{"id":157079,"date":"2025-05-09T12:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T16:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/05\/09\/how-risque-ashley-cooke-on-dropping-the-f-word-in-a-country-song\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T12:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T16:12:15","slug":"how-risque-ashley-cooke-on-dropping-the-f-word-in-a-country-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/05\/09\/how-risque-ashley-cooke-on-dropping-the-f-word-in-a-country-song\/","title":{"rendered":"How Risqu\u00e8! Ashley Cooke on Dropping \u2018the f word\u2019 in a Country\u00a0Song"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- no image --><\/p>\n<div><!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShe\u2019s got a bit of a potty mouth, so when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/ashley-cooke\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/ashley-cooke\/\">Ashley Cooke <\/a>released a track titled \u201cthe f word,\u201d her friends weren\u2019t particularly surprised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI have the mouth of a sailor,\u201d she says, \u201cso [that title] didn\u2019t really bother me, because it was just so brilliant. And I love that it was something that caught your attention off the bat. In today\u2019s world with music, I feel like you kind of have to push the boundaries a little bit and do something that maybe shocks people and makes people curious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe phrase \u201cthe f word\u201d is designed to hide a term that makes some folks uncomfortable. Oddly enough, \u201cthe f word\u201d didn\u2019t follow its inspiration to the letter, because \u201cf\u201d wasn\u2019t the initial plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI had written \u2018The B Word\u2019 down on my phone,\u201d songwriter Emily Weisband (\u201cIf I Die Before You,\u201d \u201cLooking For You\u201d) remembers. \u201cI was talking to my friend one day, and she was like, \u2018Could you see him being my boyfriend?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Ooh, you said the B word, dirty mouth.\u2019 I just made a joke about it, so I wrote \u2018The B Word\u2019 down in my phone. And then as I thought about the idea more, I said, \u2018You know, \u2018the f word\u2019 might be a little cooler, a little more potent.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ashley Cooke - the f word (from the date)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pMbicn3Qap0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWeisband had a Zoom writing appointment on Oct. 30, 2021, with Lori McKenna (\u201cHumble and Kind,\u201d \u201cGirl Crush\u201d) and Gordie Sampson (\u201cJesus, Take The Wheel,\u201d \u201cGod, Your Mama, And Me\u201d), and she suggested writing \u201cthe f word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tZoom presents some co-writing challenges, so under the circumstances, some F bombs were definitely dropped. \u201cI\u2019m gonna say just a couple \u2013 maybe 55, 60,\u201d Sampson jokes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe title looks like a novelty, so an uptempo song seems obvious. They took an unexpected turn, and wrote \u201cthe f word\u201d as a ballad. \u201cI love the juxtaposition sometimes when it\u2019s a sad song that is upbeat, or a happy song that\u2019s slow,\u201d Weisband says. \u201cI think that can be a really beautiful \u2018art\u2019 thing sometimes, so I kind of felt, because the title was a little gimmicky, [we should] balance that out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe thing was, the payoff line for \u201cthe f word\u201d would be a surprise. Listeners would certainly expect the song to use a swear word, based on the title. But the writers had a different F word in mind. The goal was to tease the listener a bit, hinting at the implied four-letter term while introducing clues to the song\u2019s actual F expression.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI try not to swear\u201d became the opening line, and they kept that first verse short, using just six lines until they got to the end of the pre-chorus: \u201cI should wash my mouth out with soap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIf you, the listener, have granted us that you\u2019re going to click on this, we owe it to you to keep you there and get to the point right off the top, instead of dilly-dallying and making them wait,\u201d Sampson says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI said the F word in front of your mama\u201d \u2013 the opening of the chorus \u2013 was dramatic enough, and they unwittingly dropped in a \u201cwhat the hell\u201d in the third line, before they finally got to the F word: \u201cI\u2019d probably spend <em>forever<\/em> with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cForever\u201d may work in fairytales, but it often scares men away. And the singer in \u201cthe f word\u201d keeps using it \u2013 she says it \u201cin front of your sister\u201d in the second chorus, and at \u201c4 in the morning\u201d in the third. Since the guy is still there, the risky \u201cforever\u201d word paid off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMatching the surprise lyric, they stocked \u201cthe f word\u201d with a couple of surprise chords at key moments. Sampson created a demo after everyone left Zoom, and a few weeks later, Weisband applied an almost-dreamy lead vocal. \u201cWe used a very mellow, reverbed-out, clean guitar in the background to stay out of the way of the lyric,\u201d Sampson says. \u201cWe had to make a lot of space in the track for the lyrics, so that it would be out front and very present, so you could hopefully get reeled into it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tA number of artists liked it, but \u201cthe f word\u201d hung around unrecorded until Weisband emailed it among several songs to Cooke on Aug. 28, 2024. The title intrigued Cooke, and the \u201cforever in front of your mama\u201d line nailed it; Cooke had once made the mistake of telling her boyfriend\u2019s mother over sushi that he had changed his mind and was ready to get married \u2013 before he was ready for his mom to know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cHe looked at me like I was a psycho person,\u201d Cooke recalls. \u201cI heard the song, and it took me immediately back to my sushi restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCooke performed it live for the first time during a Feb. 19 date at Nashville\u2019s Brooklyn Bowl, with Weisband singing harmony, and she cut it with producer Dann Huff (Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts) before heading to Australia in March. Huff kept the spirit of the demo, though he turned the guitar background into a subtly morphing sound, the tones shifting indiscernibly from Derek Wells\u2019 atmospheric guitar into Alex Wright\u2019s glassy keyboards into Justin Schipper\u2019s tangy steel. Jerry Roe snuck into the arrangement gradually, and Jenee Fleenor applied shimmering fiddle to a couple of spots, emulating a string quartet in the second verse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cTo me, there\u2019s a dance to this song,\u201d Huff says. \u201cJenee studied classical music when she was young, so she has the repertoire\u2026 She can be as bluegrass as she can be classical. That\u2019s kind of where we went with this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHuff felt the track needed a fourth chorus, allowing them to repeat \u201cI said the F word in front of your mama.\u201d Cooke had her doubts, but they cut both options, and once she saw live audiences attempting to repeat the \u201cmama\u201d line when they sang along, she agreed with Huff. \u201cWe let it sit and marinate, and came back to it, and she chose that [extra chorus],\u201d Huff says. \u201cI\u2019m glad she did, because I think it\u2019s the right way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWill Weatherly produced her lead vocal, and the final product turns a title that initially looks edgy into a sweet moment that feels, as Cooke says, \u201clike \u201890s rom-coms.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBig Loud released \u201cthe f word\u201d to digital service providers on April 18, but there\u2019s a chance it could go to radio. Programmers have responded well, recognizing that it lets adults in on the joke while keeping it clean for kids.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIt seems controversial, but it\u2019s not,\u201d Cooke says. \u201cI\u2019ve heard from a lot of program directors [who say] when the title comes across their dashboard, [fans] are curious, and so it makes them want to turn it up and listen to what\u2019s happening. And when they hear it, there\u2019s no profanity or negativity in the song. So it\u2019s actually the best thing for them, because it catches attention without having to worry about the viewership and the age groups. It\u2019s a really cool thing. We\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/country\/ashley-cooke-the-f-word-makin-tracks-1235967476\/\">Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>She\u2019s got a bit of a potty mouth, so when Ashley Cooke released a track titled \u201cthe f word,\u201d her friends weren\u2019t particularly surprised. \u201cI have the mouth of a sailor,\u201d she says, \u201cso [that title] didn\u2019t really bother me, because it was just so brilliant. And I love that it was something that caught [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}