fireball

In the course of 2014, so much has changed, but few things have surprised me more than the face that somehow, someway... I became a fan of Pit Bull. 

(now, is it Pitbull? Pit Bull? Pit ft Bull? Let's just go with Pitbull, save the effort and wear and tear on the space bar)

My earliest memory of Pit Bull, as I talk about him like he's an old childhood friend, or a puppy that I grew up with, was that Dr Pepper commercial that aired during sporting events... it was the one that went "let's have a real good time, a real good time..."

Oh, you don't remember that? Well, in reality, it went:

let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...
let's have a real good time, a real good time...

Yeah, that one. It was kind of annoying. And I truly only know two of his songs, the first being "Timber", his collaboration with Ke$ha... though she may be just Kesha now, I heard something about her dropping the $ from her name in order to start a new path, as she left rehab last year.  By the way, I wrote 600+ words on Ke$ha in February.  So truly, I now have two different posts that Kesha is a major part of.  What.

Anyway, I contend that if Kesha sang all the time like she notes she belts out in "Timber", I'd be a much bigger fan. As it is, "Tik Tok" is in the list of strangely stupid, ridiculous songs that I somehow find myself enjoying, even if it's just ironically. I mean, she sings of "brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack." Like, I can honestly tell you I've never had a sip of Jack Daniels, be it straight or mixed. But I have had pure Listerine. My dad made me use it as mouthwash when I would get mouth ulcers as a kid, and that stuff is strong.

I can only guess that Listerine isn't as strong as Jack, so to brush your teeth with Jack has to be not only foolish, but wasteful in that Jack ain't cheap, and possibly damaging to the enamel on your teeth with repeated brushing. Does she pour the Jack on the toothbrush, or just use it as a mouthwash? I digress.

So The Kesh and Pitbull team up to give us this delightful little ditty called "Timber", which I don't even know all the words to, other than picking up things like "Bras and thongs", "bigga dey are the harda dey fall" and "swing yo' partner round and round", which probably tells you it's not a remake of a Steven Curtis Chapman tune. But it's fun, especially with Paul Harrington's harmonica kicking the song off, and with the tune's noticeable folk and nearly country line dance sort of rhythm. (fyi, you aren't necessarily supposed to know who Paul Harrington is, I just read about it on Wikipedia).

I was addicted to that song for a while, then it sorta stopped getting played on my iPod as much (mixed in between all my podcasts, I do listen to a song or two... I been known to cut a rug in my day). Then I heard "Fireball". Like, what do you even do with this song?

It's this insane party tune that features a brass band, an infectious groove and a dude named John Ryan that, like Kesha before him, provides the song with pipes and melody. Like "Timber", it opens with awesome music, Pitbull singing/rapping for a verse, then the real singer doing their due diligence, then the chorus. Then awesome music, Pitbull singing/rapping the second verse, the real singer doing their stuff again, then the chorus. Fade out.

Add to that Pitbull's Hispanic accent, where "roof on fire" becomes "roof ahn fiah" and "walk this way" becomes "wall dis wah", a crazy sampling of the actual Aerosmith classic "Walk This Way" (not just in tune either, like Pitbull is almost doing different lines to the same tune) and this insane "babybabybabybabybabybabybaby" riff that is a lot harder than you think--trust me, I've tried it... all of that together makes for one of my Top 5 songs of 2014 thus far.

I tell myself that two songs from an artist does not a fan make... I love "Eleanor Rigby" and "Penny Lane" from The Beatles, and yet, I'm not a huge fan of theirs, and though I think "Tik Tok" and "We R We Are" from Kesha are stupid fun, I don't count myself a Kesha Krazy... well, I also like "Your Love Is My Drug", so maybe I am, I dunno. 

I just made up "Kesha Krazy" as a name for her fanbase. Kesha, you are welcome.

What can I say... I love music, and much of my favorite stuff is stupid music. Don't even get me started on "Party in the USA", or worse, "Hoedown Throwdown" by Miley Cyrus, #BoomClapBoomDeClapDeClap... it reaches back to the early 90s, when I owned Vanilla Ice's "To the Extreme" cassette tape, and Color Me Badd's albums were on my "to purchase" list before I stopped buying music in order to save money.

Really, I just want to be in a situation where I, and a bunch of my friends and strangers, all feel compelled to jump up and yell "FIREBALL" all at the same time. Because anytime you can have a simultaneous "FIREBALL!!!" yelling, you know you are having a real good time, a real good time.. let's have a real good time, a real good time... let's have a real good time, a real good time...