Teatro Triste del Clown

Official Video:

This is the song that caused Briana Corrigan to leave The Beautiful South.

It is a scathing song aimed at (I’m guessing) Page 3 Girls.

Now, I love me some boobies, as everyone here is well aware, and I confess that I’m a supporter of the uniquely British tradition of featuring a topless woman on Page 3 of their bottom feeder newspaper.

That said, I recognize that there are people in this world who try to get by on their looks alone (which is the kind of person this song is criticizing). Over here in America, we have a glut of “stars” who are famous, in essence, for looking good. If you imagine that this song is aimed at, for example, the Paris Hilton’s of the world, it makes a lot more sense.

However, I also recognize that there is a case to be made that we shouldn’t be criticizing Paris Hilton so much as the system that exploits her to generate money for itself. The Page 3 girls make a little bit of cash for appearing topless, but the newspaper in question makes millions off of their boobs.

So, basically, the women get a little short-term cash and the newspapers make a ton of money that they can then use to support reactionary political candidates. I am guessing that most of these newspapers feature editorials that tend to support corporate interests, etc. Maybe a false assumption, but the point is that the plan could very well be “use boobs to sell editorials that support politics that make a friendlier environment for us to make even more money.”

This, then, was Briana Corrigan’s issue. Why attack the women when there was a much bigger set of social issues at play? The other members of The Beautiful South ultimately conceded that she was right (though they still play the song).

So, a whole lot of vitriol packed into this little pop song. If all politics are ultimately personal, this had a profound political impact on the band, as they lost a very strong voice over this song. The Beautiful South ultimately had two other excellent female singers (only one of whom is represented on this album), but Ms. Corrigan’s work was (in my opinion) the strongest.