Wild | 3 or 4 BOPS

In the 17^th edition of 3 or 4 BOPS (2022), we select awesome songs that are associated with being WILD in some form or fashion.  

Ah, sometimes it’s better to keep things lite on the fat and calories 💪! That’s the goal of the miniature playlists gracing The Musical Hype. 

On 3 or 4 BOPS, we select a topic or theme, choose three or four relevant songs, and provide a lit 🔥, electrifying blurb.  3 or 4 BOPS shouldn’t take too much time to consume – typically 5 minutes or less! In the 17^th edition of 3 or 4 BOPS (2022), we select awesome songs that are associated with being WILD in some form or fashion.  Without further ado, let the BOPS begin!

 

---

1. Normani, “Wild Side” (Ft. Cardi B)

🎵 “Wild Side” • 🏷 Keep Cool / RCA • 🗓 2021 

“This type of shit have you windin’ (ooh) / Last minute trips to the islands.” Woo! 🎙 Normani comes through big with 🎵 “Wild Side”, tapping 🏆 Grammy-winning rapper 🎙 Cardi B for the assist. When it comes to production, there are ‘lots of cooks in the kitchen.’ Even so, the good news is that “Wild Side” sounds awesome.  It’s fueled by the 🎙 Aaliyah classic, 🎵 “One in a Million”. This source material is tailor-made for Normani, who exhibits great personality and delivers marvelous vocals.  

Normani’s performance is risqué, sexy, and ear-catching:

“I wanna drive you crazy

Pull up inside me, baby

Fuckin’ it up like oopsie-daisy

Ain’t no ‘if, ands, buts and maybes’.”

Clearly, Normani wants to see and participate in this boy’s wild, sexual side.  Of course, Cardi B complements her in the third verse and leaves little to the imagination.  Some sexual lyrical highlights from Cardi: “It’s my dick and I want it now,” “Baby, let me blow it like a trumpet,” and “Drive this pussy down low like bombs away.” Ooh wee – can’t listen to “Wild Side” and not be titillated! Ultimately, “Wild Side” is successful, ticking off boxes: vocals, production, and personality.  Sure, the songwriting isn’t deep, but it’s entertaining and certainly stimulating!

Appears in 🔻:

• Awesome Songs: July 2021

---

2. The Rolling Stones, “Wild Horses”

💿 Sticky Fingers • 🏷 Promotone B.V. / Universal International Music B.V. • 📅 1971

“Childhood living is easy to do / The things you wanted, I bought them for you.” Ah – what a sensational opening lyric if I do say so myself! OK… more context is necessary! 🎙 The Rolling Stones have no shortage of hits.  Hits and hits and then, more hits! Among my favorite hits by this legendary blues-rock band is 🎵 “Wild Horses.” “Wild Horses” appears as the third track on one of the collective’s most famous albums, 💿 Sticky Fingers. Worth noting, Sticky Fingers features the incredibly controversial 🎵 “Brown Sugar” as well as a wonderful little tune entitled, 🎵 “Bitch” – lol.  Here, we just focus on this marvelous ballad.

“Wild Horses” is, in my opinion, one of the band’s finest ballads.  🎙 Mick Jagger sings beautifully without losing any rock credibility.  I love his tone on the verse – expressive, earthy, and authentic.  The record, however, isn’t cheery despite its brilliance.  “I watched you suffer a dull, aching pain,” Jagger sings in the second verse, adding, “No sweeping exits or offstage lines / Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind.” Besides being heavy as opposed to light, it should be noted that “Wild Horses” has little to do with equines.  The song appears to reference Jagger’s former flame, 🎙 Marianne Faithfull, though Jagger denies the song is about her. Jagger packs the most punch on the centerpiece, the chorus, which is simple yet ranks among my favorite choruses of all-time:

“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away

Wild, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.” 

Appears in 🔻:

• The Rolling Stones, “Wild Horses”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 5 (2022)
• Horses: 3 or 4 BOPS No. 2 (2022)

---

3. John Mayer, “Wild Blue”

💿 Sob Rock • 🏷 Columbia • 📅 2021

🎵 “Wild Blue” keeps 🎙 John Mayer’s 💿 Sob Rock going for sure: “I found myself when I lost you.” Damn.  Mayer gets the heartbreak out of his system on this soft rock joint.  Prior to those closing lyrics from the chorus, he sings, “Wild blue deeper than I ever knew / Wild blue on a bed of grey / Oh baby, what aa wild blue…” His chill, breezy approach is appealing and incredibly charming.

The lyrics of “Wild Blue,” particularly the first verse, are poetic and radiantly penned:

“Never seen the sun before

Laying on the ocean floor

Walking through the wilderness

And living off the loneliness, oh.”

It’s not only in the first verse but also in the second where loneliness has done a number on the 🏆 Grammy winner. Musically, there are some sweet cues too, always poised and never forcing the issue.  Even Mayer’s guitar soloing exhibits a ‘cool energy.’ You might say, “Wild Blue,” well, it isn’t that WILD 😜.

 

---

4. Lou Reed, “Walk on the Wild Side”

💿 Transformer • 🏷 RCA • 📅 1972

When it comes to the late, great 🎙 Lou Reed, the first song that comes to mind is: 🎵 “Walk on the Wild Side”.  This highlight from 💿 Transformer (1972), written about Andy Warhol’s friends and the New York underground, peaked at no. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.  One of the greatest songs of all time, Reed brilliantly captures oddballs perfectly, all of whom happen to be members of the LGBTQ+ community.  Worth noting that Reed was bisexual and struggled with his sexuality. The colorful characters he sings about in “Walk on the Wild Side” are Holly, Candy, Little Joe, Sugar Plum Fairy, and Jackie.

In the first verse, Lou sings about Holly Woodlawn: “Plucked her eyebrows on the way / Shaved her legs and then he was a she.” Holly was transgender, a topic today that wasn’t often covered in rock or any musical genre back in the day.  In the second verse, Candy Darling (also trans) gets her moment, with arguably the most famous line in the song: “But she never lost her head / Even when she was giving head.” Wow! Oral sex – a blow job – in an early 70s song? It’s commonplace now in many rap songs, but eyebrow-raising then. In the third verse, Reed portrays bisexual actor Joe Dallesandro as a hustler, true to the character he plays.  In the fourth, Sugar Plum Fairy (Joe Campbell, a former lover of gay activist, Harvey Milk) gets his moment, while Jackie Curtis’ demons (“Jackie is just speeding away…”) in the fifth and final verse preface her eventual death from a heroin overdose at just 38.  How Reed portrays oddballs and misfits makes “Walk on the Wild Side” not only outlandish but a certified classic.  Another reason why “Walk on the Wild Side” is so great? The music. Reed keeps things on the lighter side.  After all, it is the lyrics, which tell a compelling story, that are ultimately the reason why this song is a success.  That said, musically, the bass line, the background vocals where (“the colored girls say / doo, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo-doo), and the baritone saxophone solo marks some of the song’s bright spots.

Appears in 🔻:

• Lou Reed, “Walk on the Wild Side”: Outlandish Rock 🎸🤘 12 (2022)
• 15 Incredible Walk Songs

---

Wild: 3 or 4 BOPS No. 17 (2022) [📷: Brent Faulkner, Columbia, cottonbro, Keep Cool, The Musical Hype, Promotone B.V., RCA, Universal International Music B.V.,  Wilson Blanco from Pixabay]

---