(BTW - "Crazy" by Aerosmith is even older, 23 years old).
She had an amazing impact, did Alanis. I thought "You oughta know" was astonishing when I heard it, even if it was castrated by Radio 1. "Are you thinking of me, When you __________ her" my tower hi-fi used to say. What? "Instruct?" "Massage?" "Cook?".
Oh. Fuck. Oh fuck.
But then a bit later "Ironic" came out, and things started going a bit haywire for our favourite Canadian chanteuse. First up, people began to talk about her acceptable, but hardly Cindy Crawford, looks. "She's got a big behind" said others. "Is that a hint of a moustache problem?" mused an unsubtle minority.
But the real problem was "Ironic" itself. It wasn't. Ironic. English lit. smart-arses have been on its case ever since.
"Oh, what she's singing about isn't ironic" they would chirp. "They are just things that piss you off a bit. That's not irony. Tchah."
And looking at the song 20 years down the line, they are right. It isn't really ironic. Not being able to smoke on a fag break is an annoyance. Dying the day after winning the lottery is a pisser as well. Rain on your wedding day is a drag, but it isn't even remotely ironic. "Ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife" is just bad culinary planning.
However, I'm going to be charitable. I think being a chap who is afraid to fly, who then musters up all his courage and steel to get on a place only to be immediately killed in a plane crash; well, at the very least that is certainly in the ball park of irony. I might even be so bold to call it, here and now, actually Ironic.
Sorry Alanis. We've been far too harsh on you. We should take at least one, tiny bit of it back.
Even if we can't forgive the unflattering nudity in the "Thank You" video.
Copyright Bloody Mulberry 20.05.15
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