Friday farce: Pablo Picasso

Jonathan Richman's original, performed by The Modern Lovers on their seminal 1973/76 self-titled album, is a classic of pre-punk sneer and ironic self-deprecation. John Cale, who was the producer of the Modern Lovers album, himself covered it in some style on his wonderful Helen of Troy record. The song was featured in the cult movie Repo Man, there performed (heh) sensationally by obscure LA punk outfit Burning Sensations. It has also been done in fine style by oddball British new wavers Television Personalities.

Read 'em and weep: Well the girls would turn the color of an avocado / When he would drive down their street in his El Dorado / He could walk down the street and girls could not resist his stare / Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole...... Not like you

And now David Bowie has come along and ruined it for everyone.

David Bowie - Pablo Picasso [from Reality] (3.75 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Yep. For some reason, he wasn't content with the "avocado" lyric, and had to insert a "juicy" in there. As in "the girls would turn the colour of a juicy avocado". (Whatever the fuck that means, considering avocadoes are 100% devoid of juice.)

Not like you, mate.

...

Isn't describing something as "seminal" a funny old thing to do. Hmmm.