Kilroy Concept Information
Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:52 pmOK, a friend found this interesting little exchange from a Cornell University Q/A site. I guess these students were into the whole Mr. Roboto experience! (Probably to avoid hitting the books)
Anyway, what I found interesting was the research done on the word "modren" and its historical meaning.
Dennis used to get blasted for this "inane" use of the word "modren" and turns out he was just being very obscure, but accurate, in his references.
[url]
http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=964670400[/url]
Dear Unkie Ezra
In the song "Mr. Roboto" by the band STYX the robot at the end of the song reveals his identity as "kilroy." "I'm KILROY!!!" He declares, as if this has some intense significance to all of the people of our generation. On the contrary, we are baffled. Who is Kilroy? Why is he THE Mauldren man?
Help us out here...we're needin' to know!
THE MAULDREN MEN OF HIGH RISE 5
Dear Mauldren Men of High Rise 5,
Here's the scoop on Kilroy from Cornell alum and staff member Jeffrey Anbinder, who researched this on your behalf:
"The album 'Kilroy Was Here' is actually a rock opera of sorts, which takes place in the near future. The concept is that rock'n'roll music has been outlawed as a bad influence on our children -- replaced, if you can believe it, by sex and drugs, which are publicly considered much less harmful (although the evil 'Dr. Righteous' actually uses them as tools of mind-control).
"Kilroy is a rock musician who has been jailed for his crimes against society; to escape, he hides inside the shell of a 'Mr. Roboto,' one of thousands of Japanese mass-produced servant-robots who do our everyday menial tasks for us in this version of the future. The song 'Mr. Roboto' contains Kilroy's thanks to this robot for unwittingly helping him -- 'Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto' is Japanese for 'Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto.'
"The announcement 'I'm Kilroy!' is really just an affirmation of his own identity, as he sheds the outwardly robotic shell to regain his humanity outside of prison.
"And as it happens, Kilroy thinks of himself as a 'Modren' man, not a 'Mauldren' man. 'Modren' (often spelled with the R shown in mirror image) was originally a way to describe contemporary experimental jazz music in the 1950s, when the more generic term 'modern' was being used to describe mainstream pop such as Elvis. The jazz musicians simply needed a way to emphasize that their music was even *more* modern than modern. The word is mostly used now to describe anything that is supposedly ahead of its time. "
As Mr. Spock used to say to Captain Kirk -- fascinating.
Bugsy
Anyway, what I found interesting was the research done on the word "modren" and its historical meaning.
Dennis used to get blasted for this "inane" use of the word "modren" and turns out he was just being very obscure, but accurate, in his references.
[url]
http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=964670400[/url]
Dear Unkie Ezra
In the song "Mr. Roboto" by the band STYX the robot at the end of the song reveals his identity as "kilroy." "I'm KILROY!!!" He declares, as if this has some intense significance to all of the people of our generation. On the contrary, we are baffled. Who is Kilroy? Why is he THE Mauldren man?
Help us out here...we're needin' to know!
THE MAULDREN MEN OF HIGH RISE 5
Dear Mauldren Men of High Rise 5,
Here's the scoop on Kilroy from Cornell alum and staff member Jeffrey Anbinder, who researched this on your behalf:
"The album 'Kilroy Was Here' is actually a rock opera of sorts, which takes place in the near future. The concept is that rock'n'roll music has been outlawed as a bad influence on our children -- replaced, if you can believe it, by sex and drugs, which are publicly considered much less harmful (although the evil 'Dr. Righteous' actually uses them as tools of mind-control).
"Kilroy is a rock musician who has been jailed for his crimes against society; to escape, he hides inside the shell of a 'Mr. Roboto,' one of thousands of Japanese mass-produced servant-robots who do our everyday menial tasks for us in this version of the future. The song 'Mr. Roboto' contains Kilroy's thanks to this robot for unwittingly helping him -- 'Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto' is Japanese for 'Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto.'
"The announcement 'I'm Kilroy!' is really just an affirmation of his own identity, as he sheds the outwardly robotic shell to regain his humanity outside of prison.
"And as it happens, Kilroy thinks of himself as a 'Modren' man, not a 'Mauldren' man. 'Modren' (often spelled with the R shown in mirror image) was originally a way to describe contemporary experimental jazz music in the 1950s, when the more generic term 'modern' was being used to describe mainstream pop such as Elvis. The jazz musicians simply needed a way to emphasize that their music was even *more* modern than modern. The word is mostly used now to describe anything that is supposedly ahead of its time. "
As Mr. Spock used to say to Captain Kirk -- fascinating.
Bugsy
