English, baby!

Crazy

Date: Oct 09 2006

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Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

track

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

People are going crazy over Crazy.

Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo have teamed up for a record under the band name Gnarls Barkley. They released their album St. Elsewhere last Spring. It has been a big hit in the UK, where downloads of Crazy sent the single to the top of the charts there.

Back in the US, this DJ/rapper duo livened up the MTV Movie Awards by performing in elaborate Star Wars costumes.

Both Mason and Amanda saw that performance. Listen to them talk about Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Amanda

Mason

Amanda: I just downloaded my first ring tone ever.

Mason: Really? OK.

Amanda: A track that I actually thought was worth the cost.

Mason: Wow. What is it?

Amanda: Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it?

Mason: Oh, I’ve heard it. I know all about it.

Amanda: Are you feelin’ it?

Mason: I’m feelin’ it. But it took me a while. I gotta say, I mean, the first time I saw it was, uh, was, um, one of the award shows, I don’t know if it was the movie awards…

Amanda: Star Wars! Right? Cee-Lo was decked out, and Darth Vader, and the Stormtroopers and all that.

Mason: Yeah. Yeah. And I’m watching him and I was kinda freaked out, you know? I’ll be honest…

Amanda: Kinda scary… a little bit creepy...

Mason: It was a little bit too weird. It’s, like, here’s this really large black fella and he’s screaming out there like Aretha Franklin, and I’m, like, I can’t really marry this image and this sound in my mind. And so then I’ve watched the video a couple of times, you know? It’s a cool video.

Amanda: Yeah, it is. The art.

Mason: But it wasn’t until I got the album and just listening to it without seeing anything that it really, really hit me, then I’m like, Wow, this is just really good.

Amanda: The crazy thing is the phenomenon about Gnarls Barkely, nobody really knows who they are. And if you get on their website, they won’t even identify if it’s a person or a group. There’s all that speculation about Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Green but if you go to interviews for both of them, they won’t even say. They’ll say, “Yeah, I may contribute to that group. I may not.” It’s this whole mysterious “Who is Gnarls Barkely? What is Gnarls Barkely?” Yeah.

Mason: Cool. I didn’t know that was up for debate.

Amanda: They don’t want to be defined.

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Discussion

Amanda liked Crazy so much, she downloaded it onto her phone.

Mason was unsure about it at first, especially when he saw the TV performance. But once he bought the album, he realized he liked it.

Amanda tells Mason that Gnarls Barkley is trying to keep the identity of its players a secret.

Have you heard Crazy?

Gnarls Barkley