Do You Realize We Have An Official Rock Song??
Wayne Coyne, flanked by Lt. Gov. Jari Askins and wife Michelle Martin-Coyne Monday at the State Capitol Building. (Photo by Steve Gooch)
Looking on from the gallery Monday afternoon, Wayne Coyne stood and saluted the Oklahoma State Senate shortly after it passed Senate Joint Resolution 24, which declared the Flaming Lips song “Do You Realize??” the Official Oklahoma Rock Song.
“All songwriters, they know when they get something really lucky,” Coyne said shortly after SJR 24, sponsored by Sen. Mike Schulz, R-Altus, and Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, passed the Senate 46 to 0. “The fact that the world can relate to it and the world likes it and the world can sing along … I think the really great songs are just sort of dumb luck. And we just really got lucky with this little song.”
The song, a single from the 2002 compact disc “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” beat out nine other finalists chosen by an advisory panel working with the Oklahoma History Center and the Oklahoma Film and Music Office.
“I think it’s very appropriate that the winning song was a band that is still playing, very active and still changing,” said Dr. Bob Blackburn, director of the Oklahoma Historical Society. “We have a song now that represents a creative process under way — it’s not a creative process that we recall or was once there, but is with us today.”
Following a meet-and-greet with senators and a brief press conference, Coyne spoke to the state House of Representatives, expressing his appreciation for the honor.
“It’s a very absurd moment, but a beautiful, strange event in our lives,” Coyne said. “We go to a lot of musical ceremony award-type things, but they’re just normal compared to this.”
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Comments
Undoubtedly, the best legislation we will see emerge from our capital in the foreseeable future. Ohio gets points for starting the “Official Rock Song” trend, but demerits for its choice – “Hang on Sloopy.”
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1878
Mea culpa Sloopyfans. I almost explained but didn’t want to bore people. Here I go anyway. “Hang on Sloopy” is an important Ohio State football tradition song – any alum’s brain sees scarlet and grey immediately after hearing the first few notes. Whether sucking beer bongs on the lawn of a fraternity house, sneaking swigs of cheap liquor from a bota smuggled in the stadium under a sweatshirt, or swaying with fellow drunk, geezer alums sporting expando-matic trousers and garish football-themed cardigans in parking lots stuffed with SUVs, it has been a constant fan staple blasting away through stereos and brass instruments on football Saturdays in Columbus for decades. (I’ve done the former two but God willing will avoid the latter.)
Anyway, I think Oklahoma’s choice, as Blackburn stated aptly, was enlightened. Ohio’s was a pedestrian crowd-pleaser, one more unnecessary homage to Ohio State football – and I say that as a fan. Does Ohio’s choice matter in the grand scheme? Of course not…except to a staticblogger with a borderline pathological obsession with rock music.
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Look at that Grin.