This song is not on the soundtrack for The Graduate, but it should have been. When Ben takes Elaine out, they end up at a car-hop (a restaurant where the waiters come out to the parking lot to take your order and serve you in your car). The car next to theirs is playing a discordant song on the radio, and playing too loudly for Ben and Elaine to talk. They ask the teenagers in other car to turn it down; being teenagers, they turn it up.
Bad news for our couple, who have to roll up their windows and pull closed the ragtop to keep out the noise. But good news for the viewers, because they get to hear a snatch of this tune, one of S&G's most fun and energetic songs.
The song makes fun of advertising, its willingness to prey on the vulnerable, and its outlandish claims of alleviating all ills. The snake-oil being pushed this time is the unexplained Pleasure Machine.
All we know about it is that is both "big" and "bright green." But we are told that it can: "eliminate your pain" and even "end your daily strife"... all for "a reasonable price." It is possible that the device is narcotics-related; one of its abilities is to "neutralize your brain." But that could also mean it is some sort of television or computer.
The nature of the device, however, is irrelevant. The salient point is that we are told to "buy" something, and that will erase our problems.
The main customer for this device is your average emotional doormat. The song starts, "Do people have a tendency to dump on you?" Then it lists these people: "hippies," "figures of authority," "[ones'] boss" even "[one's] girlfriend." The target consumer, it continues, is one who "sleep[s] alone," has no occupational or financial security, and tends to "nervously await the blows of cruel fate." Our poor fellow is "worried and distressed," and "looking for a way to chuck it all."
The Pleasure Machine stands in for anything that offers an escape rather than a solution: drugs or candy, TiVo or the Internet, a day spa or an amusement park. This thing will make you happy... "you'll feel just fine." At least, for "now."
All of these claims are false, of course. No one thing could magically wipe away all your problems.
Not even a ShamWow.
Next song: The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
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Always heard this song as a radio jingle ear worm advertising
ReplyDeleteMarijuana, that it elevates all life’s problem, but really causes all the problem referred to. Hilarious.
Brian-- I suppose a joint is a "pleasure machine" of some sort, and even "green," although I'm not sure about the "big" part. Maybe that's about the size of the effect.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely about advertising. Especially in the 70s when so many new products were coming out, everything would "make your life better". I guess it's still the same but it was more blatant in those days. I don't think it's about drugs unless it's about prescription drugs that were marketed to house wives in those days. I do have to laugh when I hear the line about your girlfriend being a little late. As a kid I thought that meant she was late for their date. No clue about being "late" for a period.
ReplyDeleteAnon.-- I should have compared the song to Tom Waits' "Step Right Up," which itself compares ads to the cries of a carnival sideshow barker and ends up making ridiculous claims for the unmentioned product. The prescription-drug song it calls to mind is "Mother's Little Helper" by the Rolling Stones.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, the items were not being sold as products but problem-solvers with almost magical qualities.
You are also correct about the double meaning of being worried because the "girlfriend's just a little late."
I have always explained it as a song about television, that had become omnipresent in virtually all households, and would capture people's attention in the evenings and even at daytime.
ReplyDeleteRemember: old tv sets from those days had a very *green* color: the large glass eye that was staring at us all day long.
https://img.freepik.com/premium-photo/vintage-television-painted-wall-background_717906-1806.jpg
It was through this mass-medium that commercials targeted the people all day long, too: at every 15 minutes through the broadcast, trying to make people buy stuff they don't really need.
Paul had a keen eye for observation of societal changes, and I believe it was the growing power of television over people that inspired this song.
Michael-- It's possible the Machine is a TV, and I speculate on this in the post (paragraph 4). When I think of an object being "green," though, i think of the machine itself being green, like a John Deere tractor or a green iMac.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I conclude that it's a stand-in for any device or product that promises that, turns out, money CAN by happiness.