If U Seek Amy

[Wilson Gray]

I have a copy of "Ef You See Kay" by Memphis Slim. This one is
straightforward. Which is probably why I first heard it - and first
heard *of* it! - on Radio Luxembourg's R&B program while stationed in
Baumholder, Germany in 1961. In this country, I didn't hear it on the
radio till the 'Eighties.

It's a good thing that you clarified the pun in Britney's song. I
certainly would have been totally befuddled, otherwise. It strikes me
as rather sweet, actually.

(FWIW, I say "on the radio," but "on TV."  I have no idea why. It just
seems right.)

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      If U Seek Amy
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>        The latest Britney Spears controversy is her new single, If U
> Seek Amy, bowdlerized on some radio stations to If U See Amy.  There
> have, of course, been a number of different songs with the title If You
> See Kay (and Joyce earlier used the line in Ulysses), but Britney's song
> seems qualitatively different to me, in that it's hard to get a reading
> of the song's words other than "F U C K me."  Here's the refrain:
>
> Love me, hate me
> Say what you want about me
> But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to If U Seek Amy
> Love me, hate me
> But can't you see what I see?
> All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to If You Seek Amy
>
>        In spite of my reading, I've seen a number of online posts where
> commenters mentioned that they did not get the pun until it was pointed
> out to them.  In any case, it seems a higher class of controversy for
> Britney than she has encountered in the not-too-distant past.
>
>
> John Baker
>
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