Culture Pat Benatar refuses to sing 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' in the wake of mass shootings: 'I just can't' - Fire AWAYYYYY. Also her feelings on her music and abortion rights.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/pat-benatar-wont-sing-hit-me-with-your-best-shot-after-mass-shootings-212118829.html

Rocker Pat Benatar's recent setlists are missing one of her most popular songs: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot."

The reason, she told USA Today in an interview published Thursday, is directly related to current event

"We're not doing 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' and fans are having a heart attack," Benatar said, "And I'm like, 'I'm sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I'm not singing it.' I tell them, 'If you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it.."

Lyrics of the 1980 song suggested it was about a physical fight: "Put up your dukes, let's get down to it," she sang in the first verse. But she then sings in the chorus, "Hit me with your best shot. Fire away."

"(The title) is tongue in cheek, but you have to draw the line. I can't say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can't," Benatar said. "I'm not going to go on stage and soap box — I go to my legislators — but that's my small contribution to protesting. I'm not going to sing it. Tough."

Mass shootings in the United States have increased overall in the last few years, as illustrated by the Washington Post, based on statistics collected by the non-profit Gun Violence Archive.

Benatar had something to say, too, about another major news story of 2022: the Supreme Court's ruling to overturn their 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which said women had a constitutional right to abortion.

The singer was then asked how these events of 2022 affect the "tenor of the work you're singing from 30 or 40 years ago."

"Well, 'Invincible' is really important," she said of her Grammy-nominated hit, which served as the theme for the 1985 movie The Legend of Billie Jean. "I'm worried, like all of us, about fundamental autonomy rights. This is a slippery slope. It's not about abortion for me. I'm concerned that people are not paying attention to what this actually means."

In that song, she sings, "We can't afford to be innocent," and later adds that it's a "do or die situation."

 

[Norbert the Tiger]

Agree, the song isn't even ABOUT guns, and "hit me with your best shot" has always implied the use of fisticuffs.... this is so stupid on so many levels.

No it's not. I am quoting the lyrics below. I thought it was about being tough during a lover's quarrel but it seems to be about playing hard to get with a.guy known to be a womanizer. The lyrics now that I read them are really pretty stupid.

Is someone going to find Pebbles and Stacie Q and get their feelings on these issues? Jody Watley?

Pat Benatar unlike Stacie Q was no mere one hit wonder. I hate hearing the very name Stacie Q because as soon as I do I get that ear work back in my heart "Two Oh Hearts, uh-huh, uh-huh." Picture attached from a song or album I never even heard of because she was kinda hit in her say, in a very bimbosih way.

You're a real tough cookie
With a long history
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me
That's okay, lets see how you do it
Put up your dukes, let's get down to it
Hit me with your best shot
Why don't you hit me with your best shot
Hit me with your best shot
Fire away
You come on with the come on
You don't fight fair
That's okay, see if I care!
Knock me down, it's all in vain
I get right back up on my feet again!
Hit me with your best shot
Why don't you hit me with your best shot
Hit me with your best shot
Fire away
You're a real tough cookie with a long history
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me
Before I put another notch in my lipstick case
You better make sure you put me in my place!
Hit me with your best shot...
C'mon!
Hit me with your best shot...
Hit me with your best shot
Fire away!
Hit me with your best shot
Why don't you hit me with your best shot
Hit me with your best shot
Fire away

 

[Cheesegirl78]

No it's not. I am quoting the lyrics below. I thought it was about being tough during a lover's quarrel but it seems to be about playing hard to get with a.guy known to be a womanizer. The lyrics now that I read them are really pretty stupid.

Pat Benatar unlike Stacie Q was no mere one hit wonder. I hate hearing the very name Stacie Q because as soon as I do I get that ear work back in my heart "Two Oh Hearts, uh-huh, uh-huh." Picture attached from a song or album I never even heard of because she was kinda hit in her say, in a very bimbosih way.

We made up our own lyrics:
Hit me with some wet snot,
Slime me away...

 

[BobbyBriggs69420]

It reminds me of when stations stopped playing "Die Young" by Ke$ha after Newtown.

I hadn't heard of this but thank you heebs of clearchannel (and whatever our countries 3 other radio stations are called) for bringing lols with the association you made there.

 

[Pee Cola]

I figured "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" would be more problematic because of the domestic violence connotations rather than the risk of being connected to mass shootings, but OK.

 

[Yamma Damma]

So much for being a real tough cookie.

Most people who aren't retarded know not to take the song literally. It reminds me of when stations stopped playing "Die Young" by Ke$ha after Newtown.

Years ago the radio stations censored the word "bullet" in "Ride" by Twenty One Pilots. I shit you not the sound effect they used to bleep it sounded like a gunshot. They stopped playing it and returned to the original after enough people barked about it.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Honestly...We Belong is a much better song anyway.

Sry did u mean Heartbreaker

 

[Chocolate Wombat]

Sry did u mean Heartbreaker

That is an astoundingly better song.

 

[Ben Affleck]

Absolute filler no one asked her.

 

[Unpaid Emotional Labourer]

Alexa, what is a figure of speech?

 

[Sparkletor 2.0]

Imagine...
Paying $100 to see this...

Not play your favorite song. When you complain, she tells you, "If you want to hear that song, you can listen to it at home."

I'm sure that will help ticket sales.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

I figured "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" would be more problematic because of the domestic violence connotations rather than the risk of being connected to mass shootings, but OK.

That or a bus driver who give an uppercut to a passenger who goes nuts.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Most people who aren't retarded know not to take the song literally. It reminds me of when stations stopped playing "Die Young" by Ke$ha after Newtown.

I still find it funny that was the last song I heard prior to me finding out about the Sandy Hook Shooting. I know Clearchannel encouraged stations to retire it not long after.

 

[Screw Danlon]

I mean, it’s her concert and song, so if she feels uncomfortable singing it, more power to her. Plenty of musicians add and remove songs from setlists.

If someone ever leaves the world’s largest cake out in the rain, I bet Richard Harris would refuse to sing MacArthur Park out of respect. Or maybe just cause he’s dead.

But going on a bunch of talk shows to talk about it means it’s no longer about personal beliefs. It’s about grandstanding. And that’s always annoying.

 

[Comandante Marcos]

What is really fucking annoying is long washed up singers who pretty much nobody remembers (because they weren't fucking born yet when the singer was popular) are still touring as senior citizens (Benatar is 69, apparently), singing 40 year old songs to other senior citizens and nearly-seniors. At least Billy Joel came to his senses eventually and realized that the only people still attending his concerts were old people and quit.

Every so often the phenomenon can produce moments of unintended lulz, such as when a Xer-era pop group put on a concert in the parking lot of a mostly-abandoned mall in suburban Sacramento (def a comedown from filling arenas in 1991), but most of the time it's just annoying and sad. Pat Benatar should have stopped after her heyday was over and gotten an office job or something.

Cultural norms change over time, so pop culture stalwarts from the past can gradually become offensive, like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons that had to be yanked off TV because they were chock full of stereotypes that had become unacceptable over the decades. I can see how a song written nearly a half century ago could have lyrics that are offensive now. No, the song isn't about shooting somebody if you listen to it, but the potential for misunderstanding is certainly there.

 

[Dracula's Spirit Animal]

This is more women fucking up the world, with the best of intentions, and ultimately fucking up women, like they have in supporting troons.

The song is clearly a double-entendre about a woman a)dusting herself off after being dumped and b)standing up to an abusive partner.

Pat Benatar: I know! Stronk Woomins Anthem Yeetus! Skooly Bang Bang Deletus! Witch Goddess Spell successful!

It's embarrassing.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

Well, I guess she'll just have to sing all of her other number one hits.

 

[The Nothingness]

She won't play "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" but she will play the Beatles' "Helter Skelter". You know, the song that inspired Charles Manson to start a race war and led to the murder of seven people (eight if you include Sharon Tate's unborn child).

 

[Wormy]

Still like ya, Pat, but did you forget the meaning to your own song? Hit Me was about a heartbreaking mean girl getting ready to put some alpha-male type PUA in his place while on a date. Not a shooting.

She won't play "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" but she will play the Beatles' "Helter Skelter". You know, the song that inspired Charles Manson to start a race war and led to the murder of seven people (eight if you include Sharon Tate's unborn child).

It didn't really inspire him, it just gave him a name to put into his whacked out mythos. The song it'self was about a carnival ride.

 

[Beavis]

One hit wonder refuses to sing their one hit live.

 

[Cheesegirl78]

What is really fucking annoying is long washed up singers who pretty much nobody remembers (because they weren't fucking born yet when the singer was popular) are still touring as senior citizens (Benatar is 69, apparently), singing 40 year old songs to other senior citizens and nearly-seniors. At least Billy Joel came to his senses eventually and realized that the only people still attending his concerts were old people and quit.

Every so often the phenomenon can produce moments of unintended lulz, such as when a Xer-era pop group put on a concert in the parking lot of a mostly-abandoned mall in suburban Sacramento (def a comedown from filling arenas in 1991), but most of the time it's just annoying and sad. Pat Benatar should have stopped after her heyday was over and gotten an office job or something.

Cultural norms change over time, so pop culture stalwarts from the past can gradually become offensive, like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons that had to be yanked off TV because they were chock full of stereotypes that had become unacceptable over the decades. I can see how a song written nearly a half century ago could have lyrics that are offensive now. No, the song isn't about shooting somebody if you listen to it, but the potential for misunderstanding is certainly there.

What group was this?
I'm slightly fascinated by the groups that filled arenas in the 80s/90s but end up doing shows in local Indian casinos for 200 people.

And a relative visited an amusement park years ago, and Pat Benatar was also there with her family. Relative said Benatar pulled the "don't you know who I am?" routine to cut line for the rides, and wouldn't sign autographs.