911. WYCLEF JEAN ft/MARY J. BLIGE, "911"
Produced by Wyclef Jean and Salaam Remi; written by Jerry Duplessis & Wyclef Jean
Sony 79460 2000 Billboard # 38
Not to be confused with the Cyndi Lauper quickie B-side, which is best listened to alone.
As I believe the record will reflect, I am a big fan of metaphor. What's more, I believe the best metaphors are the ones that you beat like a dead horse almost to the point of allegory, and my man Clef is certainly doing that here. At points in this single, the language gets so tangled, it's hard to tell if Clef's in real or figurative danger, if he's been truly felled by a love supreme or if he's just on the verge of being shot by a jealous spouse.
Ultimately, though, this song is more about a feeling than a specific set of circumstances. Especially when you take Blige's contribution into account (the best guestshot on The Eclefic, an album filled with much less successful appearances by well-known soul and r & b performers), this song is desperately operatic in a way that pop balladeers have found it hard to be since the heyday of Phil Spector. Since the 1980s, most pop ballads have fallen into one of two categories: vapid or ironic. In our century, wallowing in the full-on bathos of something as scary as love and passion is just so Your Mother's Pop Music.
But this is the love the old folks warned you about. And no matter how smart you think you are, trust me: you're never really ready for the bullet with your name on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment