This year for the 2023 A-Z Blog Challenge, I’m going to begin by listing a song or musical subject, and then see how fast and how far I can completely blow up my own “stream of consciousness,” and head “off the reservation,” by linking every real, and “Zulu Delta-imagined” fact, piece of music trivia, or not so apparent connection to what is racing around my head to that song in an “unstructured, graffiti-like” format. Complete and utter nonsense! Turn it up and turn it on, but as Van “The Man” Morrison said…….”It’s already turned on!”

Mark Foster wrote and released the song “Pumped Up Kicks” on September 14, 2010.

The band started with the name Foster & The People and became Foster The People.

Oddly enough, this song with its dark meaning has a very catchy tune and a realization from the writer.

This is the third and last song with similar content lyrics for this blog series. Please.

Foster wrote the song to highlight an alarming rise in teenage mental illness.

In the song, “Robert” finds his father’s gun and imagines himself chasing around “all the other kids.”

“Robert doesn’t actually carry out this scenario; it’s only a “horror of his mind.”

Foster said he is thinking of “retiring” the song because “it” has become too painful. 10 years later, the mental illness has only gotten worse.

In the song, the “Pumped Up Kicks” refer to the popular sneaker made by Reebok; The Pump.

At $170, the sneaker…..ah woops….my mistake….”The Shoe” is a symbol of “the haves and the have nots.” 

As simple and as controversial as it may seem, this may be one more piece of evidence for the existence of a standard “school uniform.” Clothes are an issue.

Meanwhile, ”elsewhere,” in a “spoiler alert,” Taylor Swift and Zac Efron, take the tune from “Pumped Up Kicks” and play a scorching parody of Ellen DeGeneres called “All because of Ellen.” 

This might be one of the first times I ever “investigated” anything from Taylor Swift but as we will soon see; not the last. 

I tumbled across the video when watching Foster The People. 

I did think the video was cute and amusing, and as some of the comments pointed out, wondered if Taylor was “ahead of the curve” when poking criticism at Ellen, in what would turn out to be DeGeneres bizarre and abusive behavior that led to her “downfall.”

I have never seen the Ellen show, but I did see the headlines. I have never seen an episode of the original series Baywatch either, but eventually I did watch the 2017 Baywatch movie and thought it was funny. I did admire Efron’s taking on the role as a complete buffoon and when “The Rock” keeps insulting him by calling him “boy-band” names is quite funny.

Anyway, Baywatch turned out a lot funnier than Teen-age Mental Illness and Violence.

WARNING….THOUGH FUNNY, THIS VIDEO DOES CONTAIN SOME FOUL LANGUAGE; PROCEED WITH CAUTION!