Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/theres-actually-an-interesti.html
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I’ve always enjoyed the song, i wouldn’t say that its necessarily a favorite but whenever it happens to be on i remember how fun it is to sing along to. It is interesting finding out that the guy behind it is trying to perfectly re-create the master, what a pain but good luck to him.
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That’s a real pet peeve of mine with covers. Everyone knows the exact lines you’re “correcting”, so it just comes off like you’ve called the song into your office to reprimand it. If it’s so beneath you, sing something else. Or actually rewrite the lyrics, so it’s a real response. There’s no “cool” in “schoolmarm”. Or are you going to correct me, too, you schoolmarm?.
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I’d not heard of Walk Off the Earth. They sound pretty cool.
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Yeah, if you’re really bothered by mentioning that the Bad Guy in a story carries a gun — which seems like a plausible detail that doesn’t implicitly condone violence! — there are so many other rhymes you could fit in there.
It’s like with “Fairytale of New York.” I understand the criticism of the line; I also understand the choice as a telling character detail in a fictional story. There are also plenty of ways to change it that will still get a similar enough point across. Censoring it just brings more attention to it.
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They did a really great cover of Gotye’s Somebody that I Used To Know that was very popular a long time ago.
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Speaking as a scumbag maggot who is, in fact, a lousy faggot (though I wouldn’t describe myself as “cheap”), I am more bothered by the folk of the mainstream trying to pretend they weren’t all saying that until at least the nineties. If it upsets you that a song you like reminds you of that, well… good.
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Now that’s how you do a quarantine video. Hollywood celebs, take note and shut up.
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The first couple dozen times I heard that song I thought it was sung by a woman or sung from the perspective of a teenage girl. It wasn’t until much later that i realized it was a man and the protagonist supposed to be a boy. Of course, when I did figure it out I felt silly. The radio would have never played the song if a woman was singing it.
I thought it much more interesting as a girl.
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I stumbled on the “Walk Off the Earth” version last year and it has lived on my Covers playlist ever since. I actually like it better because I don’t really care for the vocal affect in the original. I like the triumphant “(pause) Oh, yeah! Dirtbag!” towards the end, and if you’re in the car with me, you must sing along.
Who knew “Loser” was a forgotten teen comedy movie. Without Loser I probably never would have heard this song.
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I couldn’t agree more. Everyone fills in the line themselves in their head, it’s so pointless. However, every now and again comes an exception to the rule; remember Prince’s Sexy Motherfucker? When it was played on UK radio the fucker part was bleeped out and it just sounded great (“Don’t you say that!”)
I bought the record and in its uncensored form it just didn’t have the same impact.
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If you’re looking for more odd covers of this song, Scala’s version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am74hYILMPI certainly qualifies.
Really? My memory of it from UK radio (probably Radio 1) was that they removed the word completely.
(I also have a vivid memory of hearing the uncensored version for the first time at a holiday camp in France around the age of 12, and it did me no fucking harm.)
Mary Lambert had the exact same thought! She tells the story in this video when she covers the song as a mournful piano ballad — really changes it up in an interesting way! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjx6u2vovvI&list=PLag31xE1RR3p_TZ9aHQtlSNZHjPp7mJ-P&index=10
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I always interpreted it from the point of view of a boy but yesterday while watching covers i thought to myself that the song would be immensely improved in my mind if the people involved were of the same sex (boy or girl works for me).
The phrase teenage dirtbag also strikes me as a weird choice. Why dirtbag? my association with the word is that a dirtbag isn’t a loser but someone that is an asshole. It works in the context of the song still but i find it a curious choice of words.
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Read the article. All is explained.
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