McKay is hard to categorize. She’s done Brecht on Broadway, opened for Lou Reed at Carnegie Hall, sung Woody Allen movie songs at the Hollywood Bowl, performed on A Prairie Home Companion, duetted with Eartha Kitt and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, played Hilary Swank’s sister on the big screen, paid tribute to Doris Day, and released four wildly acclaimed albums of original music.
Her music is as tuneful and clever as the best of the Great American Songbook-part cabaret, part sparkly pop. But beneath the charming melodic surface is a wit that cuts, and a sharply tuned social conscience.
Home Sweet Mobile Home is McKay’s first album of all-original material since 2007′s Obligatory Villagers, and features the musical wanderlust, lyrical playfulness and unique point of view that has characterized her music since her breakthrough debut Get Away From Me. Songs from the new project were recently debuted at her NYC engagement at Feinstein’s, and The New York Post noted that “songs like ‘Bodega’ and ‘Caribbean Time’… feature a blend of whimsical humor and social commentary that blended in beautifully alongside the Doris Day standards from the Blueberry Pie album.”
The album, produced by McKay and Robin Pappas, was recorded in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, New York, Jamaica, the Pocono Mountains, and even more than her previous albums, combines diverse musical moods and cultures. Reviewing a recent McKay show, Stephen Holden from The New York Times described her as a “vocal chameleon,” and that varied musical palette is used to great effect on the 13 songs of Home Sweet Mobile Home.
Nellie began playing her own songs (and lovingly chosen covers) in clubs in downtown New York City in 2003, soon catching the attention of music writers and a number of record labels – this gal was a gifted entertainer, an impressive musician, with songs unlike anything people were hearing around town.
Her first album was produced by Geoff Emerick, the man who had engineered The Beatles’ albums from Revolver through Abbey Road. McKay signed on as co-producer.
She and Emerick recorded eighteen songs (including such live McKay favorites as “David,” “The Dog Song” and “I Wanna Get Married,” and that double-CD Get Away From Me was let loose upon the world. The project was greeted with critical raves and placement on many Top 10 lists.
The Washington Post wrote, “McKay’s music evokes the lost elegance of pre-Elvis pop music because she recognizes that such stylishness and wit are worth pursuing. But those goals inevitably collide with the realities of money, sex and politics, and she documents those collisions in her tongue-in-cheek lyrics, emphatic beats and bubbly melodies.”
Following the splash of Get Away From Me, Nellie recorded Pretty Little Head, of which the Los Angeles Times said, “McKay comes on as a Harlem Holly Golightly, a social activist with a disarming mastery of pop vernacular.” Spin noted, “that she succeeds on a record as sophisticated as the self-produced Pretty Little Head is not only a testament to McKay’s talent, it’s also a tribute to her artistic sense.”
In 2007, she recorded Obligatory Villagers, described by Spin as “a brisk nine-song set that plays like the breathless first act of a stage musical decrying American fascism.” Recently, the Chase Brock Experience premiered a ballet, Whoa, Nellie!, based on the entire album.
Meanwhile, Broadway and Hollywood beckoned. McKay appeared on Broadway (winning a Theatre World Award for her Polly in a revival of The Threepenny Opera) and on film (acting and singing in P.S. I Love You). She also wrote and performed the song score for the Rob Reiner film Rumor Has It. In addition, her writing has appeared in The Onion, Interview magazine, and The New York Times Book Review, where she delivered an incisive and knowledgeable review of a Doris Day biography.
“What she possessed,” McKay wrote, “beyond her beauty, physical grace, and natural acting ability, was a resplendent voice that conveyed enormous warmth and feeling.”
It seemed inevitable that Nellie should record an album of songs associated with Ms. Day, and she was given the opportunity to do so when approached by Verve Records. The result features 12 songs handpicked from over 600 recordings by Ms. Day, with an original by McKay. Hailed as “among the killer overhauls of American standards” (The New York Times), Normal As Blueberry Pie covers the scope of Day’s music from the big bands through the McCarthy era. The album wound up on a variety of Top 10 lists of 2009′s best albums, including The New York Times and The Village Voice.
McKay completed filming her first starring role, opposite violin prodigy Philippe Quint, in the independent film Downtown Express; recorded (along with Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks) for the soundtrack of the upcoming Martin Scorsese HBO series Boardwalk Empire; and contributed two songs to the award-winning documentary Gasland. She is currently participating in Dear New Orleans, a benefit album to aid the ravaged city, along with such artists as Jill Sobule, My Morning Jacket, and OK GO.
Home Sweet Mobile Home arrives three years after her last self-composed album, and as ever her songs are a study in contrasts: some of the moods are dark (“we’re marching through the madness / with not a soul about to see / we’re moving through the fortress / chasin’ the ghost of anarchy” and “there’s no equality here / there’s no equality anywhere / & every fear you can face / is quickly replaced by one you can’t lose”), but there is also joy and gentleness. Sometimes all at once. Her gift is in mingling the pure pleasure of all kinds and all eras of pop music, twisting the dials, writing upbeat melodies with subversive undercurrents.
As critic Robert Christgau wrote, Nellie McKay is “ebullient, funny and political. Her future looks brave and free to me.”
Official artist website www.nelliemckay.com
Do Do Do
Nellie McKay Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What you've done, done, done
Before, baby
Do, do, do, what I do, do, do
Adore, baby
Let's try again
Sigh again
Baby, see
It's A, B, C
I love you
And you love me
I know, know, know
What a beau, beau, beau
Should do, baby
So don't, don't, don't
Say it won't, won't, won't
Come true, baby
My heart begins to hum
Dum, de, dum
De, dum, dum, dum
So do, do, do
What you've done, done, done before
I remember the bliss
Of that wonderful kiss
You said that a boy
Could never give more joy
From any little miss
I remember it quite
It was a wonderful night
Oh, how I'd adore it
If you would encore it
I know, know, know
What a beau, beau, beau
Should do, baby
So don't, don't, don't
Say it won't, won't, won't
Come true, baby
My heart begins to hum
Dum, de, dum
De, dum, dum, dum
So do, do, do
What you've done, done, done before
The lyrics to Nellie McKay's "Do Do Do" are a playful and flirtatious plea for a lover to recreate the magic of their past romance. The repeated refrain of "Do, do, do what you've done, done, done before, baby" emphasizes the desire for familiarity and the belief that repeating past actions will lead to the same joyful outcome. The singer also assures her lover that she knows what a "beau, beau, beau" should do, suggesting that there are certain romantic gestures and behaviors that are expected in a relationship.
The lyrics also reference a specific moment in their history, most notably the "wonderful kiss" that brought "more joy from any little miss" than any other boy. This memory is tied to the hope that their passion can be reignited and repeated. The playful use of rhythm and sound in lines like "My heart begins to hum, Dum, de, dum, De, dum, dum, dum" adds to the light-hearted and whimsical tone of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh, do, do, do
Please do it, do it, do it
What you've done, done, done
The same thing you did before, dear
Before, baby
Just like you did it before, dear
Do, do, do, what I do, do, do
Love me, baby
Adore, baby
Adore me, baby
Let's try again
Let's give it another chance
Sigh again
Let out a deep breath once more
Fly again to heaven
Let's feel ecstatic again
Baby, see
Honey, look
It's A, B, C
It's simple and basic
I love you
I am in love with you
And you love me
And you feel the same way for me
I know, know, know
I am aware, aware, aware
What a beau, beau, beau
What a gentleman, gentleman, gentleman
Should do, baby
Ought to do, darling
So don't, don't, don't
So please, please, please
Say it won't, won't, won't
Don't say it won't happen
Come true, baby
Come to fruition, dear
My heart begins to hum
My heart starts to sing
Dum, de, dum
Dum, de, dum
De, dum, dum, dum
De, dum, dum, dum
So do, do, do
So please do it, do it, do it
What you've done, done, done before
Exactly what you have already done in the past
I remember the bliss
I have pleasant memories of it
Of that wonderful kiss
That amazing kiss we shared
You said that a boy
You mentioned that a boy
Could never give more joy
Could never make someone so happy
From any little miss
Than any other girl
I remember it quite
I remember it distinctly
It was a wonderful night
It was an enjoyable night
Oh, how I'd adore it
How I would love to repeat it
If you would encore it
If you did it again for me
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ESSADDI MEHDI FAVERIS, HENRY OLIVER SMITHSON, MELISSA YOUNG
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind