Gilbert and George - bend it

Dancing to bend it

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Entertainment

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• Gilbert
• and
• george
• bend

[allthatgoodstuf]

@gymnastix tf?

[gymnastix]

Fontana Records (the label of DDDBM&T) should have left bad enough alone, left the deejays with the original version of the record, and allowed nature to take its course, which may have resulted in younger listeners making the song the smash U.S. hit it deserved to become.

Still, it's kinda neat having two versions to listen to now, anyway, one of them a suggestive "dance" record alongside "The Loco-Motion" and "The Twist" in rock & roll history.

[gymnastix]

In any case, re-cutting a second, barely-less-risque version of a song, the title and rhythm of which suggest nothing but sexual interaction, was only adding fuel to the fire.

[gymnastix]

@gymnastix But from what I've read on-line, and my own childhood recollection, the failure of "Bend It" to certify a bona fide U.S. hit didn't prevent many millions of kids and teenagers from hearing the song on the radio, nor having fond recollections of it now, nearly half a century later.

[gymnastix]

@gymnastix In any case, re-cutting a secind, barely-less-risque version of a song whose title and rhthm suggest nothing but sexual interaction was only adding fuel to the fire.

Fontana Records (the label of DDDBM&T) should have left bad enough alone.

[gymnastix]

@gymnastix Of course, the first and third verses of the "edited" version of "Bend It" also finish with this line: "When night's ending we'll be bending."

This is only slightly less risque than the "Please don't tease me - try to please me" line from the UK original, with its references to partners fitting together "like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle," making faily clear the sum of "69" was in the math equation of songwriters Ken Howard & Alan Blaikley, who wrote many of DDDBM&T's hits.

[gymnastix]

@gymnastix Actually, to be accurate, "Zabadak" hit #46 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it just a bit beneath the Top 40 radio charts.

[gymnastix]

@gymnastix These lyrics of the complete second verse from of the second U.S. version of "Bend It" show, in context, the implication of self-gratification:

"Bend it, bend it, there's no need to hurry/Let your mind be free from work and worry/When we dance the bend like this together/I'm so sure we could go on forever/There's no doubt without your lovin' baby/I'm alone and on my own/Ah-yeah, got it now, yeah, like that... yeah, real good."

[gymnastix]

@gymnastix If, after finding the links of the two versions of "Bend It" on the SoManyRecordsSoLittleTime website, you right-click and "Save Target As," you will then own the A-sides of both records. Enjoy!

[gymnastix]

Someone should upload to You Tube the edited (U.S.) version of "Bend It," for comparison with the Euro/UK version. But you may hear both versions, anyway, by going to the website SoManyRecordsSoLittleTime (DotCom), entering "Bend It" in the search engine field, scroll down to the last link titled "Legend Of Dave Dee," click on that and scroll half-way down the page until you see icons of the "Bend It" records, links to the respective versions beneath each.