Homer Simpson’s favourite songs: “Rock attained perfection in 1974”
When faced with the despondent horror that the classic rock of his youth is no longer considered cool amid the alternative music explosion of the mid-1990s, Homer Simpson declares to himself, “Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It’s a scientific fact.”
In a desperate grab for ‘street cred’ among his kids, Homer takes Bart and Lisa to ‘Hullabalooza’, encountering Cypress Hill, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, and for some reason Peter Frampton. Lampooning Lollapalooza music festival and offering a hilarious comedic set-up for Homer’s existential crisis, season seven’s 1996 episode ‘Homerpalooza’ provides the greatest insight into Homer’s favourite musical era in The Simpsons‘ classic period.
Like many men who approach their late 30s, interest and connection to the charts wane as the daily pressures of adult life encroach on the carefree time they once enjoyed, the songs of their 20s forever a nostalgic soundtrack to life before fatherhood, bills, and professional stress, Homer no exception. Keen to educate his kids on the fascinating evolution of Jefferson Airplane to their Starship successor, oblivious to their boredom, Homer is a man hopelessly wedded to the double-denimed rock of the early 1970s.
Music came into his life young. Dancing in the mud naked as a child at Woodstock while Jimi Hendrix was tearing through his rendition of ‘Star-Spangled Banner‘ is quite the formative musical shaping, despite his father grudgingly present wishing to see more Sha Na Na. Affording Homer some cartoon flexibility in his timeline, he was also such a fan of Ohio Express’ bubblegum pop he missed Apollo 11’s televised moon landing, cosying in a beanbag listening to their 1968 hit ‘Yummy, Yummy, Yummy’ with a pair of headphone cans.
Jump to high school in 1974, and it’s Steve Miller Band’s ‘The Joker’ that Homer enthusiastically tunes to in his Plymouth Road Runner radio. Meeting his life partner Marge around this time, his sentimental side opens up with The Carpenters’ ‘(They Long to Be) Close to You) which became the couple’s ‘song’, and made out extensively to Iron Butterfly’s 17-minute hard-rock odyssey ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’.
Never afraid to break out into song and amend lyrics about any given situation, Barry Manilow’s ‘Mandy’ was reworked as a love song toward Marge, Village People’s ‘Macho Man’ joyously sung while dipping nachos into his giant edible sombrero, and most memorable is Homer’s stirring rendition of Frank Sinatra’s cover of Bob Shane with the Kingston Trio’s ‘It Was a Very Good Year’. Wistfully reminiscing on his first encounter with Duff beer, Homer takes us on a whirlwind nostalgia trip across beer’s essential companionship, revealing the ‘Robert McGee’ fake ID he used to purchase alcohol for “staying up all night listening to Queen”.
Some songs are stuck in the psyche. Adrift at sea on a disastrous Boy Scouts boating accident to the point of hallucination, the dancing lollipops and ice-creams that materialise in his delusional half-dream are all jiving to The Archies’ ‘Sugar, Sugar’. Beyond his penchant for Grand Funk Railroad, Eddie Money, and Styx, the song that elicits the most glee from Homer is arguably Herb Alpert’s Tijuana instrumental ‘Spanish Flea’, Homer so lost in its spritely jaunt he fails to notice the full-scale stadium riot Bart’s lost in resulting from Spinal Tap cutting their headline slot at Springfield Arena and ice-hockey rink short, only playing for 20 minutes.
No stranger to kitsch or camp, Homer boasting The Doodletown Pipers and Rappin’ Ronnie Reagan among his music collection, his favourite song was revealed to be The Weather Girls’ ‘It’s Raining Men’, thrown out of Moe’s Tavern’s jukebox after Homer’s caricature is removed from ‘Mt Plushmore’ and barred from his beloved watering hole. Despite his moment of insecurity in ‘Homerpalooza’, Homer’s unabashed love for the songs of his life is a lesson to us all in enjoying music irrespective of what’s ‘cool’ or not.
