I thought of Britney Spears today. Which is a first in about ten years. Which was occasioned by my daughter mentioning last night that she actually likes Justin Bieber now, that his new album is really good, there are a few songs on it that are really good, which she played for me and I agreed were pretty good and different for Justin and Justin Bieber and Britney Spears being associated in my mind as teenie boppers who drove me nuts! So I listened to "Oops! I did it again," which I thought was "I'm not so innocent"-Oh, I know what you're thinking, Yes, you are don't lie to me yesyouare!-and remembered what a wonderful tune that is.
I confess! I
confess,
that the first time I saw the video I was working out at the home of the unfortunate second ex-Mrs. Harris, two things I no longer do, and was in fact thrown into paroxysms of desire. I remember, in fact, that the song was introduced with the words, something like, "And now, every teenage boy's wet dream." Ms. Spears was adorable as a 19 year old and of course the lyrics...But it was the beat of the song, punctuated by periodic heart-attack thump instrumentals and the backing vocals that made the song...it was addictive is what it was, it was like an injection of some testosterone-opium mix.
I cannot keep to a beat, I cannot move my body that way, I cannot dance in other words, but I could move to that beat, I hardly could not.
What I had not remembered, memory obliterated by red paint body suit, was how insipid young Britney's voice was, how insufferable it was, Oh Britney forgive me!, how not even the red body suit could have delivered me from homicidal ideation if it was only Britney's voice on that soundtrack.
But it wasn't. And I was delivered. There were other voices, those backing vocals, adult women voices, uninfluenced by breathing helium or chewing bubblegum, that put the heart into the heart attack thump.
I was addicted. I looked it up on Wikipedia to see who the song writers were, I forget now who, I listened to it sans red body suit, a YouTube version with just the lyrics scrolling that only served to emphasize Britney's lone voice in the beginning and was starting to get to me, I searched for a version done by another artist, there was one by a woman seated on a stool playing the guitar...? That did not compute. You cannot perform that song as Joni Mitchell or something, I found an instrumentals only version. No. It doesn't work with no voices it has to have voices. So I listened to the Britney version, yes, again. Oops.*
*UPDATED: Unbelievable. I found a version with only the original backing vocals and instrumentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCSwqzhuf00. This is a good year so far.
**UPDATED UPDATE: The writers and producers were Max Martin nee Martin Karl Sandberg, Max take a bow,
thank you, Max is Swedish.
And Rami Yacoub, رامي يعقوب. Rami, big hand for Rami,
Rami is Palestinian Swedish.
The background vocals which save the whole shebang are by one woman, so background vocal, Nana Hedin aka Na Na akaaka Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye, no I'm just kidding, aka Nana d'Aquini, also Swedish.Big...
...Generous, enthusiastic round of applause for Nana.
Three Swedes and a half Palestinian, is this a great country or what.
I confess! I
confess,
that the first time I saw the video I was working out at the home of the unfortunate second ex-Mrs. Harris, two things I no longer do, and was in fact thrown into paroxysms of desire. I remember, in fact, that the song was introduced with the words, something like, "And now, every teenage boy's wet dream." Ms. Spears was adorable as a 19 year old and of course the lyrics...But it was the beat of the song, punctuated by periodic heart-attack thump instrumentals and the backing vocals that made the song...it was addictive is what it was, it was like an injection of some testosterone-opium mix.
I cannot keep to a beat, I cannot move my body that way, I cannot dance in other words, but I could move to that beat, I hardly could not.
What I had not remembered, memory obliterated by red paint body suit, was how insipid young Britney's voice was, how insufferable it was, Oh Britney forgive me!, how not even the red body suit could have delivered me from homicidal ideation if it was only Britney's voice on that soundtrack.
But it wasn't. And I was delivered. There were other voices, those backing vocals, adult women voices, uninfluenced by breathing helium or chewing bubblegum, that put the heart into the heart attack thump.
I was addicted. I looked it up on Wikipedia to see who the song writers were, I forget now who, I listened to it sans red body suit, a YouTube version with just the lyrics scrolling that only served to emphasize Britney's lone voice in the beginning and was starting to get to me, I searched for a version done by another artist, there was one by a woman seated on a stool playing the guitar...? That did not compute. You cannot perform that song as Joni Mitchell or something, I found an instrumentals only version. No. It doesn't work with no voices it has to have voices. So I listened to the Britney version, yes, again. Oops.*
*UPDATED: Unbelievable. I found a version with only the original backing vocals and instrumentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCSwqzhuf00. This is a good year so far.
**UPDATED UPDATE: The writers and producers were Max Martin nee Martin Karl Sandberg, Max take a bow,
thank you, Max is Swedish.
And Rami Yacoub, رامي يعقوب. Rami, big hand for Rami,
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Rami is Palestinian Swedish.
The background vocals which save the whole shebang are by one woman, so background vocal, Nana Hedin aka Na Na akaaka Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye, no I'm just kidding, aka Nana d'Aquini, also Swedish.
...Generous, enthusiastic round of applause for Nana.
Three Swedes and a half Palestinian, is this a great country or what.
