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Not Ready to Make Nice

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"Not Ready to Make Nice"
Song

"Not Ready to Make Nice" is a country–pop song written and recorded by the American all-female band Dixie Chicks for their fourth studio album, Taking the Long Way (2006). The song was released as the first physical single from the album in March 2006.

In February 11, 2007, it won the three Grammy Awards in the categories of Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. [1]

Song information

Taking the Long Way was the first studio album released by the Dixie Chicks after controversy erupted over them in 2003 following a critical comment vocalist Natalie Maines made of the American President George W. Bush while performing in a concert in London, United Kingdom. The controversy and the band reaction to it is the major theme of some of the songs in the album, including "Not Ready to Make Nice."

The song, which was written by all three band members along with Dan Wilson, is a statement of how they feel over the controversy, the banning of their songs from country radio stations, and freedom of speech.

The band went on to the October 25 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote their album and the music video of the song was quickly shown. Host Winfrey shared sympathy with the band by commenting that before the invasion of Iraq she did an episode titled Is war the answer? and received hate mail as the result of that. While interviewing the band, Winfrey said the song is so well written that you cannot even tell it concerns the controversy [2]. Indeed, Maines said that she and the other writers wanted the song to have a universal interpretation. However, the final lines of the fourth verse are unequivocally about the death threats the band received during the 2003 Top of the World Tour:

"And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over."

Some other lines in the beginning of this same verse are about a scene featured in the documentary Shut Up and Sing (2006), in which a mother, who was protesting the Dixie Chicks at one of their concerts, is goading her young son to say "screw 'em!":

"It's a sad sad story
When a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought'a hate a perfect stranger"

In the song, "daughter" was used instead of "son" as a matter of poetic license.

Comments about the song by band members

The band members of the Dixie Chicks released their comments about writing the songs of Taking the Long Way through the website Frontpage Publicity [3].

  • Emily commented that the song is "special because it's autobiographical" and that they "have all gone through so many emotions about the incident. We talked for days with Dan before putting pen to paper, and he really helped get inside our heads and put these feelings out. And once we had this song done, it freed us up to do the rest of the album without that burden."
  • Martie commented: "I realized I had suppressed a lot about the death threat. It all came flooding back in the process of writing this song. I think we all realized just how painful it had been for us."
  • Natalie stated that the Dixie Chicks "tried to write about the incident a few times, but [they got] nervous that [they're] being too preachy or too victimized or too nonchalant."

Music video

The music video for "Not Ready to Make Nice", which was directed by the critically-acclaimed British director Sophie Muller, uses the contrast of dark and white colors. The video starts with a scene of Natalie painting the white clothes of the other two band members, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, with black paint, which symbolizes the banning of the band by part of her comment. Then, Natalie is seen wearing a black dress with her hands on a puddle of black paint. In another scene, the band members are sitting in a chair and when Natalie gets up to say something, Martie and Emily pull her back in to the chair. Then, Natalie and the other Dixie Chicks are seen in an environment that looks like a classroom and the teacher sends Natalie to write "To talk without thinking is to shoot without aiming" on the blackboard. On the final scenes of the video, Natalie is seen in front of three doctors, trying to escape from them.

The music video of the song broke the record as the longest run at #1 on VH1's VSpot Top 20 Countdown spending 19 weeks at the top, 17 of them consecutive. The video also became the second ever to retire on the show on 7 October, 2006, when it was at #1 on the countdown. In December 2006, it was named by VH1 one of the 20 best videos of the year.

Parodies of music video

The FOX late-night sketch show MADtv performed a parody of the "Not Ready to Make Nice" music video. In the parody, Crista Flanagan portrays Natalie Maines as standing by her comments about George W. Bush; however, her bandmates, portrayed by Nicole Parker and Arden Myrin, want to apologize so they can be popular in America again. Flanagan, as Maines, states that there is no God, she supports radical Islamic Jihad, and that every woman should wear a burqa. In the parody, Flanagan writes on a blackboard, "I am angry and important"; in the original video, Maines' wrote, "To talk without thinking is to shoot without aiming." In the parody, Flanagan is lobotimized and her bandmates toast the operation; in the original, Maines resists being treated by doctors and is toasted by her bandmates.

Critical response

"Not Ready to Make Nice" was very well-received by music reviewers from publications like All Music Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone and USA Today. The song has been praised by these critics for being a statement in which the band does not regret Maines' anti-Bush statement.

"Given the controversy of 2003, the conscious distancing from country makes sense — and given songs like the defiant "Not Ready to Make Nice", the Dixie Chicks don't sound like they're in retreat on Taking the Long Way; they merely sound like they're being themselves."
"If you wonder whether they have regrets about the incident, "Not Ready to Make Nice" makes it clear they don't. When Maines gets to the part about all the death threats, her voice rises and the strings well up; it's a true pop-money-shot moment."
  • Rolling Stone music reviewer Barry Walters commented the following about the song [6]:
"Rather than try to forget about singer Natalie Maines' anti-Bush remarks of 2003 -- which landed them in hot water with a lot of station program directors -- the threesome declares it's still "Not Ready to Make Nice"."
  • USA Today music reviewer Brian Mansfield commented the following about the song [7]:
"They're "Not Ready to Make Nice" with the yahoos who threatened their lives over an offhanded comment. So give the Chicks credit for sticking to their guns, and give them more for getting on with life."

Live performances history

To promote both the single and the album, the Dixie Chicks performed the song live on some television programs such as on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, The Late Show with David Letterman, among others. It was also performed to internet radios such as Sessions@AOL and LAUNCHcast. It was performed in every single concert of the band's Accidents & Accusations Tour (June 15–December 5, 2006). It would also be performed at the 49th Grammy Awards ceremony, just minutes before the band won the awards for Song of Year and Record of the Year.

Chart performance

"Not Ready to Make Nice" initially charted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the first song by the Dixie Chicks to chart the Hot 100 in the U.S. after the 2003 controversy. The song was able to chart in the Billboard Hot 100 because of a high number of download sales (it charted at #1 on the Hot Digital Songs chart), despite low country radio airplay.

For the issue dated February 24, 2007 the song re-entered the Hot 100 at #1 in the wake of its Grammy success, becoming the band's highest charting single to date. It tied with LL Cool J's "Control Myself" as the highest re-entry on the chart.[8]

The song was also very popular in Canada, where it peaked at #1 on the BDS chart. It also became a Top 20 hit in Australia, becoming the second single of the band to chart on the ARIA chart, at #1. On the United Kingdom, the song charted poorly on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #21; however, it became the fourth single by the band to chart in that country.

Chart[9] Peak
position
Australia ARIA Singles Chart 1
Canada Jam! Country Songs 1
Canada Jam! Hits 100 1
Spanish Top 40 19
Sweden Top 40 2
Swiss Top 100 2
UK Singles Chart 7
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 1
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs 1

Awards and nominations

2007 CMT Music Awards:

  • Video of the Year (won)
  • Group Video of the Year (won)

49th Grammy Awards:

References

  1. ^ "Making nice to Dixie Chicks", Glenn Gamboa, Newsday (February 12, 2007)
  2. ^ Dixie Chicks on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
  3. ^ The Chicks talk about the writing process of the songs of Taking The Long Way at FrontPagePublicity.com
  4. ^ Taking the Long Way review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
  5. ^ Taking the Long Way review, David Browne, Entertainment Weekly (May 19, 2006)
  6. ^ Taking the Long Way review, Barry Walters, Rolling Stone (May 2, 2006)
  7. ^ Taking the Long Way review, Brian Mansfield, USA Today (May 22, 2006)
  8. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/chart_beat/chat_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003556386
  9. ^ Chart position for "Not Ready to Make Nice" at Top40-Charts.com
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