Episode Summary
This week, we're dropping another B-Side, a little quickie companion piece to episode 74, Gogo Jason Waterfalls. Due to time constraints, there were some songs that needed to be cut from the original, but this segment was too good to leave on the hard drive, so here it is!
Transcript
Christina: Welcome back to They Reminisce Over You, I'm Christina.
Miguel: And I'm Miguel. So today, we're dropping another one of our B-side episodes. If you're not familiar with the B-sides, it's one of our smaller bite size episodes or something that we wanted to talk about or we had some extra audio from another episode left over, but we want y'all to hear it.
Christina: So this episode is leftover from our "Gogo Jason Waterfalls" episode where we talked about problematic lyrics, misheard lyrics. It was a pretty long episode, so we decided to cut it. But there are some gems in there, so we wanted to bring this back as a B-side.
Miguel: This is the B-side.
Miguel: So this next one, the songwriters are trying to convince the world that the song isn't about what we think it is, and it's “Oops (Oh My)” by Tweet. Now, I know what I think the song is about. I'm sure you think the song is about the same thing.
Christina: “There goes my shirt up over my head. Oh my.”
Miguel: Oh my.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: So for 20 plus years, we have all thought that this song is about, you know, just diddling yourself. Just getting a little happy with yourself. But in the past few years, both Tweet and Missy had said, no, it's not about that. It's about Black love and being proud to be a Black woman.
Christina: And loving yourself.
Miguel: And loving yourself, which she is actually doing in the song. She's definitely loving herself.
Christina: Tweet said she got the idea after watching an episode of Oprah.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Where a doctor advised that everyone should take a look at themselves naked in a mirror. And this would help foster self-acceptance.
Miguel: You know what? I believe her when she says that.
Christina: But she also said DeVanté told her that sex sells. And that's why she wrote it that way.
Miguel: So Miss Charlene Keys and Melissa Elliott, y'all need to stop it and tell us the truth about what the song actually is.
Christina: Well, see, I mean, it works because she said it's about self-love and it is about self-love.
Miguel: It sure is about self-love.
Christina: However you take it, it's about self-love.
Miguel: Because Tweet says, “I looked over to the left” and what does Missy say? “Mm, I was looking so good, I couldn't reject myself. I looked over to the left. Mm, I was looking so good, I had to touch myself.”
Christina: You know what Missy likes to sing about.
Miguel: Yes. Come on. You want me to believe this? Stop it. Stop it.
Christina: Well, however you want to take it, I guess the theme remains.
Miguel: Yeah. But I know what I'm going with. But one thing that's not a question, that's a top five Timbaland beat.
Christina: Yeah. It's a good beat. It’s a good song.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: That the whole album is good actually. You know, I always complain about people's calling things underrated that aren't underrated, but this album, I would say is underrated.
Miguel: I haven't listened to it in so long that this is the only song I remember.
Christina: You should re-listen to it.
Miguel: So I will do that.
Christina: It's got a little bit of everything, like whatever mood you want, she's got a song for it. Because there's some melancholy stuff, there's some mid tempo stuff, and then there's the oops oh my.
Miguel: You know, I'll check it out over the weekend.
Christina: She's got an “Oops (Oh My)” and then she's got a “Smoking Cigarettes at Night.”
Miguel: After the “oops.” Stop it. I’m not stupid. I know what’s going on here.
Christina: Well, there's another one that I re-listened to yesterday.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: And also, you sent me a link of someone performing this at a wedding.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: “This Woman's Work,” which is, well, I know—when I think of “This Woman's Work,” I think of Maxwell.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But it’s originally, um…
Miguel: Kate Bush.
Christina: Kate Bush. Okay. So I think you can comment this from two ways because I think it's a little different if you, if you know it as a Kate Bush song, then you definitely know what the song is about. But if you know it as a Maxwell song, most people think it's like a love song. And that's why it's performed at weddings.
Miguel: Yeah, I can get why someone would want to perform this at a wedding.
Christina: Because it sounds…
Miguel: Or special occasion. Anniver—something where you're trying to feel good about things. But it ain't that.
Christina: It ain't that at all.
Miguel: It is not that.
Christina: And the thing is, I never knew what this song was about, too, because I came into it knowing it as a Maxwell song.
Miguel: Same.
Christina: But even then, just the words—again is one of those things where you like, you sing along, but you're not necessarily paying attention to all the lyrics. But this one, even when you do look at the lyrics, it's not as obvious as like “Saving All My Love For You.”
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So if you don't know, Kate Bush specifically wrote this song for like an ‘80s movie called She's Having a Baby.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: And the song was specifically written for the scene where she's in labor and she might die [1].
Miguel: And the baby.
Christina: And her and the baby might die. So her husband is like, he's kind of just thinking back about their lives because he's like, oh my gosh, she might die. So he's thinking about “all the things that I said I should have—that I never—I should have said, but I never said,” which are the lines in the song. So the song is about death or possible death.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: So it's not a romantic song at all.
Miguel: But if you listen to like, “give me these moments back.”
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: “Give me that little hand. Give me that little kiss.”
Christina: Yes. Because I initially wrote in my notes that this doesn't even sound like a love song. And then I crossed out love because like, oh no, it's a love song.
Miguel: It is.
Christina: It doesn't sound like a wedding song.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: It's definitely a love song.
Miguel: It is.
Christina: Because he's already like, like “pre missing” her, if that makes sense?
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: But the lyrics that stand out to me in the Maxwell version that I used to kind of just sing along with was like, “I should be crying, but I just can't let it show. I can't stop thinking of all the things I should have said that I never said.” To me, I don't want that at a wedding.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Maxwell literally has a song called “Matrimony.”
Miguel: Go with that one.
Christina: “Matrimony: Maybe You.” It's not—the, the “Matrimony” song doesn't sound quite as, I guess, romantic because it's like a mid tempo song.
Miguel: Yeah, it's just the way he's singing it makes it seem like, yeah, maybe we should play this at a wedding.
Christina: Yeah, but even like I said, the lyrics aren't as clear as some of the other songs, but the lyrics that are there, like I said, it's a love song. But I would say it's more of a funeral song than a wedding song.
Miguel: Yes, exactly.
Christina: It's a “you might die and I'm already missing you” song.
Miguel: Yeah, you and my baby.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: So I think that shouldn't be on the list for weddings moving forward.
Christina: But everyone at that wedding loved it though.
Miguel: They did. I've seen it at a couple of weddings.
Christina: Yeah. So I'm like, oh, I don't know if, you just—like I'm not like a huge believer in like karma and bad luck and all that stuff, but I also don't want to play with it.
Miguel: Just in case.
Christina: So, yeah. So I don't know about singing a song about maybe losing your wife and child at a wedding, like you don't want that kind of hanging over you. Just just in case.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: So yeah, if you're hell bent on singing a Maxwell song, go with “Matrimony.”
Miguel: Or just do “Closer.”
Christina: “Got to get closer.”
Miguel: No, don't do “Closer.”
Christina: Not that one. Well, since we mentioned it, in the Unplugged Maxwell album, I didn't know this was a Nine Inch Nails song.
Miguel: Yeah, it is.
Christina: But he did a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer.” Now I know. And again, I mean, I guess this makes sense because the first line is like, “I want to desecrate you.” And I'm just like, la, la, la, la, not paying attention. He turned this Nine Inch Nails song into a church song. But it started off as very like, I don't know, how do you describe it? Like, “Oh, baby, you can't help myself. Gotta get closer!”
Miguel: It was real funky.
Christina: Funky. Yes. And then at the end, he turned into like church.
Miguel: It went to “chuuuch.”
Christina: And it's a Nine Inch Nails song.
Miguel: Because I remember you were listening to it, because I had never heard his version before, and you were listening to it. And I'm like—
Christina: This song sounds familiar. But not.
Miguel: I know these words, but this ain't the song. And then as it kept going and they started doing the “got to get closer” part, I was like, oh, this is Nine Inch Nails.
Christina: And here I am never paying attention to. “I want to desecrate you” because he's singing all up tempo and shit, not the way Nine Inch Nails sing it.
Miguel: And he did change some of the lyrics to make it a little less vulgar.
Christina: Just barely, though.
Miguel: Yeah, but still the important part he changed.
Christina: He kept the “desecrate you” in there.
Miguel: He did. But there's another line that he took out.
Christina: OK.
Miguel: There is one that's like, hey. So he took that one out.
Christina: Which isn't this also the song for the opening theme of, of Se7en? Oh, no, I think Se7en did like a slight rewrite for Se7en[2]. They did a little rewrite of it.
Miguel: Yeah, it's not the same of the one that I'm talking about, but it's similar.
Christina: Yeah, but basically it's the kind of song that could be the opener for a movie like Seven.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And Maxwell turned it into a funk/church song. Right.
Miguel: They're doing like church claps at the end of it. And this is a song that was played in a movie where someone's head ends up in a box.
Christina: “What's in the box?”
Miguel: So…
Christina: Spoiler!
Miguel: That movie’s like 30 years old. I don't think I need to put a spoiler tag on this one.
Christina: All right. So there's another one. You know what? Technically, I wouldn't say it's question—the song itself isn't questionable.
Miguel: It isn't.
Christina: But I think our behavior to the song is what's questionable.
Miguel: Yeah, that’s the questionable part is how we react to it.
Christina: Right. But at the same time, they shouldn't put that damn beat on it. So we're talking about “Gypsy Woman.”
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: By Crystal Waters. [sings] “She's homeless. As she stands there singing for money. La da dee.” That damn beat.
Miguel: Just like Whitney Houston and the Commodores, I never listened past the first couple lines.
Christina: Yeah, but you were singing along to “she's homeless.”
Miguel: No, I wasn't. No.
Christina: You weren't singing “she's homeless?”
Miguel: I never heard the “she's homeless” part until a couple years ago.
Christina: No way.
Miguel: Yes way. Completely missed it. So that's why I'm saying that—
Christina: “la da dee.” That's all you were thinking about.
Miguel: There's possibly certain frequencies that only people of a certain age could hear because I didn't hear any of the “homeless” part until a couple years ago.
Christina: I saw this interview with her where she was like, same thing, she was like, you know, she was concerned people weren't trying to hear her message. So when they did like an additional printing, pressing of the single, they changed the title to “Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless).”
Miguel: To reinforce that point.
Christina: Yeah, in parentheses so that you would see like she's homeless.
Miguel: We didn't see any of that.
Christina: She put it like, I'm not really a big House fan, but that song goes hard.
Miguel: Yes. I don't do House and dance music much either—
Christina: But that song comes on and we're all moving.
Miguel: There was a run of songs in the early ‘90s to the mid ‘90s that were just like this, that just make you want to bop to it and not pay attention to the word. She could have been saying all sorts of Nazi shit in the song and I wouldn't have heard it. All I hear is “la da dee la de da.”
Christina: And then in the video, they have like a theatrical homeless lady.
Miguel: I don't even remember the video.
Christina: Oh, yeah. But it's spliced in between these men dancing their asses off. So it's just like you're just like, I get it, she's homeless, but I'm dancing. I'm dancing. You gotta watch the video.
Miguel: See, I just remember, the song being a bop and Kim Wayans doing it on In Living Color. But I don't remember anything else about the song and her being homeless.
Christina: You got to watch the video[3].
Miguel: Or the woman in the song being homeless,
Christina: Like I said, is a very theatrical. The the homeless lady is wearing like a mask, but she's sleeping on a bench and whatnot. But like I said, spliced in between is, you know, all that ‘90s sweaty dancing—
Miguel: Just people grooving.
Christina: Jumping around and stuff. Yeah, like it's a lot.
Miguel: Yeah, I blocked all the lyrics out and remembered nothing about it.
Christina: [sings] “She’s homeless. As she stands there singing for money.”
Miguel: “La da dee la de da.” That's all I remember. I completely missed it. But—
Christina: It’s a lot.
Miguel: It is, it is. There's one that my mama used to play all the time because she loves Stevie Wonder. And Stevie got a few songs in his catalog where it's like, damn man, your life is rough. Like always writing these “I’m looking for love” type songs and “I can't find the right one.” And the way he writes these songs are so beautiful. And then he writes other songs where he's just an ass. And this is one of those songs. It's called “Go Home.”
Christina: Go home, Roger[4].
Miguel: Go home, Roger, basically. And yeah, he's just singing about this woman who loves him, wants to do everything for him. And he's like, “go home.”
Christina: “But I kept saying, girl, you're wrong.”
Miguel: “Go home.” The chorus starts, “she only wanted to be close to me, to give me the love she knew someday I need. But I keep saying, girl, you're wrong. Go home.” Go home? She's trying to give you love and you're like, I don't think so. I'm good.
Christina: I did not know this song until you introduced it to me. And I'm so confused because it sounds like it's also a cautionary tale?
Miguel: It could be seen that way.
Christina: So is it like because the first verse was her parents said, “girl, don't leave home.”
Miguel: Because they know he ain't shit.
Christina: So I'm like, is this a cautionary tale of like you should listen to your parents? You should pick better men. Like, I’m a little bit confused.
Miguel: I think it's one of those you need to make better choices because I ain't shit. Because you get to the third verse and he basically says that like, my life is falling apart. You know who I need right now? That girl to come back. I need her over here, but she's gone now. So what am I going to do?
Christina: Girl, you're wrong. Go home.
Miguel: Go home.
Christina: Go home right now.
Miguel: Yes, like you don't need to be over here with me. Go home.
Christina: So he knew he ain't shit.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: And like I said, in the third verse, he confirms it when he's talking about like losing his job and his friends and he needs somebody to talk to and she ain't there.
Christina: Because he told her to go home.
Miguel: He did. He told her to go home and she finally went. Now he needs her. But I found a random YouTube video of him performing the song on SNL[5] two years before it even came out. Oh, yeah. He was the the host and musical guest. So he was double dipping and he just introduced it like, yeah, I'm going to try something new tonight. Hopefully y'all like it. Here it is.
Christina: Like to hear it? Here it go.
Miguel: Yeah. So he played it and I’ll link to that.
Christina: OK.
Miguel: In the notes. But it's interesting to hear it played that way because there's some a couple of different changes in the song, but it's pretty much the same thing.
Christina: OK.
Miguel: Yeah, that's it. Girl, go home. Go home. You know how rude that is.
Christina: She's like, I love you so much. Girl, go home.
Miguel: Go home. Go home.
Christina: like I left my parents' house to come be with you.
Miguel: Go home. I got something to do tonight. Go home.
Christina: And now he's like, I wish she was here.
Miguel: Exactly. And that concludes this B-side episode. We'll be back with you guys in a couple of weeks. Bye.
Christina: Bye.