October 2001

What the Hell is Going On?

Many of you will remember Justy's commentary about the ugly cover version of Marvin Gaye's classic song, "What's Going On" used in Radio Shack commercials. That is a terrible shame, but having heard the new, celebrity all-star charity, version of "What's going on" produced by Bono and Jermaine Dupri, I think I don't mind Radio Shack's butchery as much.

In an attempt to raise money (and bile, for some reason) for AIDS relief and the United Way's September 11th relief fund, Bono and Mr. Dupri decided to bring some of pop's 'finest'(Christina Aguilera, Amir, the Backstreet Boys, Mary J. Blige, Destiny's Child, Fred Durst, Eve, Nelly Furtado, Nona Gaye, Darren Hayes, Ja Rule, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keys, Aaron Lewis, Lil' Kim, Jennifer Lopez, Nas, Nelly, *NSYNC, P. Diddy, ?uestlove, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, and Michael Stipe) to re-record Marvin's classic.

The production is a mess of generic rap and soul-less singing who's end result sounds like a soup-sandwhich.

Who ever thought of this is a moron.

I generally am not opposed to cover songs being made. Otis Redding did wonderful renditions of songs by The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Sam Cooke, making them his own. Some artists are able to take a song from another artist and make it better. But some artists lack the talent and/or personality to remake a song without butchering the original version (see Linda Rondstat - she has butchered dozens of songs in her career.)

This group insulted not only Marvin Gaye, but humanity itself.

I am so angry!

I guess what makes me furious is that these people needed to use the melody and chorus from an existing song to make up for the lack of sincerity in their crappy lyrics. Had this group made an original song without Marvin's touch, the song would only be funny to me, not insulting.

I forced Bigfoot to watch the video once so she would understand why I am so angry!

On the CD (in stores now) there are a number of versions of the song by other producers. That means that more than one person butchered that beautiful song.

In the name of all those who are suffering from AIDS around the world, and those who lost a loved one in the terrible terrorist attacks of September 11th, please find a way to make a donation that does not involve encouraging these evil butchers of music and taste to make more crappy music.