Extreme trigger warnings in advance for anyone who has experienced sexual abuse.
As someone who has survived sexual abuse (I promise it gets better although for me its shadow has never gone away completely), I truly appreciate the level of subversion and catharsis that Amanda Palmer and Reb Fountain have given with their mash-up cover of two tracks. Taking ‘Blurred Lines’ from Robert Thicke and ‘Rape Me’ from Nirvana and placing the two tracks lyrics side by side is genius. Reb sings and speaks ‘Blurred Lines’ in a stoic haunted way whilst Amanda boils up slowly like a volcano into an animalistic scream, joined by Reb as both songs wage war with each other.
For me, this track reminds me of the kind of inner/outer dialogues that sprawled around in my head during the abuse. It also reminded me of my journey from survival, processing to rage, anger and release. It takes a long time to get there and this rollercoaster does it in just over four minutes.
This project was originally inspired by Lizz Winstead (co-creator of the daily show), who reached out and asked Amanda to cover a traditionally sexist song for a fundraiser called DoReMeToo. Amanda and Reb had recently become friends and worked on this together in New Zealand before the lockdowns. The video for the track is available below and you can find out more about the piece from Amanda Palmer’s Patreon.
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