BLURRED LINES+RAPE ME - MASHUP LIVE VIDEO with REB FOUNTAIN (Patreon)

**EDIT, friday sept 24th 11:54pm NZ time.....DAMMIT.... it seems that the video is not co-operating with the patreon app, and instead will ONLY play if you open this post in a browser! looking into why this is, but for now... enjoy within the walls of your browser

OR

check out the direct vimeo link here:

https://vimeo.com/613494360/d57554bb88 

-love, alex***

............

Hallo loves!

IT'S TIME FOR SOMETHING REALLY WONDERFUL AND DARK AND TERRIBLE!!!

Coming at you with a classic AFP special....READY?

PRESS PLAY ON THE IMAGE ABOVE. 

It's STREAMING ONLY, FOR PATRONS ONLY.

If you missed the pre-amble yesterday - I recorded a live song on VIDEO for a stream event that happened today called #DoReMeToo, organized by Lizz Winstead for the Abortion Access Front. 

They annually ask women to cover SEXIST SONGS. They sent me some inspiring clips from years past, where I was delighted to see pals like Laura Jane Grace and Margaret Cho. 

So, it's fresh off the premiere....we just showed it on the livestream/fundraiser and it was AMAZING. Thanks to the many of you who tuned in. (THE WHOLE SHOW is up for another 40 hours: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/do-re-metoo-2021). Then it goes away forever. There were some real highlights (I'll let people clue you in in the comments below about their fave artists).

.....

So....you may remember that a few months ago I asked y'all patrons - and social media - for ideas for most Sexist Song Evar. I got THOUSANDS OF COMMENTS. And one of the most frequently mentioned songs was Blurred Lines. But a few people also requested Nirvana's "Rape Me" ( which, if you know your musical history, is NOT A SEXIST SONG. Kurt Cobain has even gone on record talking about how it's a an anti-rape rant). 

Well....

Magic happened, inspiration struck and I blended/mashed them together, invited Reb Fountain to be my duet mate, booked a studio and a film crew in Auckland shortly before this last lockdown, and the rest is history.

You can watch the entire video by pressing the image in the header.

Here are some stills:

This video cannot EVER be public, because of complicated rights issues. 

So: it is only for patrons. We are never gonna go out and sell or otherwise monetize it.

But....If you really want to share it with someone, please be discreet, and please ask them to join the goddamn patreon AKA the feminist fucken underground sexist cover song speakeasy. OK? K.

.....................

I'd love to tell you how this whole idea evolved, because it's really interesting.

Blurred Lines is, indeed, a truly sexist song (and video). 

I didn't know until digging into this project that it had lyrics such as

"So, hit me up when you pass through / I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two"

Yikes.

Back when it came out in 2013 and caused a real stir amongst feminists, there were some great parody/responses, like this one, made by The Auckland Law Revue (whooo KIWIS!!!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM

...........

It's also - and as a songwirter, I ain't gonna deny it - a really catchy tune. (When Reb and I worked on it, we couldn't stop singing it to each other.)

BUT....in terms of "covering" it and making it WORK....? As a clever cover that I could riff on?

That was a really hard puzzle to solve.

I sat on it and thought about it.

It's a really repetitive song. Two chords. Everything that makes it CATCHY is about the production, the beat, the blend of sounds. The overdubs.

Hm....

For a while, I thought about giving up on it.

I switched tacks, turned away from it, and decided to work on my runner-up song choice, another song I'd never encountered until I made my asking-post. It's an old 1963 Burt Bacharach song, and it begins...

Hey! Little Girl
Comb your hair, fix your makeup
Soon he will open the door
Don't think because there's a ring on your finger
You needn't try anymore...

I mean, need I say more.

BUT....I also didn't love the tune itself. It has those smarmy 60s chord changes that are like nails on a chalkboard to me. (And luckily, Jill Solbule wound up nabbing this one for the show earlier today, so I got to at least see it put out in the world)

I grumbled.

I thought. 

I spent weeks pondering in the back of my head. 

I went back to the posts on Facebook, twitter and Patreon. I looked at the literally thousands of suggestions.

I went - much to my horror - down a TED NUGENT youtube hole one night. There were a lot of Ted Nugent songs suggested.

I suggest NEVER going down a Ted Nugent youtube hole, especially late at night. MOTHERFUCKER.

Here's some lyrics from Jailbait...I won't bother linking the song:

Well I don't care if you're just thirteen

You look too good to be true

I just know that you're probably clean

There's one lil' thing I got do to you

But here's the thing...

As hilariously bad and horrific and sexist and PERFECT as these Ted Nugent songs were...THEY WERE JUST BAD SONGS.

There wasn't going to be anything fun about covering them.

I read through the comments again. 

A lot of them were just weird, like people really didn't understand the assignment.

A few people suggested "Rape me".

This made me angry on behalf of Kurt Cobain's ghost. 

Kurt Cobain was openly feminist. "Rape me" is not a sexist song. The lyrics are simple and vague...

Rape me
Rape me, my friend
Rape me
Rape me again

I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one

...and given it was on the third Nirvana record (In Utero - 1993), when Cobain was battling demons, I've always deciphered it as a kind of howl about commercialism, actual rape culture, with a dash of rage at the media's treatment of him and his family....plus maybe a screed against the music industry and the labels. 

It made me upset to think that Nirvana was being misunderstood. 

I really don't like it when people take songs (or tweets) literally when they're not fucking literal. It hits a special Amanda-nerve. I know how it feels for sardonic songs (and sardonic tweets, and whole sardonic bands) to be misunderstood. It's happened to me....many, many times. Tangent.

I ruminated.

My deadline was July. Finally, in June, it came to me.

"Blurred Lines" was basically two chords.

"Rape Me" was basically four chords - two of them almost the same as the "Blurred Lines" chords.

This could work. This could work.

This could be a conversation between songs, across two decades.

This could work.

MASH THEM UP!!!!

I worked on it in my heads for a few weeks, and then I decided it would only work with a second voice.

So I called up Reb Fountain, my new kiwi songwriter pal who lives in Auckland and who I knew had the gravitas to pull it off. I met Reb towards the beginning of my time here in Aotearoa...I saw her play a tiny show in Hawkes Bay right after the first Level 4 lockdown and she blew me away.

We rehearsed the night before, dined, and slept over at Reb's house...

...then worked an entire day in Stebbing Studio, an old still-family-run 70s gem in Auckland City. 

Here's reb and I worked out the arrangements on an upright in the corner while the studio concert grand got some last minute bits tuned and fixed... (all these photos by Victoria Bell)

We welcomed in the one-man film crew, Olly, spent a lot of time getting the set dressings, lights and sound perfect....

and then did about about three or four no-holds-barred emotional takes of the song, live.

The video you see is one take: the best one we did by everybody's vote.

Victoria Bell, who took all these pictures, was the final arbiter, because this was the take that made her cry.

Reb and I squeezed each other's hands before every take.

Sisterhood.

We felt it.

So.

That's the story, morning glory.

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.

It was cathartic.

And a portion of this patreon $ is going to be donated forward to The Abortion Access Front, which inspired this whole undertaking. They need our help.

IF YOU'D LIKE TO DONATE ON TOP, PLEASE DO, here.

...............

There's also a private SoundCloud link to listen to the audio only HERE....streaming only:

https://soundcloud.com/amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-reb-fountain-mash-up/s-MXaYXaGlUm1 

Reminder: The video and the SoundCloud link are both STRICTLY PATRON-ONLY, for frustrating and tedious legal reasons. 

So it's just gonna sit here, for your special patron eyes and ears only. Streaming.

It's kinda nice for a change to put something out just for you and not The World.

It feels special.

But....again, if you wanna share this locked post, it's a great reason to rope people into the patreon. ONE OF US. ONE OF US. SECRET FEMINIST UNDERGROUND SPEAKEASY HEY HEY HEY!!!

......

FILM AND AUDIO CREDITS:

Sound Engineer: Steve McGough
Director of Photography: Olly Harris
Editor: Hugh Sundae
Studio Assistant/Photographer: Victoria Bell

Here's the whole crew....(from left to right: Steve, Vic, Reb, Me, Olly)

LOVE AND SOLIDARITY,

xxx

AFP

------THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS---------

1. if you are a patron and new to my work, don’t forget your patronage allows you access to ALL of my patreon releases to date. HERE is the link to download my latest big solo record, “There Will Be No Intermission”, and HERE is a link to download the PDF of the art/essay book that goes with it.

2. if you’re a patron reading this post via an email notification, please click through to comment on this post. at the very least, if you’ve read it, indicate that by using the heart symbol. that's always nice for me to see, so i know who's reading.

3. see All the Things (over 150 of them) i've made so far on patreon:

http://amandapalmer.net/things

4. JOIN THE SHADOWBOX COMMUNITY FORUM, find your people, and discuss everything: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/

5. new to my music and TOTALLY OVERWHELMED? TAKE A WALK THROUGH AMANDALANDA….we made a basic list of my greatest hits n stuff (at least up until a few years ago, this desperately needs updating) on this lovely page: http://amandalanda.amandapalmer.net/

6. general AFP/patreon-related questions? ask away, someone will answer: patronhelp@amandapalmer.net