Simping for Rock Chicks

0:00 Slam. Poetry. It doesn't care if it's perfect. It's time to slam. Now here I go again on my. Own surprise. I'm still so stoked with that intro. Oh man. Welcome to the second solo episode of I Think Therefore I Slam. My name is Andrew Rogerson. I'm thinking of calling these episodes something along the lines of the stories behind the slam or stories of slam or something like that. Let me know what you think. I'm kind of playing around with the concept in these early days. Today I'm sharing a piece which is quite old now, but it's called The Great Orange Hope, and it's a piece that I wrote a while back kind of in a more traditional kind of poetry, prose, I suppose.

0:51 I'm going to get into it and then I'm going to tell some stories and then you're going to hear it again and it's going to be great. Let's go. I was standing in a store that don't sell music no more when the Great Orange Hope sang True. She boasted she'd won in her venomous tongue. And at that very moment, I knew that you could break with convention, tell the mother of invention you were moving out of her attic. And this band of secret lovers danced through flames for each other's hope to see miracles in the static. When that megaphone voice, a pole vault hoist from a China doll throat, ran riot. It was CPR regression.

1:34 All this chest decompression fell to by millions, A chorus of quiet. Once she showed too much skin and the vultures swooped in, tearing flesh for their own absolution. Then came blog post. Apologies for petty youthful blasphemies bellowed and carnal retribution. When it rains, it pours. Only a fool ignores. When rears the spirit of the Mack, a brotherly schism fuelled by ramen egotism, their reflections under attack. She's been through the wringer, this diminutive singer, she dryly remarks.

2:15 Ain't it fun? At peace with her shadow, her stories, her ammo. Still tearing the world a new one. Old John was right to make noise, call her out from the boys and pretenders running the scene, hair no longer a flame. But you all know her name. All hail your pop punk queen. So what the hell was all that about? You're probably wondering. Well, let's get into it. The story's behind the slam. Let's just run with it. So let's start with the title, The Great Orange Hope. This is a moniker given by John Mayer in an interview back in the 2000s, talking about none other than Paramour's Hayley Williams, now a successful solo artist, of course, herself, as well as feature artists with, with many people. I think it's safe to say that a lot of people of my generation, we've, we've grown up listening to Hayley's music. And look, I, I do want to preface this by saying on one hand, it's not that deep, guys.

3:16 This is I think a preoccupation with Hayley Williams kind of comes with the territory of being a, a millennial red blooded male. Let's say, you know, she, she's not alone in that bracket. I mean, you know, I have similar feelings about the work and the artistry of like a Maggie Rogers or Ali Roussel from Wolf Alice or like an Andrea Core or a Sarah McLachlan. In fact, I think Sarah McLachlan deserves a lot of a lot of credit for what she did for women in music in the 90s, you know, through, through Lilith Fair and things like that. When I was getting into music when I was 14, a lot of the artists that I was drawn to were were kind of male headed bands. But Paramore was kind of the exception. Like I said before, on one hand it's not that deep, but on the other hand, I think one of the reasons we look to art and music is to understand the self and to look for others who are like us and who reflect our experiences.

4:13 But another reason is that I think we also look to art and music to find and understand the other. If you're attracted to women and you're trying to figure out how women think, of course you're going to look for, you know, confident, headstrong, passionate, articulate women in the arts to engage with what they're creating. Now, of course, all of this parasocial exploration, if you like, can backfire. And I'm going to tell one of my cringiest stories, which is that the only celebrity that I have ever written fan mail to was the actress Diana Agron, who was playing Quinn Fabray in Glee. That's a bit of a throwback.

4:58 Super cringy. Don't know why I was feeling so simpy and desperate that that summer or winter. Have not done that since. I still remember where I was when I first heard the first Paramore song I ever heard, which was Misery Business. And that's what I talk about in the poem. I talk about standing in a store that doesn't sell music no more. So I was in a mire in Frankston, which used to have a pretty thriving music section, but no longer does. In fact, not a lot of places have music sections anymore. And that song is all about winning the guy from from some other girl or some other woman.

5:45 So that's why I talk about boasting she'd won in her venomous tongue. I've always been a fan of songs that kind of, I guess, belie their true meaning within the the tone of the music itself. Something like Hey Ya by Outcast is another really good example where it's actually a really, really sad song about someone who you know, feels like they can't be in a committed relationship, but it's kind of wrapped in this kind of candy coloured wrapping. Now if you know Paramore, if you know some deep cuts about just stories about the band's history I suppose, or even some of the song names, you might have heard a couple of things come out of there. I call them a band of secret lovers. And and that's what a Paramore is. If you didn't know, it is a different spelling though. It's MOURI.

6:28 Thought I read somewhere that they originally got the name of the band from Haley's Mothers Maiden name, but I don't know, I need a Fact Check on that. You know? We've got references to songs like Let the Flames Begin in there. We've got references to When It Rains, we've got references to the the album Riot. We've got references to the the label they're on which is was fuelled by Ramen. Like a lot of my pieces. I've had a lot of fun just trying to see what I could sneak in there. Especially their original lineup, they fought a lot. It was definitely a Fleetwood Mac situation. I think that there were a lot of feelings kind of being thrown around there. I talk about blog post apologies for petty youthful blasphemies as well, because I do know that there's some kind of ancient Internet thread of Hayley Williams actually apologizing for some of the lyrics of of Misery Business and of a certain line in that which said like God, it just feels so good and saying that she actually felt guilty because she felt that that was blasphemy basically. I don't know if you can still find that thread. But again, these are the kind of interesting little bits of law that have popped up in amongst them. I do know that they completely stopped playing misery business for a while, not because of of that, but because of they felt that they had outgrown the sentiments and that they didn't want to come across as misogynistic in in some of the lyrics.

7:47 But as far as I know, they do play it live now. So one more time, let's play it again. The great Orange hope. I was standing in a store that don't sell music no more when the great orange hope sang true. She boasted she'd won in her venomous tongue. And at that very moment I knew that you could break with convention, tell the mother of invention you were moving out of her attic and this band of secret lovers dance through flames for each other's hope to see miracles in the static. When that megaphone voice, a pole vault hoist from a China doll throat ran riot. It was CPR regression, all these chest decompressions felt by millions.

8:31 A chorus of quiet Once she showed too much skin and the Vulture swooped in, tearing flesh for their own absolution. Then came blog post. Apologies for petty, youthful blasphemies bellowed in carnal retribution. When it rains, it pours. Only a fool ignores When rears the spirit of the Mack, a brotherly schism fuelled by ramen egotism, their reflections under attack. She's been through the ringer, this diminutive singer, she dryly remarks. Ain't it fun? At peace with her shadow, her stories, her ammo. Still tearing the world a new one.

9:13 Old John was right to make noise, call her out from the boys and pretenders running the scene. He no longer aflame. But you all know her name. All hail your pop punk queen. There it is. I'd love to know what you're thinking about these new solo episodes. I'd love to know what's your favorite Paramore song. I'd love to know if there's any other bands from that era that have inspired maybe your work or your poetry or your writing. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you in the next one. Wait, your big sands? What's that all about?