IHT Playlist, 7/23-8/5

Spoiler alert: If you are interested in the Harry Potter series and have not finished the seventh and final book, please skip the first four paragraphs below. It talks about how the song lyrics below are applicable to Harry Potter, but has a mild spoiler about the seventh and final book. If I were out just randomly wandering through the blogosphere and I hadn't finished the book yet, I'd want someone to let me know something like this was around the corner. The lyrics themselves aren't a big spoiler (and aren't really about Harry Potter), and the video has nothing to do with the book. Carry on.

I was driving to work Thursday pondering the final installment of Harry Potter, which I had finished the night before when WIHT, the Institute's small radio station, played the Flaming Lips' song "The W.A.N.D." Although ostensibly a seemingly timeless anti-establishment song (one featured in a Dell commercial—sort of a contradiction, really), the lyrics work perfectly with the entire Harry Potter series.

There is the ruthless, out-for-themselves Powers of Darkness, back again for a second attempt to claim all the power in the Wizarding world ("Time after time those fanatical minds/ Try to rule all the world"). There's a hip-sounding rebel standing against the arrayed forces of darkness with his "tricked out magic stick/ That will make them all fall." You can even read the lyrics in the fourth set to be a reflection of how Voldemort seeks only the single Deathly Hallow he believes he needs, but he "don't know what it's for."

Think about Neville, Ginny and how Dumbledore's Army lives on past the great wizard's death and the lines "We're the enforcers/ The sorcerer's orphans/ And we know why we fight" will bring chills to your spine. The full title of the song is "The Will Always Negates Defeat." Isn't that exactly the sentiment that helped Harry and his friends through all of their tribulations?

Listen to this song with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in your mind, and you'll begin thinking about a juxtaposition of two separate forces of pop culture unheard of since someone got the idea to play Dark Side of the Moon over The Wizard of Oz.

The W.A.N.D.
By the Flaming Lips

(You've got the power in there)
(Waving your wand in the air)

Time after time those fanatical minds
Try to rule all the world
Telling us all it's them
Who's in charge of it all

I've got a tricked out magic stick
That will make them all fall
We've got the power now
Motherfuckers, it's where it belongs

You've got that right
(You've got the power in there)
You know that it is
(Waving your wand in the air)

They have their weapons
To solve your questions
They don't know what it's for
(They don't know what it's for)
Why can't they see that's not power
That's greed
To just want more and more?

I got a plan and it's here in my hand
And it's all made of rights.
We're the enforcers,
The sorcerer's orphans,
And we know why we fight
(And we know why we fight)

You've got that right
(You've got the power in there)
(Waving your wand in the air)

(You've got the power in there)
(You've got the power in there)
(You've got the power in there)
(Waving your wand in the air)

You've got that right
You know that it is

It's worth noting that the video below does not blare the word "motherfuckers," so it is safe for home viewing if little ears are around. It also scares me that enough of my friends/readers have children that I would even care.

There is a more risqué (and artful) version of the video here.

And now for the rest of the WIHT playlist. Sorry for missing last week.

"Stumbline," by the Smashing Pumpkins from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
"Valerie," by the Zutons from Tired of Hanging Around
"The Battle of Evermore," by Led Zeppelin from Led Zeppelin IV (many read this as a conscious reference to The Return of the King, describing the battle of the Pelennor Fields)
"My Good Gal," by Old Crow Medicine Show from Big Iron World
"The Magic Number," by De La Soul from 3 Feet High and Rising
"Shoes," by Atmosphere from Seven's Travels
"Jesus Was a Cross Maker," by Rachel Yamagata from the Soundtrack to Elizabethtown
"Waitress," by Live from Throwing Copper
"Titties and Beer," by Rodney Carrington from Morning Wood (we're not proud at the Institute)
"Talking Shit About a Sunset," by Modest Mouse from This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About

Recommendation of the Week: Go ahead and listen to the entire Flaming Lips CD At War With the Mystics (more Harry Potter references? Maybe). Good stuff all around.