we breeze up and down the street
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Artist:
i have an ironic ringtone on my BlackBerry: the hook from the instrumental version of "The In Crowd" by The Ramsey Lewis Trio.
I am not, nor have ever been, in with the In Crowd. I don't have the faintest idea where the In Crowd goes, and i'm equally in the dark about what the In Crowd knows. When the original single by Dobie Gray came out, I was 14 years old, and believe me, I could not have been further from the center of any group of people who could be described as In.
A few days ago, I bought a used vinyl LP of 'The Ventures A Go-Go,' and the last song on side two is their take on "The 'In' Crowd." Many versions of the song put 'In' in parentheses,, and I don't think they are meant in a sarcastic way, like air-quotes. Apparently, being part of this collective is very prestigious, and comes with numerous privileges, including having little difficulty in finding romance. They know all the latest dance steps, and have their own unique manner of walking and talking. The In Crowd is, paradoxically, Out of Sight.
Until the last verse, it's not clear why Dobie is telling us all this. Is he mocking us? Just bragging? Or is this, perhaps, an invitation to join this In Crowd? Is this his recruiting spiel? Alas, no. He's simply trying to impress a girl. "I'll show you a real good time,' he tells her. 'I don't care where you've been/You ain't been nowhere til you've been in with the In Crowd.' So maybe this is a line of bullshit. Probably not. The details ring true, except for maybe the part about how they have their own ways of walking and talking, Wouldn't that be silly, a bunch of people breezing down the street in a choreographed way, speaking to each other in some private code, like In Crowd pig-Latin? Dobie's come-on also includes a warning: 'Other guys imitate us/But the original's still the greatest.' So if someone else says he's in with the In Crowd, he may be lying.
"The 'In' Crowd" does do something that a lot of pop music does: conjure up a myth of inclusion. You may not be part of an actual In Crowd (like in The Beach Boys' "I Get Around"), but the act of hearing the song on the radio, dancing to it, buying the 45, playing it on the jukebox, ties you to the community of people who are doing the same thing everywhere the record is a hit (Gray's version was nearly a Top 10 single nationally, and bigger still in some local radio markets). So even if you aren't Cool per se, a coolness factor rebounds to you, makes you part of the In Crowd.
There's a riff on Dobie Gray in the new Nick Hornby novel, and it's a pretty funny riff that centers around a lesser Gray single, "Out On The Floor," which is a favorite among Northern Soul fans. Implicit in the scene (maybe) is the notion that even if you are slightly aware of Dobie Gray, from "The 'In' Crowd" (or "Drift Away"), the hipper music person latches on to a record that is more obscure. Which would mean that it to be In with "The 'In' Crowd" is to be not In enough. Again, a paradox.
And one has to ask: Bryan Ferry, Ironic or Sincere?
Locating MOG account...
Comments (9)
Punctuationally speaking, the existence of the quotes around "In" implies something "yeah, sure" about the in-ness of the crowd. There's no other way to read it. So I have my doubts about this crowd.
I identify with Hornby's latching onto the more obscure record by the popular act. I feel better armed or more complete regarding my take on a popular act if I can happen upon an ignored gem by them (for instance, "Contact" by Police). Roxy Music, from their LP covers alone, and Bryan Ferry, from his lounge lizard mustache and mannered vocals alone, seem so sophisticated that they're of course being ironic, but they're also not denying the truth of the lyrics.
"if it's queer, we ain't there"
What's up with that?
It's "If it's square, we ain't there." The In Crowd is elitist, but not homophobic.
inrumford: More irony? Fact is that the studio version of Ferry's cover - on his solo album Another Time, Another Place - is one of my essentials, with a guitar solo from Davy O'List, a former member of The Nice, that's one of the most explosive breaks I've ever heard. The way Ferry does it makes it sound like a rallying cry or anthem for Alex and his thuggish droogs from "A Clockwork Orange." Nice live take by Roxy though.
That solo on Ferry's studio version is so completely unhinged; I'd forgotten who played it. Ferry does make the In Crowd sound like a somewhat sinister cabal, or a Skull & Boneish fraternity with ritual initiations.
What, MOG isn't the "In" crowd? Somebody's a-been lyin' to me, Lucy!
I always thought the parens were there simply because "in" was considered youth lingo - in other words, not an actual word....
Oh, like condescending teenage-slang quotation marks. That kind of makes sense. But if Dobie is, as he claims, actually a part of the crowd, he'd probably use the more informal construction (i.e., without the quotes around it). The more I think about it, the more likely it is that Dobie is just trying to impress the girl. Unlike deedee, I have no doubts about the crowd itself, but am suspicious of Dobie's membership therein.