up in the club

Beyoncé had a song out in 2007 that I thought was great, and also a little scary -- but in a good way.


"Get me Bodied"...








It starts with a spooky, hissing, technocratic whisper-sound and sort of partial countdown -- and when the vocal sails in, it takes you over, demanding your focus.  This song has movements -- like, it's several songs, one leading into the next one.  It is like an explosion of energy, and a hard-charging argument to give in, to the dance beat.


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Fans who typed Comments about the song (or CD or video) in cyberspace said --


--> "UNTHINKABLE CRAZY BRILLIANCE"


-->  "The production on this track is just bananas!  The harmonies with the hard bass going off and the handclaps just goes together like sugar and kool-aid.  Then when you think the song is over she has a string of different dances towards the end that I can picture everyone doing in the club"


-->  "Definitely one of the best party tracks of the past year"


-->  "I usually prefer the Extended Mix seeing as it is longer.  But sometimes I just want a taste and go for the first version.


Both are peppy and very upbeat and in your face, I love them so"


-->  "This Single is so much beautiful

But have Only 2 tracks Radio Edit, and Album version but this music is so much good!!!"


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I try to hear what the words are, and it's hard (for me) because -- partly because in listening to any song you can mistake the words because the singer draws them out, or says them fast, to fit the melody and the beat --


("Just like the one we love..."
"Just like the white-winged dove...")


and partly because I don't know all the vocabulary and parlance of hip-hop so it's kind of like being "at sea" as to all of the meanings.


__________________
(I realized recently that some of my favorite works, in art, are things I can't fully understand.  Two of my favorite movies -- cult favorites, you could say -- are stories where there is no hard-and-fast answer. 


Either it's open to conjecture, or you just don't know...


Picnic At Hanging Rock, and The Mothman Prophecies. 


Same with some songs:  I don't know exactly what they are "about" -- maybe I like the mystery, and open question --


and maybe it's as Tina Turner has said -- that the main point isn't the lyrics being taken literally, but more "the feeling that a song gives." 





When I play "Get Me Bodied" I like "the feeling that the song gives" -- though it's also kind of jarring and ambivalently scary -- like some of the Rolling Stones' songs...)


I listen to Beyoncé's "Bodied" and hear --


Hey hey
hey hey
Chop chop


Listen to --


When they play my song


...Do it all the time we can do it all again


I ain't worried where we be tonight --
A little sweat ain't never hurt nobody
While you're standin' on the WALL!


Everybody


I want to be myself tonight
I want to let it out tonight


Let me fix my hair
Before I go inside


When I take this mix


Hey


While we conversate
Small talk -- cut right to the chase


Gonna dance
Gonna party
Gonna be myself tonight


I wanna let it out tonight


Baby -- all -- I -- want --
Is to -- let -- it -- go
We can -- dance -- all -- night


Closer to me


dance with me


My body


Closer to me
While we grind to the beat


Get your body


Ain't no shame --


Off the shoes --


I ain't worried


A little sweat ain't never hurt nobody


Ladies on the floor


Drop drop down almost hit the floor with-it


Do the uh-oh
Do the uh-oh
Do the uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh


Pat your feet, babies


Tick tick tick - flight


Tick tick tick tick tick flight


Pose for the camera now click click click


Do an all-scoop dance


(all-scoop?)




(Old-School?)


Cool off, cool off,
Cool off, cool off


...


Shake shake it like that
Alley cat


Shake your -- (something)


Do the scissor-leg
Touch your heel, touch your toe...


Walk Naomi Campbell
Walk Naomi Campbell





Walk across the floor like Naomi Campbell


Snap to the key
Snap to the key
Snap to the second third time...


We gettin' bodied


Hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey


Drop drop drop
drop drop drop drop


____________________________


A blogger writes about this song and says, "Apart from the amazing beat, the song is lyrically very standard "up in the club" sort of stuff, and then Beyoncé launches into one of the most...hilarious parts of any of her songs, a rule book for being Beyoncé, basically. 


Featuring such instructions as "snap in a circle three times," "pat your weave," "wind it back girl, flick your hair, touch the floor, wind it back" and "drop to the knees arch your back girl, shake, shake it like that alley cat"....


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Fan Comments:


-->  "The layered harmonies over the hard, hip hop beat is quite a combination and it's just energetic and different.  Its infectious nature comes from its simplicity...I never grow tired of it."




-->  "The radio edit...has the part at the end where she calls out the different dances (uh-oh, old school, etc.)"




-->  "I Love this single!"




-->  "Attitude, piping vocals, dance moves that are unmatched..."




-->  "Beyoncé's music cd -- Get Me Bodied is GREAT!  The music is nice with strong bass.  The lyrics are good and will put the listener in a nice party  mode.  I recommend Beyoncé's music compact disc to everyone!"








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