Althouse: "No one wants to miss 20 6-year-olds in red cowboy hats tapping to 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin'."

February 29, 2008

"No one wants to miss 20 6-year-olds in red cowboy hats tapping to 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin'."

Says Michelle Obama, referring to the one dance recital of his daughter Sasha's that Barack Obama missed.

Here are the lyrics of that kinky dominatrix song. Which line do you consider least appropriate for 6-year-old girls to sing?

42 comments:

Agnostic Monk said...: Mrs. Obama should ask her daughter to dance to the Megadeth cover of the same song. It's much groovier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW3N2vOuniQ; 2/29/08, 3:53 PM
MadisonMan said...: Dance recitals of pre-schoolers and young grade-schoolers are agony for all involved. I'm thinking the girls weren't singing, just moving to the beat.; 2/29/08, 3:58 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Hmmmm, it's a tossup between the sexual allusions and the bit about the box of matches...; 2/29/08, 4:19 PM
Synova said...: I don't think a six year old is going to know the difference... and I really don't know what's there other than she's being lied to and not going to accept that.

Oh, sure, we know what the words are referring to, but it's not really *in* the words.

But really *cowboy* hats? Wrong kind of boots, no?

I think a whole lot of the dominatrix undertones are because we remember seeing the boots.

(Not arguing it's appropriate for six year olds but as these things go... nothing much is.); 2/29/08, 4:24 PM
Crimso said...: She's finally beginning to make some sense.; 2/29/08, 4:24 PM
Meade said...: Nancy Sinatra wore go-go boots, not dominatrix boots. But, man oh man, could she ever wear them!

Still, the damage to the psyches of six year-olds was done in 1966 (mostly to boys). In 2008, it's a fairly tame song and most six year-olds have already witnessed much worse male-bashing. Kids today would barely even notice the subtle messages of condonable female-on-male violence in those lyrics.; 2/29/08, 4:50 PM
Ann Althouse said...: No, go go boots were short flat white boots. Nancy Sinatra wore tall red boots on the cover of the album with the song on it. Video performances show her wearing knee high boots with heels, not go go boots.; 2/29/08, 5:05 PM
DaLawGiver said...: I just found me a brand new box of matches yeah.

Fire to destroy all you have done.

You’ve been living like a little girl….; 2/29/08, 5:05 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I remember this very well, because I thought she seemed old and out of place in the 60s. She was not wearing mod clothes and she did not have the skinny Twiggy look that would have made her look in tune with the times. She also wore an old-fashioned teased big hair look. All very out of it.; 2/29/08, 5:07 PM
Peter Hoh said...: I saw a children's exercise video advertised on TV. One of the songs the cherubs were dancing to was "Let's Get Physical."; 2/29/08, 5:12 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Here's the classic video -- along with a shot of the album cover.

Here is a picture of go go boots.

See?

But if you are relying on Wikipedia and other internet sources, you will easily be convinced that knee-high boots with big heels are go-go boots. I come from the past to tell you those websites are wrong -- as wrong as if a calf-length skirt was called a mini skirt.; 2/29/08, 5:15 PM
Meade said...: Ann Althouse said...
I remember this very well, because I thought she seemed old and out of place in the 60s...

I'm sure your memory is clearer than mine. After all, in 1966 you were a fully formed 15 year-old liberated woman. I, on the other hand, was yet a naive vulnerable 12 year-old boy experiencing the terror of having an unquenchable desire for unattainable older intellectual sirens capable of stomping the living daylight out of me with their fashionable boots that might as well have gone all the way up to there.; 2/29/08, 5:26 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Ann Althouse said...
I remember this very well, because I thought she seemed old and out of place in the 60s. She was not wearing mod clothes and she did not have the skinny Twiggy look that would have made her look in tune with the times. She also wore an old-fashioned teased big hair look. All very out of it.

Hair? Fashion? The silly irrelevancies women get distracted by, while any man instantly sees the heart of the matter: Nancy was smokin' hot, regardless of what she wore. She had a pretty good voice, too (couldn't help it, considering the genetic heritage) but "Boots" was her worst song...can't stand it, myself.; 2/29/08, 5:36 PM
George M. Spencer said...: Those are all the "yeomen" from Star Trek dancing with her...

It's really a country music song...like...I Miss You, Baby, But My Aim is Getting Better...and...We Used to Kiss On the Lips, But It's All Over Now...; 2/29/08, 5:37 PM
Ron said...: I remember this very well, because I thought she seemed old and out of place in the 60s. She was not wearing mod clothes and she did not have the skinny Twiggy look that would have made her look in tune with the times. She also wore an old-fashioned teased big hair look. All very out of it.

Only if you stay within the rock sphere, which was only part of the '60's scene along with pop. I mean it is Ringo's voice at the beginning of the video you link to!; 2/29/08, 5:50 PM
Meade said...: *watches video*

...(twice)

*totters away from standup desk, lays down and props feet up to allow blood to go-go back to b-b-b-brain*
...

*considers calling first thing Monday morning to schedule appointment with a psychotherapist*; 2/29/08, 5:52 PM
titusarabesque said...: This does not say much for her parenting skills.

Letting your 6 year old sing this song that is full of debauchery does not show good judgment.

Imagine, what she will do in the White House?

I can see her scheduling the "muscial acts". P Diddy and Nas and Eminen and 50 cent will be probably performing.; 2/29/08, 5:53 PM
Zaplito said...: 1966 was an in between year. The cultural revolution had not fully developed. So in the Top 40 charts you had
Sgt Barry Sadler
Chris Montez
Petula Clark
Roger Williams
Eddie Arnold
and even Dean Martin. Oh yeah, and the Ray Coniff Singers.
So Nancy Sinatra is a part of the old guard that had not yet been moved completely off the scene.; 2/29/08, 6:01 PM
Kirby Olson said...: "someone else is getting all your best."

This is like a nightmare from NAMBLA.

Michelle Obama must be crazy to let her kids sing this song.

Why can't they go to church and sing real songs?

I don't think the dresses the women in the video are wearing are even mini-dresses because...

Stuff is showing.; 2/29/08, 6:01 PM
LutherM said...: My twin daughters, who attended a good private school in Baltimore, had to memorize and sing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".
The problem I have with 6 year olds performing "These Boots Were Made For Walking" is that a lot of other songs and performers from that era were better.
(For instance, Joan Baez has a better voice, but "Love Is Just A Four Letter Word" is not a dance piece.)
If something more innocuous for 6 year olds suits you, Ann, (think of the costumes and choreography) would you have accepted;

Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine

I need to laugh, and when the sun is out
I've got something I can laugh about
I feel good, in a special way
I'm in love and it's a sunny day

Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine

We take a walk, the sun is shining down
Burns my feet as they touch the ground

Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine

Then we lie beneath a shady tree
I love her and she's loving me
She feels good, she know she's looking fine
I'm so proud to know that she is mine

Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine; 2/29/08, 6:11 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Then we lie beneath a shady tree
I love her and she's loving me"

It's pretty obvious that Linda is giving Paul a blow job there.; 2/29/08, 6:37 PM
Ron said...: mmm...isn't it still Jane Asher, not Linda at that point?; 2/29/08, 6:41 PM
George M. Spencer said...: ... And moving from the ridiculous to the sublime, what do you make of that funny bit of muttering from Ringo in the final verse where he mimic's Paul on the words "she feels good"; yet another clue or just a bit of troublemaking?

P'haps Ring is gettin some on the side....; 2/29/08, 6:46 PM
TWM said...: It's pretty obvious that Linda is giving Paul a blow job there.

And they say you can't learn anything in college.; 2/29/08, 6:48 PM
Trooper York said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/29/08, 7:15 PM
James Kabala said...: I always disliked this song and don't consider it very appropriate for children, but I never thought of it as particularly off-color until now. I always thought the point was that she would use the boots to walk away from her no-good cheating boyfriend, thus walking over him metaphorically, not actually assaulting him physically.

(For what it's worth, I was born in 1980, have no idea how old I was when I first heard the song, and never saw the video version before.)

James Kabala; 2/29/08, 7:24 PM
Ralph L said...: It's pretty obvious that Linda is giving Paul a blow job there.
Dang, I thought I had a dirty mind. The next line disproves your theory, I believe:
She feels good
(unless Paul is saying she feels good to ME)
She knows she's looking fine
(I don't think this goes through anyone's head when giving head, except maybe Titus'). Also, we know that Yoko was the one who well and truly sucked.; 2/29/08, 7:29 PM
Trooper York said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/29/08, 7:30 PM
Ralph L said...: (Grand Hotel, 1932)
I have got to see that movie!; 2/29/08, 7:49 PM
Ralph L said...: Shouldn't the line be:
"Now someone else is getting all MY best"?; 2/29/08, 7:52 PM
blake said...: Damn. George beat me to it. I thought it was a lost episode of "Star Trek". (Also from '66, eh?)

We had a music teacher in high school who used to sing that every time he restrung a guitar, and none of us knew the song, so we'd just stare at him.

(Ralph, you want the director's cut of Grand Hotel, or you won't find Trooper's quotes....); 2/29/08, 8:20 PM
Zaplito said...: I've talked to friends who have gone to their granddaughters dance recitals and they were rather appalled at the music, movements and gyrations they saw the little kids doing. I think this goes on all the time. It's part of the same cloth as kid pageants (did I say Jon Binet?).; 2/29/08, 8:29 PM
titusarabesque said...: By the way you can't walk into a gay bar without this video playing sometime during the night.

The gays love this stuff.; 2/29/08, 8:42 PM
David said...: Commenters, always read the question carefully.

She Who Must Be Obeyed asked which lyrics were least appropriate for six year olds.

Here's my candidate:

"You've been a messin' where you shouldn't have been a messin'
and now someone else is gettin' all your best."; 2/29/08, 10:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Lyrics seem pretty tame to me.; 2/29/08, 10:46 PM
Kirk Parker said...: I'm with James Kabala, except I didn't think she was going to walk out with those boots, but rather kick his well-deserving butt--not in a kinky way, in a vengeful way. OK, still not material for 6-year-olds, I'll admit.

And bouncers? Quick, over here! Please escort Ralph from the premises. He mentioned the Y word!!!; 3/1/08, 1:09 AM
amba said...: Jon Binet?

Is this an intelligence test?

As for "boots," to a little kid it would be a cartoon song, innocent and funny. Try to remember how you interpreted things and the pictures you made in your head from adult allusions when you were 6.
I was taken to "Guys & Dolls," and when I heard them sing about "the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York," I thought they were actually floating.; 3/1/08, 8:12 AM
Anonymous said...: I've talked to friends who have gone to their granddaughters dance recitals and they were rather appalled at the music, movements and gyrations they saw the little kids doing.

A year ago my five year old wanted to participate in a cheerleading camp put on by the local high school cheerleading squad.

Sure, no problem, we said. Many of the kids in her class were doing it, too, so we thought it would be a fun experience for her.

The end of the program was a performance at a basketball game half time. I found the music and moves completely inappropriate for grade school kids. High school kids, too, for that matter.

When the junior cheerleader program was announced this year, we found something else for our daughter to do.; 3/1/08, 9:03 AM
MagicalPat said...: I think you are all overlooking a more recent pop culture reference. Jessica Simpson remade this song, and if you recall the video, she is sudsing up the Dukes of Hazzard car in her bikini whilst gyrating seductively.

The video is loaded with stripper references. I could be wrong though, I've only watched it 347 times.; 3/1/08, 9:49 AM
Trooper York said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/1/08, 9:49 AM
The Exalted said...: what a strange world you inhabit.; 3/1/08, 2:53 PM
Trooper York said...: Thank you.; 3/1/08, 4:15 PM