As we celebrate our team’s defense of an NFL championship, honor Rickey Jackson’s career, remember the vision of Dave Dixon, and hype a video game, I want to toss an extra doubloon into the Saints-related festivities.
Pop philosopher Katy Perry inspired me. See, in a recent Rolling Stone interview she justified her vapid “California Gurls” hit song – about hot girls who will “melt your Popsicle” – by invoking rap legend Tupac Shakur:
It started in March, at a swanky Oscars afterparty [Perry] attended with guests like Oprah and Madonna. At one point, Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” came on the stereo, and Perry — who grew up surfing in her native Santa Barbara — watched as a room full of L.A. glitterati went crazy for a song about New York. “If 2Pac were here, he would not be OK with this!” she remembers thinking. “I felt like he was rolling in his grave.”
Clearly, something had to be done. So Perry summoned Tupac’s spirit and created this summer’s most persistent earwig about the “fine, fresh, fierce” girls “representin’” the West Coast. Take that Jay-Z! Hi five “2 Pac”! You didn’t die in vain.
In a way, Perry’s sun-kissed buffoonery liberated me to make a suggestion I probably should’ve kept to myself. I’ve been thinking a lot about new songs that could be inserted into the Saints’ game-day rotation. Obviously, nothing could ever replace “Crunk” which we all heard innumerable times last football season – and it never got old because it became the soundtrack to a championship. But here’s my suggestion for this year: I think the Glee remix of Madonna’s “Four Minutes” song could become a Who-dat hit.
Stay with me, now.
Admittedly, I’ve long admired the power of Madonna. But I’m not recommending “Four Minutes” merely because I’m a fan of the Material Girl. The “Glee” show reworked the song, and their version contains a key component that is also the reason why “Halftime (Stand Up and Get Crunk)” resonates so well among New Orleanians. Jeffrey at Library Chronicles blog explained it best:
[T]he main riff in “Halftime” is built from marching band music. In other words, it sounds like a friggin Mardi Gras parade coming at you. Is it really any surprise the whole city is into it?
Take a listen to the robust horns in the Glee version of “Four Minutes”. They’re catchy, like “Crunk.” Surely if a song by an Atlanta band can be successfully recycled for Saints fans, then “Four Minutes” might have a shot as well – especially late in the fourth quarter during a close game. What do you think?
If that doesn’t appeal to you, my other proposal is to have the Saintsations do one of their 45-second routines to the Ramones’ “She’s a Sensation”. Pretty obvious, but I think it would work.
The comments are open. Should the Gleek version of Madonna’s “Four Minutes” get some time in the Dome this season? And if not, what should?