More on Frank Zappa – Bobby Brown

In this entry I’ll answer the questions Mrs Muench gave us concerning our chosen songs to interpretate them. So this article refers to “Comment remark” – muenchen74.

Why did you choose this song?
I chose this song because this track from Frank Zappa came into my mind at first as we had to think about songs concerning the American Dream.
I like this genre and music of the 80’s. The song has been in American and German charts for a long time and is still often played in German radio.
In America, this song was declined by some, especially traditional-thinking people, which explains that this song was less successful than in other parts of the world. Some radio stations refused this song to be played there.

What is the song about?
In this song, he picks out abnormal sexual practises as a central theme and refers also to the dangers of that. He only describes these things and doesn’t comment them.
In the first stave he presents a boy named “Bobby Brown” (I think this name is picked out randomly) who is rich and lives in a very self-confident way of live. In the refrain he sees himself as an example of the american dream, he is “a handsome son of a bitch” as he said and can “get a good job ‘n be real rich”, one of the main aspects of the American Dream that everyone can achieve everything.
The second stave refers to his relation to women, abnormal sexual practises and his experiences with them.
The following refrain has changed a little bit to the first one; he wonders about his way of live and noticed that he doesn’t know anymore whether he is “a boy or a lady”. This can be a hint for homosexuality or bisexuality.
In the third stave his sexual live becomes more and more abnormal and drifts into sadomaso.
In the fourth stave he is positivly shocked about his sexual live, that he became a “sexual spastic” and he thinks that he is a strong and self-concious individual by the double-repeating of the words “And my name is bobby brown, watch me now, i’m going down”.

What has the song to do with America and how did you interpretate this song?
This song describes the American Dream in a very inconveniant way. The term “If you want you can achieve everything” is transferred to sexual life.
According to the classic understanding of the American Dream, he achieves more and more, his sexual practises become more and more abnormal. His full attention obtains to these practises, as far as he doesn’t now whether he is a man or a woman. If you transfer this to the classic understanding of the American Dream it’s possible to interpretate that this describes the danger of all rich people that they only have their own affairs in mind and doesn’t think about their responsabily towards society.
So, in this song you can compare sexual life with money. You have to stay moderat in both and it’s important not to became arrogant. That’s what happend in the last stave of this song.

• Have a look to the picture interpretation