Top Ten Most Oedipal Mother's Day Theme Songs

So, in (belated) honor of Mother's day, I give you....
The Ten Most Oedipal Songs For Mother's Day, you bad Mama-jammas.


10. Your Mother Should Know- The Beatles- Yep. Your mother should know. How to please her freudian son, that is....

9. Mother In Law- Ernie K. Doe- Yes, this fifties song isn't necessarily about a blood-relative mom, but still. Kinky.

8. My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist- The Decemberists-This over the top storysong, filled with frontman Meloy's signature bombast and wailing tenor is a gilded-age crush on Mommy Dearest and her Glory Days if ever my earlugs ever heard one.

7. Rifle- Alela Diane- Anyone who moans that much while invoking their materfamilias has some seriously sapphic motherlovin' goin down. Better get a strap for that "rifle" there, Miss Diane- it frees up your hands ever so much.

6. A Cautionary Song- The Decemberists -The Dismemberists, as I affectionately refer to them, have their own Oedipal issues, clearly. This song, about a mother who supports her child's collard greens habit through, -ahem- let's just say alternative means, is all about the mamma-jammin'. I'd dandle Meloy on my knee, that's for sure.

5. Mama Said- White Ghost Shivers -Well, I don't know what the Shivers' mommas taught them, but the catechism seemed to include some damn sexy old-timey cabaret vibes. Freud told me it reminds him of his glory days at the center of the Wiemar-era party .

4. Mama Said (Knock You Out)- L.L. Cool J- Have you seen this video? His name spells out to "Ladies Love Cool James" and he'd probably be the first to tell you that Momma is a lady, too.

3. Hey Mama- The Black Eyed Peas -What I really don't understand about the faux-hood culture we seem to love as a nation is this weird subconscious oedipalism we all espouse. Why do wannabe hood rats call their shawties "mama?" Is it short for "mama of my moment-of-methy-passion-progeny" or do they all just have a crush on their large-bootied progenitors? Thank Vincent Price for oldies. I can understand the terms of endearment they use, for the most part. Well, maybe not "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch," but still....

2. Jack Killed Mom- Jenny Lewis-Really, Jenny? Did he? Or is this all an elaborate Shakespearean-style pun on the word "kill?" The mind boggles.

1. Hey Momma- Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground- This is a strangely confessional song to make to your mom. It sounds more like a song you'd make apologizing to a one-night stand, lyrically. So maybe this mysterious and hickishly named Kay Kay has melded madre and misplaced lay into one weary woman?!? Holy Whorey Day Care Center, Batman!


Unlike my esteemed colleagues, I am only highbrow occaisionally, and by accident, at that. I consider myself to be a connoseur of what God's Lonely Man and Very Like A Whale would doubtless deem "low culture" ergo, the writhing, seamy mess that America exports all over this sad world of ours. And so, expect to see a lot of these punning, superficially written pop-culture related lists in future, as well as the usual fare you've come to know and love. I mean, I write what I know, and that might not be much, dear readers.
Happy Oedipus' day.
DG, out.