- What lyrics do you want to see here?
~
Any visitor to Mao Mao Chong has probably seen the song lyric painted above the bar by owner Stephen Rocard. Well, the times they are a-changin’, and so is that lyric, and we are looking for suggestions as to what should go up next.
Maybe it should be “She’s filing her nails while they’re dragging the lake” from “Watching the Detectives” by Elvis Costello, or “And the whole damn place goes crazy twice / And it’s once for the devil and once for Christ” from “Closing Time” by Leonard Cohen, or even “Mix-a-Lot’s in trouble / Beggin’ for a piece of that bubble” from “Baby Got Back“?
Well, perhaps none of those. But let us know in the comments section what you think should go in that space and you have the chance to win two prizes. First, the pride of walking into Mao Mao Chong and seeing your recommended line on the wall. (Imagine being on a date and saying, “Look up there. See that ‘And I was like baby, baby, baby, oh / Like baby, baby, baby, no / Like baby, baby, baby, oh’? That’s mine!”). Second, a bottle of Martin Miller’s gin, originally donated by Liquid Luxury and won in the Charlie Sheen Celebrity Pub Crawl by Euclid, who “paid it forward”.
Leave your entry / entries by 5 PM on November 1 and we’ll select a winner. And if you would like your favorite song lyrics hanging above your bed, desk, sofa or jacuzzi, talk to Rocard about commissioning a piece.
Let the music take control / Let the rhythm move you / sweat sweat (“Everybody Dance Now, C+C Music Factory)
Like a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, I’m fine like wine when I start to rap (“Body Movin’, Beastie Boys)
‘He said, “If life gives you lemons, then thus god bade / so put a little bit of bitter in your pink lemonade.”‘
what could be more fitting than an excerpt from The Cure’s “Caterpillar”?
You flicker and you’re beautiful
You glow inside my head
You hold me hypnotized
I’m mezmerized
Your flames are flame that kiss me dead
“How could a Natalie Wood not get sucked into a scene so custom tucked?” – Rickie Lee Jones
‘Psychic spies from China
Try to steal your mind’s elation’(‘Californication’, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
Gotta be Australian, and nothing is more Mao Mao Chong to me than Hunters and Collectors classic “Throw Your Arms Around Me”:
And we may never meet again
So shed your skin and let’s get started
And you will throw your arms around me
I believe the stars are the headlights of angels driving from heaven to save us to save us…Won’t you look at the sky?
@ Euchrid,
If we’re going Aussie…
“I love the way you talk, you walk / you smile, your style / like now, like wow / wipe out, no doubt”
“The mail man dreams he’s Paul Revere / He wants the whole town to buy him a beer.”
- David Berman, The SIlver Jews, “Self-Ignition”
“Our friends say it’s darkest befor the sun rises / We’re pretty sure they’re all wrong/ I hope it stays dark forever, I hope the worst isn’t over / I hope you blink before I do, and I hope I never get sober”
- John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats, “No Children”
“How does she intend to live when she’s in far Cathay? / I somehow can’t imagine her just planting rice all day. / Maybe she will do a bit of spying / With microcameras hidden in her hair.”
-Brian Eno, “Burning Airlines Give You So Much More”
“I wish I had a bottle, right her in my dirty/pretty/bloody face, to wear the scars, to show from where I came.”
- Manic Street Preachers, “A Design for Life”
Not a bad lyric for a bar that has clients from everywhere in the world.
From the same song you could also use:
“We don’t talk about love! We only want to get drunk!”
中南海，中南海……谁他妈抽了我的中南海？
- Carsick Cars, “Zhongnanhai”
Why not do something in Chinese?!
From 周璇‘s 夜上海
My favorite is the fifth line. It’s not the alcohol that’s getting people drunk, people are getting drunk on themselves.
夜上海 夜上海 你是个不夜城
华灯起 车声响 歌舞升平
只见她 笑脸迎 谁知她内心苦闷
夜生活 都为了 衣食住行
酒不醉人人自醉
胡天胡地蹉跎了青春
晓色朦胧 转眼醒 大家归去
心灵儿随着转动的车轮
换一换 新天地 别有一个新环境
回味着 夜生活 如梦初醒
Oh, darling sugar honey,/ when it was nice and sunny/ and when we had some money/ we would go and see Echo and the Bunny/men
- Half Man, Half Biscuit, ‘Reflections In A Flat’
Although, for a bar, surely the best lines of all are…
Don’t start me talking/
I could talk all night/
My mind just sleepwalking/
While I’m putting the world to rights.
- Elvis Costello, ‘Oliver’s Army’
I use public toilets/and I piss on the seat/ I walk around in the summer time saying “How about this heat?”
Dennis Leary, “Asshole”
chickitty china the chinese chicken/ya have a drumstick/and your brain starts tickin’
we’re just two lost souls
swimming in a fish bowl
year after year
pink floyd – wish you were here
the spinal cord of jfk
wrapped in marilyn monroe’s negligee
i give to you
nick cave & the black seeds – palaces of montezuma
我不能告诉你
我不能靠近你
我无法宠着你
我无法离开你
我不能伤害你
我不能明白你
我无法抓紧你
我无法拥抱你
谢天笑 – 我不爱你
i can not tell you
i can not be close to you
i can not spoil you
i can not leave you
i can not hurt you
i can not understand you
i can not lose you
i can not hug you
xie tianxiao – i don’t love you
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Grateful Dead ~ Scarlet Begonias
My grandaddy was a player/pretty boy in a pair of gators
Frank Ocean
I laugh every time i hear it.
A bit overused perhaps, but how about this from Massive Attack’s “Paradise Circus”:
“Oh well, the devil makes us sin, but we like it when we’re spinning, in his grin.”
love the zhou xuan lyric (but also want to add one, too)
“Baby just you shut your mouth”
~ Bowie “China Girl”
Very fitting lyrics for any bar top:
” How you gonna see me now
Please don’t see me ugly babe”
Alice Cooper, From the Inside
From Theresa Teng’s “mei jiu jia ka fei” 美酒加咖啡
明知道爱情像流水
管他去爱谁
我要美酒加咖啡
一杯再一杯
every bar should have those on there!
Jo, if we’re looking to The Floyd for inspiration, there are other lyrics in ‘Wish You Were Here’ even more apposite to the China experience.
For instance…
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Or…
Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war
For the lead role in a cage?
Je n’ai pas peur de la route/faudrait voir, faut qu’on y goûte/des méandres au creux des reins/et tout ira bien là/le vent nous portera
I’m not afraid of the road/we need to see, to taste/the curves of our bodies/and there, everything will be fine/the wind will carry us away
“Le vent nous portera” — Noir Désir
Thunder only happens when it’s raining
Players only love you when they’re playing
Women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you will know
;
Or just
Dreams- Fleetwood Mac
Thao & Mirah’s “Little Cup”:
“I chose the strangest little cup/ to drink you from and stir you up”
(++10 hipster points to boot!)
why haven’t I won this contest yet???
NAKATACHUMBA HOPPING!!!!!! NATAKACHUMBA HOPPING!!! -from Pink Floyd – several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict……
hello
hello
is there anybody in there?
just nod if you can here me
is there anyone at home