![]() ![]() That’s so much of its appeal-that for all its (semi-)sinister complexity-it’s also great to dance to. And no, first time out we didn’t bother to comment on how funky and fucky this song is. ![]() One thing I’m interested in, in all of this, is that these issues are still so live almost a quarter century later that for all the reams of feminist (and other-ist) criticism the late twentieth century produced, we’ve got not just a can of worms but an intractably tangled knot of worms on our hands here. There’s that “please” again, right alongside the ambiguity of at once issuing commands and comparing oneself to a machine. (I very much like that “child,” which you can read either as that Susan is a brand new convertible-child-a scary notion-or in the “Oooh, CHILD” sense.) The song’s premise is that the singer compares herself to all manner of spanky-new inanimate objects to prove she can please whoever she’s talking to. I’m thinking about that other Vanity 6 song “Drive Me Wild,”-musically it’s pretty far inferior to “Nasty Girl,” and it was written and performed by Susan Moonsie, not by Vanity herself, but I think its subject is relevant. ![]() What kind of power is it, after all, to be asked to front a band not because of any intrinsic desire or even talent, but because you look the way you do? A certain kind, to be sure. I think it is, and actually a pretty smart one, in that it doesn’t assert either of the easy sides of the argument (i.e., either the gazer or she who holds the gaze being empowered) but ricochets between them, which may be why there’s that infinite regression in who’s imagining what in the song’s set up. (This would, after all, be one culturally sanctioned way of proving she’s a nasty girl.) In both senses that’s a nice tie-in to the Prince as (Weird Genius Ambisexual) pimp scenario you mention, and to the question of whether this is ultimately a song about power. Thanks for the Wolk sections on James Brown, as well they do shed some light on the “I’m down on my knees / I’m begging you please / I say please” bit of “Nasty Girl.” Somehow I hadn’t managed to connect the “down on my knees” of begging (whether with histrionic or masochistic intent) with the “down on my knees” of fellatio, which Vanity’s no doubt referencing. You’re quite right that the emotional valence of “Nasty Girl” and “Sugar in My Bowl” couldn’t be more different though I would argue that across Nina Simone’s work, whenever she talks about something “down in my soul” she means her hoo-hoo. “I need a little hot dog in my roll”? And the whole gruff command bit at the end? How sublime and ridiculous thanks for attaching it. The Bessie Smith version of “ Need Some Sugar in My Bowl” is unbelievable. In memoriam, we’re sharing this ’06 exchange from the late, lamented Moistworks, the music blog founded by James Morris and more or less edited by Alex Abramovich. By Alex Abramovich and Emily Barton FebruIn Memoriamĭenise Matthews-aka Vanity-died this week, at the age of fifty-seven. ![]()
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