Saturday, January 20, 2007

Bears v. Pats, Part II

I was going to wait until after this weekend's games to post this, but it's too good. I was speaking to my sister this afternoon, discussing the possibility that this year will feature a Super Bowl XX rematch of the Chicago Bears v. the New England Patriots. One of the most memorable parts of that 1985 football season was the absolute hilarity of the 'Super Bowl Shuffle,' the rap song and video recorded by members of the 1985 Chicago Bears football team. I pointed out that they recorded the song well before the playoffs had begun, and my sister pointed out that there had been a New England Patriots response song. Let the Googling and YouTube-ing begin:



The New England Patriots song is called 'New England, the Patriots, and Me.'

Unfortunately, YouTube seems to have cracked down on copies of the 'Super Bowl Shuffle,' so there's no possibility of a side-by-side comparison (here's a nice summary of the song). Let's just say that both are incredibly cheesy and short on 1.) production values and 2.) musical ability on the part of the performers and the composers. The Bears song features members of the team in their uniforms, pretending to play instruments and dancing, while 'singing' about how awesome they are. The Patriots song intercuts scenes of 'singers' in the studio, folks on the street, players, and what I presume are local celebrities 'singing' the song, along with a few shots of the Patriots playing and hugging each other. By the way the end of the line, 'New England, the Patriots, and Me' is 'rolling on to victory.'

While both these songs are terrible, as a loyal Chicagoan, I must say that the 'Super Bowl Shuffle' benefits from a clarity of purpose that the New England song lacks. It is about how awesome the Bears and that's it. The Bears 'sing' and 'dance' and each player gets a verse about their particular brand of awesomeness. The Patriots song, in contrast, is rather muddied; is it about New England or football, and what exactly is your contribution to victory? The song itself? I hope not.

2 comments:

Erin Sheldon said...

My favorite line if from the mayor, who seems to
think he has to remind everyone who he is.
Erin

Jackie said...

Having seen the video more times than is probably healthy, I believe the line is "Thanks for the oranges, Mayor Bradley," implying that some mayor, possibly named Bradley, probably of Miami, lost oranges to whoever that guy is in the Pats playoff win. Yes? Maybe?

Anyway, my favorite part is the first shot of actual Patriots players: they're hugging (maybe in the locker room after a win?) because football is all about hugging. The most puzzling line to me is "We'll hang the bell (Bears?) on the liberty tree." There's a liberty tree? Wikipedia says yes.