Post #360810 by Thomas on Tue, Feb 12, 2008 4:38 PM

I understand this thread is meant to focus on earlier decades, but anyway my favorite song by a rocker dealing with Hawaii is Warren Zevon's "The Hula Hula Boys" (~'96):
**
I saw her leave the luau
With the one who parked the cars
And the fat one from the swimming pool
They were swaying arm in arm
I could hear the ukuleles playing
Down by the sea
She's gone with the hula hula boys
She don't care about me
She's gone with the hula hula boys
She don't care about me
They're singing,
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana

Yesterday she went to see
The Polynesian band
But she came home with her hair all wet
And her clothes all filled with sand
I didn't have to come to Maui
To be treated like a jerk
How do you think I feel
When I see the bellboys smirk?
And I can hear the ukuleles playing
Down by the sea
She's gone with the hula hula boys
She don't care about me
They're signing,
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana...
**
He sings these great lines: "I didn't have to come to Maui to be treated like a jerk; how do you think I feel when I see the bellboys smirk?" in such a plaintive, forlorn manner, you can just see the guy wailing on a Honolulu street corner, with passersby thinking he's crazy. Great stuff.