Date: Mar 29, 1975
Weeks: 1
vs.
Date: June 2, 2001
Weeks: 5
So once again we find the same song on the charts twice. But which version is better?
Patti Labelle is one of the true talents of popular music, to be sure, and this song is an excellent showcase for her talent as the lead singer of the group with her name. Her bold voice grabs your attention even as she sings a whole lot of nonsense. Her backing singers are also very good, keeping the song's base vocals going along while Labelle elaborates.
The music is very engaging, as well. The bass and drum lines in particular are excellent. I also like the synthesized organ all right. It's surreal sound creates a sort of heightened reality that seems appropriate for a song with this much fun lyrical nonsense. The brass section is all right, but it sounds small, and cheap. In fact, a lot of my impression of the music in this song is that it's not living up to the larger-than-life effort Patti Labelle is putting into it.
The lyrics in this version are pretty cleverly written. It's the story of a man who meets a woman, Lady Marmalade, in New Orleans. It's likely, but I guess not certain, that she's a prostitute. Anyway, she rocks his world, and he remembers their night together forever afterward. Then there's a lot of nonsense like "gitchi gitchi ya ya da da," which almost seems like it's only there to serve as cover for them to slip in the part that was the most controversial, and easily the most famous part of the song, "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soi)," which is French for "Do you want to go to bed with me (tonight)?" Such is the song's lasting cultural impact that I've heard many people claim this is the only French they know.
At any rate, the song comes off fairly feminist, at least for the 70s. A woman asserts control of her sexuality in a way that a man is totally unprepared for. Potential prostitution aside, it's practically a declaration of sexual independence.
Which is probably why it got picked up as the song to be remade to promote the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge. And it's hard for the original to compete with this remake, because it's impossible to avoid noticing that the remake has a much, much larger production budget, and it's put to good use.
For one thing, as great as Patti Labelle is, it's hard for her to compete with the sheer amount of talent present here. Christina Aguilera and Pink have several other No. 1 hits and are surely some the greatest vocal talents of the 2000s. Mya is also a very talented singer, although she may not have quite the same resume as those two. And I don't know a lot about Lil' Kim's other work, but I like how she was used here.
The remake's production is clearly guided by the philosophy that bigger is better, which is definitely true for this song. It's a bold song, and the bolder the better. What's bolder than getting three of the most talented singers of the time, adding a rap verse, updating the quality of the synthesized instrumentation, and extending the song just enough to make it bigger without wearing out its welcome?
And they managed to keep the feminist theme intact. They got a woman to do the rap verse, which includes lines like "we independent women, some mistake us for whores." That one line manages to updates the feminism by suggesting that Lady Marmalade isn't a prostitute, she's just a woman who knows what she wants and goes after it.
My verdict: Like it. I like both versions. But I have to give the edge to the 2001 remake. I just like the additional bigness, and the interesting variety of the different singers' voices.
Showing posts with label Pink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pink. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Friday, August 26, 2011
Song #964: "So What" by Pink
Date: Sept 27, 2008
Weeks: 1
Pink is one of those singers that crept up on me. When she first came along, she seemed to be a fairly generic R&B singer and I dismissed her as not being terribly interesting. "Get The Party Started" seemed vaguely catchy but vapid. I liked "Don't Let Me Get Me" a little, but it seemed to be atypical of her work to that point. It wasn't until I heard this song in the Rock Band video game that
I discovered Pink had been making rock music with judicious traces of both Punk and R&B, and that her songs were catchy and fun.
The music is this song is excellent. It's a tightly performed, tightly produced rock song with a big wall of sound, and every part contributes to the whole in an excellent way. The lead guitar riff is excellent and attention-grabbing, and quits during the chorus so that it doesn't get annoying. The drum line is driving and is an absolute blast to clap along to. The chorus uses a synthesizer bass that I enjoy. I sometimes complain about synthesizers in the 80s, but by the late 90s and 2000s pop musicians had figured out how to use the particular timbre of synthesizers to their advantage. There's a higher-pitched, warbling snyth sound in the chorus that risks being superfluous, but it contributes to the intentional chaos of the overall sound
That chaos really seems to be the intent, because the lyrics are all about the anger of getting over an ended relationship. She's declaring that she's going to be fine for all kinds of reasons. "I don't need you." "I'm having more fun." And now she can see that the relationship wasn't that great anyway. "You weren't there. You never were." As many whiny, weepy, denial-based breakup songs as I've reviewed, I'm glad to find one that is the perfect song for the moment you realize that you're actually glad to be out of that relationship.
The vocals in the chorus are the part of the song that is probably the most fun. Rather than singing, Pink practically shouts. I bet this song is an absolute blast to see performed live, with the audience participating in a shout-along at the top of their lungs. In a clever touch, Pink gets to show off her actual vocal abilities by doing her own backup singing in the last chorus. In those backup flourishes, she actually opens up and sings in a way that feels raw and exposed and a bit painful. And I think it's that pain in her voice that gives me the interpretation that despite her brave front, she is a bit hurt by the breakup. I had that idea after listening to the song the first time and when I went back to review the lyrics I couldn't find any support for it. But then I realized it's not in the lyrics, it's in the vocals. Even though she's sure she's better off now, she's still a little hurt over it. And that depth is communicated in the performance rather than the music or the lyrics. And that's an excellent performance that can communicate that.
My verdict: Like it. It was just plain fun the first time I listened to it, and revealed hidden emotional depths after several listens. This song is everything pop music should aspire to be.
Weeks: 1
Pink is one of those singers that crept up on me. When she first came along, she seemed to be a fairly generic R&B singer and I dismissed her as not being terribly interesting. "Get The Party Started" seemed vaguely catchy but vapid. I liked "Don't Let Me Get Me" a little, but it seemed to be atypical of her work to that point. It wasn't until I heard this song in the Rock Band video game that
I discovered Pink had been making rock music with judicious traces of both Punk and R&B, and that her songs were catchy and fun.
The music is this song is excellent. It's a tightly performed, tightly produced rock song with a big wall of sound, and every part contributes to the whole in an excellent way. The lead guitar riff is excellent and attention-grabbing, and quits during the chorus so that it doesn't get annoying. The drum line is driving and is an absolute blast to clap along to. The chorus uses a synthesizer bass that I enjoy. I sometimes complain about synthesizers in the 80s, but by the late 90s and 2000s pop musicians had figured out how to use the particular timbre of synthesizers to their advantage. There's a higher-pitched, warbling snyth sound in the chorus that risks being superfluous, but it contributes to the intentional chaos of the overall sound
That chaos really seems to be the intent, because the lyrics are all about the anger of getting over an ended relationship. She's declaring that she's going to be fine for all kinds of reasons. "I don't need you." "I'm having more fun." And now she can see that the relationship wasn't that great anyway. "You weren't there. You never were." As many whiny, weepy, denial-based breakup songs as I've reviewed, I'm glad to find one that is the perfect song for the moment you realize that you're actually glad to be out of that relationship.
The vocals in the chorus are the part of the song that is probably the most fun. Rather than singing, Pink practically shouts. I bet this song is an absolute blast to see performed live, with the audience participating in a shout-along at the top of their lungs. In a clever touch, Pink gets to show off her actual vocal abilities by doing her own backup singing in the last chorus. In those backup flourishes, she actually opens up and sings in a way that feels raw and exposed and a bit painful. And I think it's that pain in her voice that gives me the interpretation that despite her brave front, she is a bit hurt by the breakup. I had that idea after listening to the song the first time and when I went back to review the lyrics I couldn't find any support for it. But then I realized it's not in the lyrics, it's in the vocals. Even though she's sure she's better off now, she's still a little hurt over it. And that depth is communicated in the performance rather than the music or the lyrics. And that's an excellent performance that can communicate that.
My verdict: Like it. It was just plain fun the first time I listened to it, and revealed hidden emotional depths after several listens. This song is everything pop music should aspire to be.
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