Posted on 12/03/2016 10:57:21 PM PST by nickcarraway
A couple from Minnesota has re-imagined the classic Christmas song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” for a 21st-century audience, changing the song’s lyrics to emphasize the importance of consent.
Singer-songwriters Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski, both from Minneapolis, said they were inspired to rework the song after bonding over a mutual dislike of the original’s lyrics, which were penned in 1944 by Frank Loesser.
The duet features a man trying to dissuade a woman from leaving a party despite her repeated protestations that she has to go home.
“What’s in this drink?” is one of the female lines. “What’s the sense in hurtin’ my pride?” implores the male voice.
The song’s seeming disregard for the woman’s desire to leave never sat well with Lemanski or Liza.
“I’ve always had a big problem with the song. It’s so aggressive and inappropriate,” said Lemanski, 25.
Liza, 22, said she felt the same way as her boyfriend.
“We started thinking of the open-ended questions that song has,” she said. “You never figure out if she gets to go home. You never figure out if there was something in her drink. It just leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.”
So Wednesday night, the couple decided to write a complete set of new lyrics.
“We wrote the whole thing in an hour and then we went back and used my little demo-recording microphone and did that in 15 minutes,” Liza recalled.
And though the melody is still the same, the lyrics strike an entirely new chord.
” I really can’t stay/Baby I’m fine with that” opens the song, as the lyrics recall the original’s format of a woman leaving a party.
Except in Liza and Lemanski’s version, she does so without protest, the man helps her get home safely and the fictional couple makes a date the next day at The Cheesecake Factory.
“I ought to say no, no, no,” sings Liza.
“You reserve the right to say no,” croons Lemanski.
And as for that dubious “What’s in this drink?” line. It’s still there.
Except, in the new version, the question is actually answered — by Lemanski, who responds with the oh-so-now “”Pomegranate La Croix” (obviously).
“I thought we were just doing like a really good, cool, funny thing and it just felt right,” Liza said.
“And emphasizing consent is one of the causes that I’ve always really been behind because I don’t think I can think of one friend of mine who’s a woman who hasn’t been in dangerous situations with men. I’ve always cared about this so much,” she added.
But after the duo uploaded the song to SoundCloud, the couple found that what started out as a shared gripe between a boyfriend and girlfriend also resonated with the public at large.
“We’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘Wow, we never actually paid attention to the lyrics before — this is awful!'” said Liza.
The couple also said they hoped the song would raise awareness of the need for consent, given the problem of sexual assault on college campuses.
“It’s not just a rare thing — it happens all the time, everywhere. Every day. And I’m afraid for my sister. And I’m afraid for my friends. And I hope that this song gets people thinking about it,” Lemanski said.
Liza added that she hoped that the song would inspire others to take action to help prevent violence against women.
“I hope it will be on people’s minds and that people will donate to charity or do some volunteer work at shelters or sexual assault centers. Like, if you think about this and you think it’s a problem, definitely step out of your comfort zone and do something and help someone,” she said.
And having successfully designated their re-imagined “Baby It’s Cold Outside” as an unofficial anthem for the importance of consent, the couple joked that there were some other candidates for the Liza and Lemanski treatment.
“A lot of people have suggested a bunch of songs, like Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘She Didn’t Say Yes, She Didn’t Say No’ and Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines,'” said Liza.
“We’ll just do a whole album,” she laughed.
Read the original lyrics to “Baby It’s Cold Outside” here and check out Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski’s version below.
I really can’t stay/Baby I’m fine with that
I’ve got to go away/Baby I’m cool with that
This evening has been/Been hoping you get home safe
So very nice/I’m glad you had a real good time
My mother will start to worry/Call her so she knows that you’re coming
Father will be pacing the floor/Better get your car a-humming
So really I’d better scurry/No rush.
Should I use the front or back door?/Which one are you pulling towards more?
The neighbors might think/That you’re a real nice girl
What is this drink?/Pomegranate La Croix
I wish I knew how/Maybe I can help you out
To break this spell/I don’t know what you’re talking about
I ought to say no, no, no/you reserve the right to say no
At least I’m gonna say that I tried/you reserve the right to say no
I really can’t stay/…Well you don’t have to
Baby it’s cold outside
I’ve got to get home/Do you know how to get there from here
Say, where is my coat/I’ll go and grab it my dear
You’ve really been grand/We’ll have to do this again
Yes I agree/How ’bout the Cheesecake Factory?
We’re bound to be talking tomorrow/Text me at your earliest convenience
At least I have been getting that vibe/Unless I catch pneumonia and die
I’ll be on my way/Thanks for the great night
Some cultures sexualize girls early....super cold climate folk and nomads and isolated islanders.....some Hassidim fairly early arranged marriage..and of course FLDS......our rural areas once married off girls early..my maternal grandma was 15.
Papa was barely 18
1920
She didn’t even know what sex was literally....she used to recount to me when it was just she and I in her 70s and 80s....poor thing...she was lucky my grandpa was a tender hearted boy
Nine months after that honeymoon buggy ride by the spring under the moon ona Mississippi hot summer night and she was making paper dolls for herself and her baby
And fixing to get pregnant again.
They had to grow up fast....my great grandma and grandpa let them live in the tack house cabin
They moved to the city in 1924.....like most rural folk then
I stayed some weekends with that great grandma in preschool years....no running water and an outhouse
Kid u not
Fried pies and she chewed her own tobacco rope and shot and rode her saddlebred in her late 70s
260 acres and that and tobacco allotments was their means of life
Crazy
Kids today have no idea
I at least got a taste of it
My great grandpa died in that front parlor and was lain there in an alcohol drenched coffin till his burial for folks to come by before the wagon took him down the pike to Burns Mississippi Presbyterian antebellum graveyard
Farms long gone..can’t find it now...the land is all Scott Paper
Our culture is so so bad
In our lifetimes a cliff dive
You said so yourself....at 15, your grandmother had NO idea what SEX was.
Today, in some places in the USA, they know what it is at 5 or at least by 8 and by 15, are "old hands" at it; not married, mind you, but 'round the block and back so often, it's sickening.
The Hassidim marry early, but not THAT early and usually it's the kids of the BIG TIME Rabbis, who marry the earliest and it's akin to long past royal weddings...mergers and such, for territory and breeding stock.
But will it sell? No.
...and failing to reproduce, they disappeared from the Earth.
I failed to clarify properly of course I got your point
I’m pretty familiar with Satmar Hassidim for a southern baptist..lol
I think their arranged marriages are just one step this side of FLDS to be honest but because they vote R largely lotsa freepers applaud them without knowing a lot about their unusual mores
My closest adult Jewish friend ever was from a secular Israeli family and lived in Park Slope We traveled the world together to mining areas in Colombia Thailand Burma Brasil Zambia Zaire and Sierra Leone in search of the best stones
We had an office on 47th by now gone Kaplans deli together as well as in Hatton Garden London
He was at my wedding and my daddy’s funeral.
He was a formidable negotiator but he was straight with me
I trusted him with my life and it actually came down to that once
I’ll loved him like my little Gene Wilder looking brother
In 1998 he left his wife of 16 years at aged 44 or 45 and moved to Monroe NY and marry his Rebbes niece who was 17 and whom he’d only met once and then she had her marriage lecture and chastity test and found suitable and married in days
He left his two young real world children with his ex wife who was devastated and had never done anything wrong honestly...she’s never recovered
They grew up together in Haifa as kids and he was a tank infantry grunt in Kippur where he killed men...something that haunted him
I stay in touch with her and have on occasion when asked helped her financially though it’s been a while now
She’s back in Israel now tending to her parents near the Golan
She’s a regular Americanized Yemeni origin Jew and a sweet traditional fairly conservative girl who loves Trump btw
My buddy has had 14 children since then till the last and his wife can’t have anymore
I last saw him in Monroe in 1990 and he had me met at the compound and drink from paper cups they keep for unclean like.me though he did apologize for that profusely he just didn’t want his wife to rat him out to his father in law
Long beard and peyots and a Shtreimel on the table
It was awkward given we’d roamed the world together as men...a robust life of adventure lust and girls of course and money and helluva lot of fun
He was Sephardic and his surname is the ladino for wolf..his daddy was Haganah late 40s
They were jewelry people
I haven’t seen him since but two years ago he calls me and asked for money
He is a “scholar” and lives on the dole or charity in Jerusalem and is currently in trouble for misappropriating state funds in Israel meant for an Haredi radio station he was involved with
His marriage is not uncommon in particularly with Satmars but yes it is like you suggested for political and money reasons and to increase the sect...which is like Mormons used to do but they took the shortcut of polygamy though..And younger wives
And yes again like you alluded to they don’t know much about sex early but they sure get a crash course early enough and then the babies just keep rolling out
To me there are aspects cult like but some of their practices and morality I like
The great irony was he and I sold millions of diamonds to the Haredi sects in the 80s
We would go to their offices and they were such dour and frankly odd folks and he get infuriated with them but they paid and paid well
Selling kilos of ornamental melle diamonds to Indians was much much more infuriating and risky
Anyhow...lol.. probably too long a rant...I’m done...bedtime
Exactly, the song is not about the woman being pressured. The song is about the couple together conspiring to spend a little more time together, in an era when respectable people of both genders were expected to behave in a certain way.
This song was “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights” for my parents generation.
I don’t understand how the concept of convincing a woman to sleep with you is now considered rape.
If you actually listen to the original song, what’s really happening is she wants to stay, but doesn’t want to come across as “easy”.
To a large extent, seduction is the game of her wanting to be talked into what she really wants to do anyway.
I think they need a further re-write. There are several lines in this song that uber feminazis would find offensive.
I really can’t stay/Baby I’m fine with that
(As if she needs his consent to leave)
I’ve got to go away/Baby I’m cool with that
(Same as above)
This evening has been/Been hoping you get home safe
(Is that a threat?)
So very nice/I’m glad you had a real good time
My mother will start to worry/Call her so she knows that you’re coming
(Sexual reference?)
Father will be pacing the floor/Better get your car a-humming
(Sexual reference?)
So really I’d better scurry/No rush.
Should I use the front or back door?/Which one are you pulling towards more?
(Sexual reference?)
The neighbors might think/That you’re a real nice girl
(Dont judge or slut shame)
What is this drink?/Pomegranate La Croix
(Its dangerous to take a drink from a man)
I wish I knew how/Maybe I can help you out
(Watch that paternalism)
To break this spell/I don’t know what you’re talking about
I ought to say no, no, no/you reserve the right to say no
At least I’m gonna say that I tried/you reserve the right to say no
I really can’t stay/…Well you don’t have to
Baby it’s cold outside
I’ve got to get home/Do you know how to get there from here
(More paternalism. Just because she is a woman she needs directions to her own home from some guy)
Say, where is my coat/I’ll go and grab it my dear
You’ve really been grand/We’ll have to do this again
Yes I agree/How ’bout the Cheesecake Factory?
We’re bound to be talking tomorrow/Text me at your earliest convenience
(Texting isnt talking, and dont tell her what to do. Besides, why should she have to text him?)
At least I have been getting that vibe/Unless I catch pneumonia and die
(Like all men should)
I’ll be on my way/Thanks for the great night
(She’ll decide later whether or not to file a harassment complaint)
Once gain, proof that Liberals ruin everything they touch.
That is not a song which can be ruined anymore than it was by Frank Loesser.
More humorless PC garbage from a grudge-seeker and her pajama-boy collaborator.
Rogers and Hammerstein they ain’t.
The song is lightweight all right, but the original version is better. The woman is struggling with herself, not the man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MFJ7ie_yGU Classic seduction at first - “KHAAAAAN!”, then funny with Red Skelton.
“...them crappers who write horribly foul, disgusting, misogynystic words (not lyrics) in every crap “song” ever screeched?”
The wife drug me to a wedding yesterday for one of her distant, distant relatives, followed by the reception. Food was great, bar was open, but the music was filled with the kind of grotesqueries I wouldn’t even allow in my house. Seventy year old white grannies twerking is just wrong.
These perpetually offended “women’s libbers” are always about keeping the “delicate” female species wrapped tightly in their cocoons of victimhood.
Especially when she can just walk away, and he’s doing nothing more than just pleading.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.