Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.
This is “Get Ur Freak On” by Missy Elliott:
Ah, the Super Bowl halftime show. Is it America’s weirdest music event? Probably: a nation collectively gees itself up and/or spends longer than necessary replenishing the snacks and beers while an act of some kind of bona fide world-bestriding reputation (Tom Petty! Prince! The Boss! Justin Timberlake! The Rolling Stones! Beyoncé!) belts through a 12-minute medley of its hits. This year’s choice was a bit unusual, I guess. Katy Perry makes music for kids, basically, or even more specifically, for girls. She kissed a girl and she liked it, baby you’re a firework, la-dee-da, whatever. What she’s really good at is a spectacle, and so, a spectacle she delivered, both weird and silly and fun. But what do you do when you’ve got to do a complicated costume change without, ahem, malfunction?
What you do, is you call on a legend and try to keep up while she steals the show from you like a foam shark never could, then disappear and get that final costume on so you can fly off on a star while half your crowd is still yelling, “MISSY!” Where you been, Missy Elliott? More to the point, Missy Elliott, how have we been living without you for so long, Missy Elliott? Missy Elliott, don’t go away again, Missy Elliott!
