Kool Thing

General CommentIn response to the comments about the women in the Black Panthers, I can tel lyou that many of them WANTED to be there. But they were belittled and subordinated by their male counterparts-- which ties into the "Panther" and "Kitty" comment. Thus, I think the concept behind this song is to question patriarchal authority in all spheres, not just in white middle-class america but in the music scene, too.

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General CommentI heard that this song was about LL Cool J which would be the reason for the lyrics about 'panthers' and 'radio' (taken from the names of his songs). Kim was going to have LL sing but later decided to have Chuck D on instead.

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General Comment“Kool Thing” was inspired by an interview that Kim Gordon had with LL Cool Jay when she was writing a piece for the music-magazine Spin. (See article below). Essentially the interview was a ridiculous idea, the two did not get along, and the song was meant to mock LL Cool Jay, who had recently released the 1989 album “Walking With a Panther” – for which he was booed on stage by fans for its pop-sellout nature. As we should all know, LL Cool Jay came back with one of his most known singles “Mama Said Knock You Out” an epic masterpiece.

I don’t believe Gordon knew exactly herself where she was headed with the political themes listed in the song, but I believe in the interview she meant to associate herself with the fight of the Black Panthers against the white male – which turned out to be a movement that left women uninvited, (as women are weak and inferior and have half the size of brains that men do and were put on this planet to make sandwiches and stuff and do laundry and you know, other non-man things – to put it as a white male oppressor would). I think this may have pissed off Kim. “Kool Thing” is littered with LL Cool Jay references, such as the voice of Chuck D representing the rapper’s careless attitude towards the political realm.

search.phoenixnewtimes.com/1991-03-20/music/staying-koolsonic-youth-survives-a-major-label/

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General CommentOh-- and when I say they WANTED to be there, I mean they actually wanted to take part in the actual activism, not just a hook-up. Angela Davis, anyone?

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General CommentDefinitely an attack on gender (specifically male) constructs and general identity. But it's more playful than that. This feminism is passe, formulated two decades before the release of Goo, and she's playing with it. Life isn't quite so simple, and she hints at an element of pleasure in both the traditional framing, as well as the institutionalized rebellion. There's a hint of satisfaction in the offer of a shave, and she's also singing directly to the target of her attack. Whether Chuck D or LL Cool J, they're very much in on the game, as well, the wink being offered in both directions.

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General Commentactually its about the black rights movement group the "Black Panthers" and the women who supported them - not because they cared about black rights, but because they wanted the men.

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General CommentTo gibsonsg87- couldn't "kitty" be a reference to the Panther side of things? The word "kitty" could be used as a patronising diminuitive, ironically or otherwise, for the women who supported the movement

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General CommentOn the Gilmore Girls, I'm fairly certain that Rory played this song in her appartment with Logan (while she was getting ready to leave). Either way, good song.

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General CommentIt's my all-time fave song too...there is so much going on in the lyrics of the song...I think it's ripping apart the "white corporate maleness" of grunge/white rock and the machoness of rappers like LL Cool J but at the same time Kim is winking at LL Cool J..."we can still be friends"....Chuck D was used because Public Enemy was recording in the studio next to Sonic Youth.

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General CommentChuck D as a representative of an apolitical attitude? That makes no sense, either in general or in the context of this song. Chuck D is politically outspoken personally and in his music. And in his cameo in Kool Thing--during the part Kim is delivering the most explicitly political lines in the song--Chuck is cheering her on. "Hit 'em where it hurts. Let everybody know!"

OTOH there's so much irony in this song, it can tie your head in knots. Kool Thing--and its associated photo shoot--were an obvious (and perhaps slightly desperate) effort by Geffen to put Sonic Youth on the pop charts. Which failed, despite this being among the band's more accessible songs. (Getting Butch "Nevermind" Vig to produce Dirty didn't help, either.) But relative to SY's musical approach and their place in the rock world, "accessible" is a relative term, and it doesn't add up to Top 40. However catchy it may be, the guitar work flirts with atonality; this drives many a would-be listener to stick in their ear plugs (literally?)

Not that it matters. It's difficult to think of any band having Sonic Youth's combination of creative freedom and prominence. They can put release an homage to Stan Brakhage and never worry about having to get a day job. In return Geffen looks cool. Even if Sonic Youth had gone Metal Machine Music from the first day they signed with DGC until the present, all would be forgiven; what could have been more beneficial to the label than their advocacy of Nirvana?

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