Premiere: Spanking Charlene does “Burn It Down”

Band in the time of Coronavirus

With gigs booked weeks into the future and a new record coming out, Spanking Charlene played a packed house gig on February 12th, 2020; on February 16th, Charlene McPherson woke up with chest pain, unable to catch her breath. Seven days in the ICU and many tests later, the shutdown hit. Still ill but now home, Charlene and the band refocused from hopes for their new release to hopes that Charlene would survive. Finally, she was diagnosed with Coronavirus.

Originally planned as a full, on-location video, social distancing squashed yet another plan for “Burn It Down,” so Spanking Charlene worked with live performance videos they already had. This band is a survivor—in more ways than one.

Spanking Charlene’s catchy songs about life and love in New York City combines hard-driving guitar grooves with the soaring vocals of Charlene McPherson, and, in the spirit of much of the great rock and roll of the last century, they record songs live.

McPherson told Elmore “‘Burn It Down’ was written as a response to some notes I received from a man in the music industry regarding my chances for future success that had little to do with my talent or skills. In the moment, I was too stunned to respond and afterwards my silence weighed on me as heavily as his words. After I got through the self-doubt and disappointment, I got angry, no one has the right to tell me who I should be. This song is a reclamation of my voice. It is everything I should have said and couldn’t, with a whole lot of blowing up, bad-ass female imagery and good ol’ rock n roll mixed in. It is a song for anyone that feels like they can’t meet anyone else’s standards about who they are supposed to be and don’t even want to try anymore.”