SHUT UP AND DRIVE

On my way back from vacation, I stopped for a night in a hotel that had Channel V. Now, I haven't watched many music videos in recent years (as I'm beginning to feel like an old man watching his children cavorting around!), but I was--let me admit it--galvanized by Rihanna's video and song, "Shut Up and Drive." I thought that kind of savage riff and explicit double-entendre lyrics went out long ago with the Rolling Stones ("Start Me Up...I'll never stop...My lips go green...My brain is aching...She's a mean, mean machine."). Obviously, I was wrong.

Now this is a throw back to the days of yore: the fun of pure sexual excitement in musical form. Clearly, Rihanna's body is the car ("Goes from 0-60 in 3.5/ Baby you got the key...Now shut up and drive"). There is surely no need to point out whose got the key and is doing the driving! On the surface, the whole thing might seem sexist, pornographic and conformist (and there are lots of scenes in the video of Rihanna stopping drivers who look like they're about to come in the next ten seconds!), but the scorching heat of Rihanna makes a real challenge to the man who wants to "drive" her (can he cope with going from 0-60 in 3.5? If he's got a Cadillac, is it OK to have "a lot of boom in the back?")

I've got to say that this kind of raw sexual power in music takes us right back to our elemental roots--and personally, in Rihanna's company, I'm very glad to be there!




Rihanna - Shut Up And Drive lyrics





Rihanna - Shut Up And Drive lyrics