One, two, three, uh![1]If I learned nothing else of value from all my years as an English major–and there are days when I think this is the only thing of value I learned–it’s to always pay attention to … Continue reading
My baby don’t mess around
Because she loves me so, and this I know for sure (uh)[2]We’ve written about this before on Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 smash-hit “Born in the USA“, a passionate condemnation of the betrayals of the American dream that still gets … Continue reading
But does she really wanna
But can’t stand to see me walk out the door? (Ah)[3]Since the occasional YSA dance was the only place where I would ever hear this track (I had quit listening to Pop radio out of sheer boredom by then), it took me years–years–to finally … Continue reading
Don’t try to fight the feeling[4]Case in point: this line here about not fighting the feeling is a typical Pop-music cliché, about not fighting the feeling of love in particular or what have you–which is doubtless how it was … Continue reading
‘Cause the thought alone is killing me right now (uh)
Thank God for Mom and Dad[5]Another clever reversal: he thanks his parents for modeling what a healthy relationship looks like (as we are especially taught to venerate within the Church), only to then immediately acknowledge he … Continue reading
For sticking two together, ’cause we don’t know how (c’mon)
Hey ya! Hey ya!
Hey ya! Hey ya!
Hey ya! Hey ya!
Hey ya! Hey ya![6]The absolute chutzpah of Andre 3000 to give this devastating break-up song–one that even seemed to presage Outkast’s own imminent dissolution at the height of their popularity–the … Continue reading
You think you’ve got it
Oh, you think you’ve got it[7]Another fascinating trope reversal: The pump-up lyric here–so ubiquitous in most Hip-Hop anthems–turns out to be a humiliating admission of defeat in the very next line.
But “got it” just don’t get it ’til there’s nothing at all (ah)
We get together
Oh, we get together
But separate’s always better when there’s feelings involved (ah)[8]Again, here is a line about getting together–another standard Pop song trope–that also gets immediately reversed by the very next line. Andre 3000 is constantly violating expectations, … Continue reading
If what they say is, “Nothing is forever”
Then what makes, then what makes
Then what makes, then what makes
Then what makes love the exception?[9]Both 1 Corinthians 13 and Moroni 7 assure us that all things must fail, except charity, the pure love of Christ; hence this line is especially devastating, because he reminds us that even love itself … Continue reading
So why, oh, why, oh, why, oh, why, oh, why, oh
Are we so in denial when we know we’re not happy here?
Y’all don’t wanna hear me, you just wanna dance[10]This line here is the clincher, his clear pronouncement that he knows exactly what he’s doing, that he knows full well no one is actually paying attention to the lyrics, that even on a crowded … Continue reading
Hey ya! (Uh-oh) Hey ya! (Uh-oh)[11]The rest of the track is the lyrical equivalent of Andre 3000 just throwing in the towel, giving the people solely what they want, only what they expect: the same tired old brags of sexual prowess … Continue reading
Don’t want to meet your daddy
Hey ya! (Uh-oh)
Just want you in my Caddy (uh-oh)
Hey ya! (Uh-oh)
Don’t want to meet your mama (uh-oh)
Hey ya! (Uh-oh)
Just want to make you cum-a’ (uh-oh)
Hey ya! (Uh-oh)
I’m (uh-oh), I’m (uh-oh), I’m just being honest (uh-oh)
I’m just being honest (uh-oh)[12]And it is here that I recall teaching the Book of Job in Sunday School last summer–how we often idolize “the patience of Job,” holding him up as the Platonic ideal of a man who … Continue reading
Hey, alright now, alright now, fellas
(Yeah?)
Now, what cooler than being cool?
(Ice cold!)
I can’t hear ya! I say what’s, what’s cooler than being cool?
(Ice cold!)
Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright[13]Or for that matter, how many people have either completely ignored, or reinterpreted into meaninglessness, Christ’s injunction to the rich young ruler to “sell all that you have and give … Continue reading
Okay, now ladies! (Yeah?)
Now, we gon’ break this thing down in just a few seconds
Now, don’t have me break this thing down for nothing
Now, I want to see y’all on your baddest behavior
Lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor[14]How often, for that matter, do we forget that the entire point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is that it’s not being in the “right religion” that counts the most, but whether … Continue reading
Ah, here we go[15]And how many of us have spent our lives reading the Book of Mormon–have even drilled into our Primary children to the point of cliché that its over-arching thesis is the “Pride … Continue reading
Shake it, sh-shake it, shake it, sh-shake it (uh-oh)[16]How many of us completely ignore Jacob 2:13-14, “because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff … Continue reading
Shake it, sh-shake it, shake it, shake it, sh-shake it (uh-oh)
Shake it like a Polaroid picture, hey ya!
Shake it, sh-shake it, shake it, sh-shake it[17]How many of us also have refused to give to the beggar, blaming the panhandler for his own misery, in clear violation of Mosiah 4:16-19, “And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand … Continue reading
Shake it, shake it (okay), shake it, sugar[18]How many have simply ignored entirely the very basic injunction, “Seek not for riches but for wisdom” (D&C 6:7)? Given how staggeringly many of us ignore the very obvious mandates … Continue reading
Shake it like a Polaroid picture
Now, all the Beyoncés, and Lucy Lius (shake it, sh-shake it, shake it, sh-shake)
And baby dolls (shake it, sh-shake it)
Get on the floor (shake it, shake it, sh-shake it) (get on the floor)
You know what to do (shake it like a Polaroid picture)
You know what to do (shake it, shake it, shake it, sugar)
You know what to do (shake it like a Polaroid picture)[19]I’ve sometimes wondered, if we find our General Conference talks to be bland and uninspiring overall, it’s because God Himself despairs of ever getting us to listen; so, like Andre 3000 during … Continue reading
Hey ya! (Uh-oh) Hey ya! (Uh-oh)
Hey ya! (Uh-oh) Hey ya! (Uh-oh, hey ya!)
Hey ya! (Uh-oh) Hey ya! (Uh-oh)
Hey ya! (Uh-oh) Hey ya! (Uh-oh)
Hey ya![20]Again, perhaps the only thing I learned of any lasting value as an English major is to pay attention to what the text actually says, not what I want it to say–and like Andre 3000, the Lord God … Continue reading
References
| ↑1 | If I learned nothing else of value from all my years as an English major–and there are days when I think this is the only thing of value I learned–it’s to always pay attention to what the text actually says, not what I think it says. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | We’ve written about this before on Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 smash-hit “Born in the USA“, a passionate condemnation of the betrayals of the American dream that still gets persistently misread as a simplistic celebration of the same over 40 years later. A slightly more 21st century example, then (even if it is now depressingly closer to Born in the USA than to today), would be Outkast’s absolutely massive 2003 hit “Hey Ya!” I was on my mission when the track first dropped, so by the time I got home and started attending YSA dances again, it had already become canonized as the latest Dance-Pop classic to enter every DJ’s rotation, as standard (and similarly misread) as “YMCA”. On those crowded dance floors where I was only half paying attention to the music anyways all while trying to re-remember how to flirt with women, my initial impression was simply, “Hey, this is actually a really fun song! And all the hot girls seem to love dancing to it.” (Cue the classic Reductress headline: “6 Desserts That Are Better Than Sex, But Not As Good as Hey Ya! By Outkast“). Consequently, I quickly learned to love dancing to it, too. |
| ↑3 | Since the occasional YSA dance was the only place where I would ever hear this track (I had quit listening to Pop radio out of sheer boredom by then), it took me years–years–to finally get curious enough to look up the lyrics themselves. You can imagine my surprise and embarrassment, then, when I suddenly realized that this is actually a break-up song. |
| ↑4 | Case in point: this line here about not fighting the feeling is a typical Pop-music cliché, about not fighting the feeling of love in particular or what have you–which is doubtless how it was interpreted by legions of casual dance-floor denizens both before and after me. It is a clever and devastating reversal of the trope, then, to make “Don’t fight the feeling” be about ending the relationship, not starting one. |
| ↑5 | Another clever reversal: he thanks his parents for modeling what a healthy relationship looks like (as we are especially taught to venerate within the Church), only to then immediately acknowledge he himself has failed to figure out how to make a relationship work for himself. And they played this at Church dances! Where we’re supposed to find “eternal companions”! |
| ↑6 | The absolute chutzpah of Andre 3000 to give this devastating break-up song–one that even seemed to presage Outkast’s own imminent dissolution at the height of their popularity–the happiest of melodies and the most generic of Pop-song titles! This man was a terrifying genius. |
| ↑7 | Another fascinating trope reversal: The pump-up lyric here–so ubiquitous in most Hip-Hop anthems–turns out to be a humiliating admission of defeat in the very next line. |
| ↑8 | Again, here is a line about getting together–another standard Pop song trope–that also gets immediately reversed by the very next line. Andre 3000 is constantly violating expectations, but always in a way calculated to ensure that it flies right over the heads of those only half paying attention. |
| ↑9 | Both 1 Corinthians 13 and Moroni 7 assure us that all things must fail, except charity, the pure love of Christ; hence this line is especially devastating, because he reminds us that even love itself can fail! But then, the Savior warned the same: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt. 24:12-13). |
| ↑10 | This line here is the clincher, his clear pronouncement that he knows exactly what he’s doing, that he knows full well no one is actually paying attention to the lyrics, that even on a crowded dance-floor he is all alone in his heartbreak and depression. The music even cuts out for a beat so you can clearly hear what he’s saying–not in hopes that you might actually pay closer attention for a change, but solely that we the wicked may be left with no excuse. |
| ↑11 | The rest of the track is the lyrical equivalent of Andre 3000 just throwing in the towel, giving the people solely what they want, only what they expect: the same tired old brags of sexual prowess (“Just want to make you cum-a'”), standard issue call-and-responses with the guys (“Fellas/what’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold!”) and the gals (“All you Beyonces and Lucy Lius and baby dolls/Get on the floor!”), accompanied with the usual calls to get it on down (“Now, don’t have me break this thing down for nothing/I want to see y’all on your baddest behavior!”). He also single-handedly rescues Polaroid’s declining stock with the sing-along line, “Shake it like a Polaroid picture!” But again, these are all only clichés if you haven’t been paying attention: he is openly trying to distract himself from his immense heartache and despair, knowing that no one really cares about him. The way everyone promptly proceeds to “Shake it like a Polaroid picture” anyway only proves him right.
And in 2003, Polaroid was about to go the way of the Dodo and the Dinosaur anyways; digital cameras were then in their first ascendancy. I wonder sometimes if Andre 3000 foresaw that too, and deployed the imminent demise of the Polaroid as a fitting metaphor for the imminent demise of his relationship. |
| ↑12 | And it is here that I recall teaching the Book of Job in Sunday School last summer–how we often idolize “the patience of Job,” holding him up as the Platonic ideal of a man who suffers stoically, humbly, and gratefully all that God sees fit to inflict upon him–all while somehow eliding the fact that Job complains loudly and angrily, for over 30 chapters straight, about how God has wronged him! Seriously, does no one actually read the Book of Job anymore?!
No, not anymore than we actually read the lyrics to “Hey Ya!” by Outkast. |
| ↑13 | Or for that matter, how many people have either completely ignored, or reinterpreted into meaninglessness, Christ’s injunction to the rich young ruler to “sell all that you have and give it to the poor”? How many of us, while insisting upon the literalness of the Bible in every other circumstance, have earnestly tried to explain away why Christ could not have possibly meant it literally when he said that, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”? How many Pentecostals have spoken in tongues on a Sunday morning, but completely ignored the part where all the converts on the Day of Pentecost then “had all things common,” such that there was “neither rich nor poor” among them? How many wealthy Mormons have also flagrantly ignored this same? (Heck, how many folks on ye old bloggernacle listened to D. Todd Christofferson’s recent Conference address when he preached against gambling because it is predatory and creates something for nothing, but then rushed to explain why this exact same logic doesn’t apply to the stock market? Methinks the lady doth protest too much). |
| ↑14 | How often, for that matter, do we forget that the entire point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is that it’s not being in the “right religion” that counts the most, but whether we have truly loved our neighbor? How many of us have smiled smugly at those Pharisees who couldn’t answer the question of “who is my neighbor,” all while being unable to answer it ourselves? |
| ↑15 | And how many of us have spent our lives reading the Book of Mormon–have even drilled into our Primary children to the point of cliché that its over-arching thesis is the “Pride Cycle,” wherein God blesses us when we’re righteous, but then punishes us when we’re prideful about it–only to still view all material prosperity as a sign of one’s innate virtue and righteousness? How many of us matter-of-factly think we’re somehow the lone exceptions to the Pride Cycle? |
| ↑16 | How many of us completely ignore Jacob 2:13-14, “because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they. And now, my brethren, do ye suppose that God justifieth you in this thing? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. But he condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things his judgments must speedily come unto you”? How many of us just assume this judgment doesn’t apply to us when we despise the poor for their poverty? Cause I was living in Utah back in 2017 when the citizens of Draper uniformly refused to let a homeless shelter be built nearby, in flagrant disregard for everything Christ ever taught. |
| ↑17 | How many of us also have refused to give to the beggar, blaming the panhandler for his own misery, in clear violation of Mosiah 4:16-19, “And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish. Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God. For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?” Why is this always the scripture we are most likely to right skip over when we discuss Mosiah in Sunday School? |
| ↑18 | How many have simply ignored entirely the very basic injunction, “Seek not for riches but for wisdom” (D&C 6:7)? Given how staggeringly many of us ignore the very obvious mandates of our most sacred scriptures, Andre 3000 wasn’t exactly betting the farm when he assumed few if any would notice the lyrics of a mere Pop song. |
| ↑19 | I’ve sometimes wondered, if we find our General Conference talks to be bland and uninspiring overall, it’s because God Himself despairs of ever getting us to listen; so, like Andre 3000 during the second half of this song, he just sends us the cliches and pablum that most of us would clearly rather hear instead. |
| ↑20 | Again, perhaps the only thing I learned of any lasting value as an English major is to pay attention to what the text actually says, not what I want it to say–and like Andre 3000, the Lord God Almighty is heartbroken, and even weeps, that we so rarely do so (cf Moses 7:31-41). Hence another reason, I suppose, why many are called, but few are chosen. |