music video: singer stripping in Dealey Plaza

[Ed Jewett]

Yikes... I hesitate to even post this, not having any immediate analysis or meaningful reaction. But everyone can and should know and see...


Singer Erykah Badu strips at JFK assassination site in new video

By Alan Duke, CNN
March 29, 2010 8:24 p.m. EDT




http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/03...s/?hpt=Mid

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Erykah Badu shed her clothes as she walked along a Dallas, Texas, sidewalk until she was nude and then fell near where President Kennedy was assassinated.
The result was a controversial video, released Saturday, for her song "Window Seat," which Badu said was "shot guerrilla style" with no crew and in one take March 17.
Children could be seen nearby as Badu stripped in Dealey Plaza, a popular tourist spot since Kennedy's 1963 assassination.
The singer's management did not immediately respond to request for comment, but Badu responded to the controversy via Twitter.
She tweeted that "there were children there. i prayed they wouldnt b traumatized."
Badu will not face indecent exposure charges for shedding her clothes on the Dallas, Texas, sidewalk, a Dallas Police spokeswoman said.
Although children were nearby, no one filed a complaint against Badu after the March 17 incident, Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Janice Crowther said.
"But if we had had a call and would have caught Ms. Badu in the act of walking down the street taking her clothes off, she would have been charge with a Class B misdemeanor," she said.
The R&B singer said she was making a statement against "groupthink," which she tweeted was an "unwritten rule" that "i will not express my true opinion if it opposes those i love and fear."
Some fans sent tweets praising Badu's artistic vision.
One fan tweeted to Badu on Sunday: "thank you, because your being brave, i no longer feel afraid to say what i really feel."
The video opens with a November 22, 1963, radio broadcast describing Kennedy's motorcade turning onto Elm Street seconds before fatal shots were fired.
In the video, Badu is behind the wheel of a 1965 Lincoln Continental, parked along Kennedy's route. A single camera focuses on her as she walks toward Elm Street and the book depository where Kennedy's assassin fired his rifle.
Badu tweeted that "i was petrified while shooting this video ... but liberation began to set in. i conquered many fears in that few moments."
She said she was "too busy lookin for cops" to be embarrassed by her nudity. "i been naked all along in my words actions and deeds. thats the real vulnerable place," she tweeted.
The video does not include shouts from people off camera, she said. "they were yelling, 'THIS IS A PUBLIC PLACE : YOU OUGHTA BE ASHAMED : PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON : DAMN GIRL! etc," Badu tweeted.
More than a dozen people stood along the plaza's "grassy knoll" when Badu took off the last piece of clothing.
"the people caught in the shot were trying hard to ignore me," she tweeted.
As she reached the spot where Kennedy was first struck by a bullet, the crackle of a gunshot is heard and Badu's head snaps back and she falls to the ground as if dead.
Badu said when the camera stopped "we ran."
The singer was born in Dallas, where she is raising her three children -- ages 1, 5 and 12
She tweeted to fans about her 5-year-old daughter's response when told of her plans for the video: "she looked at me with a blank face and replied ok mama can i have another pudding?"
The video was released days before the singer's next album, "New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh," hits record stores. The single "Window Seat" is at No. 28 on Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart.



The video in question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF-AKFAtQQ8


The lyrics:


so, presently I'm standing
here right now
you're so demanding
tell me what you want from me
concluding
concentrating on my music, lover and my babies
makes me wanna ask the lady for a ticket outta town...

so can I get a window seat
don't want nobody next to me
I just want a ticket outta town
a look around
and a safe touch down
can I get a window seat
don't want nobody next to me
I just want a chance to fly
a chance to cry
and a long bye bye..

but I need you to want me
I need you to miss me
I need your attention, yes
I need you next me
I need someone to clap for me
I need your direction
somebody say come back
come back baby come back
I want you to need me
come back come back baby come back
come back come back baby come back
come back come back baby come back

so, in my mind I'm tusslin'
back and forth 'tween here and hustlin'
I don't wanna time travel no mo
I wanna be here
I'm thinking
on this porch I'm rockin'
back and forth light lightning hopkins
if anybody speak to scotty
tell him beam me up..

so can I get a window seat
don't want nobody next to me
I just want a ticket outta town
a look around
and a safe touch down
can I get a window seat
don't want nobody next to me
I just want a chance to fly
a chance to cry
and a long bye bye..

but I need you to miss me
I need somebody come get me
I need your attention
I need your energy
I need someone to clap me
I need your direction

somebody say come back
come back baby come back
come back come back baby come back
come back come back baby come back
come back come back baby come back

but can I get a window seat
don't want nobody next to me
I just want a ticket outta town
a look around
and a safe touch down...

I just wanna chance to fly
a chance to cry
and a long bye bye...

[Ed Jewett]

There is spoken word at the end of the video whose text is not included in the lyrics. I do not understand what is yelled out, but I have the rest as follows:

"They play it safe,
Are quick to assassinate
What they do not understand.

They move in packs,
ingesting more and more fear with every act of hate on one another,
they feel most comfortable in groups,
less guilt to swallow.

They are us.

This is what we are become,
Afraid to respect an individual.

A single person within a circumstance
can move one to change
to love yourself
to evolve."

[David Guyatt]

Disgraceful!

Not another word will pass my lips about how many times I watched this shameless video...

Except to say how much I detest those little clear thingy's they put in videos to stop intense peering.

It's a disgrace!

Not another word - you hear!

[Magda Hassan]

Be careful David. You may get an RSI pushing the replay button over and over and over. :joyman:

[Ed Jewett]

I hesitate again... but feel compelled to update the tail ... I'm sorry, the tale ... of the lady who sang while stripping.... Sorry, no video this time, simply the gist of the story and the link: The singer Erykah Badu has been charged with disorderly conduct by Dallas police.... "She can pay the fine, send it in and then the issue will be resolved," the spokesman said. The Dallas native and mother of three has defended her actions saying that the events have been misconstrued. "I would never disrespect JFK," she wrote on Twitter. "his revolutionary thinking is my inspiration. my performance art has been grossly misinterpreted by many."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/0...z0k4jU7amf

[URL="http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/04/03/2010-04-03_erykah_badu_charged_with_disorderly_conduct_for_stripping_in_dallas_video_shoot_.html"]
[/URL]

[David Guyatt]

I hesitate again... but feel compelled to update the tail ... I'm sorry, the tale ... of the lady who sang while stripping.... Sorry, no video this time, simply the gist of the story and the link: The singer Erykah Badu has been charged with disorderly conduct by Dallas police.... "She can pay the fine, send it in and then the issue will be resolved," the spokesman said. The Dallas native and mother of three has defended her actions saying that the events have been misconstrued. "I would never disrespect JFK," she wrote on Twitter. "his revolutionary thinking is my inspiration. my performance art has been grossly misinterpreted by many."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/0...z0k4jU7amf

[URL="http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/04/03/2010-04-03_erykah_badu_charged_with_disorderly_conduct_for_stripping_in_dallas_video_shoot_.html"]
[/URL]

Such a lovely lady and, I'm sure, not one to allow her actions to be sullied by everyday considerations of promotion and fame.