Katy Perry’s “version” isn’t one in a technical or a narrative sense. The latter deals with what Sobule sarcastically deems the “title-thieving” nature of Perry’s. And legally, a title isn’t “original enough” to be protected by copyright law (in most cases). This tension between protecting property and (implicitly) participating in a public project is imbricated in the Sobule/Perry dyad. Quickly: Perry’s fairly uninteresting conceit concerns temporarily transgressive border crossing monitored mentally by the figure of the “boyfriend.” Sobule: instead of the “diamond”-like pressures (and suffocation) of straight marriage, women can create “pearls” together (or share the ones they have); this option should be left open for the present and foreseeable future. Pearls, as product of an irritation after the intrusion of a foreign body, are precious unless they’re not, really, with variation/deviance managed for the market. If the sharing allows for de-formation and joint holdings writ large, then Sobule’s is the only one that allows for the commitment to and suspension of a choice.
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“Hey Joe Where Are You Going” (Surfaris)
The first recording of “Hey Joe,” and perhaps the most undecided since Joe really can’t make the decision (to seek out his estranged lover, to murder her, or to escape the inevitable lynching). “I guess” riddles the track, and the only place to escape is to “where all those men are free” (and not the “Mexico” of later versions). Like the confused authorship/copyright, no lineage, no endpoint, but only a question of who holds/does the deed.
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