Top 25 For 2007 - No. 7: "Before He Cheats" - Carrie Underwood
4 Comments Ryan Welton on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 10:03 PM.
When it comes to the year in country music, to me, it was all about the continued emergence of Miranda Lambert. Her CD Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was one of the Top 15 albums on metacritic.com, a site devoted to album reviews.
It's a site almost solely devoted to indie and progressive artists, and Lambert's position near the top of this site, with this album, is indicative of what a special artist she is not only thus far but potentially going forward.
I was very tempted to add her old-country tune, "Dry Town," on this list just because.
However, No. 7 on my list of the 25 best songs of 2007 is filled by a country song that managed by itself to drown out anything Lambert might have done artistically this year. No, it doesn't take away Miranda's greatness, but Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" is arguably the greatest country mega-hit of a generation.
It starts innocently enough.
Right now
He's probably slow dancing with a bleach-blonde tramp
And she's probably getting frisky
Right now
He's probably buying her some fruity little drink
Cause she can't shoot whiskey
Right now
He's probably up behind her with a pool-stick
Showing her how to shoot a combo
Not only is the music palatable to people of all tastes -- not relying on that 1-4-5 pattern upon which most country music thrives -- but it actually has somewhat of a soulful groove to it. If you haven't checked out Joe's version of this song on YouTube, it demonstrates exactly what I mean.
Joe is an R&B singer, for those of you who don't know.
So, anyway, Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear have lyrically set up quite the picture. something any of us who have gone to a bar have seen, right?
Check out the chorus ...
And he don't know
That I dug my key into the side
Of his pretty little souped-up 4-wheel drive
Carved my name into his leather seats
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights
Slashed a hole in all 4 tires
Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats
The aforementioned Lambert has a tough streak in her, too, and it's why this song and Lambert seem to be appropriate in the same conversation. On the other hand, Underwood is Ms. American Idol from Checotah, Okla., keeper of all things sweet and wholesome.
Before He Cheats gave Carrie an edge and major, major credibility in country music. For those of you who value writing, understand something. Most country artists write, but the industry is set up such that an artist does not necessarily sing his or her own songs. It is an industry in which thousands are constantly writing, and the intermingling and mixing of songs among writers makes it such that a recording artist might only have three or four of his or her own tunes on a CD.
So, no, she did not write this song. That fact does not lessen its greatness. And while I like country music, I tend to like pop and rock and R&B a lot more, so a position as high as No. 7, for me, is noteworthy. Furthermore, this song peaked in popularity in late 2006.
But what puts "Before He Cheats" over the top is that it's a song that will be around forever. It will always get play on the radio. It will always find spots in movies. And it will be ubiquitous in pop culture for at least a full generation, if not longer.
In fact, it is the third-longest charting single in the history of Billboard's Hot 100.
At the end of the day, it's not a song I'll sit and listen to over and over. However, it is damn near a perfectly written song, and it's not too often one comes across one of those.
See others:
No. 25 - Everyday America - Sugarland
No. 24 - Le Disko - Shiny Toy Guns
No. 23 - Famous In A Small Town - Miranda Lambert
No. 22 - Colorful - Rocco DeLuca & The Burden
No. 21 - Never Again - Kelly Clarkson
No. 20 - Streetcorner Symphony - Rob Thomas
No. 19 - Two - Ryan Adams
No. 18 - Penny On A Train Track - Ben Kweller
No. 17 - Paralyzer - Finger Eleven
No. 16 - Vegas - Sara Bareilles
No. 15 - Bubbly - Colbie Caillat
No. 14 - Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse
No. 13 - Give It To Me - Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake
No. 12 - U + Ur Hand - Pink
No. 11 - You Never Get Over It - Ladybug Mecca
No, 10 - The Pretender - Foo Fighters
No. 9 - What Comes Around ... Goes Around - Justin Timberlake
No. 8 - Grace Kelly - Mika
As a child, my mother told me if I could not say anything nice, I should not say anything at all. I will keep in that spirit while commenting on your list.
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You could note that she's hot. I mean, c'mon, Carrie is pretty smokin' ...
She is a knockout. If her career hits the skids and she appears in Playboy, I will make sure and buy the issue.
But you are well aware of my feelings on Country Music. Country Music is a leftover communist plot from the cold war. Its purpose is to drain the ambition and intelligence of the poor victim listeners. Every hour you spend listening to Country Music knocks a point off your IQ.
No doubt. I'd go halvsies with you on that issue.
Country music is merely the agrarian form of rock and roll, both of which were derived from the blues. Today's country is way more pop than what most think of as "country." In fact, I don't even think of this tune as country. It's pop with a steel guitar.
However, the good news is that my IQ was sooo high that any country music I might listen to will only reduce me from supergenius to genius.