I deliberately listened to the song without watching the video first; I didn't want my opinion to be influenced by the images. I'm very glad I did, because it seems almost everyone who really liked it was moved by the images on the video more than the song.
The song is not awful by any means, but it rambles on and on, and goes on way too long - it's like a demo, which is hardly surprising considering it is produced by Dave Stewart, the man whose goal is not to give Stevie constructive criticism to make her songs better. His goal is to keep the smile on her face. And to be fair, that's why she hired him.
The narrative about doing benefits in the Hamptons and all that jazz really is a bad way to start the song as it's very hard to relate to. The lyrics do get better in the sense that I do feel like there's a good message buried there regarding peace and love... but it's communicated poorly, IMHO.
I started to get bored about three minutes in. However, I did like how it started to change up around 4:50 and my interest was renewed. (Note: I purchased the song on Amazon and there's also a piano version without this change up or anything to maintain interesting sonicly; it is pretty dreary.)
I appreciate Stevie trying to say something important, and for those who feel she is taking sides, I actually think she actually was a lot less partisan than she could have been. MLK and JFK are pretty safe figures. Yeah, BLM was all over the video, but everybody and their dog hopped on that bandwagon last summer. Celebrities were practically required by law to post that ubiquitous card on social media. I would have been surprised if Stevie hadn't included them in a video talking about race; if she hadn't, I'm sure there would have been criticism from angry Twitterites. Featuring an "I Can't Breath" sign in one pic though... It's BREATHE! BREATHE with an "E"!!! At any rate, we all should vote, no matter what side we're on. In other words, I didn't feel it was OTT.
But this is definitely a song I will not be listening to regularly. I will listen to it a few more times before relegating it down to the always-skip pit of "The Nightmare" and "Cheaper Than Free," though. It might grow on me.
PS For those comparing it to "Mabel Normand" - IMO, "Mabel Normand" is FAR superior!
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- Nancy
Last edited by sodascouts; 10-10-2020 at 12:53 PM..
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