ART OF SONG
The Exciters
“He’s Got the Power”
He’s Got the Power b/w Drama of Love
United Artists | 1963′

During my last semester at college, I had a radio show on WNYU.org called HIGH-CLASS & BAD-ASS. Mostly a garage rock venture, I explored a lot of older music for it, and it left me with a deep love for Japanese group sounds and early 1960′s girl groups. It’s through the latter avenue that I discovered The Exciters. Based out of Queens, they’re not technically a girl group, since Herb Rooney – lead singer Brenda Reid’s future husband – joined the group. He can be spotted in the Scopitone film for “He’s Got the Power,” the song I’m going to expound on today.

I consider myself (among many other jumbled and sometimes conflicting labels) a feminist. Listening to the lyrics of some of these songs makes me feel a little bit strange inside, but that doesn’t undermine their power. “He’s Got the Power” is a chief example of this.

It starts off grabbing you with a “YEAH YEAH YEAH!” that I’m shocked hasn’t been sampled more often. I can get behind that. Who can’t? But then we get into the questionable territory. “He makes me do things I don’t want to do / He makes me say things I don’t want to say / And even though I want to break away / I can’t stop saying I adore him, can’t stop doing things for him / He’s got the power, the power of love over me.” Okay…that stanza makes me want to call the police.

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FRESH BAKED
Beyonce
I Am… Sasha Fierce
2008 | Sony BMG
C (I Am…) / B (Sasha Fierce)

“We thought outside of the box and did something different,” is what Beyonce’s father, Matthew Knowles said of her latest release I Am… Sasha Fierce. It’s a bit amazing to me that a two-disc collection is considered “different” according to pop music standards. But we live in a country where a majority of the population agreed Daniel Powter was doing something “different” when “Had a Bad Day” was released. Well, it was still shit. It just had a different smell to it. But there’s no use ranting, pop music has its place. *Sigh*
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