*chews bubble gum, sticks it behind Frisbee's ear*

(Love the song. But man, the Iron & Wine-type beard really, really shouldn't catch on among the acoustic guitar set. Really.)

Yeah, especially with you and you gum sharing habits running all amok.

*wipes off ear*

It's Frisbee Girl!!! Hi Fris!

I gotta say, I like the Outkast version better. And I love that music video (those clothes!) so so much.

Oh! It's you! Hi!

There are very few songs about which I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard them, and Hey Ya is one of them. I was mindlessly flipping around the radio dial in my girlfriend's car as we were pulling up to a club. If I remember right the song was actually being played on the local "modern" (read: shitty) rock station during some obligatory 15-minute "new stuff" segment.

And after a few seconds, I think I actually shouted "What is this?!" because 1. it sounded like nothing that could possibly be played on commercial radio, rock or hip-hop, and 2. I recognized but couldn't place the voice (I'd been listening to Outkast for a while at that point). I was totally freaking out: what is this? What is this doing on the radio? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? That bubbly little synth line in the chorus especially slayed me.

So yeah, I find that acoustic version awful. I guess it's supposed to strip the original down to reveal the pop genius beneath, but it's not as though said pop genius was hidden to begin with. That song's a pop masterpiece. Instead it just strips away everything that made the original sparkle and replaces it with generic whitebread whiteboy singer-songwriter unfelt mush.

Wow, look at me getting all worked up about a dude with a guitar in a bar on the internet.

You should hear the Supersuckers' punked up cover of it.

I like them both for different reasons, but I hadn't realized before what a sweetly sad song it really is. For all of its fantastic ass-shakin goodness - and sweet buttery [insert deity of choice here], there are leagues of that - it seems a fairly frank and openhearted observation about confusion and pain with faith in love and faithfulness to one another...or inability to do so.

Hearing it in a different context simply took me by surprise in pleasant and curious way.

For a second it sounded like "Have You Forgotten?" by Red House Painters...

Gotcha, Frisbee Girl, it does put the emphasis on the lyrical subject matter which can easily be obscured by the general AWESOMENESS of the song. Totally true.

Have you listened to much Outkast besides this? They truly are amazing artists.

Man, I gotta get me some Outkast. While I've heard of this Andre fella, and his cohort Big Boi, I really hadn't paid much attention. See, 2or3, I live in a tiny radio market, so the only options are classic rock, and francophone classic rock. Well, it's not that bad, but pretty much. Needless to say,nothing is sneaking up on me via the radio.

I listened to the re-worked Hey Ya first, and then, when I heard the original, man did I ever feel the sadness in those "hey ya"s. I watched/listened to Roses, and Ms Jackson too. Wow.

Thanks Fris! (oh, and hey, howsit goin'?)

Okay, 2or3 pretty much said it better than I did. I guess what gets me about Outkast's version is the juxtaposition of the jangly, dance-y music (that synth line! the kickass bass breakdown in the middle!) really pretty melancholy lyrics - lasting relationships and love are impossible, but nobody wants to hear that, and I'm not interested in you for anything but sex, but what the hell! hey ya! The acoustic version, while pretty, just doesn't do that for me - it's much more the dude-with-a-beard-singing-in-a-bar-all-lonely-like-isn't-this-sad sort of thing that doesn't really tug at me much anymore, 'cause I've grown up jaded with all the damn emo musics (which i love as well. tongue is firmly in cheek).

That whole album - Speakerboxx/The Love Below - is pretty damn incredible, especially Andre 3000's side of it. And then you dig into their older stuff, and you hear Ms Jackson or Bombs Over Baghdad and you realize that these guys are really pretty incredible.

Of course, I'm young, I need to get off everyone's lawn, and my predilection for rap music is pretty confusing to my friends and relatives, so my opinion probably shouldn't count for much.

First off: hi guys! I know I've only been poking my head in after being gone for ages, but I'll be back more often for certain.

Now back to business: 2or3, richat [*waves*], and dismas you each hit it. The song itself is so delightfully catchy that I used to break up tense moments between co-workers in the last restaurant I worked in by yelling "Alright, alright, alright, alright...." above the fray and letting a sort of collective head bobbing distraction difuse the situation. I kid you not. The music and rhythm is wonderful and ingenius on many more levels than I'll likely ever know.

richat, though, nailed it. The sadness in Mat Weddle's version is entirely encompassing in the delivery, but it becomes absolutely profound when juxtaposed with the boppy, fun, but desperately working to be blithely carefree hedonism of Outkast's version. A posture so pleasing and perspective which rolls so easily, slips down so smoothly in the way that dismas summarized, yet still catches. Still you have a nagging sense that it's just a farce, little more than self affirming bravado futilely denying a pervasive and outright sense of longing previously stated. [I completely realize that I'm overthinking this, but indulge me for a short bit.] That to me is precisely what makes the Outkast version far more brilliant and complex; it merely took Weddle's interpretation for me to truly soak it in.

2or3, to answer your question, I have heard exactly four songs that I am aware of that involve Outkast/Andre 3000. This one, clearly; "Ms Jackson" [another kickass video and painfully honest lyrics]; "SpottieOttieDopalicious" posted here back a bit by DivineWino, I believe, and something I've likely sacrificed to the Gods of Failed Drives Who Know No Backup and "Millionaire" with Kelis [another great vid that knocks me out with how perfect the kid Kelis and kid Andre are...palabra!] If you have some suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Finally, dismas, one is never too young to have an opinion or voice it; just don't be too young to articulately defend yourself in a debate. Or to be blisteringly funny. Or both. Both always helps. Just ask Flo.

I think that Aquemini is the first album of theirs I bought, although I'd been aware of them before that. Once I heard this single I knew that they were something special. That album as a whole is a mind-blower and omfg I can't believe it's 10 years old. *weeps*

But Stankonia is great, too, another certified classic, and ATLiens is somewhat more straightforward than either of those but still super hot.

BONUS: was this the hip-hop single of last year or what? Pimp C's verse (the second) maybe not so much, but Andre, Bun B and Big Boi all kill it.