"Call Me" vs. "Call Me Maybe"

done and done

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

you're still talking about "call me" nearly 30 years later. I'm pretty sure everyone will have forgotten "Call me maybe" by this time next year. utterly forgettable.

I'm prettty everyone won't.

pretty sure

yeah i hate when people say that. people remember EVERYTHING now, especially things that have reached a certain level of ubiquity.

what evidence have you that critics and listeners thought Blondie's "Call Me" would vanish after summer '80?

xpost

If people still remember "French Kissing in the USA" (and they do) then they will certainly remember "Call Me Maybe".

is that the original title of "Party In The USA"?

In Love With Love (SAW) mix >>>>>> French Kissin

All-time classic disco-rock epic vs agreeably perky disco-rock trifle. Debbie Harry founded the school that CRJ is wait-listed for.

here's my number, so call me in 30 years if you're still listening to this song

flopson can i get your sister number why because she look intersting

lol

hung up on a word. sheesh. only time will tell. I can't even remember what "call me maybe" sounds like 30 secs after hearing it. I'm in the minority:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/06/why-call-me-maybe-is-so-catchy/

I find the prospect of the citizens of 2042 all agreeing with my opinions to be quite a boring-seeming future which I would not want to come true.

heard this first time in forever out the other night, never knew it had a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYpNQXK6lpM

DiscoveredCall Me Maybe after that Kate Perry Youtube tribute thingie. Goes to show how sad I have become. lol Like the song a LOT but I'd pick Blondie. But I won't. Instead I prefer Tweet.

CMM isn't very good really is it. Yr all kidding yourselves.

I find the prospect of the citizens of 2042 all agreeing with my opinions to be quite a boring-seeming future which I would not want to come true.

― Tim F, Monday, June 25, 2012 6:57 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM response to the pointless appealing-to-posterity argument.

Ah, imagine todays world where everyone is still talking about ELP and have forgotten the Sex Pistols.

i love the lyrics on call me maybe. i can barely remember anything from "call me" except "anyplace, anywhere any tiiiime".

for instance:

it's hard to look right
at you, baby

the way she pauses after "right" makes you think that's the end - "it's hard to look right". well, it fucking is, isn't it, especially when you've got a crush on somebody. it's practically impossible to look right, even when you've had 20 minutes to put together your outfit. but hang on - "at you baby" oof, in even deeper into this crush! it's not just "what do i look like" but "what do i look AT?" - such a simple line, but one which pulls the rug from under you halfway through, which is just such a perfect sort of RHYME for what it's talking about, that whole flustered feeling of just not feeling grounded, not knowing what to do around a crush.

before you came into my life
i missed you so bad

is this really what she says?? i mean, it's such a paradox i'm willing to believe i'm mishearing it, but come on people, that is genius.

I would just like to know if in Canada it is really considered crazy to give someone your phone number after you meet them and find them attractive. That's pretty normal dating behavior here in the States, but I am unfamiliar with your more circumspect northern courtship practices.

"Where you think you're going, baby?" is the genius line, some slight menace in it. Like, "baby" could have been replaced by "fuckface"...

tipsy that's the genius of call me maybe - it captures the ways that "normal dating behavior" feels reckless and exciting and a little nuts

Oh I guess. I just like imaging some Canadian boy being all like, "She gave me her NUMBER. What the hell? Where are the months of discreet, lightly perfumed letters followed by a formal interview with her father?"

Imagining

before you came into my life
i missed you so bad

is this really what she says?? i mean, it's such a paradox i'm willing to believe i'm mishearing it, but come on people, that is genius.

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, June 25, 2012 6:51 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, i love that line

I do think the lyrics to "Call Me Maybe" are great

still picking Blondie

^yeah

Ah, imagine todays world where everyone is still talking about ELP and have forgotten the Sex Pistols.

Neither band is forgotten, surely. ELP gets plenty of classic rock airplay.

Exactly.

Oft heard quote from 35 years ago "People will still be talking about ELP long after the Sex Pistols have been forgotten"

Whereas even the people who said that are glad that's not what happened.

While we're talking lyrics, "Call Me" was my introduction to the concept of "designer sheets." I didn't know what it meant, but it sounded sexy.

tipsy that's the genius of call me maybe - it captures the ways that "normal dating behavior" feels reckless and exciting and a little nuts

This + I think the narrator is not used to being the pursuer. The boys usually chase her.

(Cool, Mark G. I see what you're saying now.

I've heard an indie rock guy tell me that Peter Frampton is completely forgotten now!)

'Call Me'.

You CMM fans are coming up with some interesting readings of the song/lyrics, especially in regards to the singer being 26yo. But for me it ultimately comes down to the emotional/physical content of a song, how I react to it. And to these ears it simply doesn't have these complexities you all are ascribing to the lyrics and context. It's emotionally one-dimensional, something you hum while shopping at the mall (and not much more); hence the accusation that it is only aimed at tween girls.

Blondie's song isn't terribly layered either, especially compared to some of their other hits. But it has a (simultaneous) slick & grimy sleaze that appeals to me. Plus 70s/80s Debbie Harry was a master performer, making it all look so effortless.

Well the lyrics are def original & sophisticated; their complexity isn't merely 'ascribed' to them. But I feel like CMM just doesn't have the hooks, and Call Me just wrings so many hooks out of the sabbth-meets-moroder arrangemnt. The Rembrandts ripped off the big hook off their most successful (I think) non-sitcom-related single "Just the Way It is, Baby" from the pre-chorus. Plus, as others have pointed, Debbie's lyrics aint too shabby either.

Glad someone posted the Jimmy Fallon/Roots clip. I played that for three different classes today--love it.

it's so good.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

faith in ilx = restored

...for now

Pleasing numbers to anybody who likes math. Actually, "Call Me Maybe" didn't do too badly.

You CMM fans are coming up with some interesting readings of the song/lyrics, especially in regards to the singer being 26yo. But for me it ultimately comes down to the emotional/physical content of a song, how I react to it. And to these ears it simply doesn't have these complexities you all are ascribing to the lyrics and context. It's emotionally one-dimensional, something you hum while shopping at the mall (and not much more); hence the accusation that it is only aimed at tween girls.

I feel like this is a point that's been made here too many times before to merit repeating but: your argument jumps way too quickly from what you hear emotionally/physically in the tune ---> the tune as "emotionally one dimensional" ---> the tune is "aimed at tween girls".

There's no link between emotional complexity (which itself would be one of the most individually variably perceived qualities in music) and the age of the target audience. "Call Me" isn't emotionally complex at all, and is less so than "Call Me Maybe". It codes as "older" than "Call Me Maybe" (though not by that much) for stylistic reasons.

Anyway there's nothing wrong, and a lot that's right, with emotional simplicity (as a form of "purity" for some people I guess, though I'm suspicious of that term) which is why it is so often heavily prized not just in pop, but in most genres.

honestly, they both strike me as rather simple songs, emotionally and lyrically. each describes the sense of a romantic moment fairly well, but i think "call me" does a better job of capturing that moment musically, the headlong rush of erotic power and inevitability. it feels intoxicating, sexy and dangerous while "call me maybe" doesn't evoke much but excited good cheer. that's appropriate, i suppose, but not terribly compelling, imo.

there's nothing wrong with simple songs. you don't need much idea-wise to fill 3 minutes if it's a good idea.

33 people are lacking the most important thing of all: CONFIDENCE

Tim F otm

part of the choice here may come down to whether you fantasize about imperious blondes addressing you as someone who has designer sheets or whether you fantasize about nervous giggly girls

or whether you imagine yourself as one or the other