"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor -- ENOUGH!!!

Time for a "Songs Ruined By Drag Queens" thread methinks

OH MY GOD!!!

You have no idea how much I agree with you. Where I live they have these "block parties" everywhere and the people hire a DJ and I can say without fear of contradiction that they ALWAYS PLAY THIS!! I can hear it wafting through my endz like every weekend, driving me mental.

Just to even the playing field, there are a clutch of Barry White tunes that also are ripe for permanent retirement.

I do not ever hear this song (nor Cher nor Diana Ross) on the radio

I can think of a certain Kool & The Gang song that I'd like to see abolished.

Yeah, Fruitman is a bitch.

You'd prefer the Man on the Moon version? Yeah, there's been a lot of this one song, but isn't that because there's still pretty much nothing else like it? Forget that it's a powerful anthem and it's sort of generally fantastic - just think about what this song does. When you've just had a break up it's all too easy to identify with songs about wallowing in self-pity or howling rage at the ex, but that doesn't make them good for you. A friend used to propose that there should be a compilation CD of all the break-up songs that aren't wallow and howl songs, but just focus on moving on. It would be the perfect thing to give to any friend who was suddenly readjusting to independence. She even wanted to call the record "I Will Survive." Problem was, that was the only song she could come up with that fit the bill. Others?

hmmm that's a good question

also to be chopped up, grinded down and thrown into a shitstorm: "simply the best".

This was never my favourite disco song to begin with, but trust me, as a wedding DJ, I'd be more than happy to see it die off--it and about 50 other classic songs, to be honest.

Problem was, that was the only song she could come up with that fit the bill. Others?

Soul II Soul, "Keep on Moving"

There's lots.
Rockabilly classic "Glad My Baby's Gone Away" by Glen Glen (1957).

Pussycat Dolls - Don't Need A Man

"rappers delight" and and i'll raise you "good times" too. i'll never get sick of "i will survive".

pulp's "she's a lady" >>>> gloria gaynor's "i will survive"

Problem was, that was the only song she could come up with that fit the bill. Others?

The Mavericks: Dance the Night Away

Soul II Soul is the sort of song she had in mind; thanks! The Glen Glen and the Mavericks lyrics are great, but they're more about being free to see other people than about becoming independent, so I think they're not as self-help-section-of-the-bookstore as she had in mind. And is that Pussycat Dolls song about breakups at all?

One more thought on Gaynor: I always figured this song would have meant something more to people in gay clubs when AIDS was killing people off left and right. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Worst Song Ever.

And is that Pussycat Dolls song about breakups at all?

It's vague but they do say "I'm over you" so possibly.

Yeah, it's become mighty crusty with overexposure. Same with far too much Motown (dead on about Diana Ross).

Dad a, you should read Greil Marcus' essay on the flow of the word "survive" in 1970s pop music. That'll make you look at "I Will Survive" in a less celebratory light. I want to say it's in his Ranters & Crowd Pleasers collection but I don't have a copy near me now. Can anyone confirm?

I'll check it out, thanks for the tip.

Everything, I think you're right about Don't Need A Man. Definitely fits the whole on-my-own theme. We only need a few more of these, we'll run some ads on Oprah and the Lifetime network and make a mint.

Dad a, you should read Greil Marcus' essay on the flow of the word "survive" in 1970s pop music. That'll make you look at "I Will Survive" in a less celebratory light. I want to say it's in his Ranters & Crowd Pleasers collection but I don't have a copy near me now. Can anyone confirm?

there's a bit about that in Lipstick Traces...

Oh, and just to make sure there's no understandings: the Man on the Moon version of I Will Survive is a stone classic. They can pipe that into every drugstore every time I go in and it will still make me smile.

You must just be incredibly unlucky. I haven't heard Cher's "Believe" in at least four years anywhere at any time.

a couple of those mawkish Diana Ross tunes

I'll presume you're talking about "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand" or "Touch Me In the Morning," because I don't ever want "Love Hangover" to stop playing.

OTM

Greil Marcus' essay on the flow of the word "survive" in 1970s pop music.

Would anyone care to summarize? I'm curious, but I'm not getting out to the library today.

A "survior" is basically any star praised for not dying of an overdose. The tag signifies a longevity for which they should get no credit.

Would much prefer the Dwarves "Eat You To Survive" be blaring through the hood.

Not everyone can be the DJ tho...

Saxby D. Elder, you are a man after my own heart. IWS makes me want to chew off my own ears. Ditto 'Simply The Best', ditto 'Its raining men', 'Wind beneath my wings'... I could go on all afternoon.

The "survivor" article by Marcus, which I don't have in front of me and haven't read in a long time, is about how the concept of "survival" and being a "survivor" became such an empty cliché in the '70s, and to demonstrate he reels off a long list of rock albums and pop songs that employ the cliché. (This is in fact just the lead-in to a long, funny chart outlining and ranking the "rock deaths of the 1970s"--the ones who didn't survive, I guess.)

In regards to the Gaynor tune, I think he only describes it in passing as "cheesy."

actually, Alfred's comment--"The tag signifies a longevity for which they should get no credit"--is kind of the key to what Marcus is saying.

I've seen the rock deaths thing but forgot about the survivor intro. If you take it just as asking to be congratulated for not going into cardiac arrest anytime recently, then yeah that's kind of paltry. ("Staying Alive" -- yeah, me too, so what?)

But in the context of the rest of the lyrics I think she means something more like "I will get over this." One thing pop songs can do really well is crystallizing small realizations like, in this case, the moment when you realize that the heartache won't kill you. This song nails that moment.

And again, with AIDS ravaging the gay community, you'd think there'd be times when a sentiment like "I will survive" doesn't seem like such a modest claim.

Well, to re-address, it's really not the fault of the songs themselves. There very well may have been a point in the past when I warmed to these tunes (although, when it comes to this variety of overexposed disco, I'll take LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" or the Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men" over the hackneyed, decrepit warhorse that is "I Will Survive" any day of the hellfire-singed apocalypse), it's just that they seem to have become the stand-by, go-to songs for "Lite Radio" (or whatever) in much the same way Classic Rock radio still insists on playing "Baba O'Reilly," "Takin' Care of Business" and/or "Piano Man." They lost their status as "songs" and become a mind-numbing blight to the senses.

And the Diana Ross song that I'm alluding to is primarily "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

Yeah, the DR version of that sucks. Marvin and Tammi 4-evah!

This is in fact just the lead-in to a long, funny chart outlining and ranking the "rock deaths of the 1970s"

Ah! I forgot that it was the lead-in to that chart. The official title is "Rock Death in the 1970s: A Sweepstake" and it does indeed appear in Marcus' Ranters & Crowd Pleasers, p. 57-78.

it's really not the fault of the songs themselves

I think Alex is dead on here. "I Will Survive" is (was?) a good song. But it's become impossible to listen to it because you hear it everywhere.

And the same goes for Ross although to my ears, it's the Supremes songs that have been most played to death by radio programmers and their mothers. They're like architecture now - you pass by them more than contemplate them or even become cognizant of them.

The Pulp/Lush "Ciao!" on Lovelife would also be good for the "I'm so over you" mix CD mentioned upthread.

If only Gaynor's "Casanova Brown" was played 1/10th as often as "I Will Survive" is played

Most of the other artists mentioned here have great songs too.

Wouldn't it be great if there was an anti- BOB FM station (or JACK FM or whatever it is called in your town) where they only played non-hit songs by hit artists and everyone would be like "THAT's Gloria Gaynor ... I thought she sucked?!"

Alas ...

take a homeless guy and put him in high heels and a nice wig and send him singing "I Will Survive" down some godforsaken street, and then the song'll really come alive.