Thursday, February 9, 2012: Cyndi Lauper- She Bop

The third single from her 1983 album She's So Unusual (after "Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun" and "True Colors"), I've always thought that this track was far cooler than either of those.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is a light, frothy pop-anthem in the grand tradition of songs like "Dancing In the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas.  True Colors is the ubiquitous pop ballad that sounds like, well, about a thousand other pop ballads.

She Bop sounds like....well, She Bop doesn't really sound like anything else.

First, that glorious false start, the dainty arpeggios of some fake string section, the innocent whistle fading out before the drums and dirty synth explode out of the speakers, grinding out a faint echo of some forgotten rhythm and blues riff, that immediate smashing together of the old and new. Then Lauper's voice kicks in like Betty Boop on Mescaline. In fact, the whole track feels like a bad trip gone right.

It really is Lauper's voice that is the star here, swinging between those high "boops" and squeeks to the haunted chorus singing "I don't really understand" to the various theatrics acting out the lyrics (see the faux disapproving tone singing about the "pages of a blue boy magazine"), here is an artist in full command of her instrument.

She Bop is an absolutely amazing track, and still stands as something unique on the landscape of pop music. I love this track a lot.