A Few Things About Gwyneth Paltrow's 'F*ck You' As Performed on Glee
Entertainment Weekly today offers a video preview of Gwyneth Paltrow's guest appearance on Glee, featuring the actress/singer/bowel-elimination expert rocking New Directions as a substitute teacher. The clip showcases Paltrow delivering the family-hour version of Cee Lo Green's "F*ck You" to the group, all pink tambourine and primo sass. So why doesn't it work?
We've already established that Paltrow's appearance should yield a good creative and commercial payoff, up to and including her take on Cee Lo's original, radio-unfriendly hit. That may yet happen for her and the episode -- but not with this song. I'd maybe annotate the video if the retrograde monkeys at EW let anyone embed it, but let's just break down the dynamics of why "F*ck You" works as well as it does, and how Glee basically misses the entire point. First, though -- the NSFW original! Live!
So, seriously:
The song cannot be sanitized
I feel like an idiot just writing "F*ck You" (I really gotta talk to our standards and practices department about that). True, Cee Lo has found some success with the scrubbed-up title "Forget You," which, of course, is the quasi-epithet employed here by Paltrow and Glee-mperor Ryan Murphy. But the fundamental motivation behind the song is abject, bitter fury -- the kind you can't censor, choke down or take back. "Forget You" doesn't convey that; it's the dull edge that church kids and, well, glee clubs default to when they know they're forbidden to keep it real.
And those lines "Ain't that some sh*t," "Oh sh*t, she's a gold digger / Just thought you should know, n*gga," and "I really hate your ass right now, woman" aren't really negotiable here. They're signifiers of class rage, emasculation and heartbreak.
The song is not unisex
Come on, this much is obvious. Would a woman who saw some skank driving around with the "guy I love" say "F*ck you"? Sure, probably, and a lot worse. We relate, ladies! But would she say the change in her pocket wasn't enough or compare herself to an Atari? No. We're not talking about "This Girl/Guy's in Love With You," which Herb Alpert and Dionne Warwick switched up in the '60s and took to No. 1 and No. 7 respectively. We're talking about a very specific, contemporary male angst. You wouldn't ask Brad Pitt to interpret female lust and "vertigo sticks" while covering "Bad Romance," right? It's the same thing. And no, I haven't forgotten about the back-up singers, because...
The song is off-limits for white people
Unless! Unless you really want to match Cee Lo sound for sound. First off, the soul-pop package doesn't mitigate this song or its message; it mainstreams it. It's subversion on steroids, and watered down to high-school pop it's about as subversive as Reader's Digest. More technically, I guess there's nothing keeping Paltrow from actually rhyming that "if I was richer/I'd still be wit' cha," (hello, Amy Winehouse!), but her whitening of the phrase is kind of... well, disgusting. Let's face it: Gwyneth Paltrow singing any variation on "F*ck You" is like Pat Boone singing "Tutti Frutti," and maybe even worse: At least he didn't have to dance with Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer.
The song is not a duet
The Mercedes/Artie segment is inspired for its ethnic implications if nothing else; there is not enough Aleve in the world to soothe this throbbing in my brain. But ultimately, a song about black male romance-and-class angst split up and harmonized all smiley-time by a white dork in a wheelchair and a woman who could just as easily be Cee Lo's original "F*ck You" target (or it could be just as easily be Quinn! This part is not off-limits to white people) is just tone-deaf.
Lea Michele gets it
When all else fails, just stand on the sidelines and glower. See? She does have standards!
· Glee: Gwyneth Paltrow sings Cee-Lo's 'Forget You' [EW]
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Comments
Eh, you'll get over it in time, I'm sure.
I had never heard the original before listening to Paltrow's. After listening to Green’s version, I'd say there's no comparison. Paltrow puts more anger and sincere emotion into the song. Green sounds cheery and upbeat. Saying "fuck you" with a snappy backbeat sounds unbelievably stupid.
If a writer wrote: "Black people have no business singing this song" there would be an absolute backlash. Why is it socially acceptable to separate groups? Last time I checked folks wanted equality.
In all fairness, I rarely give lyrics the time of day. Probably why it took me until my mid-20s to realize what "I Touch Myself" really meant...and Puff the Magic Dragon still is a purple dragon to me despite being about drugs.
Why can we not simply enjoy - I enjoy both versions F*ck You and Forget You. It's catchy! I was prepared to HATE Gwenyth singing, but truthfully? It was neat - a moment when a sub is trying to gain credibility with students. Why does this have to be about black, white, or even class? People of all colors karaoke song written and performed by people of opposite gender, different race, all the time. Stop looking for things to be crotchety about and negative about and simply BE for heaven's sake.
This reminds me of when Whitney Houston covered Dolly Parton's "I will always love you," people were trying to make a conflict about it. When they asked Dolly (the song's writer) she said Whitney could cover any of her songs because it made her more money. In the end it's the music "business" not white, black or brown, but green. You really need to get over it.
Those 3 cheerleaders combined are not 1/10 as sexy as Gwyneth.
Great, fun video! Some people need to lighten up.
Great post Julie!
Are you out of your fucking mind?? Goopy has all the soul of a bathmat. Cee-Lo's upbeat style is ironic, you fucktard!
Are you out of your fucking mind?? Goopy has all the soul of a bathmat. Cee-Lo's upbeat style is ironic, you fucktard!
This article is kind of pre-emptively douchey, especially after having watched the episode. I don't like the show, but watched Patlrow's guest star for kicks. I love to hate the b!tch, but I have to relent and say she did a great job. She was auto-tuned, so she sounded awesome. She actually makes the watered-down version palatable.
Lighten up, American culture has been infused and enriched by various ethnic cultures for its entire history, to everyones advantage. I happen to find Cee Lo's version sweeter than Glee's, but so what. I don't care for the Flying Burrito Brother's cover of Wild Horses by the Stones, but I don't suggest they had no right to make it!
This was obviously written by someone not loving Gweneth and loving Cee Lo, so objectively this isn't objective article, and this comes from someone who also loves Cee Lo and not so much Gweneth
I LOVE Cee Lo's version, and I HATE the radio version. So even though I'm a big Glee fan (and a TV reviewer who covers the show every week), I was extremely skeptical. However, I thought Paltrow handled it fantastically. Somehow, she took the sanitized version and made it way better than the lame radio edit. Great job to all involved!
One of the parts that bothers me (besides "White people can't sing this song") is the part where the author says that girls can't sing this song either. Because girls will never compare themselves to an Atari? PLEASE...are you completely forgetting that there is an entire culture of Geeky Gamer Chicks out there, who totally WOULD, and DO, make comparisons like that? I happen to be one of those girls...and I do like Gwyneth's version of this song, especially knowing that Cee-Lo himself did a "safe for TV" version before she did, and she was only covering that. I really don't think there is any difference between saying "Fuck You" and "Forget You". They mean the same thing when used in that context. It's not like saying "Starsuckers" instead of "Starfuckers". Get off your pedestal for a moment and really think about you're saying in this article. You are racist, and sexist. Absolutely horrible.
I think what's important in this song is a BLACK man talking about how his CLASS made a woman leave him. I'm sorry but a WHITE girl doesn't know ANYTHING about being a BLACK man. GOT THAT FOLKS? When the world is all equal and everybody has the same amount of money, then we can steal each other's pain for profit. Besides, GWYNETH PALTROW CANNOT SING AND IT PISSES ME OFF that everyone keeps pretending like she can when she has to get AUTO-TUNED. SHE CANNOT SING!!! ARGH!!!!
great post, very informative. I wonder why the other experts of this sector don't notice this. You must continue your writing. I am sure, you have a great readers' base already!