Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Dec 18 - 06:20 PM

As I said, if you switch the allocation of lines so the woman has the man's lines and vice versa it would still work. Where's the rule that women can't make the running in this kind of situation?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 07 Dec 18 - 07:06 PM

A song from the mid to late 60s on a similar theme, featuring a duet with a borderline folk singer ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCsp5WBk7kw

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Dec 18 - 07:30 PM

Here's the 1999 Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews performance of Baby It's Cold Outside

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m3JfmExzsQ

Kinda reminiscent of Bluebeard, I think.



Here's their 2008 effort:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNWsk6AUqGU

Still sexy, but not kinky like the 1999 performance.



-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Loesser)
From: robomatic
Date: 07 Dec 18 - 08:33 PM

I grew up with this song. Loved it, as I did pretty much anything done by Flanders and Swann.

But can it survive in this day and age. Does its humour outlast its subtext?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Dec 18 - 08:43 PM

Yes, I see the dilemma:

Have some Madeira, m'dear!
I've got a small cask of it here,
And once it's been opened, you know, it won't keep.
Do finish it up, it will help you to sleep ...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Dec 18 - 08:53 PM

"Have Some Madeira, M'Dear!" was a trademark song for Lou Gottlieb of the Limeliters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hO4qvEtPZ4

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: robomatic
Date: 08 Dec 18 - 08:22 PM

I have several Flanders and Swann records, and Flanders post-scripted a performance of this song on a live recording saying:

"Donald Swann's ten year old nephew loves this song...
Sings it all the time. . .
He thinks it's about CAKE!"

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Dec 18 - 03:40 PM

Back to Baby It's Cold Outside.

There was a heartfelt letter to the editor today. This writer expressed dismay about "Say, what's in this drink?" I can see how somebody who got dosed with rohypnol and then raped would find that line hard to take.

Would somebody please folk-process that rhyme and get the bad taste out of our mouths? We don't have to throw away a brilliant set of lyrics because of one line.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 09 Dec 18 - 04:33 PM

Well, one way to go at it would be to consider the rhyme in the couplet.

You could start, for instance, by changing

"the neighbors might think"

to, say,

"the neighbors might tell" ...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: robomatic
Date: 09 Dec 18 - 05:37 PM

Another song that for all I can find out has been ignored but should be on the #METOO list is playing right now at Starbucks:

"Santa Baby"


Sounds cute, dunnit? But it sorta sounds like the cutesie-pie antics of a kept 'person' who is trying to up the take. . .

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: meself
Date: 09 Dec 18 - 08:22 PM

D'ya think?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Dec 18 - 09:04 PM

They taught my grandson in school to sing,

"Don we now our fine apparel."

And as somebody just pointed out on the radio, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was bullied by all of the other reindeer.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Dec 18 - 06:23 PM

Finally, a "woke" version we can all sing with gusto:

BABY, JUST GO OUTSIDE by the Holderness Family

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Dec 18 - 04:14 PM

I think Bill Cosby gave a death sentence to the "Say, what's in this drink?" version. There needs to be a revision, and it's an interesting challenge to revise the song in a way that respects its original clever, literate humor.

Here is a revision from a couple who are what I'm guessing to be millennials. I kinda like it. It's not prudish, and it's not just an attempt to censor out objectionable things like cigarettes and spiked drinks. Take a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amK4U4pCTB8

It's by Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski.

---

And here's a really cute one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bbuBubZ1yE

It's by Idina Menzel & Michael Bublé. They also edited out the objectionable parts - but in 2014, before all this kerfuffle.

---

And here's one where Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sing the original words on a special Lady Gaga did with the Muppets - they even included the cigarette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtoW4aV-CIc

I don't think that "pre-enlightened" recordings of the song should be banned, but I do think that, since the conviction of Bill Cosby, there's a need for new recordings to "re-envision" the lyrics.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 18 - 11:19 AM

The way it is now, Santa can't say "ho ho ho" anymore.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 13 Dec 18 - 11:22 AM

Sing or don't sing, just don't ban. It is only a song. If we banned all non-PC songs most of the blues and folk repertoire would be out. "Shake your money-maker" anyone?
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Dec 19 - 11:50 PM

refresh?

I still like
Ray Charles and Betty Carter
balancing cool and hot together.


And I agree,
how the interpretation is put across can make all the difference.
The song is supposed to tickle,
not inflame ...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 02:59 AM

As long as the relationship is consensual, there's nothing at all wrong with the flirtation in this song. It reminds me of some lovely, cold nights in the days when I was single. It was nice, snuggling under the skylight and looking up at the stars...and much warmer than doing it alone.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 05:28 AM

As soon as you hear the dreaded “ problematic” , run away...as fast as you can.
However “ committed feminist” has a Nice ring to it.
But then there is the retirement of St. George., having slain the most dangerous dragon, he is now turning his sword and lance upon newts.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Dec 19 - 09:31 AM

It is only nice by the fire if you aren't trying to leave.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 09 Dec 19 - 12:56 PM

It's "Lord Gregory" backwards.

The heroine of that one did leave and look what happened to her.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 11 Dec 19 - 10:41 AM

Well, I hadn't thought of it as Lord gregory in reverse, but it makes sense. As for what happened to "her", well, there was likely no good outcome for her either way.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 11:57 AM

People who don't like "Say, what's in this drink?" can change it. It's called folk process.

"I don't need a drink." comes to mind.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 12:23 PM

Changing the well known lyrics of a fifty year old song probably has a name, but it isn't "folk process".

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: meself
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 12:52 PM

Wondering if we can call this a Christmas tradition yet: the annual show of indignation inspired by Baby, It's Cold Outside. You know, like the traditional late spring, early summer outrage over "dress codes; violations and consequences" in a sample of American high schools ....

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 01:12 PM

So, what do we do about "Sweet Little Sixteen", She was just seventeen, John Lennon..I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved, Dire Straits; that little faggot is a millionaire. Mike MacGear...Norton; Norton is a pansy boy.... Some schools have banned Deck The Halls.."don we now our Gay apparel..where does this end. See my comment in an earlier post about the Retirement of St. George. This is right up there with the "outrage" about Halloween costumes and the protests in Washington state against women who were not Mexican selling tacos from a street cart....I sometimes think there are no adults left.
   Music is of its time and place and should be regarded not through the prism of "outrage", but through the ethos of the time in which it was written, otherwise there would hardly be a song left.
I shudder to think what would happen to" Get Back" by the Beatles..Joe joe was a man who thought he was a woman but he was another man,,, of where is the fainting couch ?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 01:26 PM

Changing the well known lyrics of a fifty year old song probably has a name, but it isn't "folk process".

Bowdlerization comes to mind.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: meself
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 01:29 PM

Would you be able to provide a link to something that supports the 'schools banning Deck the Halls' claim? Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 01:43 PM

I can't provide a link but the school, Cherry Knoll elementary Is in Michigan. It was the music teacher who insisted on the change. However, parents were not at all pleased with this imposition of political correctness, took the matter up with the school administration who quickly decided to withdraw support for this absurdity. This teacher should not be in a classroom, he/she should be in therapy. If you are that determined to take offence, you need to take a long rest and get over yourself.
Thank you SRS, Bowlderize is exactly the word...and the Puritans are still here.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: meself
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 02:23 PM

Thanks for that background. I would point out that that seems to have been one teacher at one school - as opposed to "some schools".

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 02:29 PM

Apparently it was not an isolated incident, several schools in California had the same Prproblematic approach to the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 03:16 PM

To Deck the Halls, or baby it's cold outside, which last is rapey rapey rapey?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords: Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser)
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 03:19 PM

It,s What ? Explain please...please!