‘Upside Down’: Stereogum

[zani57]

https://www.stereogum.com/2079186/the-number-ones-diana-ross-upside-down/franchises/the-number-ones/

[PeaceNHarmony]

https://www.stereogum.com/2079186/the-number-ones-diana-ross-upside-down/franchises/the-number-ones/Interesting read; I had not been familiar with Stereogum. It's always great to have Diana's massive talents as a singer recognized as this writer does.

[monicarivers]

This is a great column with tremendous insight into every BB #1 since 1958. The author is always very complimentary towards DRATS and if you scroll through the comments, you’ll find a refreshing change - the vast majority of those weighing in are truly focused on musicality and are not rabid, bickering fans.

[PeaceNHarmony]

This is a great column with tremendous insight into every BB #1 since 1958. The author is always very complimentary towards DRATS and if you scroll through the comments, you’ll find a refreshing change - the vast majority of those weighing in are truly focused on musicality and are not rabid, bickering fans.Thanks, Monica! I will definitely look into the column more fully.

[Boogiedown]

I sure wish I'd been following this project all along. What a magnificent effort. I now have a handy new chart reference to review when I just want to kill a little time or maybe help lull me into asleep!

Very well done . Well familiar with the song and its story as told , but I especially like that Tom addressed the one line in UPSIDE DOWN that's always sort of bothered me :

from:
https://www.stereogum.com/2079186/the-number-ones-diana-ross-upside-down/franchises/the-number-ones/


The song depicts a simple-enough situation: Ross is dizzily in love with a guy who won’t stop cheating on her. Once upon a time, Ross might’ve wrung melodrama out of that premise. On “Upside Down,” she’s so into the guy that she doesn’t even care:

“Respectfully, I say to thee, I’m aware that you’re cheating/ But no one makes me feel like you do.” Another singer might’ve found pathos in those lyrics, in the woman whose self-respect is so low that she’s forced herself to accept her man running around with other women. But there’s a playfulness in the way Ross sings it. She might even be teasing him a little bit. She’s horny and happy, and we can probably infer that she’s content to mess around on the side if the mood strikes her, too

I never cared for the 'respectfully' angle, Tom's right in another instance I might have found such a woman's comment pathetic, until Tom looks at it in this way , saying she's almost playful as she sings it , fully aware, and if everything about this relationship is on the table , and its understood by both of them and its hunky dory, who am I to argue with what works for them.

I also liked the implication that this song is so strongly CHIC , that in a way, Diana has become something like a guest group member in her participation.

Saying it another way , Diana has stepped more into Chic's world with this song & album , than the other way around.


Great stuff :cool:! Thanks zani57!