Union was still in existence as it was when this song was written and was a #1 hit.