May 29, 2018
Found Objects
"Walkin' on the Sun"- Smash Mouth
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Smash-mouth-walkin-on-the-sun-lyrics
In Eric Valentine's album, Fush Yu Mang released in July 1997 (5 years following the 1992 race riots), Greg Camp (the band's guitarist) wrote this song to highlight the unfortunate and gory events that took place in L.A. Similar to Rodney's King's famous line: "Can't we all just get along," Camp admits that this song was supposed to send the same message across. If you listen to the song, the beat and tempo are uplifting and happy while the lyrics contrastingly symbolize the dark mess created by the riots. Even though the band originated from San Jose, California, this song showcases the tremendous impact that the L.A. fires had not only in Southern California AND Northern California but in the entirety of the nation.
In one of this song's verses, Steve Harwell (the band's vocalist) sings "Twenty-five years ago, they spoke out and they broke out, of recession and oppression and together they toked" (1997) which most likely refers to the 1982 Anti-Klan protest held in Washington, D.C. (25 years before 1997). Interestingly, it was mentioned that "Protesters said police began beating rally participants while the police claimed that people in the crowd began throwing rocks at them" (Brown) which Smash Mouth reminds us even today that the police back in 1982 were doing the exact same thing during the 1992 L.A. riots and unfortunately are still doing today.
Hi Hanna,
ReplyDeleteI had no idea this Smash Mouth song was really about the riots. I have heard it plenty of times but never really paid any attention to the lyrics because the music was too cheerful. It's interesting how they even relate it to the protest in Washington, goes to show that they did their research as well.