Background and Writing
The basic concept of the song is the global obsession with fame and the way that celebrities are not appreciative of how fortunate they are.
The song has references to a number of celebrities within the lyrics. Johnnie Cochran, a famous attorney who represented (amongst others) stars such as O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown. He is mentioned in the lines "Well did you know when you're famous you could kill your wife/ and there's no such thing as 25 to life/ as long as you got the cash to pay for Cochran". A former mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry – who was convicted on drug charges – is also mentioned in the lyrics: "and did you know if you were caught and you were smokin' crack/ McDonald's wouldn't even wanna take you back/ you could always just run for mayor of D.C."
Read more about this topic: Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous (song)
Famous quotes containing the words background and/or writing:
“Pilate with his question What is truth? is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)
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—M.F.K. Fisher (b. 1908)