(August 10, 2023). In light of all the memes, pictures and posts of folding chairs spreading throughout social media these days, I thought it might surprise folks just how many songs about chairs—even folding chairs—there are.
And while the events that gave rise to this latest social media viral trend were unfortunate, they highlight how an everyday inanimate object—in this case, the folding chair—can become a symbol of resistance and protection, as well as, when taken to a brutal and unfortunate extreme, pent-up violence and aggression…particularly when tensions are high and peaceful solutions to our problems elude us.
Be that as it may, the folding chair is definitely a hit in August 2023 (for all the wrong reasons, maybe, but a hit nonetheless).
There’s a statement in the Bible that reads, “No weapon that is formed against Thee shall prosper” (Isaiah 54:17).
Well, the folding chair has prospered big time this week, and it is in that spirit that the blog takes a lighthearted look at about a dozen songs related to this new favorite piece of furniture and its intended use (or non-use in some tunes’ cases).
There are big chairs, blue chairs, easy chairs, electric chairs, rockin’ chairs, angry chairs and, yes, even folding chairs in songs…but no angry folding chairs of the type that have gone viral this week…at least none that the blog found in our extensive research. (Folks, there are literally dozens of songs simply titled “Folding Chairs” by the likes of artists like Regina Spektor, Spicy Castle, Street Sity Surf, Sleeping Loops, Time Relapse, Cum Tribe, Prophecy Villain Jay, and many others.)
In the interest of not being too on-the-nose and for the sake of brevity, I’ve only included one “folding chair” song and a host of other “chair” tunes in the below roundup.
Check out the following list of “chair” hits—some titular, some not (but all with chairs embedded in their lyrics, nonetheless). They’re listed in no particular order.
“The Chair” – George Strait.
“Excuse me, but I think you’ve got my chair…”. That’s how country legend George Strait begins his 1985 No. 1 single that basically serves as one side of a conversation between George’s protagonist and the woman he spots seated at a bar, whom he courts with that come-on line. It works, because by the end of the night, she allows him to drive her home, whereupon he admits to her: “oh, I like you too, and to tell you the truth…that wasn’t my chair after all.”
“Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” – Beatles.
This Beatles classic from 1965’s Rubber Soul isn’t so much about a chair as it is about a house without one. John Lennon (wrote and) sang: “She asked me to stay, and she told me to sit anywhere. So I looked around and I noticed there wasn’t a chair.” The “she” in this case was a woman Lennon was having an affair with during his first marriage (to Cynthia). The “Norwegian Wood” was those pine wood wall panels that were so prevalent in the 1960s and ‘70s. The “fire” Lennon sings about lighting during the last verse is a reference to burning down the place, likely because it didn’t have a chair to sit on.
“Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” (from Les Misérables) – Michael Ball.
An empty chair is a poignant symbol of loss and serves as a memory of someone dear who is no longer there. So when Michael Ball sang “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” for the 1985 Cast Recording of the London production of Les Misérables, he was singing about the pain of losing his friends who were killed at the barricade (if you’ve seen any of the show’s productions, you’ll understand the context…I had to read about it, admittedly).
“I Am I Said” – Neil Diamond.
Speaking of empty chairs, Neil Diamond likely had deeper meaning behind his reference to one in his 1971 top-five hit “I Am…I Said.” But a humorist named Dave Barry had this to say about it in his Book of Bad Songs: “Consider the song ‘I Am, I Said,’ wherein Neil, with great emotion, sings: ‘I am, I said, to no one there. And no one heard at all, not even the chair.’ What kind of line is that? Is Neil telling us he’s surprised that the chair didn’t hear him? Maybe he expected the chair to say, ‘Whoa, I heard that!’ My guess is that Neil was really desperate to come up with something to rhyme with ‘there’ and he had already rejected ‘So I ate a pear,’…”. No, Dave, it’s Neil effing Diamond we’re talking about here. The song had deeper, existential meaning than that. Trust me. (Thanks, Albert N. for this one!)
“Love Theme from ‘A Star Is Born’ (Evergreen)” – Barbra Streisand.
“Love…ssssssoft as an easy chair; love…fresh as the morning air.” That’s how Babs began this No. 1 classic ballad from the soundtrack to the third iteration of the film A Star Is Born (1976), co-starring Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. Okay, for this one I Googled “easy chair” to find out what kind of chair that actually was. Basically, it’s a term that’s not so en vogue today, but Merriam-Webster defines it as a “roomy, upholstered chair.”
“A House Is Not A Home” – Luther Vandross.
Most people know that Dionne Warwick’s version of “A House Is Not A Home” came first, but the late crooner Luther Vandross made this Burt Bacharach/Hal David-penned classic his own. And Luther’s opening premise was this: “a chair is still a chair, even when there’s no one sitting there.” Unless it’s being used to clock someone…then it becomes something else altogether!
“Folding Chair” – Regina Spektor.
Russian-born Regina Spektor has the title truest to the current spectacle that is the folding chair, with a poppy number from 2009’s album Far, which also contained other run-of-the-mill song titles like “Wallet,” “Machine” and “Two Birds.” ELO’s Jeff Lynne produced this song, which opens with the line “Come an open up your folding chair next to me,” before Spector continues her musical invitation to a would-be romantic partner with references to sitting on a beach and her surprising barking dolphin imitation about two-thirds of the way into the song.
“Angry Chair” – Alice In Chains.
From this venerable rock group’s 1992 album Dirt came this grunge classic penned solely by the late lead vocalist Layne Staley, which deals with his well-known substance abuse and addiction, particularly to heroin. The opening reference to “Angry Chair” (followed by “angry walls”) is metaphorical in nature and designed to set the extremely dark mood the song conveys throughout. Staley would succumb to his addiction nearly ten years (April 2002) after the song’s release.
“Rockin’ Chair” – Gwen McCrae.
The wife of George “Rock Your Baby” McCrae followed up his 1974 No. 1 smash (reportedly the biggest-selling single of the 1970s) with this quasi-response in 1975, with Gwen serving as the metaphorical “Rockin’ Chair,” where her “good-lovin’ daddy,” George, could “just rock me away from here.” It reached a respectable No. 9 on the pop charts and No. 1 soul (with hubby George recreating a variation of the famous “ahh-awwww” he used in his No. 1 smash as the backing refrain for “Chair”).
“It’s My House” – Diana Ross.
From her 1979 hit album The Boss came this soft R&B/dance nugget that offered Diana’s greatest assertion of her ownership of that title, with lyrics like “It’s my house, and I live here” and “you gotta follow the rules to get me.” But what gets this Ashford & Simpson-penned/produced song on this list is Ms. Ross’ matter-of-fact descriptions of the house’s furnishings, including this first-verse line: “there’s my chair, I put it there.” With how sweetly she sang them, one couldn’t help but wonder whether these lyrics were meant to be assertive or simply illustrative.
“Old Blue Chair” – Kenny Chesney.
This poignant ballad by country superstar Chesney about a chair that’s seen him through some of life’s major moments is contained as the final track on his 2004 album When The Sun Goes Down AND as the opening track on his next album, Be As You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair) in 2005. With both albums hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (Chesney’s had nine No. 1 LPs on that list, making him the country singer with the most in that chart’s history), “Old Blue Chair” may very well be the only unaltered song to appear on two consecutive No. 1 studio albums by any artist.
“Electric Chair” – Prince.
The late Prince created this funky, guitar-driven number for the soundtrack to the Batman movie in 1989. Even as a non-hit (the song was not one of the four singles released from the album, nor was it actually used in the movie), it’s probably the most famous “Electric Chair” in rock and roll. Its refrain, “if a man is considered guilty for what goes on in his mind, then give me the electric chair for all my future crimes” is vintage Prince—raw, carnal and downright funky.
“I Wanna Get Next To You” – Rose Royce.
This classic soul ballad by Rose Royce, written and produced by the legendary Norman Whitfield, soundtracked two romantic moments in two separate Black comedy motion pictures two decades apart: 1976’s Car Wash, starring Richard Pryor, and 1995’s Friday, starring Ice Cube. The song opens with the line: “sitting here, in this chair…waiting on you…oh, baby to see things my way.” And with that, the chair again becomes a contemplative piece of furniture where a man can bide his time while thinking of the one he loves.
“Rockin’ Chair” – The Band.
In honor of the late Robbie Robertson, who died earlier Wednesday (Aug. 9) at age 80 after a long illness, here’s The Band’s ergonomic entry on this list. Robertson wrote this song in his mid-20s from the perspective of a protagonist in his early 70s persuading a fellow old seafarer to resign to a life of retirement and “that big rockin’ chair (that) won’t go nowhere.” This “Rockin’ Chair” serves as a great way to end this list.
R.I.P. Robbie Robertson (1943-2023).
Can you think of others? Feel free to comment below or provide them in any of the social media feeds where this article is posted.
#TheChairIsUniversal
DJRob
DJRob (he/him/his), who doesn’t condone chair violence except in self-defense, is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, pop, rock and (sometimes) country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Twitter at @djrobblog and on Meta’s Threads.
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