Today in Vermont many of the members of this Discography discussion will be participating in the annual Richard M. Nixon Winter Four Sport Triathlon (not to be confused with the annual Richard M. Nixon Summer Four Sport Triathlon). It is a combination of miniature golf, bowling, dart and pool. It is, according to our beloved Sanford Zale, a celebration of America, but, more importantly, a celebration of friendship. Consequently, I'll be publishing the blog early today (because I still need to get to the gym before the competition). As always, just send along any songs/commentaries and I'll slide them into the blog tonight.
It's shaping up as a great week. Dave Wallace went eclectic (as is his wont), Kevin Andrews went Old School, Kathy Seiler went spiritual (not unusual for a person whose hobby is Buddhism), Phillip Seiler went gangsta, Dave Kelley went missing, and I went down a rabbit hole.
Oh, and a quick reminder: the esteemed (even if she is suddenly bereft of songs) Cyndi Brandenburg are heading off to Jordan on 8 March (it will be an epic trip, including an eight hour camel ride through the Wadi Rum; the students are already whining about it). This will impact Weeks 27 and 28. Week 26 will not be sullied by our travel as we'll still be in this #YankeeHellhole. So, if you don't mind, by 6 March could you send me a couple songs/commentaries early so that I can instruct the nano-overlords to release the posts on time.
The
track is a master class in the Stratocaster. JB pulls an amazing range of tones
out of it. The opening few notes are played on a single fret with the pitch
changing from a combination of bending the string and tremolo (wammy) bar. He
uses this technique throughout along with changing combinations of the three
pickups and tone and gets an emotional, vocal quality from the instrument. It
plays slow and fast, clean and distorted. It’s the closest I’ve heard a guitar
come to singing. He’s a master.
Neil Young, Only Love Can Break Your Heart
OK, this is only partially about this Neil Young song off of After the Gold Rush (and album which, as all right-thinking individuals know, features the best album cover of all time). It's a song I've always liked a hell of a lot, although I don't know if I've ever loved it. I was having a discussion with the truly excellent (and impartial) Alice Neiley the other day and we both agreed that we actually like the Kathleen Edwards cover better than the original; for me it's because it's simply a more stripped down version and I just like the pacing better. Anyway, I was thinking about the Edwards cover today and whether or not I should use it this week as my selection, when I started wondering about other covers, and this led me, as these things so often do, down the YouTube rabbit hole. In this case I had just finished working out at the gym when I had this thought, and, instead of just going home and doing research, I immediately had to check it out. I have many, uh, idiosyncrasies, and one of my least annoying, and even occasionally useful, one is my fixation on a particular task. My current SO describes me as, uh, "task oriented," which I don't think is meant as an insult, and Dave Kelley has spoken, gently, of my, uh, "methodical," nature (it's somewhat like my other charming habits such as whenever I bump one leg I have to immediately turn around and bump the other leg in the same place - or if there are three clean glasses in the cabinet and I put in a fourth one I have to move one of the three up so that the new clean one isn't left alone - which is sort of like the time when I almost threw a brick through a shop window in downtown Omaha, Nebraska to free an old suitcase which was left alone and I just felt sorry that it had ended its life's adventures by itself in a dilapidated shop in Omaha and that just seemed sad; these, as we know, are just normal human habits, unlike one being, uh, "methodical)). Naturally, an hour later I was still sitting in the locker room in my underwear listening to various covers of Only Love Can Break Your Heart. As it turns out there are over forty covers of that song (and that's not counting the live versions). Some are from artists that you might suspect, such as Nils Lofgren on his album The Loner, which is nothing but covers of NY songs. Of course, this is completely cool because Lofgren did play on the seminal album Tonight's the Night (". . . alright, Nils, alright . . .). In much the same way, Stephen Stills covered the song. Not surprisingly Rickie Lee Jones contributes an ethereal version on her album The Devil You Know. The Corrs have an OK version which was featured in the eminently forgettable Amy Adams movie Leap Year. Obviously, I'm not going to walk us through all forty of them. Some of surprisingly good, and others are, if not necessarily terrible, are more challenging fits. Florence + the Machine recorded an almost painfully faithful, although lovely, version. Jackie DeShannon of all people recorded a version which has a more country feel, but also goes off the rails a bit half-way through. Even more unexpectedly, Natalie Imbruglia produced a pretty solid version. Psychic TV produced an oddly nice cover on one of The Bridge albums; it's like you ran NY through a 90s English band blender. Interested in a late disco cover? Well, me neither, but check out Elkie Brooks. A techno version? Unclubbed 2. Yes, it just goes on and on. There are a ton of live covers, including this one featuring NY and Paul McCartney. Finally, circling back to where we started, the Kathleen Edwards cover. Now, the interesting question is why of all NY songs is this the one which is covered so much (I suppose I should do some more research on the popularity of other NY songs, but that's a rabbit hole for another day)?
It's shaping up as a great week. Dave Wallace went eclectic (as is his wont), Kevin Andrews went Old School, Kathy Seiler went spiritual (not unusual for a person whose hobby is Buddhism), Phillip Seiler went gangsta, Dave Kelley went missing, and I went down a rabbit hole.
Oh, and a quick reminder: the esteemed (even if she is suddenly bereft of songs) Cyndi Brandenburg are heading off to Jordan on 8 March (it will be an epic trip, including an eight hour camel ride through the Wadi Rum; the students are already whining about it). This will impact Weeks 27 and 28. Week 26 will not be sullied by our travel as we'll still be in this #YankeeHellhole. So, if you don't mind, by 6 March could you send me a couple songs/commentaries early so that I can instruct the nano-overlords to release the posts on time.
Dave Wallace
Ty Segall - And, Goodnight
Returning to Ty Segall's new
album, Freedom's Goblin, for another song this week, I've selected
album closer, And, Goodnight. An extended jam, the song
strikes me as one of the closest things that I've ever heard to Neil Young and
Crazy Horse, Danny Whitten-era.
Dave Kelley
"You can get killed just for living in your American
skin."
Bruce Springsteen. "American Skin."
I could go on a rant about guns, violence, the NRA etc.,
but I don't need to convince you all of anything. "We are baptized
in these waters, and in each other's blood."
Kathy Seiler
Everything Comes From You, Big Blue Ball (multiple artists)
This is sort of an odd post for someone who no longer believes
in God, but I’ve always liked this song on the Peter Gabriel Big Blue
Ball album (which I’ve mentioned before), where Gabriel brought music
and artists together from all over the world. I highly recommend the album if
you like world music.
The melody of this song is simple and repetitive, and it builds
in intensity as prayers often do from those who are suffering. This week we had
white supremacist flyers found on our campus and has left many people feeling
very raw and unsafe. Trump wants to arm educators when an armed security guard
ran away from a school shooting. Young girls in Syria documented the terror of
their world on social media. Yemen continues to suffer and be ignored. And
that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
This song has that same sort of raw character to it that many
are feeling as a result of so many horrors in our world lately. It begins with
counting and integrates the counting again… Something that has a strangely
calming effect for the hidden OCD in me. The simple ask, “I appeal
to you, Lord, to stop war. Stop terror.” The lyrics are delivered by Sinead
O’Connor, whose vocal quality is so perfect for the pleading. She simply but
perfectly showcases how it feels to be powerless and desperate to feel better.
How many times have we pleaded to our God, appealed to humanity, or asked the
universe to stop the horrors of our own species?
Phillip Seiler
Living Colour
One
of the best things about Twitter is the ability to interact with people whom
you wouldn't normally in life. I have had brief back and forth with national
journalists, cartoonists, authors, and musicians. Vernon Reid, the guitarist
and leader of Living Colour, is a great follow on Twitter as he is willing to
engage and converse about all kinds of topics. I think I started following him
after he had a back and forth with another about Todd Rundgren's music. Truth
be told, I have slept on the music of Living Colour since their hit Cult of
Personality (still an amazing tune) back in the 80s and it was only through his
tweets that I learned they were still going and making new music. I really
regret not paying more attention to the band as they are willing to explore
musical styles and pull from various traditions.
Who
Shot Ya is from their 2017 release, Shade, and is a cover of a Notorious B.I.G.
track. I prefer the cover version. Biggie's track is widely believed to be a
diss track aimed squarely at 2Pac although there is some disagreement because
of the timing. Regardless, it did inspire 2Pac to release "Hit 'Em
Up" in response further enflaming the East Coast / West Coast feud of the
90s.
Ironically,
Living Colour turns the song into a metal anthem and the use of more aggressive
music behind the lyrics helps change the meaning of the song from a
straightforward diss track to a wider statement on our society and its violence.
I especially love how after the words have faded, the music goes on.
Kevin Andrews
Jeff
Beck has always been one of my favorite guitarists. In 1975 he released an
album of instrumental tracks, Blow by Blow, which included the song Cause We've Ended as Lovers which was
written by Stevie Wonder for his then wife, and apparently soon to be ex-wife,
Syreeta Wright. Stevie also plays on the track uncredited.
Alice Neiley
First of all, I haven't read the posts for this week, nor
have I read this email thread. I couldn't enjoy anyone's reverie before I
submitted my post, as I've already been reprimanded for my blog negligence last
week, and my lateness this week. The thing is, I HAVE AN EXCUSE. It's not a
good one, but IT'S AN EXCUSE NEVERTHELESS. I fell down a Joni Mitchell rabbit
hole. I'm notorious for insisting there are very few covers of Joni that are
worthy of her genius, talent, and emotional bandwidth, and last Thursday I got
into an argument with an old friend over the phone about this. I decided then
and there that my post for last week would be a most excellent Joni song (Case
of You), and two (gasp!) most excellent covers of said song (Prince's cover and
Diana Krall's). Then...YouTube happened. Thursday passed, Friday passed,
and Saturday passed, and all the
while
I looked like this:
So,
I shall attempt to make up for my astounding lack of self control and time
management by sharing what I discovered on my rabbit hole journey.
There
are (in my personal, extremely correct opinion), two Joni albums that
rise above the others as whole, cohesive experiences with no 'skipable' songs
-- that is, no songs you would EVER skip in your right mind while listening to
said albums:
1.
Blue
2.
Court and Spark
As
I said, all the songs on each are entirely perfect in and of themselves, but
even more perfect in the context of their respective albums. I shall now choose
a few songs from each of these albums of excellence to briefly discuss. The
songs I choose will each have a bearable cover version, which I will also
share. These songs do NOT all have good covers (though some are amazing),
they're just the songs that have covers I rate above abysmal. Thus ultimately proving
myself right in the phone argument I had with my friend.
· Blue Album
(in order of cover-amazingness, NOT original song amazingness):
Case of You: This is up there in my top 10 favorite Joni songs,
and it has nothing to do with the 'map of Canada'. I didn't even really
understand that lyric when I first heard the tune in high school. My favorite
lines then were "I am a lonely painter/I live in a box of paints",
and now they're tied with the lines from the rest of that verse. That whole
verse is magical. Coincidentally, this tune also has the best cover versions of
any tune on the Blue album. Prince's cover of this tune keeps
its tentativeness, its stumbly beauty, but adds breath, reverence (he loved
Joni), and a focus on art and identity (he starts with my favorite verse,
rather than at the beginning), while Diana Krall's feels more sure footed,
adding a deeper sadness, an even more reflective tone than the original.
Joni
Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YuaZcylk_o
Prince
Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d-_gjpzJdw
Diana
Krall Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vEds2ULiAg
River: Possibly the saddest song in the universe, as it
combines sharp loneliness with the images of holiday spirit, not to mention the
jingle bells intro in a minor key. I mean my god. It's also just beautiful with
the heartbreaking melody backed only by piano. Anyway, this was another high
school favorite (I guess I wasn't all that happy? ;)), and until my rabbit hole
weekend, I wasn't even able to IMAGINE a cover worthy of this song...but...I
found one. A brilliant one. The unique vocal inflections of Peyroux and lang,
and their random upward modulations of the melody make this cover just
different enough from the original to not feel like a (inevitably) subpar
imitation, and Angus Stone's arrangement, full of new instrumentation (no
piano!?) and bluegrassy timbre is an interesting, if not quite as powerful,
cover. It deserves at least a spot on the list.
Joni
Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAK9Pj5-QXY
Madeleine
Peyroux ft. kd lang Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE2d7GCVNQw
Angus
Stone Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIqi_1sJlzs
All I Want: This tune feels classic for summer road trips, and one
of the rare 'lighter' tracks on Blue, including
"California" and "Carey", though the lyrics for all three
are debatable in the 'light' department :). It's a perfect opener for the
album, though, as it signifies #relationshipgoals (all I really really want our
love to do / is to bring out the best in me and in you) as well as the
occasional loneliness one experiences while constantly on the way to this goal,
both in a relationship and not. That's the duality of the album and of
partnership, the joy and pain, the loneliness and connection, the balance of
and the movement from one to the other. Jay Brannan's cover is good. Not great,
but decent. Sweet. Nothing special, but not horrific (as almost every cover of
the excellent Blue songs I didn't mention in this post
was).
Joni
Verson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq2jhs19_V8
Jay
Brannan Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZiQWL9Sux0
· Court
and Spark Album (in order of cover-amazingness, NOT original
song amazingness)
Help Me: What an incredibly fun song. Seriously, how can you beat
those chords/that vocal slide at the beginning--it's so energizing and
knee-weakening at the same time. Joni's perfectly pure, high register voice
adds some whimsy that kd lang's version doesn't have, but lang makes up for it
with more blues/rock instrument choices (adds some edginess), her depth of
vocal timbre, and again, her typical vocal inflection upward, a trait that's
trademark to most of her songs, covers and originals--it adds a different
character to the song, somewhat jazzier and therefore 'tougher'?
Joni
Mitchell Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sasdHZXNagI
kd
lang Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7diMj4os0Go
Free Man in Paris: This song demonstrates Joni's typical use of weird instruments
for folk/pop (woodwinds!), arranged in a fairly wild sounding relationship to
each other (exemplifying freedom, perhaps) and AMAZING vocal harmonies. In
fact, this whole album has some of the best use of vocal harmonies of any Joni
album -- this particular song features David Crosby and Graham Nash. Sufjan
Stevens' cover of this tune is...wait for it...ALMOST better than the original.
I'd say it's very solidly tied. Some days it is indeed better, depending on my
mood. That is a BIG THING for me to say. VERY BIG. It's just...in his usual
brilliance, he's recreated the instrumental innovation of this tune with his
OWN instrumental/arranging innovation (trumpets!!). Rather than just changing
one teensy thing to make it his own, he changes a lot, but manages to keep the
'unfettered' feeling of the song, and the high vocal register :).
Joni
Mitchell Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiKrk2Jcx8U
Sufjan
Stevens Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p53DuXJHHs
Court and Spark: I love this song with my whole heart, it's another one of
my top favorite 10 Joni songs of all time, and if anyone finds a decent cover I
would love to test it. I was only able to find a Herbie Hancock/Nora Jones
version, which I won't include here because it didn't make the cut. While a
good try and kind of cool, it's far too jazzy and weird and ultimately takes
away almost all of the melodic prowess of the original. Not cool, people.
Joni
Mitchell Version (aka. THE ONLY WORTHY VERSION): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4enC_DzK6U
Phew.
Done. While I am not at all saying the above covers are the ONLY good covers of
ANY Joni song, nor am I suggesting the two (comprehensively best) albums (Blue and Court
and Spark) hold ALL the best Joni songs, I am saying the
discussed tunes above are the only tunes on the two (comprehensively best)
albums, Blue and Court and Spark, that have
decent-->>good cover versions.
The end. (Are you happy now, Scudder?)
Gary Scudder
Neil Young, Only Love Can Break Your Heart
OK, this is only partially about this Neil Young song off of After the Gold Rush (and album which, as all right-thinking individuals know, features the best album cover of all time). It's a song I've always liked a hell of a lot, although I don't know if I've ever loved it. I was having a discussion with the truly excellent (and impartial) Alice Neiley the other day and we both agreed that we actually like the Kathleen Edwards cover better than the original; for me it's because it's simply a more stripped down version and I just like the pacing better. Anyway, I was thinking about the Edwards cover today and whether or not I should use it this week as my selection, when I started wondering about other covers, and this led me, as these things so often do, down the YouTube rabbit hole. In this case I had just finished working out at the gym when I had this thought, and, instead of just going home and doing research, I immediately had to check it out. I have many, uh, idiosyncrasies, and one of my least annoying, and even occasionally useful, one is my fixation on a particular task. My current SO describes me as, uh, "task oriented," which I don't think is meant as an insult, and Dave Kelley has spoken, gently, of my, uh, "methodical," nature (it's somewhat like my other charming habits such as whenever I bump one leg I have to immediately turn around and bump the other leg in the same place - or if there are three clean glasses in the cabinet and I put in a fourth one I have to move one of the three up so that the new clean one isn't left alone - which is sort of like the time when I almost threw a brick through a shop window in downtown Omaha, Nebraska to free an old suitcase which was left alone and I just felt sorry that it had ended its life's adventures by itself in a dilapidated shop in Omaha and that just seemed sad; these, as we know, are just normal human habits, unlike one being, uh, "methodical)). Naturally, an hour later I was still sitting in the locker room in my underwear listening to various covers of Only Love Can Break Your Heart. As it turns out there are over forty covers of that song (and that's not counting the live versions). Some are from artists that you might suspect, such as Nils Lofgren on his album The Loner, which is nothing but covers of NY songs. Of course, this is completely cool because Lofgren did play on the seminal album Tonight's the Night (". . . alright, Nils, alright . . .). In much the same way, Stephen Stills covered the song. Not surprisingly Rickie Lee Jones contributes an ethereal version on her album The Devil You Know. The Corrs have an OK version which was featured in the eminently forgettable Amy Adams movie Leap Year. Obviously, I'm not going to walk us through all forty of them. Some of surprisingly good, and others are, if not necessarily terrible, are more challenging fits. Florence + the Machine recorded an almost painfully faithful, although lovely, version. Jackie DeShannon of all people recorded a version which has a more country feel, but also goes off the rails a bit half-way through. Even more unexpectedly, Natalie Imbruglia produced a pretty solid version. Psychic TV produced an oddly nice cover on one of The Bridge albums; it's like you ran NY through a 90s English band blender. Interested in a late disco cover? Well, me neither, but check out Elkie Brooks. A techno version? Unclubbed 2. Yes, it just goes on and on. There are a ton of live covers, including this one featuring NY and Paul McCartney. Finally, circling back to where we started, the Kathleen Edwards cover. Now, the interesting question is why of all NY songs is this the one which is covered so much (I suppose I should do some more research on the popularity of other NY songs, but that's a rabbit hole for another day)?
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