“
Ow!
I’ve been sitting here for the last few
hours,
Looking at you –
Stretching my imagination through my form
of work,
And maybe get my hands on you
…
I’m hot for you baby,
Oh, I wanna love you to death
”
From the Tina Turner song, “Hot for you
Baby”
There has been debate about “Hot for you Baby”, a new single released by the singer, Tina Turner.
The first problem is that Tina Turner died two years ago. It is not clear that she ever wanted the song to be heard by the general public. The song was recorded for her 1984 comeback album, “Private Dancer”. But the song was cut, and didn’t appear on the record. Tina Turner’s record label decided to put the song on a re-release of the album, to celebrate its fortieth anniversary. Somehow, this release was delayed by a year so that it actually came out 41 years after the original. Is it fair to release a deceased artist’s work posthumously, without their permission?
The other question is whether the song is actually any good. Tina Turner doesn’t seem to have thought so. I tend to agree with her. Looking at some of the lyrics above, you can see that it is not exactly poetry. Maybe for a die-hard fan, even the weaker tracks of an artist are interesting. And should we really worry about hurting the feelings of an artist who has already died? If a previously lost Shakespeare poem were found, would it be fair to ban people from reading it, just because it was never published and wasn’t very good?
I wasn’t hot for this track. But it did remind me of Tina Turner’s
wonderfully powerful and at times over the top voice. No one sung the line, “Ow!” quite like her.
Vocabulary:
To be deceased – to have died (quite) recently
[eg., The police have informed the deceased
man’s family of the accident.]
for something to happen posthumously – for
something to happen after the main person involved has died
[eg., The soldier who was killed in the
battle was posthumously awarded a medal.]
a die-hard fan – a core or extremely
committed fan
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