March 26, 2007

Questions From My Wife II: Sussudio


What is "Su Sussudio"? Why do I hate it so much?

Sussudio is a horrible horrible song written by Phil Collins and released on his 1985 album No Jacket Required. Here you can find the lyrics and wonder to yourself how this man ever made it as a songwriter. Basically, he just sings about how he as a young man longs for an older woman named Sussudio. Over and over. For some reason, this made it to the top of the Billboard charts. But, to give you an idea of what the hell people were thinking in 1985, it followed Bryan Adams' Heaven and preceded Duran Duran's A View To A Kill. True fact: everyone buying music at that time was on some form of cocaine. To further illustrate this point, the lead character in American Psycho alludes to Sussudio as a "personal favorite."

As to why you hate it, I have a few potential answers:
1) It has no story. It's a pop music version of asking someone to go out with them so many times they finally say ok.
2) It's really about a man's love for a horse. Phil Collins got the name Sussudio from one of his daughter's horses.
3) Phil Collins has a whiny voice and stole the main chord progression from Prince's 1999.
4) It makes no sense. Are we supposed to get that Sussudio is someone's name? True fact #2: I can guarantee that it is, in actuality, no one's name.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

So you're saying there will be no future "Sussudio Salinas"? Damn.

Emily said...

If you name your daughter/son Sussudio I will NEVER come to your house for painting club again.

Greg said...

OB: And the difference between that and an ordinary week would be...?

Geoffrey said...

If you name your daughter/son Sussudio I will give you a dollar. Could just call him Dio for short.

Griner said...

Yeah, according to howmanyofme.com, there are...well, here's the quote:

There are 0 people in the U.S. with the first name Sussudio.

Jerry Hinnen said...

"One More Night" is actually a good song, and Collins had a number of solid songs ("Land of Confusion" foremost amongst them) with Genesis.

But boy, yeah, "Sussudio" sususucks.