Look who else Doesn’t Give a Damn

At one time or another, every blogger has had fun looking over the more unusual search terms through which visitors find our sites. I Don’t Give a Damn draws in people looking for “Jack Sparrow” (or “джек воробей” in Russian), ”getting rid of mold” (and “mould“), “virtual birth” (which can apparently also be spelled “verchual birth”), and “paris hilton guillotine” (which may have something to do with a leaked video of her giving her head, or some such).

And of course, a great many people find their way here by looking for “I don’t give a damn.”

I’d always figured they were just searching for the quote from Gone With the Wind, but the other day I got curious where my own site would fall in the results.

Here’s what I found. (Click on it for full size.)

My site has the black arrow pointing to it. I’m fifth down (counting the videos as one), which is good. But did you happen to notice who’s sharing the Google real estate with me? The name with the pink arrows pointing to it? Huh? See that?

Why, it’s Avril Lavigne.

I’ve mentioned her, haven’t I?

It turns out she sang a song called “I Don’t Give a Damn.” Who knew? (Well, other than some 20 billion teenagers.)

Now I consider Avril to be one of the most beautiful women in show business, and because there’s a similarity to my wife I can get away with it. But my admiration was purely non-musical. By way of second-hand exposure through radios in coffee shops and such, I’d discovered that I could often distinguish her voice from the rest of the female pop singers. But it was all pop, and it was all in the background, and the only song I could ever recognise all on its own was “Complicated.”

It goes like this:

“Da da da da da da da da so complicated.”

Susanna Hoffs. (80s much?)

To me, hearing her voice through the speakers at Tim Horton’s, Second Cup and Starbucks, she sounded something like Susanna Hoffs (of The Bangles).

Now that I knew we were such close Google neighbours, however, it seemed only prudent to pay closer attention to her music. After all, when she drops by I don’t want to have to tell her I’d never listened to a single one of her songs.

That could happen. She could drop by. Google neighbours do that.

In any event, I spent some time on YouTube and you know what? She’s really not bad.

Keep in mind, the stuff she writes and sings is pop. In my day it might have been played along with “Angel in the Morning” and the Bells’ sexy “Stay Awhile.” But her voice is nice, and I think she’s got good range.

I only sampled a dozen or so of her songs, but the one that stays with me is “I’m With You.” The opening bars of the verse are reminiscent of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” (what a voice she had), and there’s a nice lilt to the chorus.

Much of her music, of course, is aimed at empowering teenage girls — who desperately need it because getting their own way 23 hours of the day just isn’t enough. As a result it can be a bit screechy. And “angry,” in a cute-girl-doing-straight-arm-punches-while-looking-adorably-serious kind of way.

But the more I listened, the more she started to remind me of someone else: Edie Brickell.

Here’s Avril’s “Nobody’s Home.” (Sorry for the crappy video, but the decent ones are locked against being embedded.)

And here’s Edie singing her classic “Circle.” I don’t know, but I hear a similarity.

Damn. That one always gets me. In fact, that whole album does.

But this isn’t about Edie.

The biggest surprise while researching Avril was finding that she’d done the song for the end of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. It’s somewhat “anthem-ish,” but pretty good. And a stunning video.

And I can’t end this without presenting the song whose name so fortuitously put us together in cyberspace. So without further ado, here’s Avril Lavigne singing “I Don’t Give a Damn.”

Take it away, Avril.

(And again — sorry about the boring video.)

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