Expressway to Yr Skull

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We're gonna kill the California Girls
We're gonna fire the exploding load
in the milkmaid maidenhead
We're gonna find the meaning
of feeling good
And we're gonna stay there
As long as we think we should
The Mystery Train is a Two Way Lane
And the ways is the
Expressway to Yr Skull

Personally I thought this song was about sex or some weird sexual act but Im not sure. Can somebody tell me just what Sonic Youth was thinking when they wrote this...or maybe just some other opinion on what the song was about

― Mike D (nullnvoid), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

"This will make us seem really cool!"

I'm sorry, that's unfair. And glib. Sorry.

― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

alternate titles in the EVOL liners: "Madonna, Sean and Me" and "The Crucifixion of Sean Penn"

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Richard Kern-influnced ironic misogyny coupled with considerations of the violent nature of cyclical progress in music and transportation technologies/mythologies.

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

wasn't there some manson inspiration to the lyrics?

― john'n'chicago, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe toss a bit of Manson Family psychobabble in the mix for good measure as well.

Oh x to the post!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Their big Manson tune, tho', was of course "Death Valley `69"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

the mansons crashing the b boys party as long as we think we should

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Opening strum of this one is pure heroin.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Buddy Miles.

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the line is "three way plane."

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Which is, I guess, an LSD allusion (as in "four way windowpane" or whatever)?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

it's about me!

― Star Cauliflower (Star Cauliflower), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Youre so vain

― David Allen (David Allen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought it was "three way plane" as well - I think of Holly, the Big Bopper and Valens (goes with the citation of Mystery Train and all the Springsteenian myth contained in the music).

― plebian plebs (plebian), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Let's all face the facts: Sonic Youth lyrics don't make any fucking sense. ;)

― Star Cauliflower (Star Cauliflower), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

We're gonna find the meaning
of feeling good

not to first to say this, but this kind of sums up the bands relationship with rock

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

not to deny their many pretty moments

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Semiotically speaking, Anthony, what do you mean? The "meaning" of feeling good?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

the idea being that Sonic Youth's mission is to find the meaning of pleasure, which is kinda detached for rock

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I still don't know what you mean by "the meaning of pleasure."

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:24 (twenty-one years ago)

dude I'm quoting them

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Does pleasure need to have a meaning?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

MY POINT

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, if anyone got your point, it wasn't me, I'm afraid.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i am lost

I always thought the song was about killing pretty perfect California girls for fun.

Shows where my head was at

― hector (hector), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

the idea is that SY are the kind of people who would think there's a meaning to feeling good, Tim. That's why they're looking for it.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, and that "sums up their relationship to rock not to deny their many pretty moments?"

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

they make pretty music but they're cold, overintellectual fish. Has it hit yr skull yet?

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:43 (twenty-one years ago)

"it's about a kid, growing up" (this was a friend's stock answer for the meaning of any song, film, artwork)

― eman (eman), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, thank you for finally explaining yrself.

x-post

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

IIRC Chuck said in Stairway to Hell that (paraphrasing) "only post-structuralist Barthesian geeks would think that feeling good needs a meaning". I don't know what this says about populist rock critics but it never even occurred to me that there was this second level to this line - that they're not just looking to feel good, they want to know what it means to feel good - until I read that comment. Bringing the circle of geekery to a close, I wrote a 4th-year directed reading paper on "Evol and Gender Construction". I actually agreed with Anthony that this line sums up their relationship with rock, but not necessarily in the same way. They 'deconstruct' rock in a sense: they question why rock's tropes and conventions make you feel good, what meanings (particularly, as far as my paper went, concerning gender) are embedded therein, and how these can be subverted, exposed, or challenged. But, and this is key, this still means they believe rock feels good.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

(But, yeah, it's:

Mystery train
Three-way plane
Expressway to yr skull)

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

But in honesty I sometimes wonder if Marilyn Manson could have written lyrics like these and whether we'd (or at least I'd) ponder and discuss them this seriously if he had.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 02:31 (twenty-one years ago)

haha I thought I was lifting that from chuck!

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know if Marilyn Manson would have made the moralist statement that "we're gonna stay there as long as we think we should." SY know that life is not just a party!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 02:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Not necessarily helpful for decoding this song, but SY lyrics have an awfully similar feel to Kim Fowley lyrics at times.

― dlp9001, Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a trip!

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:06 (twenty-one years ago)

query: sonic youth songs are very popular at karaoke but noone ever does this song despite it being one of the hits - why?

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Where do you go for karaoke?!

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Possibly because no one wants to sing about killing women or firing the exploding load?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 04:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I can imagine it would be a great karaoke choice because there's like 90 seconds of vocals and then a long instrumental passage.

― Al (sitcom), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 05:40 (twenty-one years ago)

can = can't, obv.

― Al (sitcom), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 05:52 (twenty-one years ago)

If the song's about a relationship with a history the group is part of but yet separate to (and the song deconstructs), then it makes more sense to search for the meaning of feeling good. I mean, this is music about music, right? They don't literally want to kill California girls, I mean...

― plebian plebs (plebian), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 06:08 (twenty-one years ago)

And what's up with the Sonic Youth / Madonna connection?

Does anybody remember "The Whitey Album"??? An obscure Sonic Youth album under the alias Ciccone Youth, Ciccone being Madonna's last name I believe...

― DaveQ (daveq), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 07:39 (twenty-one years ago)

sonic youth/madonna connection - kim gordon probably caught a cold from rene ricard once, madonna fucked basquiat

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Let's all face the facts: Sonic Youth lyrics don't make any fucking sense. ;)

-- Star Cauliflower (spen...), January 26th, 2005.

lol

― Mike D (nullnvoid), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 09:00 (twenty-one years ago)

The Ciccone Youth album is hard to find, but "Into the Groove(y)" is on the Screaming Fields of Sonic Love pre-Geffen sampler.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 09:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Paging Neil Young

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 12:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Champion of all that is cold and overintellectual

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 12:45 (twenty-one years ago)

WHERE IS TEH SONIC YOUTH KARAOKE (obv. not in central PA)

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I WANT TO OVERENUNCIATE "TEEN AGE RIOT" SO BAD

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I WANT TO OVERINTELLECTUALISE IT

― Suedey (John Cei Douglas), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

dude, the Whitey Album is not obscure, it was reissued by DGC with the rest of their 80's catalog. if it's hard to find it's because some record stores file it under 'C'.

― Al (sitcom), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Does anybody remember "The Whitey Album"??? An obscure Sonic Youth album under the alias Ciccone Youth, Ciccone being Madonna's last name I believe...

Some lucky sucker, er customer, got my copy of the original Blast First release for only $36. Why oh why didn't I price it higher!

― Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I got that for like $8, or my friend did, one of us

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

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