1979 Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive

I once read a review where 'I Will Survive' was touted as a seventies version of 'Respect'. It's a neat idea, but it's one that misses the mark - 'Respect' in the hands of it's author (Otis Redding) is a thinly disguised whinge from a bloke wanting his woman to open her legs on cue when he gets home in return for the money he earns. Aretha Franklin's far superior version turns the tables and recasts it as both a plea for racial tolerance, a call for female empowerment as well as a wagging finger to keep her man in his place. It's a multi-focussed assault that you won't find in 'I Will Survive', a song that can only really be taken one way.

What's always appealed to me about 'I Will Survive' is the conversational tone of the lyrics. Yes they have meter and rhyme, but in essence Gaynor is addressing her former lover in words that could have been overheard through a thin wall, written down as prose and then set to music - "I should have changed that stupid lock, I should have made you leave your key. If I'd known for just one second you'd back to bother me" - it's meat and potatoes, soap opera script, but its directness when married to the thumping disco beat gives 'I Will Survive' energy and clout. And to cement that particular score, Gaynor puts in a bravura vocal of gutsy determination that, after the uncertainty that intimates false hope for reconciliation on the fractured opening ("At first I was afraid I was petrified, kept thinkin' I could never live without you by my side") she soon pulls down the shutters and from then on brooks no suggestion that some sweet talking is going to change her mind.

"Go on now, go. Walk out the door. Just turn around now. Cause you're not welcome anymore." - each phrase ends with a definite full stop amplified by the purely functional, no frills backing that provides Gaynor with the musical backbone to bounce her lyrical one off. The fact that it's gender/sexuality neutral to gives the message of strength and independence a universal appeal for the downtrodden everywhere to take the earth rather than wait to inherit it. By the end, we don't know if Gloria has survived, or whether her outburst is just bravado and that she's really getting out the razors and running a hot bath, but it doesn't matter. The song is adaptable enough for anybody to fashion their own finale, all Gloria is doing is giving you a shove in the right direction.

''I Will Survive' has become familiar almost to the point that it parodies itself. Certainly it's inherent message has been diluted by too many turns on the irony karaoke, but taken in isolation with a fresh pair of ears then it provides a welcome relief from some simpering 'lover come back' soul or the exaggerated joy of lesser genre tracks - there's joy here, but it's joy in strength, personal fulfilment and the sheer pleasure of saying 'fuck you' and meaning it.