dancing in the streets of hyannis (isn't this where we all started, psychically speaking)

 Now, I know that all of you are familiar with the origin song, a song a band pens that chronicles their rise to fame, a biographical ballad, a musical memoir, a rock recitation (this one is a stretch, but you get the point). While those geniuses of the rap/hip hop world have basically taken ownership of this mini genre, the form is actually far older. Mama Cass called their version "An epic tone poem of historical nature."

So you may ask, To What End? Well, there is the obvious, this is the band's most current and profound life experience from which they draw inspiration and material. Sure. It is also a way for these highly successful bands to stay connected both creatively and psychologically to their roots, I believe the musical parlance for this would be "keeping it real." When faced with the money, success and fandom (read: p***y) these bands must find a way to appear, or to actually be, grounded in their former everyman reality. Doing so also helps them keep their audience, who, after the band's financial and creative success, may claim that the band has sold out, caved in to The Man, given up on some unknowable dream of creative success that is achieved without widespread noteriety or monetary compensation. This type of audience is basically a bunch of reactionaries that assume popularity=crap, this is why some people alway prefer earlier albums despite the fact that they may not be said band's best work. It took me years to get over Nirvana's popularity and embrace them for their pure awesomeness, but I digress. (What would a Nirvana origin song be like . . .....)

Anyway, self referencial songs, like the origin song, give the listener the sense that they have a unique perspective into the personal story of the band, as if 1. the band is secretly confiding in them or 2. that the listener, having already known this story, is among the special annointed few, a true fan or 3. for the new fan, that the band can publicly claim street cred that they may have lost in their meteoric rise to fame or 4. In the case of Boyz 2 Men they are referencing their far more famous mentors to build on the mentors' already established audience or 5. It's just an awesome story and they're are artists, so I can just shut up and enjoy the music. The bottom line here is I love me an origin song.