To recap for those stuck in ’71:HGY (Hepworth’s Golden Year).
Fergie (née Stacy Ann Ferguson) used to be one of the Black Eyed Peas, a musical act that built an unparalleled reputation for wil(-i-am)ful godawfulness. On Sunday night Fergie performed her unique version of America’s National Anthem at an all star NBA match. Operating under the misguided belief that Marilyn Monroe singing I Wanna Be Loved By You represents the high-point of female jazz voice, and with a vocal delivery that mangled so many consonants it caused a mass outbreak of Irritable Vowel Syndrome in millions of viewers, she vainly attempted to project the hitherto comparatively dull image of the American flag blowing in the breeze as the lyrical equivalent of a booty call.
As if her performance wasn’t proof enough of her lack of self-awareness her subsequent apology has raised the vanity bar even further reaching peak hubris with the following comment:
“I’m a risk taker artistically, but clearly this rendition didn’t strike the intended tone.”
Ignoring the fact that the only artistic risk she’s ever taken is choosing her stage name in tribute to the man who engineered the 1999 treble her statement begs the question: just WHAT was the intended tone she was trying to strike?
The best thing about that clip is Chance The Rapper’s facial expression when the camera briefly cuts to him. The only person who seemingly didn’t bother to keep a straight boat.
There was I thinking it was pretty atrocious but not historically bad when that happened at 1:24.
Oh who cares? Why is everyone so touchy at the moment? Thanks to social media hardly any slight gaffe goes unnoticed and un-comdemned. Anyway, I thought that was quite an interesting take on the Star Spangled Banner and she made a good fist of singing live.
It’s certainly beyond me why she apparently needs to apologise for it. It’s not like she burped it.
She certainly shouldn’t worry about it being a slight gaffe as well. There was nothing slight about it at all.
or sang it even
She did once risk a gamble on the pre-showtime ‘strength of bladder/need to go’ ratio…and lost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZOe67lFsvY
I hold no brief for Fergie, nor her erstwhile bandmates, and yet I feel compelled to observe, if only for the sake of balance, that this tune, dropped on the right dance floor, at the right point in the evening, is an utter delight.
FILL UP MY CUP!
MAZEL TOV!
Hur, hur, hur (chuckle).
*sound of Jimi, chortling and grinning from ear to ear in guitar heaven*
Has anyone mentioned Marvin Gaye’s live performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the 1983 NBA all-Stars game yet? No? OK, I will, then.
If you’ve never seen this before, you’re in for a real treat. Marvin’s rendition is simply incredible. I believe it didn’t go down well with the network TV executives, though; apparently, they found it disrespectful or something. He never performed on US TV again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNydcwDriuU
Mate, he didn’t get on telly again because his dad shot him dead. The only TV he was likely to get was Silent Witness.
Re: “he didn’t get on telly again because his dad shot him dead”
That is indeed true, Moosey. But I’d also say that the NBA All-Star game was in February 1983, and poor Marvin didn’t get shot by his dad until April 1984. So there was a period of nearly 14 months before his death when he could’ve appeared on TV, but didn’t. One sensuous performance of the national anthem was all he was going to get…
You’re quite right… he could have been invited to do an acapella version of You Sure Love to Ball on the primetime Andy Williams Christmas Special in 1983…. but no!! The pinheads prevailed.
Tbf you only need to change one word of “Savage In The Sack” to transform it into a natty festive singalong..
Or indeed The Sage & Onion Song… oh dear. See what I mean?
I assumed she was named after the Duchess of York.
Not the fellow that helped Dredd overthrow the reign of Judge Cal?
@sniffity as a Man City and 2000AD fan I was always comforted – particularly in the dark 90s – with the thought of the United manager sitting on a toilet with a baseball bat and flies circling round his head.
I have grown to appreciate how “God Save the Queen (King)”, being a rather poor song, is incapable of becoming a solo showcase the way “The Star Spangled Banner” has been, and so, give or take the odd Brian May style debacle, we are generally spared similar embarrassments.
The absurdly over-elaborated version that the BBC plays on royal birthdays is as good an argument for renouncing UK citizenship as I’ve heard. It sounds like a school orchestra led by a music teacher who really needs to know his limits. Quite a good metaphor for the nation, perhaps.
Moose, you’re confusing the celebrated BEP singer with the rapper MC Chubby Ginger Parasite.
That Marvin – nice.
I’d say that post was a new low for me but I wouldn’t want to tempt fate.
My last ten posts have been about corpses, bogeys and arseholes. Besides being essentially a roll-call of the front row at the Monsters of Rock festival, this does not bespeak a man of good taste.
The good folk of the USA are, rightly or wrongly, very touchy indeed about the songs, flags etc that represent them. I didn’t know until recently that it’s practically a hanging offence to let Old Glory (that’s the Stars and Stripes to you and me) touch the ground – and that there’s one way to fold it when not in use – in a triangle. When Roseanne sang the SSB in 1990 all hell broke loose – and this was pre-internet. See what you think, music fans!
30 years ago Public Enemy launched a t-shirt which showed them holding the s’n’s upside down and, I think, touching the ground. As with the S1Ws dragged up as paramilitaries, I suspect they wouldn’t get away with that now.
Dear god – that really was awful! “A good fist of it” is perhaps appropriate but not in the way it seems R Firefly means…?
I suppose they forgot to switch on the auto-tune
The lights all over the world would have dimmed slightly if they had.