kim mitchell was initially the guitarist for a somewhat obscure weirdo canadiana act called max webster, but by the late 80s had became a homegrown canadian aor guitar hero, known mostly for his sort of tongue-in-cheek, post-modern take on guitar rock - very much in the wayne's world tradition, and there have been longstanding murmurs wondering if there's some connection. i was pretty young. maybe it was just a canadian thing, to not take rock music seriously, when so much of the rest of the world was absurdly absorbed in it. but, whatever the truth, kim mitchell became known for these idiosyncratically weird rock songs about writing rock songs, most of which sounded pretty much identical to each other.
as an adult, i recognize the rather vicious goethe reference:
q: what is this?
a: this is a rock song!
q: what am i?
a: we are rock and rockrolling!
q: where are we?
a: we are in rockland wonderland!
(those lyrics are actually for the follow-up single, not this one, but they're basically the same song. kim mitchell only has one song.)
it's all very silly, and very intentionally so - and it was massively popular in canada.
