First Amendment First

ON September 9, we had our annual block party in my suburban, lower-middle-class street. The event’s centerpiece was a talent show, the brainchild of our 10-year-old neighbor Siobhan. She herself performed three songs: “It Was Our Day,” from the group B Witched, and the Britney Spears numbers “What U See (Is What U Get)” and “Lucky.”

For readers not au courant with the pop-music scene, the first of these songs is a mawkish elegy for a dead friend: “Heaven, heaven was calling you/ Heaven, heaven needed you… I’ll lay a rose beside you for ever…” The second is a girl’s protest against her boyfriend’s possessiveness: “I know you watch me when I’m dancin’/When I party with me friends/I can feel your eyes on my back, baby/I can’t have no chains around me…” The third is about the inner loneliness of a Hollywood star: “She’s so lucky, she’s a star/But she cry, cry, cries in her lonely heart…”

About the Author

John Derbyshire

Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.

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ON September 9, we had our annual block party in my suburban, lower-middle-class street. The event’s centerpiece was a talent show, the brainchild of our 10-year-old neighbor Siobhan. She herself performed three songs: “It Was Our Day,” from the group B Witched, and the Britney Spears numbers “What U See (Is What U Get)” and “Lucky.”

For readers not au courant with the pop-music scene, the first of these songs is a mawkish elegy for a dead friend: “Heaven, heaven was calling you/ Heaven, heaven needed you… I’ll lay a rose beside you for ever…” The second is a girl’s protest against her boyfriend’s possessiveness: “I know you watch me when I’m dancin’/When I party with me friends/I can feel your eyes on my back, baby/I can’t have no chains around me…” The third is about the inner loneliness of a Hollywood star: “She’s so lucky, she’s a star/But she cry, cry, cries in her lonely heart…”