Baby Baby

Call me a square, friend, I don't care ...

"Baby Baby," The Swirling Eddies
"Baby Game," Daniel Amos
"Baby I'm a Star," Prince
"Baby It's Cold Outside," Ray Charles and Betty Carter
"Baby, Just Be Yourself," The Pipettes
"Baby on Board," The Be Sharps
"Baby Plays Around," Elvis Costello
"Baby Watch Your Back," Nellie McKay
"Baby, What's Wrong With You," Crooked Still
"Baby Why?" Green

Bonus: "B-A-B-Y," Carla Thomas

I appreciate Prince's touchiness on the subject of copyright -- once you lose your own name in a legal battle, you're bound to get a bit defensive. But the near-total absence of his TV performances on YouTube is just annoying. Prince played "Baby I'm a Star" at the 1985 Grammy Awards and brought down the house. Haven't seen it for years, but I recall him finishing with "Baby I'm a ..." (swats the microphone stand so it falls to the side, catches it with his foot, kicks it back up and catches it with his other hand just in rhythm for) "... star" and me and everyone else watching thinking, "OK, yes. Yes you are."

The Eddies recorded Amy Grant's "Baby Baby" for their delightful and often unlistenable album, Sacred Cows. This was a collection of irreverent -- make that hostile -- covers of some of the most popular and insipid contemporary Christian music hits, including DeGarmo & Key's "God Good, Devil Bad" and "Satan, Bite the Dust," by the execrable Carman.

Grant actually gets off easy here. "Baby Baby" is a silly, sloppy rendition featuring an inexplicable Edith-Bunker vocal, but it comes across as almost affectionate compared to the nearly vicious ridicule aimed at the other tracks on Sacred Cows. That's appropriate. "Baby Baby" was a disposable bit of shallow, but annoyingly catchy, pop, but the original involved a measure of capable craft. The original versions of the other tracks here seemed to involve a more cynical attempt to exploit the CCM market's willingness to buy almost anything provided it had evangelically correct lyrical content, and despite the playful tone, the Eddies seem to treat them with genuine contempt. When the sacreligious becomes the object of devotion, then it's time to kill some sacred cows.

Comments

[OhCrapIHaveACrushOnSarahPalin]

Worst thing in the world I've ever heard was that ubiquitous remix of Baby Baby.

I also remember her getting in major trouble with her fundobot audience for even making crossover hits for The Devil, to begin with.

She was so frikin annoying, even when I was a Christian. Weak voice, bad songs. Eew.

[The Modesto Kid]

Please please please, don't forget Syd Barrett's "Baby Lemonade". And tell me why, baby, why, baby, why baby why, you got to cry, baby, cry, baby, cry baby cry. It's all over now, Baby Blue.

[wanderingoutlaw]

Baby Don't Know What To Do With Herself - Richard Thompson
Baby Don't You Say You Love Me - T-Bone Burnett
Baby Driver - Simon & Garfunkel
Baby You're a Rich Man - The Beatles
Baby, I'm in the Mood For You - Bob Dylan
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down - Bob Dylan (2 versions)
and just outside the range: Babysitter - Ramones

I had forgotten there ever was a Degarmo & Key. Unfortunately, I still recall Carman--I bought at least one his tapes.

[Geds]

"(Baby Wants to) Tame Me," Local H
"Baby," Dave Matthews
"Baby Fratelli," The Fratellis
"Baby's Home," The Lemonheads

When the sacreligious becomes the object of devotion, then it's time to kill some sacred cows.

The weirdest realization that I've had of late is that I respect Christian symbolism a lot more now than I did when I was a Christian. Reading Rapture Ready, as per Fred et al's recommendation two weeks ago, was greatly enlightening for me on that score.

[cjmr's husband]

I've never liked the word 'baby' as a term of endearment, or its overuse in popular music. My song list reflects this:

Baby Elephant Walk - Henry Mancini

[MikhailBorg]

"Baby, You're a Rich Man," The Beatles
"Baby's Got Back," Sir Mixalot

Funny thing about "Baby's Got Back" - when I first heard the song on a video channel, I laughed at it, but was mildly ashamed of myself for doing so, because I was confident that only a male could find it amusing - any woman would find it sexist and offensive.

In real-world testing, though, most of the women I hang with will laugh when it comes up on a playlist, will sing the lyrics, or occasionally will get up and dance along. This is further evidence that I should never assume I understand a darn thing about women.

[dbe]

"Baby Took a Limo to Memphis" -- Guy Clark

[Geds]

This is further evidence that I should never assume I understand a darn thing about women.

There's an episode of Mythbusters where they're testing the beer goggles concept by having Jamie, Adam, and Kari look at pictures and rate people on a scale of one to ten while getting progressively drunker. When sober, Kari rated guys who looked confident higher and guys who looked sad lower. When drunk she reversed it, saying that the confident guys now looked arrogant and the sad guys now looked cute. The narrator then helpfully said, "And that, guys, is why you will never understand what a woman is thinking."

[J Neo Marvin]

Where would music be without the word "baby"?

Baby - Iggy Pop
Baby's In Black - The Beatles
Baby (1968) - Os Mutantes
Baby (1971) - Os Mutantes
Baby Britain - Elliott Smith
Baby Cakes - Maxine Brown
Baby Help Me - The Detroit Cobras (from the album "Baby"...great garage punk versions of obscure soul numbers)
Baby Honey - The Pastels
Baby It's You - The Beatles
Baby Let Me Follow You Down - Bob Dylan
Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand - The Detroit Cobras
Baby Let Me Take You Home - The Animals (these last 3 are really all the same song, with various degrees of censorship)
Baby Please Don't Go - Joe Williams' Washboard Blues Singers
Baby Please Don't Go - Lighnin' Hopkins
Baby Please Don't Go - Them
Baby Won't Ya - The MC5
Baby You're A Rich Man - The Beatles
Baby, Baby Don't Cry - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

[Amaryllis]

Can I stretch a point for "Babylon" by The Nightjars?

No, I thought not.

[Michael Mock]

Baby's Got The Car Keys (Trout Fishing In America)
Baby Got Back (Jonathan Coulton - seriously, check out his version of the song)
Baby One More Time (Bowling For Soup - recorded live, and it was possibly the funniest cover I ever heard)

[cjmr]

"Baby Boom Baby" -- James Taylor
"Baby Elephant Walk" -- Henry Mancini
"Baby Grand" -- Ray Charles and Billy Joel

AND (bonus out of range but appropriate)

"Bad Babies" -- Adam Bryant (written by Sandra Boynton)

[Geds]

Can I stretch a point for "Babylon" by The Nightjars?

If you do that we're going to have to accept "Baba O'Riley," and from there it's a slippery slope to the entire alphabet. And then random music Friday will lose all meaning, snow will fall in June (northern hemisphere temperate zone only), cats and dogs will fornicate in the street, and it's only three more steps to the return of Satan to begin Armageddon.

Do you really want that on your conscience?

[Matt H]

"Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing" - Chris Isaak (sexiest video evar)
"Baby Please Don't Go" - Van Morrison
"Baby Seat" - Barenaked Ladies

Just misses:
"Babyface" - U2

[Jon P]

"Baby Grand" - Billy Joel and Ray Charles
"Baby I Love Your Way" - UB40

[Pholby]

Video.google.com will often bear out things that would be run off youtube in a matter of moments. Sadly it failed to yield the Prince performance in question but it did come up with Baby I'm a Star (leading into Push) from the International Special Olympics.

http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p302/mimiviz/?action=view&current=6d38dcf8.flv#

I would categorize it as "unbearably awesome."

[Amaryllis]

Geds: Do you really want that on your conscience?
No, nay, never. I withdraw my request. (But it's still a good song.)

cjmr: AND (bonus out of range but appropriate)
"Bad Babies" -- Adam Bryant (written by Sandra Boynton)
Surely that wasn't a reference to Our Evenstar? She's not why it's appropriate, I hope? Must be some other baby you were thinking of...

[hapax]

I would categorize it as "unbearably awesome."

Thanks, Pholby, now I have to deal with my jealousy issues over a microphone.

MikhailBorg, I've got both the original and Coulton's cover of "Baby Got Book", and both always make me laugh. As does this version, which is certainly appropriate for LB Friday.

[Geds]

DeGarmo & Key's "God Good, Devil Bad" and "Satan, Bite the Dust," by the execrable Carman.

I had a long running joke whereby I took the name of Christian pop artists in vain in situations where cussing was usually called for. Carman and Al Denson were my favorite epithets, but I'm sure I used others.

The funny thing is, it quickly evolved to a point where a certain singer pretty much replaced a specific word, so there were some situations that called for a, "Carman!" but some that called for a more subdued, "Oooh, Al Denson."

Yeah...those were the days.

Wait, no they weren't.

[JessicaR]

It got pulled off YouTube but yeah that Grammy performance was A.Maz.Ing. YouTube does have plenty of Carman videos. Their jaw dropping bad taste is hypnotic. I need to check out Rapture Ready! to see if gets a mention.

[JessicaR]

if he gets a mention, I should say.

[Cowboy Diva]

A Petra to Geds for mentioning Al Denson.
what was the name of the speaker he used to open for? Josh MacDowell?

[Geds]

what was the name of the speaker he used to open for? Josh MacDowell?

Wikipedia says Dawson McAllister. I mostly remember him from DC '94, though. He and Geoff Moore & the Distance were like the house bands for that thing.

I managed to come out of that with respect for Geoff Moore and nothing good to say about ol' Al Denson, though. Couldn't begin to explain why, so please don't ask. It was 14 years ago now.

[Fiona]

Baby Blue -Badfinger
Baby Can I Hold You - Tracy Chapman
Baby Driver - Simon & Garfunkel
Baby What You Want Me To Do - Texas Tornados
Baby, It's Tonight - Jude Cole
Baby, Now That I've Found You - Alison Krauss & Union Station

I have a lot of music on this machine that I've never even listened to, including nearly all of these--copied off of coworkers and the like--but I can definitely recommend the Tracy Chapman.

And I have an almost completely different lot of music on the home machine. We love the Jonathan Coulton "Baby Got Back" and have nearly his entire oeuvre.

I'm sure I have a copy of Amy Grant's "Baby Baby" at home though it's probably on a cassette packed away in a box somewhere, and at least one version of "Baby It's Cold Outside".

[Salamanda]

Baby Got Going - Liz Phair
Babytalk - Everclear

[LeRoc]

Baby Mine - Alison Krauss
Babyhead - Fishbone
Babylon - Zeca Baleiro

[Ian Mathers]

Baby - Billy MacKenzie
Baby I Need Your Loving - The Four Tops
Baby I'm Just a Fool - Spiritualized®
Baby Man (Live) - Bobby Conn & The Glass Gypsies
Baby Oh Baby - Martin Rev
Baby Please Don't Go - The Amboy Dukes
Baby Please Don't Leave Me - Buddy Guy
Baby Watch Your Back - Nellie McKay
Baby, I Love You So - Jacob Miller
Baby, We'll Be Fine - The National
(Baby) You Don't Have To Tell Me - The Walker Brothers

That Jacob Miller song is the basis for the dub track "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown," widely regarded as the single finest classic dub out there. The original is a pretty great track too. But my favourite is probably either the Buddy Guy track, which is just monumental, or the one by the National.

[Michele my bell-flower]

@ hapax: I've got both the original and Coulton's cover of "Baby Got Book"

This typo made me LOL! :-)

[Michele my bell-flower]

OK, so was it NOT a typo?

[Geds]

OK, so was it NOT a typo?

Coulton covered "Baby Got Back," and it was hilarious, except with the same problem that the original had. "Baby Got Back" is about four minutes longer than it needs to be and after the initial joy wears off it gets pretty damn tedious. Coulton's cover slows down and folk-ifies it, doing much the same thing that Dynamite Hack's cover of "Boyz in the Hood" and Obadiah Parker's cover of "Hey Ya" do.

There was a Christian spoof of "Baby Got Back" a couple years ago called "Baby Got Book" that covered the singer's love of ladies who carried Bibles around. It had a lo-fi YouTube video and went viral through the church crowd. I, personally, couldn't stand it for more than three seconds at a time.

And that's Geds's opinion of Sir Mix-A-Lot's most famous song and its covers.

[hapax]

Umm. One of those things when your brain runs ahead of your fingers. A conflation, maybe?

[Jack Bishop]

"Baby Blue Eyes", by Dennis Wilson
"Baby Doll", by Marót Viki és a Nova Kultúrzenekar
"Baby I Love You", by Aretha Franklin
"Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long", by Brian Wilson
"Baby Love", by Diana Ross and the Supremes
"Baby, Let Me Follow You Down", by Bob Dylan
"Babyfoot Is Off Today", by Erik Sumo
"Babylon", by Omega
"Babylon Dub", by Ladánybene 27
"Babylon Sisters", by Steely Dan

[Em]

Baby - Jungle Book Soundtrack
Baby's got a Neutron Bomb - Army of Lovers
Baby Baby - Die Toten Hosen
Baby Blue Eyes - SPK
Baby Boomerang - Marc Bolan and T. Rex
Baby Can I Hold You - Tracy Chapman
Baby Don't Cry - INXS
A Baby for Pree - Neutral Milk Hotel
Baby Grand - Billy Joel & Ray Charles
Baby, I Love You - The Ronettes
Baby It's Cold Outside - Lwon Redbone and Zooey Deschanel
A Baby Just Like You - John Denver AND John Denver & the Muppets
Baby Let Me Follow You Down - Robyn Hitchcock
Baby Lou Tattoo - Horrorpops
Baby, Now that I've Found You - The Foundations
Baby Pictures - Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Baby Plays Around - Elvis Costello
Baby Please Don't Go - The Amboy Dukes
Baby Please Don't Go - Van Morrison
Baby Ray Baby - This Mortal Coil
Baby Screams - The Cure
Baby Sittin' Boogie - Buzz Clifford
Baby Stones - Robert Forster
Baby Strange - Marc Bolan & T. Rex (x2)
Baby Wants a Diamond Ring - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Baby, We'll Be Fine - The National
Baby, We Better Try to Get it Together - Barry White

[Jessica]

wandering outlaw wrote: “I still recall Carman--I bought at least one his tapes.”

That takes guts to admit that. Carman anonymous: “Hi, my name’s Jessica and I’ve bought a Carman tape before. It’s been ummmm, like 20 years since my last Carman tape.”

@MikahilBorg re: Baby Got Back. I think your initial assessment would be correct—most women don’t like to draw too much attention to a body part that they generally consider to be too big or whatever. The reason, I think, that this particular song transcends that rule is because it isn’t mean spirited in its treatment of the subject. Derogatory maybe, but not mean spirited. At least I never thought so. Of course, I probably only understand about 10% of the words, so maybe I’m not the best judge.

Geds wrote:
“The funny thing is, it quickly evolved to a point where a certain singer pretty much replaced a specific word, so there were some situations that called for a, "Carman!" but some that called for a more subdued, "Oooh, Al Denson."”

Now that was funny. I might have to remember that one. I know someone who would really appreciate it. In fact, I might start doing it. In lieu of Cartman's spastic string of swear words at the end of the South Park movie, I might try adding a song title or two-- something like "Carman's video performance of 'A Witch's Invitation'"!!!!!!!! Just imagine the lightning I could get to fly out of my finger's with that diatribe.

I’ve got the following to add:
“Baby (You’ve got what it takes)” Dinah Washington
“Baby I love you” The Ramones
“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” Dean Martin (I have more than just the one, but those are tucked away in a Christmas play list that hasn’t made it’s way onto the iPod yet).
And a shout-out for “Baby Seat” by the BNL. Woot!

[Linkmeister]

Baby Driver, S&G
Baby Hold On, Dixie Chicks
Baby It's You, Beatles
Baby Love, Supremes
Baby I Love Your Way, Peter Frampton

[Steve]

RE: The Eddies Sacred Cows.

I was just listening to this a few weeks ago. My 3 and 5 year old boys like their cover of "God Good, Devil Bad". If I had a blog, I'd do a regular feature called "Great Moments in Song" and one of the first would be the Eddies breakdown where they ad-lib:
"Theres four simple words
You better learn
God Good - Devil Bad
Sun Hot - Snow Cold
Knife Sharp - Spoon Dull
Socks Stink - Flowers Don't
But God Good - Very Good
and the Devil He's a very bad"

[Jenny Islander]

I like Amy Grant's light, pleasant voice, but it was kind of sad what happened with "Baby, Baby." It's actually a song about babies, but her crossover video featured her playing at an amusement park with a man not her husband and no skin on display. So most of the non-CCM listeners went, "Eh, who's this again?" and a lot of the CCM listeners who tuned in said, "NOOOO AMY GRANT NOOOOOO."

I still want to see the video done with actual babies and pregnant women. But Tittyvision never would've had the guts to put it on the air.

[jamoche]

I've never liked the word 'baby' as a term of endearment, or its overuse in popular music. My song list reflects this:

Mine too. All I've got is "Baby's On Fire", from the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack.

[Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little]

Have we mentioned yet the Richard Cheese cover of "Baby Got Back"?

Speaking as a woman who finds the song hilarious, I think it's just the total over-the-topness of the song that makes me laugh. Also, I can appreciate just about any song that pushes away from the toxic popular concept of beauty that encourages woman to starve themselves. Cowboy Mouth do their part with a song called "Belly" (as in "I love your...")

[Jeff]

I don't see "Baby Don't Go" by George Thorogood. philistines, the lot of ya!

===============

Of course, I probably only understand about 10% of the words, so maybe I’m not the best judge.

"I like big butts and I cannot lie." The rest of the song is merely amplification.

[Hummingwolf]

Don't have many mp3s at all (old computer, dial-up connection, very sad), but I do want to link to a video for Icehouse's Baby You're So Strange. Musical child of the '80s that I am, I have recently come to realize that Icehouse singer Iva Davies and his mid-80s hairstyles influenced my taste in the opposite sex far more than they probably should have. He still has one of my all-time favorite voices, though!

[Tonio]

What is the etymology of "baby" as a term of endearment in rock and pop music? When I hear the term used that way, I think of Ike Turner pleading with Tina, or of the stereotype of the aspiring ladies man using the term as a come-on. I won't even get into Dick Vitale's usage...

Amy Grant's "Baby Baby"

You mean "Vavy Vavy"?

Did the CCM fan base howl in protest when Grant had secular hits? Or do those fans not think like fans of, say, punk or metal?

[noyatin]

B-A-B-Y - Carla Thomas
Baby's in Black - Beatles
Baby Get Lost - Dinah Washington
Baby It's You - Beatles
Baby Workout - Jackie Wilson
Baby You're a Rich Man - Beatles
Baby, Better Start Turnin 'Em Down - Roseanne Cash
Baby I'm Yours - Barbara Lewis
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down - Bob Dylan
Baby, Now That I've Found You - Foundations, Alison Krauss & Union Station

[Michele my bell-flower]

Way back in the late '80s, there was a radio station in Cincinnati (?) that spliced together all the instances of Led Zeppelin songs where Robert Plant sang "Baby". Apparently the result was over 5 minutes long!

[Steve]

Tonio: If memory serves me correct, I vaguely remember people be concerned that Amy was flirting with a guy in the video...and it wasn't her actual real-life husband. Not sure how these people watch plays or television shows.

[Headless Unicorn Guy]

"I like big butts and I cannot lie." The rest of the song is merely amplification. -- Jeff

Especially with the Dragon-and-Donkey arrangement in Shrek's end credits...

Did the CCM fan base howl in protest when Grant had secular hits? Or do those fans not think like fans of, say, punk or metal? -- Tonio

I understand at least some of them did. "Secular Sellout", or some such.

Tonio: If memory serves me correct, I vaguely remember people be concerned that Amy was flirting with a guy in the video...and it wasn't her actual real-life husband. Not sure how these people watch plays or television shows. -- Steve

According to Wikipdedia's bio, Amy Grant's marriage blew up around 1999 due to the generic reason of "irreconcilable differences". Both her and her ex remarried within a year. Typical Celebrity behavior.

[interleaper]

Backfilling a bit since I came in on the C's this go-around:

Baby Be Mine - Michael Jackson
Baby Don't Change Your Mind - Gladys Knight and the Pips
Baby Love - Diana Ross and the Supremes
Baby Please Don't Go - Lightnin' Hopkins

(I'm so tempted to stretch the selection by one to take in "Babelogue - Patti Smith")