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The Popped Hearts - Hey Jane

from SpinTunes 21 Round 2 by Spintunes

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about

BIO
I am slowly working my way through the “60 Songs That Explain The 90’s” podcast, and on the Beastie Boys “Sabotage” episode there was a guest named Jane. She was describing being a dorky child in Cincinnati not really knowing what the cool kids were listening to and begging her parents to take her across town to Everybody’s Records. It was a real “IT ME” moment, and I hit on the “Hey Jane” (which I decided was different enough from the other “Hey J**e” & “***** Jane” songs but you be the judge - perhaps literally) and “we’ll never be cool and that’s OK” as I was driving along listening. How did it become a song about video games? If you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail; if you just got a Teenage Engineering Arcade Pocket Operator….

POSSIBLY OBTUSE LYRICAL REFERENCES
Chuck E. Cheese (AKA Charles Entertainment Cheese) was (is?) the eponymous anthropomorphous rodent mascot of a pizza place and arcade where I attended many a birthday party in the 80s. Some radical elements in the grade school community would attempt, with varied success, to play the games for free by sticking a bent paper clip into the coin slot to simulate token insertion. Games one might play there include Space Invaders (pew pew pew) or Pac Man (waka waka ghost chompa).

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES
Starts with a brief instrumental in D#maj but mods up a step for the first verse (a la Cheap Trick’s “Surrender”) in Emaj. At the end of the pre-chorus (“you you you”) we revisit the G# previously encountered as a iii but now it has aged into its majority and serves as the V of C#maj, the key of the chorus (“Hey Jane”). Chorus ends with a similar rhythmic cadence to the instrumental intro and jumps back to Emaj for the second verse (“Eat a big dot”), then again makes a similar transition via G# back to C#maj for the second chorus and outro.

lyrics

First time we met I was on my knees
Paper clip, coin slot at the Chuck E. Cheese
Of all the kids at the arcade
It was my Space you chose to Invade

You were going pew pew pew
I was thinking 'bout you you you

Hey Jane (Hey Jane)
Do you have another token
Hey Jane (Hey Jane)
I just can’t leave this unspoken
We’ll never be cool, but that’s OK
‘Cause we’ve got our own games to play

Eat a big dot, turn around chomp a ghost
Never thought I’d be crushing on you the most
But when I got to level two
I turned around, I could not see you

Hey Jane (Hey Jane)
I think I'm having a heart attack
Oh yay, hooray
I see you waka waka waka waka waka waka walking back

Hey Jane (Hey Jane)
Are you here to stay
Hey Jane (Hey Jane)
Whadda ya say
Did you think that we should date
Did you hope that I felt the same
About you Jane

credits

from SpinTunes 21 Round 2, released September 26, 2023

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