Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 1-66

LIVE! TRIBUNE 66 APOLLOTHEATER 773 935-6100 TICKETMASTER.COM TODAY THU 7:30 FRI 8PM SAT SUN AHIT! 3 Mustpurchaseby12.12.10.Restrictionsapply. USECODEGIFT8 773.348.4000 ticketmaster.com/bluemanchicago CHICAGOLAND THEATREDIRECTORY CHICAGOLAND THEATREDIRECTORY 312.443.3800|GoodmanTheatre.org NOWTHROUGHDECEMBER31! ADAPTEDBY DIRECTEDBY WILLIAMBROWN ChicagoShakespeareTheateronNavyPier! ASYOULIKEIT BeginsJanuary5 312.595.5600•www.chicagoshakes.com PETERPAN APLAY CALL 312-337-0665 OR VISIT LOOKINGGLASSTHEATRE.ORG GOODSEATSSTILLAVAILABLEFORTONIGHT Dance Callfor ChristmasWeek Specials SteppenwolfTheatreCompany VIRGINAWOOLF DirectedbyPamMacKinnon NOWPLAYING! FINAL4WEEKS! Popular music is like the tide, its vola- tile surf constantly throwing up flotsam and jetsam from our collective subcon- scious. Out of nowhere, a sound or an idea might return after years in the deep. love you long is not a phrase hope to hear blaring out of apartment window again. It first became acatchphrase in Metal Stanley caustic war film, in a scene involving two less-than-savvy sol- diers and a Vietnamese prostitute with weak English and debatable bargaining skills.

It became a part of pop history when Luther controversial party band 2 Live Crew turned it into a hook in its controversy-stirring 1990 So Since then, been parodied in comedies such as the film 40-Year- Old and the animated Fox hit and musically repurposed by a host of artists Nelly Furtado and Mariah Carey as well as the Hawaiian reggae band Conscious Roots. This month, the phrase popped up twice. Least surprisingly, the Black Eyed Peas use it as the basis for the VIP-room duet You Long on the new album The not new to Fergie, who copped the 2 Live Crew hook in her own and the inveterate recycler will.i.am must have thought only touched the tip of its iceberg, because here he Auto-Tunes her voice, squeezing it tight until it sounds more stereotypically Asian? The song describes a love match taking place in Velvet a nominally classier version of the street where Ku- GIs meet the feisty Papillon Soo Soo. Unintentionally, perhaps, the use of the phrase spans the distance between the blatant self-advertise- ment and the more subtle but equally mercenary exchange that happens be- tween and their in high-end clubs. This twist puts the song in the dubious category of the stripper ode, common ground for hip-hop-loving pop stars in this era of mercenary sex.

Jazmine Sullivan, on the other hand, milks you long for sentiment in her song of the same name from her second album, You Sullivan creates something really powerful with that bothersome phrase, almost enough to free it from its legacy. Salaam drumline-based production pushes Sulli- van nearly to breathlessness, and in the chorus the phrase becomes a tongue- twister expressing the rush of emotion in young romance. Still. Did she have to go there? In 2007, when Carey and Fergie and Nelly Furtado all partook of it, Vineyard and Audrey Kim reported that the phrase had become aform of harassment against Asian- American women. instantly putting you in the position of being a foreigner, an outsider and a sexual said actor and writer Margaret Cho.

an all-in-one An MTVreportnoted that Asian- Americans sometimes use the phrase themselves to needle each other, and in fact YouTube reveals a few clips of young women saying it, sometimes clearly teased into doing so by holding the camera. Nelly Furtado claimed that it could be rehabilitated, the way other loaded terms have been by minority groups. But this really seem to be happening. Instead, still powerful precisely because it feels a little dirty: The undertone, even in marvel- ously musical rendition, is still one of reckless sexual availability. And face it: impossible to hear it, or to say or sing it, without that echo of an accent pushing it toward caricature.

Some phrases, it seems, should be weighted down and thrown into the depths for good. Love is lost on this phrase Popularized in Metal it has since become astereotype. So why do the Black Eyed Peas and Jazmine Sullivan use it? By Ann Powers TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS CRITIC In You Long Fergie and the rest of the Black Eyed Peas sing about a love match in Velvet JASON PHOTO FOR DCP COMMENTARY.