Legend’s woke new track will change nothing
If the likes of John Legend want to re-make pop’s back catalogue with woke new versions of problematic old hits, it will take him forever and accomplish nothing, writes Kathy McCabe.
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No, John Legend, just no.
The Grammy-winning artist has rewritten the problematic lyrics of 1940s song Baby It’s Cold Outside for an expanded version of his A Legendary Christmas in time for the annual avalanche of silly season soundtracks.
The song was banned by some American radio stations last year because the exchange between a man trying to convince his date to stay the night instead of trudging into the cold, snowy night are tough to hear in the #metoo era.
Written as a call and response between the pair, the woman’s lyric “Say what’s in this drink?” is answered by the man with “No cabs to be had out there”.
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In the “reimagined version” co-written by Legend and comedian Natasha Rothwell of the hit HBO series Insecure, the “gentleman” answers with “It’s your body and your choice”.
The new version features a “modern and irreverent” stanza – as described by a press release announcing the revamp.
I really can’t stay (BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE)
I’ve gotta go away (I CAN CALL YOU A RIDE.)
This evening has been (SO GLAD THAT YOU DROPPED IN)
So very nice (TIME SPENT WITH YOU IS PARADISE)
My mother will start to worry (I’LL CALL A CAR AND TELL ‘EM TO HURRY)
In the original, the woman tells the man she needs to get the hell out of there about 10 times and commentators now cite the scene it describes as potentially date rape with the aid of a spiked drink.
Legend trades his rewritten lyrics with pop star and talk show host Kelly Clarkson and their duet is sure to rekindle the debate about pop political correctness which exploded last year in the wake of the radio station bans.
On one side are those who believe the song and its lyrics are of their time and should just be left alone. On the other are many who have long protested about the sinister scenario the narrative describes and how it is unsuitable now when listened to with an awareness of rape culture.
The 2013 global smash hit Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and rapper T.I., and its sexist lyrics proved to be the watershed moment when songwriters and artists were forced to reckon with the dodgy messages in their music.
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The Blurred Lines scandal erupted because the song sought to blur the lines around sexual consent, bringing pop’s murky and controversial relationship with gender equality into the spotlight.
Williams recently admitted in a GQ interview he was now “embarrassed” by the vexatious line “You know you want it” after originally not accepting the backlash around the song.
“I realised that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn’t matter that that’s not my behaviour,” he said.
“It just matters how it affects women.
“My mind opened up to what was actually being said in the song and how it could make someone feel.”
Williams went on to say he wouldn’t feel comfortable performing some of his earlier works because of how the lyrics relate to women.
And this is the approach Legend and Clarkson should have taken to recording Baby It’s Cold Outside in 2019. Just don’t sing it.
There are literally hundreds of other festive season songs he could have recorded for the reissue of his Christmas album.
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And Baby It’s Cold Outside isn’t even a Christmas song – it doesn’t reference the holidays or any related word at all in the lyrics. Just that the man wants to coerce his date into spending the night at his place despite her repeated protestations she wants to go home.
To rinse pop songs through the historic revisionism cycle would take decades. And would not change the attitudes of those who wrote them all those years ago or the fans who still play them and have no intentions of cancelling the artist or the track.
Every gangsta rap song would have to remove all those “hos” and “bitches” and all homophobic references; all those many, many words which jarred sensibilities for how they depicted women and the LGBT community when they were first aired in the ’80s and still sound offensive.
Ditto for dozens of ’70s rock hits.
The consumption of any art form is entirely subjective and you can simply choose to not listen or watch by switching the channel or pressing forward on your playlist.
To not listen is the most effective way of making artists think about the message in their music because if the audience is turning off, they aren’t getting royalties or selling tickets.
Fans are also quick to voice their disapproval directly via social media as the cyber-savvy Legend is well aware.
Legend is going to find out the hard way that attempting to repackage an old album with a woke new version of a song isn’t going to fix rape culture or inequality in pop music.
Kathy McCabe is News Corp’s National Music Writer.
Originally published as Legend’s woke new track will change nothing