Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio
"Fuck You" by Cee-Lo
Radio stations have no balls.
Television stations have no balls.
They're so worried about offending 1% of the population that they're willing to alienate the other 99%.
I mean, the vast majority of people won't care if someone says a "bad word" on the radio or TV. It's just people who either:
a) believe they know better than the rest of the world what is "good" and "proper" and so they seek to ensure all such expression is removed from public consumption
2) people who don't want to bother raising their own children and teach them about shit like this so they always seek a State-sponsored solution (this option is also called the "think of the children" option)
or
III) people who don't want to deal with their own shit, so they devote their focus on the outside world, wanting to "make the world a better place". (This option also encompasses the previous two)
...who want to see songs like this, ideas like this, and words like this removed from public discourse.
And why are words "bad" anyway? The only thing bad about Carlin's "seven dirties" are their reputation. As far as I know, nobody has died, or even been injured, directly by the utterance of any word, let alone one of these.
In fact, I would wager that's why "Fuck You" is so popular: because it uses a "bad word". If such words weren't given the "bad boy" image and reputation that they've been given over the millennia, this song, although it is still amazing in its own right, would not be nearly as beloved as it is.
Okay, rant over. The song: it hearkens back to old school Motown in all the right ways. Cee-Lo's vocals carry the song all the way through, and the angry vocal breaks just punctuate it perfectly.
The lyrics, even in the "clean version" - which doesn't have the same impact. As much as I hate to agree with Dane Cook, "Fuck" is the ultimate insult, complete with the "Fff", the "Uhh", and the "CK". "Forget" just falls flat, imo. But anyway - are nice and filling, but there is one small issue with it that I must address:
In the chorus, he's singing to the guy who stole his girl. "I see you drivin' 'round town with the girl I love...". But in the verses, he's talking to the girl herself. "I said Baby, I'm sorry, I can't afford a Ferrari...". Hell, he even switches subjects in the middle of the chorus "I said if I was richer, I'd still be wit'cha..."
I'm of the mind that you should pick a subject and run with it. Shifting back and forth like that takes me out of the song a bit. I mean, I think this song would be improved greatly by changing the parts singing to the guy and shift it so that it's all about cussing out the girl. Something like,
"I see you drivin' 'round town with another man, and I'm like "Fuck you!"
I guess my style and my money weren't in yo' plans; I'm like "Fuck you and fuck him too!""
See? Simple change, keeps you into the song.
But, then, who am I to second-guess Cee-Lo? Regardless of that one issue, it's still an amazing song that you'll never hear on the radio as it was intended.
And that, my friends, is a shame.
