Lyrics for Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa as interpreted by carlitalolitax

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa Lyrics
As a young girl, Louis Vuitton
With your mother, on the sandy lawn
As a sophomore, with reggaeton
And the linens you're sittin' on

Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want to fuck?
Like you know I do
Like you know I do

This feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too
Feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel

Can you stay up to see the dawn?
In the colors of Benetton

Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want ta?
Like you know I do
Like you know I do

It feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too
Feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel

Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want ta?
Like you know I do
Like you know I do

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  • 62 Comments
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idiggplants
07-24-2007

Rated 0 
man i was way off on these lyrics. i think this is the catchiest ive heard by them.. surprised there arent any comments on it yet... c'mon folks!!

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rockstermonkey
09-16-2007

Rated 0 
yeah I'm not sure what he is saying either, but I love the peter gabriel references. it's such a fun song, definitely one of their catchiest.

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mybodyisacage
12-19-2007

Rated 0 
It's about banging.

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ap0theosize
01-06-2008

Rated +1 
it is definitely about banging but is the most intelligent song about banging that i have ever heard.

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fgevilmonkey
01-08-2008

Rated 0 
Seems to be about sleeping with a girl you wouldn't normally be with.

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gravity_is_not
01-28-2008

Rated 0 
I believe the Peter Gabriel line is referencing the album "II" by the man himself.

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chickenflicker
02-02-2008

Rated +3 
Makes me want to take off my pants and rub applesauce on my crotch.

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1 Reply
Mr.Me
02-08-2008

Rated +7 
Let's break it down:

Title: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Cape Cod is a summer town in Massachusetts. Suggests wealth, relaxation, privilege
Kwassa Kwassa is an African dance rhythm that was popular in the 80s. Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon were fond of using it in their music. More recently, Vampire Weekend used it in this song.

Elements: linen, made beds, sweaters on, United colors of Benetton, Louis Vuitton, awkward yet bold proposal for sex, unnatural feeling

Themes: Hints of of affluent, late 80s girl who is relatively sheltered, Late 80's era music

Analysis: This is a portrait of sheltered young people, probably in Cape Cod. The themes here make the whole narrative feel rather like a J. Crew catalog: Bright, name-branded, anesthetized. Chorus brings these elements to the fore ( "is your bed made?") right before "do you want to fuck?" This is intended to be an inversion. The contradictory nature of the chorus is strengthened by "feels so unnatural..."; even so, there is a curiosity on the part of the singer. He is highly inquisitive and analytical, asking various questions and analyzing the feel of the situation instead of diving right into it.
It would appear that that VW invoke Peter Gabriel and United Colors of Benetton to create a tone of pseudo-cultural awareness in a relatively shelter milieu (as well as background: it's the late 80s, Peter Gabriel is huge, Benetton ads are everywhere, making people feel as though they can buy multiculturalism at a shopping mall). This is not the point, however: A Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa refers to a rhythm, the kwassa kwassa rhythm as interpreted by Cape Cod.
The point: VW seem to be discussing the sheltered, somewhat pampered, wholly neutered existence of this young couple. There is a curiosity and interest in the world around them, but their various luxuries are a hiderance to the growth of their consciousnesses. Well intentioned though they are, their forays are clumsy, obvious, and ill-conceived. So who are these young people? Kids today? VW listeners? People VW knew earlier in life? Your guess is as good as mine.

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3 Replies
Damon Rutherford
02-10-2008

Rated 0 
A+ analysis. A+ song.

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noyes
02-12-2008

Rated 0 
i like how you didn't even touch "Reggaeton" on your analysis Mr. Me.
not big on Latino music genres i see. haha.

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fakeaheartattack
02-17-2008

Rated 0 
just fuckin great!

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GreenEyedOptimist
02-21-2008

Rated +2 
I am LOVING this song. Even to a thirty-something with 2 kids, for whom college is a distant (yet fond!) memory, this song rocks. I would like to offer my analysis of the lyrics, mostly because my husband (who doesn’t have the same taste in music) told me that he doesn’t “get” it. I think I’ve deciphered it:

This song is about a college couple/hook-up, one sophomore from Cape Cod and her “reggaeton” partner/boyfriend, potentially from (at least in his mind) the proverbial wrong side of the tracks. The title itself gives me a chuckle because it forecasts the contrast between the two characters- Cape Cod couldn’t be any further away, culturally or geographically, from the Congo, the geocenter of Kwassa Kwassa music. And the “reggaeton” boyfriend fancies himself to be worldly in contrast to the Cape Cod-raised, preppy girl; through the lyrics he expresses slight disdain for her designer-conscious, buttoned-up and sheltered upbringing (apparently even the quality of her college bed linens is notable to him). But, despite the differences in their backgrounds (and even though in his head, his attraction to her “feels so unnatural”), he wants to bang her anyway! And as for the mention of Peter Gabriel, to me it’s a direct reference to the movie Say Anything where the protagonist (John Cusak, playing a high school guy from the “wrong side of the tracks”) plays the Peter Gabriel song “In Your Eyes” on his boom box to serenade to his white-bread, preppy love interest (Ione Skye). Aaaah, college. It’s the first time that many of us have the opportunity to meet, and screw, people from completely different backgrounds. Love it!

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1 Reply
minderella
02-23-2008

Rated 0 
My first time on the site and I just got chills reading other peoples comments - WHAT BRILLIANT ANALYSIS!! I did't even know people got it like I get it. It's weird how green eyed optimist and mr me see the same kinds of things i see in my head...
LOVE THIS SITE!!!

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kittenchowmein
02-28-2008

Rated +1 
"Feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel"
I think this song is about having an orgy with peter gabriel, and coming to terms with being the catcher to his pitcher.

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mybodyisacage
03-02-2008

Rated 0 
marry me, chickenflicker?

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green vii
03-08-2008

Rated 0 
I can't elaborate too much on this idea, maybe it's unfounded, but i think a lot of the song focuses (other than the aforementioned banging!) on conflicts between things, e.g:

- a lot of vampire weekend songs are populated by liberal lefty collegiate types. this is at odds with the Louis Vuitton clothing/accesories, who were embroiled with Nazi Germany and took advantage of the situation to make money.
- the idea of listening to reggaeton while lying on the linens which were probably produced cheaply and advantageously in the country where the reggaeton is prominent.


....maybe.

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green vii
03-08-2008

Rated 0 
OH, and also, i think "it's so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too" refers to the appropriation of music from other cultures into western music and the moral dilemmas that this kind of presents.

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MuisicallyJenny
03-13-2008

Rated 0 
I think this song is not about fucking.
I think it's about a sheltered girl who
is tired of being oppressed by her family.

Like where the song says
-Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?,
it's refering to the girl constantly being
looked after.

I adore the drums in the tune, there're funky.
Vm is amazing!
:D

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1 Reply
taylorsaurus rex
03-21-2008

Rated 0 
Not much to say that hasn't already been said, I suppose.
I just downloaded this song an hour ago and I've listened to it about ten times already, hahah. It's superb. I like the slow beat of it with the African-y drum.

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caitlennon
03-24-2008

Rated 0 
This song is inhumanly awesome. Love the drums. When i first heard it i thought he said "as a sophomore with her red guitar" instead of "As a sophomore, with reggaeton" and i felt awesome for a while cause i have a red guitar...but its still awesome.

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weretheremorethan24
04-06-2008

Rated 0 
Mr. Me,
you're a genius. I read these lyrics and loved the references to Benneton and Peter Gabriel. After some research I got the meaning of the song but the way you broke down the actual musical style as both Cape Codian and a Kwassa Kwassa was brilliant and lends me a new level of appreciation for this song.

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nursejen
04-08-2008

Rated 0 
A "loser" talking to a rich girl. Loser is trying to sleep with rich girl. It's summer vacation. He's being a bit condescending to her: "is your bed made?" , references to the expensive clothes and linens and luggage... Also references to music.
He knows she's better than all that rich shit, just egging her on until she gives in and f***s him.

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janitorwonderful
04-12-2008

Rated 0 
in the liner notes, they dont say "do you want to fuck" it just says "do you want to" soo this is incorrect here

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The-Felinial-Friend
05-06-2008

Rated -2 
I didn't really think it was about sex. I thought it was about a young girl, possibly junior in high school with her mom at a beach early in the morning watching the sunrise while eating reggaeton, which is a pasta, if you didn't know.

The part about "is your bed made? Sweater on? Do you want to? You know I do.." stuff made me think about what the mom told the daughter right before they left. Did you make your bed before you left? did you get your sweater? Its gonna be cold outside. Do you still want to go out there this early? Its cold and pretty early? The daughter responds: of course I do, I love it! And then, her buddy, Peter Gabriel comes... so...

But that s what I thought. I thought at first sex, but None of their other songs seem to be about that...

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1 Reply
Jocie
05-06-2008

Rated 0 
Haha, well I was immediately drawn to this song because I've lived on Cape Cod my whole life, and so I could understand some of the things they are saying in the lyrics like "is your sweater on, is you bed made, who do you want to fuck"

some parts of the cape are like every other part of the country, but some parts are VERY snooty, and that's where those lyrics come from for sure. "who do you want to fuck?" honestly, there's NOTHING to do here, a lot of girls are sluts (especially the preppy ones) and people just have sex because there's really nothing else to do, and there's plenty of beaches to get away with it on.

after reading the posts about what kwassa kwassa is, I was a little surprised because I didn't know it actually had a meaning. There are a lot of towns, lakes, streets, buldings etc with Native American names like "Wequaquet" and "Wequassett" to name two, and I thought they were just making fun of the names, which I found really amusing :)

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