{"id":3032,"date":"2011-07-10T23:32:34","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T04:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=3032"},"modified":"2011-07-10T23:33:24","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T04:33:24","slug":"for-those-who-are-not-rocking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=3032","title":{"rendered":"For those who are not rocking"},"content":{"rendered":"

A return to rock'n'roll and logic blogging. AC\/DC's "For Those About to Rock" has some trouble (Video<\/a>, Lyrics<\/a>).  The crucial line is the familiar:<\/p>\n

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For those about to rock, we salute you<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, I'm inclined to say that those who are about to X are not currently X-ing.<\/strong>  If you're about to run, you're not running.  If you are about to sneeze, you are not currently sneezing.  If you are about to type, you are not right now typing.  And so on.<\/p>\n

Trouble is, the line occurs in the midst of an AC\/DC song.  We, then, have an interpretive dilemma.  On the one hand, the song is addressed to those currently listening to the song.  That means that those people listening to the song are not rocking<\/em>.  And that means that the song is not rocking them.  This seems a bad thing for AC\/DC to concede, especially in the middle of the song.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, perhaps the song is not addressed to those listening to the song, but someone else, not listening to the song<\/em>. Someone who is currently not rocking, but, perhaps, would like to rock and who, again perhaps unwittingly, is in fact about rock.  Trouble is, it certainly seems that the salute would mean that, well, those folks are<\/em> listening to the song — else they wouldn't know that the guns going off are a salute, but rather a bombardment.  And then we're back to the first option.<\/p>\n

Questions: Are AC\/DC saluting people who are not rocking? (It seems so, if they are saluting people who are about to <\/em>rock.)  If the people are not rocking and are currently listening to their song, "For those about to rock," what does that say about what AC\/DC thinks about that song? (Maybe: you aren't rocking to this<\/em> song, but wait until "Thunderstruck<\/a>"!  We salute you for waiting patiently. Boom!<\/strong>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A return to rock'n'roll and logic blogging. AC\/DC's "For Those About to Rock" has some trouble (Video, Lyrics).  The crucial line is the familiar: For those about to rock, we salute you Now, I'm inclined to say that those who are about to X are not currently X-ing.  If you're about to run, you're not … Continue reading For those who are not rocking<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3032"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3035,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions\/3035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}