Brave Little Toaster "Worthless" Lyrics Analysis

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Brave Little Toaster "Worthless" Lyrics Analysis

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Postby NAveryW » Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:06 pm

While listening to the film's soundtrack today, I realized that I still didn't fully understand some of the lyrics in the song "Worthless". In particular, these verses:

Once drove a Texan to a wedding.
He kept forgetting
His loneliness, letting
His thoughts turn to home and returned.


and:

I worked on a reservation.
Who would believe
They would love me and leave
On a bus back to old Santa Fe?
Once in an Indian nation
I took the kids
on the skids where the Hopi
Was happy to lie there and say:
"You're worthless."


Most of the cars seem to be singing reminiscences of bleak events and discoveries they've made as sort of a catharsis before their deaths. From the context, I feel the two cars who sang the above lyrics were doing the same, but in a more cryptic manner than most.

I spent around half an hour or so getting really frustrated that I couldn't make any sense from the wedding verse. I recited it to my father once he got home and gave him the context, and after thinking for a bit, he said he interpreted it as that, as a marriage is generally a social event in which everyone is very close together, the man observed how miserable/annoying people are after being together for a while (or he just became miserable/annoyed) and just wanted to go back home. That seems to fit given the nihilistic theme of the song.

The reservation one I'm still trying to figure out. The singing car seems to be recalling taking children either from or to a poverty-stricken Native American "ghetto" where a Hopi said "You're worthless", followed by the children going back home without him. I don't really get much from that and never put too much thought into it after first reading the lyrics online to figure out what he was actually saying. I'm guessing there's more significance to this since he recalls this knowing it's the last thing he'll ever be able to say before dying, and everyone else's verses are significant revelations or events. So, um, help me with this one, and the previous one as well if you think my father's interpretation is wrong.
"Today?... hmm... today... right... Um... I'm just gonna wing it." -Guess who

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Postby NAveryW » Sun Sep 20, 2009 1:16 am

Oh my freaking God, guys. This is the most impressed I've been in a long time. The Brave Little Toaster just got pumped up several more notches in awesomeness. So, I just got to thinking about another verse and decided to research it.

Once drove a surfer to sunset
There were bikinis and buns, there were weenies
Fellini just couldn't forget
Pico, let's go up to Zuma
Pico, let's go up to Zuma
From Zuma to Yuma, the rumor
Was I had a hand in the way of the land
Get up and go hit the highway


Interestingly, the second line in the official soundtrack (released in very limited quantities only for publicity's sake; it's now considered a valuable collector's item, according to my soundtrack-collecting father), is somewhat different; it sounds something like "There were kinis/keenies and huns/hons on the weenies". I can't make heads or tails of that. "Kini" is a rare surname and it could be referring to the Huns led by Attila, but what is their connection and why would they be on weenies? I'm glad the line was changed for the movie, as that makes things much less problematic.

Anyway, as a starting point, I figured the name Fellini probably referred to filmmaker Frederico Fellini if it referred to anything, so I looked that up and went from there. Immediately I found a couple of blog results that discuss the song. The writer of these blog entries is Susan Rothman. They discuss Jim Cypherd, who collaborated on The Brave Little Toaster (uncredited, apparently) and is entirely responsible for the song "Worthless", and the whole conveyor belt scene, being included. Yes, she talked to him about the song and did some of her own research. Her writing is somewhat cryptic and it took me a couple of readings to get much of what she was saying, so I'll simplify the relevant parts here:

-"Sunset" refers to Sunset Blvd., which leads to Will Rogers Beach. I had always taken the line as meaning literally driving to the sunset; driving to Will Rogers Beach makes way more sense.

-Susan mistakenly quotes the line as "There were weenies that Fellini just couldn't forget." She made several cryptic statements about "boners" that I couldn't quite make sense of, but using that as a base looked into Fellini and sexuality. Apparently, Fellini was a very loose man, having affairs and showing little respect for his wife. Fellini's films always contained autobiographical elements, and his film Amarcord was partially a self-mockery regarding his inability to "outgrow foolish sexual fantasies". I'm not even going to get into Satyricon. Anyway, the point is that the line is sexual and refers to the bikinis, buns and weenies obsessing Fellini.

-According to Susan, Fellini was referenced because his films include "autobiographical images of himself laced into artistic works", which is what Cypherd was doing. This goes even further into the film with the TV including himself in a commercial for Ernie's. Cypherd told Susan that the advertisement for Ernie's Dump (eventually becoming Crazy Ernie's Amazing Emporium of Total Bargain Madness) represented "elements he knows about packaging and slanted publicity in general".

-As for "Pico, let's go up to Zuma", the line refers to Pico Blvd., which does go to a beach... but not to Zuma Beach. It goes to Santa Monica Beach. This is followed by "From Zuma to Yuma, the rumor was I had a hand in the lay of the land." Since there are no beaches in Arizona, Susan offers the interpretation that the line is a heavily disguised reference to an erection (driving up 19 miles from Malibu to Yuma, up being what Susan describes as "basically the direction of a boner"; Susan states that, as there are no beaches, it refers to the punchline of selling beach property after the giant Arazonan earthquake in The Big One, "boner" being a possible synonym for "punchline".

Now, as she didn't actually say Cypherd told her that's what the line meant, I'm going to assume that's just what she came up with, and it seems like a pretty big stretch to me ("big stretch" must refer to an erection as well, eh, Susan?). I offer an alternative interpretation: "The rumor was I had a hand in the lay of the land" refers to the car's reputation for knowing the area, but the car gets the locations wrong: Pico Blvd. doesn't go to Zuma, and Yuma doesn't have beaches. In other words, the car's mind is going.

Anyway, look how freaking long this post is and remember that it's all about one verse of a song from a cartoon. This movie begs for the attention of film scholars and serious philosophical analysis.
"Today?... hmm... today... right... Um... I'm just gonna wing it." -Guess who

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Postby Hexon.Arq » Sat Sep 26, 2009 4:51 am

Susan Rothman sounds incredibly horny.

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Postby Fredrick2003 » Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:50 am

The Brave Little Toaster was one of my favorite childhood movies, the ones you would watch over and over again (much to the frustration of your parents).

I recently saw it again and now I have a much deeper appreciation for it. Some of it is quite depressing...

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Postby THE Hal E. Burton 9000 » Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:30 pm

^so true

I like depressing things though, it all allows me to feel some kind of empathy within my heart and mind that would otherwise be replaced with a deep, raging misanthropy
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Postby NAveryW » Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:52 am

Watch this interview if you haven't already and if you have an hour to listen to an interview. You'll want to see it if you're a fan of The Brave Little Toaster. If you don't want to see it, just take my word for it that I'm not spending a lot of time overanalyzing a kids' cartoon.

I was recently contacted by email by Aaron Foster, who'd read my analysis of "Worthless", and we continued discussing it through email. I learned a lot from that discussion-- in particular, that I hadn't even been thinking in terms of the marriage of the song and the visuals that go along with it. I'd just been thinking about the song itself.

So I present here a newer analysis. I've tried to be careful not to include speculation that could be interpreted by readers as overanalysis, because although there is a very large amount of what appears to be deliberate symbolism, allusion, and insinuation, a lot of speculation in those regards leads to dead ends so for now I'll avoid it. I don't claim credit for "noticing" all that I write below, as several chunks were pointed out by Susan Rothman and Aaron Foster. The analysis isn't complete by a longshot, but it's better than the old one.

From the beginning of the song:

_____

I can't take this kind of pressure
I must confess one more dusty road
Would be just a road too long


Pretty straightforward. The blue car expresses anxiety, acknowledges he's no longer capable of fulfilling his purpose (and is thus worthless), and is immediately crushed into a cube. Unlike the subsequent cars, he doesn't resist his impending death.

I just cant- I just can't- I just can't seem to get started
Don't have the heart to live in the fast lane
All that is past and gone


The repetition in the pink convertible's first line is reminiscent of a car having ignition trouble, which is exactly what's happening onscreen when she tries to flee the magnet. She resembles a 1950s convertible and mentions "life in the fast lane", suggesting a history of Grease-esque drag races. I'm reluctant to include that here because it could just be a coincidence that fits very well, but each of the other cars alludes to era-appropriate history, often through obscure references, so I think this is a safe assumption.

I come from KC, Missouri
And I got my kicks out on Route 66
Every truck stop from Butte to MO
Motown to Old Alabama
From Texarkana and east of Savannah
From Tampa to old Kokomo


Starting with the red sports car, we get more specific lyrics. Here, we get fond reminiscence of Route 66, which was decertified and replaced by a highway system while The Brave Little Toaster was in production. This souped-up car shows his former owner's celebration of recreational driving and his sense of identity, which is great for Route 66 but not so practical for a highway.

Starting with the line "From Texarkana", look at the sports car's steering wheel. He's steering left and right, trying to drive off the conveyor belt and avoid being crushed, but he can't move.

I once ran the Indy 500
I must confess I'm impressed how I did
And I wonder how close that I came
Now I get a sinking sensation
I was the top of the line
Out of sight, out of mind
So much for fortune and fame


These lyrics are more overtly grim than those preceding. There's a great synchronicity of the visuals with the lyrics as the racecar slowly slides down the funnel as he sings "Now I get a sinking sensation."

Once took a Texan to a wedding
Once took a Texan to a wedding
He kept forgetting his loneliness
Letting his thoughts turn to home
And returned


Now the lyrics get a bit cryptic and into you-can't-expect-kids-to-get-this territory. To quote myself from the above post from 2009: "I spent around half an hour or so getting really frustrated that I couldn't make any sense from the wedding verse. I recited it to my father once he got home and gave him the context, and after thinking for a bit, he said he interpreted it as that, as a marriage is generally a social event in which everyone is very close together, the man observed how miserable/annoying people are after being together for a while (or he just became miserable/annoyed) and just wanted to go back home. That seems to fit given the nihilistic theme of the song."

I took a man to a graveyard
I beg your pardon, it's quite hard enough
Just living with the stuff I have learned


This car goes by pretty quickly, so try to freezeframe and take note of what kind of car it is. As if the lyrics weren't dark enough already, the man the car took to the graveyard was the corpse. He had a dead man inside him for a while (something I'm sure we all hope to never experience), and from this experience he first learned of death.

Once drove a surf at the sunset
There were bikinis and buns, there were weenies
Fellini just couldn't forget
Pico, let's go up to Zuma
Pico, let's go up to Zuma
From Zuma to Yuma, the rumor was
I had a hand in the lay of the land


The car is a wood-paneled station wagon. To quote the book Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages in Children's Films by M. Keith Booker (which I don't own, but Foster linked me to a preview of in Google books), "The evocation of surf culture by this particular verse, of course, immediately recalls (for those old enough to remember) the 1963 hit 'Surf City,' by Jan and Dean, the first surf music song ever to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Chart. The song famously tells of a California beach where there are 'two girls for every boy,' which the singers are visiting in their old Ford 'woodie.' This song, of course, is particularly relevant here because the station wagon involved is described as being dilapidated (lacking, among other things, a back seat or rear window), yet still usable and able to 'get me where I wanna go.'" Sure enough, the singing "woodie" does seem to lack a back seat and rear window.

The lyrics to the second line of this verse are slightly different on the soundtrack than in the movie. On the soundtrack, the woodie sings something like "There were kinis and huns on the weenies". The first line is usually written as "Once drove a surfer to Sunset", which Susan Rothman took to mean Sunset Blvd., which leads to Will Rogers beach, but in both the soundtrack and the movie, I think it sounds much more like "surf at the sunset".

It's hard to interpret the bikinis/buns/weenies line in a non-sexual manner. To quote myself from 2009 on Rothman's statements about this verse, which is all I can do since the blog now seems to be gone, "She made several cryptic statements about 'boners' that I couldn't quite make sense of, but using that as a base looked into Fellini and sexuality. Apparently, Fellini was a very loose man, having affairs and showing little respect for his wife. Fellini's films always contained autobiographical elements, and his film Amarcord was partially a self-mockery regarding his inability to 'outgrow foolish sexual fantasies'. I'm not even going to get into Satyricon. Anyway, the point is that the line is sexual and refers to the bikinis, buns and weenies obsessing Fellini. According to Susan, Fellini was referenced because his films include 'autobiographical images of himself laced into artistic works', which is what Cypherd was doing. This goes even further into the film with the TV including himself in a commercial for Ernie's. Cypherd told Susan that the advertisement for Ernie's Dump (eventually becoming Crazy Ernie's Amazing Emporium of Total Bargain Madness) represented 'elements he knows about packaging and slanted publicity in general'."

Right after Fellini is referenced by name for the sake of evoking his fourth wall-teasing (and in some cases, such as , fourth wall-annihilating) movies, one of the station wagon's headlights falls off and smashes into your TV set, and Lampy looks through the resulting hole. This is the only instance of The Brave Little Toaster in which the fourth wall is broken, and in this case it's broken literally.

Rothman interpreted "Pico, let's go up to Zuma" as referring to Pico Blvd. and Zuma Beach, and since Pico Blvd. doesn't go to Zuma beach, Rothman suggested a sexual interpretation that I never thought made much sense. The line doesn't make sense referring to a street anyway, since it's an instruction. It's more simple than that: The car is remembering someone suggesting to the surfer named Pico that they go to Zuma Beach. The station wagon sings this line twice, hinting that this is an important memory. It'd have to be important anyway if the car chooses to sing about it right before dying.

Notice that the surfboard has a big shark bite taken out of it.

The final line in the verse is "Get up and go hit the highway," which is followed immediately by Rob (the Master) and Chris doing just that.

The station wagon lands on the conveyor belt upside-down and is unable to attempt to drive off, so she just tries to do a barrel roll. She is unsuccessful, of course, and is crushed.

The next verse was much harder to understand than it should have been because lyrics transcripts (and the subtitles in the movie) always get a line wrong. Here are the correct lyrics.

I worked on a reservation.
Who would be believe
They would love me and leave
On a bus back to old Santa Fe?
Once in an Indian nation
I took the kids on the skids
Where the Hopi was happy
'Til I heard 'em say:
"You're worthless."


The Hopi Reservation is located in Arizona and is inhabited by the Hopi and Arizona Tewa. The bus left "back to old Santa Fe". The word "back" implies a return, and sure enough, the reservation in Santa Fe is the Nambé Pueblo, inhabited by the Tewa tribe, of which the Arizona Tewa are descendants.

The truck sings about taking poor Hopi children off skid row until he was no longer deemed necessary, at which point he was told he was worthless and was abandoned.

Unlike the other cars, this truck drives away when the magnet approaches, but not to escape. He deliberately drives onto the conveyor belt, effectively committing suicide. He acknowledges that his time is over, but he prefers to exercise the small amount of freedom that remains to him by choosing death himself rather than being forcefully dragged into it.
"Today?... hmm... today... right... Um... I'm just gonna wing it." -Guess who

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Postby Jindo » Fri Sep 30, 2011 2:08 pm

This forum is extreemly insightful and I deeply appreciate that you took the time to analyse this forgotten song and unravel its deeper meaning.

If there are anymore deep and interesting songs around give me a heads up.
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Postby C.A.P. » Fri Sep 30, 2011 2:49 pm

The more I know about this movie, the more I realize it's a treasure that's begging to be rediscovered.

I want to add one observation after seeing the sequence again: both the Texan and "man to a graveyard" car have a lot of similarity to them (in fact, I think the scene with them singing "He kept forgetting his loneliness/Letting his thoughts turn to home" and "I beg your pardon, it's quite hard enough/Just living with the stuff.." is reused; same backgrounds, same angle, and the same animation of the magnet).

Also, while I'm thinking about, "Two Guys Named Joe" (which actually has a lot of info of the production of the movie, which makes sense, since the guy I'm talking about was heavily involved in the final film) mentioned that while Joe Ranft was in CalArts, he saw a lot of cult movies like Pink Flamingos in the building, so it's a possibility that he might of suggested the Fellini line. Or not; like I said, the movie is begging to be rediscovered.
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Postby Jindo » Fri Sep 30, 2011 3:30 pm

I'd like to point out something about this, it seems as though some of the cars are speaking for their owners.

The driver of the hearse has seen horrible deaths/murders and is tormented from what he has seen and couldn't bare knowing such truths about death and quit his job.

The "Texan" going to the wedding seems to have been anti-social from fear and untrustworthy of society, as he grew closer to the ceremony he let his fear drive down his desire to not be alone anymore and he is back safe at home where he seems to be doomed to stay and abandons the car as well.

The driver that ran the Indy 500 appearently failed to win the race of his dreams and will forever be the 2nd place man who sinks out of fame and glory while the 1st place man lives his dream, he gets rid of his car as he deems himself a failure.

The car on the reservation, now I may be beating off the path a little bit here, but it seems to me that the father would drive his children to where they needed to go, they were struck poor and he couldnt seem to take care of them so his wife and children left on a bus. He calls himself worthless as well as the car, both the car and the driver end in the same manner, Suicide.

Some of this may or may not fit but I found this to be a interesting concept.

(Edit)

I also picked up that Fellini whom had slept with appearently a lot of men down in the sunset, she fell in love with the boy Pico and she wanted to leave up away from the places she had slept with so many men but she couldn't forget about it no matter how hard she tried, eventually the rumor of her lustfullness went around that she picked men up in that car and now she hit the highway when Pico left her.
Last edited by Jindo on Fri Sep 30, 2011 4:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby DevRei17 » Fri Sep 30, 2011 3:40 pm

Nice to know how bad ass my favorite childhood movie is.
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Postby tomrule123 » Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:24 pm

When I saw the film again recently, I couldn't fully understand the lyrics of that song since they were speaking fast. Nice find, NaveryW. I had no idea on the hidden meanings of that song.

SPOILER: Show
(The film is still awesome. All my childhood memories from watching this have been re-lived. Anyone who hates this- WHYYYYY?!)

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Postby Katzby » Mon Apr 16, 2012 3:22 pm

I recently discovered this thread linked to from some reddit comments and found it very interesting. As far as I can tell, this is the only place on the entire internet that discussion of these lyrics is occurring. I too first saw this movie at an impressionable age and have always considered this scene in particular to have had a great influence on me. I registered an account here specifically to be able to add some of my thoughts to the conversation.

NAveryW,

I think you have done a marvelous job not only interpreting the lyrics of this song but also with noticing that the song was ripe for interpretation in the first place. I had not realized how fascinating these lyrics were. However, I don’t agree with your analysis of the lyrics sung by the wedding car. I think the intended meaning here is what I’d consider to be a much more obvious than your (and your father’s) interpretation, and I believe that you may have missed a couple of clues meant to help figure it all out.

The man referenced in the lyrics by “Once took a Texan to a Wedding” was not merely a guest, but the groom-to-be. The wedding car might have misspoken, because it seems to me that the man never made it to the ceremony’s venue at all. Or, perhaps he did arrive, but took one look at the scene and split. The Texan in question is that most emblematic of the typical male stereotypes seen in stories contained in movies, books, etc- a man utterly afraid of long-term commitment and unwilling to give up his bachelorhood by getting married.

Starting with this hypothesis, it doesn’t take much effort to paint the rest of the picture. The owner of the car was a ladies’ man, living a mostly content lifestyle but never settling down with somebody and starting a family. Eventually, the man’s loneliness- his emotionally unfulfilled lifestyle- gets the better of him and he decides to pop the question to some “lucky” gal. Unfortunately for her, when the big day comes he just can’t bring himself to go through with it, temporarily forgetting about what made him want to get married in the first place, and has to call it off.

Consider the fact that there is an obvious parallelism with these lyrics and those of the very next car- those of the hearse. I’ll point out that I absolutely agree with your interpretation of the man being driven to the graveyard as being the departed himself. However, consider the fact that these cars sing half a verse each, get deposited onto the conveyer belt stacked atop each other, and are ultimately crushed forever into a cubical yin-yang of symbolism. These sets of lyrics are intended to tell stories that are dark reflections of each other, with similarities both overtly stated and implied.

Both cars sing about only a single person each (a Texan and a man) being driven to an important event (a wedding and a funeral). While it’s made clearly evident in the case of the funeral car, I can’t help but infer that in both cases, the man being driven was the so-called “guest of honor.” Granted, a wedding actually has two honorees, but the gender-specific pronoun used by the wedding car (he kept forgetting) makes it obvious which one it is. So, I think the more obvious interpretation of the wedding car’s lyrics, that the man being driven is the very person that you immediately think of when hearing the word “wedding,” is the intended explanation. Others on this thread have danced around it, but nobody else has yet drawn this conclusion.

Furthermore, it seems to me that the fact that the lyrics are delivered successively in the same verse of the song is meant to at least make the viewer ask another question- one wonders if the identity of the two men aren't that of the very same person. The parallelism here is too significant to ignore.

First of all, it makes sense that these are different cars; a man is usually not driven in his own car to his funeral. However, it must be asked why exactly does the hearse say “I beg your pardon, it's quite hard enough Just living with the stuff I have learned” without further explaining. If you suppose that both cars were indeed singing about the same person then the answer is obvious- this man died alone. Remember that the wedding car did not say that the man changed his mind about his loneliness; rather, it momentarily escaped his mind as a result of cowardice. This now worthless car's former owner has his own "worthlessness" to blame for his own plight. This would surely be a heartbreaking enough circumstance that the hearse would prefer not to spell out explicitly and might seem to explain why it doesn't.

Anyway, I know I’m resurrecting a long-dead thread, so I hope everybody will forgive me. However, like I said, this thread is the only place on the web where this song is being discussed. I hope more people who like this movie will get a chance to read it.

Thanks.


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Postby ronjay » Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:52 am

I'm relplying to this post for the same reason as Katzby. It's the only discussion of these lyrics I've found.

I'm glad this thread was recently "revived", but I'd have to disagree with much of Katzby's comments because I think the lyrics are all about the cars talking and have nothing at all to do with the people who may have driven them. Each car is basically expressing its sadness and regrets as the end of its life nears. The Indy car failed to win, the wedding never came off, the car couldn't start, or they just got old or abandoned. I'll leave the more cryptic lyrics for others, but still "the rumor was
I had a hand in the lay of the land" implies that this car was once highly respected, but now...

Frankly I don't know why this song even interests me or why I'm writing, but there is something haunting about it.
For the heck of it

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Re: Brave Little Toaster "Worthless" Lyrics Analysis

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Postby Emptyheartfiller » Wed Mar 09, 2016 2:14 am

The music itself can make one nervous/excited. Each offering of the soundtrack is interesting, and separate from common pop. I loved the brave little toaster as a child, as my child does. The lyrics of Worthless are subjective in a perfect way! Reading through stranger's translations is groovy. I'm glad this forum was founded. I always consider the little part where our heroes are on the magnet and radio says hey at least we'll all go out together part of the song. The joy blanket vibes out when the man appears in some way closes the song to me. If he had met the compactor right after shining out "Maybe he still needs us!", then we would more easily understand that one is capable of feeling positive emotions even while becoming un-animated.

Also I will suggest another gem that is "worthy" lol for the person who asked for more more soundtracks to analyze. We have a DVD player in the car but the driver (me) can never see the movies, only hear them. This is where my appreciation for the work of Debbie Allen and Dean and Carrol Park's work on the Care Bear's movie number 2 comes from. While the tunes were written for children, they were also well thought out and sophisticated, just for the kids. That's pretty cool.

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Re: Brave Little Toaster "Worthless" Lyrics Analysis

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Postby GStacy » Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:25 pm

I actually just signed up for this forum so I could comment on this song! The song was written by Van Dyke Parks, who worked with the Beach Boys (along with many, many other big names) and I think the Woodie car is kind of singing an elegy for that whole era of surfer/car culture.

Once drove a surfer to sunset


I think this is probably a specific reference to the famous Sunset Beach, although it may just be that the car drove the surfer toward a sunset at a beach.

There were bikinis and buns, there were weenies
Fellini just couldn't forget


We could read it innocently, like there were beach parties with hot dogs and buns, and girls in bikinis, very Frankie and Annette. But it could also be taken in a much more sexual way, with the bikinis, "buns" and weenies suggesting an almost orgy-like scene. Fellini was a legendary kinky guy, a bisexual, surrealist artist, and in his heyday his name was used as a kind of American shorthand for everything weird, kinky and excessive ("Jeez, that party was like a Fellini movie!") I think the car is saying she's seen stuff that even Fellini would never forget.

The soundtrack version does indeed sound like "There were kinis/keenies and huns/hons on the weenies" which is either dated surfer slang I don't know or a rather explicit sexual line, "hons" being an endearment (like "honey") who were "on the weenies." The "kinis" is almost certainly just a shortening of "bikinis," although again it may be dated surfer slang for something else. Back in the early 60s CA surfers had a whole lot of slang. The way they changed it for the movie makes it easier to understand, but it doesn't eliminate the innuendo of the verse. I don't know what that blogger was saying about "boners," but the weenies here are definitely meant to have a jokey double meaning as both hot dogs and, uh, weenies.

Pico, let's go up to Zuma
Pico, let's go up to Zuma


I don't think this part is sexual. You'd drive down Pico Blvd., then head up the coast to Zuma. This line could have come right out of a Beach Boys song.

From Zuma to Yuma, the rumor
Was I had a hand in the way of the land


I think the car is talking about how the automobile itself shaped the modern US landscape. Humans created all these roads and built entire cities around automotive travel. She's kind of saying, "Cars like me made America what it is, and now I'm abandoned to the scrapheap!"

This thread seems to get a response every few years. Maybe somebody will respond to this in 2025!


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