This week, pop songwriter and producer Evan “Kidd” Bogart revealed a secret hiding in plain sight on Rihanna's 2006 hit “SOS”: “The whole second verse of that song is '80s song titles put together as sentences,” he said in a viral interview clip that mapped out the references line by line. Mk.gee's new single “Rockman” is like that, except Michael Gordon has his sights set on the great, flamboyant entertainers of classic rock. Over a wandering riff with more than a whisper of Blue Öyster Cult, he references Bruce Springsteen (“I want it on fire”), Michael Hutchence (“I need you tonight”) and, in the title track, Sir Elton John.
Alongside these lyrical subliminals, you might catch other sly jokes—like the gun pointed at a padded pedal in the single artwork, or the screeching of the eagle soaring over the mix. How does all this irony and interjection manage to sound so sincere? Gordon's angelic, layered harmonies certainly help, but really, this man just seems to love the idea of being a rock star. Show him a genre with a history of macho indulgence and he'll close his show by playing the same song 12 times in a row. He pokes fun at his rock'n'roll idols as only someone who loves them can.
