Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion was my very first album purchase! I had it on vinyl.
A few days ago, I ran across a news item about the great rock singer, Pat Benatar. Those of us who have been around awhile, know Pat as a tiny woman with a voice like a freight train traveling at top speed. She's hard to match when it comes to hard driving rock vocals.
In 1980, Pat had a huge hit song called "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". It was a song uniquely suited to her feisty style, and it no doubt made her a lot of money. In fact, my very first album purchase was Crimes of Passion, which was the album that song came from. I listened to it constantly, and that album remains a guilty pleasure.
“Fans are having a heart attack and I’m like, I’m sorry,” Benatar, who is in the middle of a US summer tour, said. “I tell them, if you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it. [The title] is tongue-in-cheek, but you have to draw the line.”
She continued,
“I can’t say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can’t. I’m not going to go on stage and soapbox – I go to my legislators – but that’s my small contribution to protesting,” Benatar said. “I’m not going to sing it. Tough.”
It's funny, because I never really equated that song with actual guns. I always figured it was either about fighting or fucking. It's a tough anthem about fighting back, with a fierce guitar solo by Benatar's husband, Nick Giraldo, and Pat's own powerhouse vocals. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" obviously isn't literally about weapons, but I guess the imagery was too much for her. Or maybe this is her way of getting attention.
Either way, it's her song, and her career, so if she doesn't want to sing that song anymore, so be it. There are plenty of other songs from her decades of performing that she could do. I, for one, am a big fan of the jazz album she did in 1991, True Love. Pat started out as a jazz singer, and frankly, I think she's just as good or even better singing jazzy blues as opposed to rock. A lot of rock stars put out standards albums, but I think Pat's would actually be really good!
Pat is DONE with this song.
I think she should do more songs like this one!
I have not seen Pat Benatar perform live, but I wouldn't pass up tickets to her show because of this issue. I've heard "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" lots of times. I don't think this decision should be that controversial, under the circumstances.
Around this time of year, we trot out our favorite holiday music chestnuts. One song that seems to have fallen out of favor is Frank Loesser's 1944 "hit", "Baby, It's Cold Outside". The song is a call and response duet between a man and a woman.
The woman looks at the time and decides it's time to go. The man tells her she should stay with him, since it's so cold outside. The woman continues to protest as the man pressures her to stay put. Originally, this song was between "wolf" (the man) and "mouse" (the woman). Obviously, there is a big difference in size and strength between a wolf and a mouse. It sounds predatory and, in fact, in nature it would be predatory.
A lot of people think "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a song about date rape and a man not respecting a woman's right to say "no". At the very least, it sounds kind of creepy, at least to people listening in 2017.
Creepy?
I will admit that it's probably not my favorite holiday tune... but was it really meant to be as creepy as it sounds to those of us living in 2017? Well... I think it helps to consider the era when the song was written. In 1944, it wasn't socially acceptable for a woman to stay the night with a man. People were much more concerned about their reputations in terms of propriety. Socially speaking, it would have been appropriate for the woman to protest and try not to stay the night. And the man was being appropriate by being concerned about the woman's health, although we all know what they really wanted to do was shag each other. Indeed, in the 40s, this song was even considered "empowering" to women.
Loesser wrote "Baby, It's Cold Outside" as a duet for himself and his wife. Were he alive today, he'd probably be pretty mortified that some people think it's an anthem about date rape. In 1944, date rape wasn't really a "thing". Women did get date raped, but it wasn't something that people really talked about much. However, if an unmarried couple spent the night together, that would be considered scandalous. So it makes sense that a horny couple would have a conversation like this one. She wants to stay the night. He wants her to stay the night. But in order for that to be "proper", she must make some sort of a protest so that it looks like she stayed out of necessity.
Yeah... I don't know that Louis Armstrong was putting roofies in anyone's cocktails...
Just to keep the theme of this blog relevant to crap from the 70s and 80s, here are Dukes of Hazzard stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider with their version... Love them Duke boys...
This song, despite our modern political correctness and cultural sensitivity, is supposed to be flirtatious, tongue-in-cheek, sexy, and fun. But as our attitudes about sex have changed, so has the interpretation of this classic song, which has been covered by many, many artists and continues to be recorded today. While I am not one to encourage sexual abuse or date rape, I do think some people need to take a chill pill about "Baby, It's Cold Outside".
On the other hand, if it gets people talking about why sexual assault is wrong, maybe that's not a bad thing. And hey, it's even inspired creativity in others. A couple even rewrote the lyrics to emphasize the importance of consent. I am all for things that inspire creativity, even as I recognize that history is also important. And frankly, I'd rather listen to any incarnation of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" than Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime".
