Noise du Jour’s Nymphets du Jour: “Lolita” by the Sneaker Pimps
Posted by E. G. Gauger
Lolita is Ectomo’s favorite novel. We are smugly convinced, Brownlee and I, that we understand the sweetness, the despair, and the adoration that ebbed and flowed between Humbert Humbert and his ward better than the average prole.
Lest we forget what we’re dealing with here, Humbert reminds us:
Now I wish to introduce the following idea. Between the age limits of nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice or many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as “nymphets”.
I flatter myself by supposing I was such a creature, and that the now-subsumed demonlet crashes around inside my grown-up body still.
Intoner alerted me to this unreleased Sneaker Pimps song, which exists only as an acoustic performance from a radio program. There are dozens of songs about, by, and for nymphets of all stripes. I’ve challenged John and the New Scum to grace Ectomo’s days with them, all this week.
She was soft
She was unbroken
Dressed in the pink
That she wore as a token
To the summer
To the summer
Always clean
Always precocious
She was the devil
And she danced with the roses
In the summer…She was rhyme
She was the reason
I left my life
For a soul that was freezing
In the summer…Always cold, always endearing
Sweet in the woods
She was naked and kneeling
In the summer…A thought came down
And washed away the hurt
And there is always something
You can learnA thought came down
And washed away the hurt
And there’s always something
You can learnMaybe wrong
Way beyond redemption
Caught between
My desire and intention
To protect her
From the summer…I gave my word I would only teach her
Deep in believing
That the wisdom would release her
From her keepers
And the summerOverwhelmed, primitive emotions
Struck by the river
That was screaming for the ocean
In the summer…Silent now
No-one else beguiling
Lost in the woods
I will always hear her crying
In the summer…A thought came down
And washed away the hurt
And there’s always something
You can learnA thought came down
And it washed away the hurt
And there’s always something
You can learnYou can learn
Categories: Lolitas, Nabokov, Noise du Jour, Nymphets
Posted at 6:34 pm on May 19, 2008
7 Comments -
Wow. Is haunting to overused as a description to be applicable here, because it certainly seems to fit?
Not sure what the source of the lyrics is, but it seems that the second line of the second stanza should read “Always PRECOCIOUS” rather than “Always PRECAUTIOUS.” The former seems more in keeping with the general theme (and sounds like what is being sung), though I grant that the latter adds to the sinister overtones of the song. Of course, if it was merely a typo, my humblest apologies for being so gauche as to draw attention to it.
Comment by Todd — May 20, 2008 @ 6:00 am
bah!
little pimpled whores.
Always dressing in a manner befitting a girl of 13 and more akin to a 30 year old herpes ridden prostitute begging for fornication.
nu uh no WAY im falling for that lure to prison.
NO way.
Comment by ITHIDET — May 20, 2008 @ 9:25 am
Todd, you’re right, I copied these lyrics wholesale from a lyric-hosting site and neglected to proofread them thoroughly. Thanks!
ITHIDET, it seems you are not “an artist or a madman”, nor a “bewitched traveler”, and for this you should be intensely grateful.
Comment by Eliza Gauger — May 20, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
“Overwhelmed, primitive emotions
Struck by the river
That was screaming for the ocean
In the summer…
Silent now
No-one else beguiling
Lost in the woods
I will always hear her crying
In the summer…”
These lyrics struck a resonant chord to Randy Newman’s “In Germany Before the War”
A little girl has lost her way
With hair of gold and eyes of gray
Reflected in his glasses
As he watches her
A little girl has lost her way
I’m looking at the river
But I’m thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
We lie beneath the autumn sky
My little golden girl and I
And she lies very still
Comment by Darren — May 20, 2008 @ 11:28 pm
I see France.
Comment by SM — May 20, 2008 @ 11:45 pm
Should I feel ashamed that the photograph combined with the word ‘lolita’ were the driving factors for me to listen to the music? I hope not, because I don’t; Ontop of that I really liked the music. What does this say about me? I’m not sure, maybe if you posted a pretty girl photo with every article they would capture my attention, it is a theory.
Comment by Sean Grimm — May 21, 2008 @ 2:40 am
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rcud_julien-dore-moi-lolita-clip_music
Comment by soulmantis — July 3, 2008 @ 6:26 am