Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Category Archives: Music
Four more favorite covers
. . . cuz I’m feeling lazy tonight.
Swans: Love will tear us apart, a cover of the Joy Division song. I love Michael Gira’s vocals on this one. Jarboe did a cover of the same song when she was with the Swans, and that one’s even better. The best, in fact. I can’t find a linky, unfortunately.
Cowboy Junkies: Sweet Jane, far moodier than Lou Reed’s original. Isn’t Margo Timmins a honey?
Cat Power’s haunting I found a reason. The Velvet Underground song is, by comparison, unrecognizable. Her Satisfaction is unique, too — imagine Satisfaction without a single refrain of “I can’t get no satisfaction.” I’m sure Dean will hate it.
(There’s Devo’s Satisfaction, too. Fun!)
What makes for a great cover? On one of the YouTube commentaries, someone wrote that a great cover honors the original but adds something to it. By that yardstick, Johnny Cash’s Hurt is a spectacular cover. Is it better than the original? I’m not sure. It’s equally heartfelt, I think — and Cash’s addiction problems give him every bit as much emotional claim to this song as Trent Reznor.
According to YouTube, this was Cash’s last video. Choked me up . . . but y’all know I choke up easy.
D.
Better than the original
I think I need to do a Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Covers. And here I’ve gone and given you the best one.
D.
Listening to
They Might Be Giants: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
From Wikipedia, we learn
It was originally recorded by The Four Lads on August 12, 1953.
and
One of the more recent, better-known versions of the song is the cover by the rock group They Might Be Giants, who released it on their LP Flood in 1990, and on its own EP that same year. TMBG’s version is at a faster tempo than the original and contains a distinct klezmer influence, including a violin introduction and some accordion parts.
The Duke’s Men of Yale, an all-male a cappella group at Yale University, perform the song at the end of most of their concerts. The song has been in the repertoire of the Duke’s Men since 1953.
The song is on the album Bette Midler Live at Last.
I wonder if I might like any other TMBG songs?
. . . just listened to a few. Definitely an acquired taste.
What are you listening to?
D.
Everyone loves a tart
Listening to Melody Gardot over on YouTube. What a voice! She reminds me of Cat Power, but there’s more oomph to Ms. Gardot. Yes, more oomph. Now you know why I don’t write more posts about music.
Check out the Wikipedia piece if you get a chance — she has quite a back story.
Here’s Worrisome Heart.
***
For our twentieth wedding anniversary, Karen and I went to the French Laundry, the idea being we would hemorrhage $$$ and in return get stuffed with food we would likely never be able to taste elsewhere. It was an unforgettable experience, if for no other reason than the Terminal Truffle made us both flash on the same thing. Anyway, we bought Thomas Keller’s cookbook, too, took it home, and promptly forgot about it.
That was back in 2004. It has taken me this long to make anything from The French Laundry Cookbook; hey, it’s not every day you get a yen for braised stuffed pig’s head in cheesecloth, or pan-roasted breast of squab with swiss chard, sauteed duck foie gras, and oven-dried black figs.
Today, I made two of the desserts. Here’s one of them, and guess what: this recipe is easy.
Isn’t that special?
Jake had to share the Pork song with me. While listening to it, I kept thinking: Why does this sound so familiar?
Then I remembered: Oh. This song.
Enjoy.
D.
Two down, five to go, and more
I received my first two nays from agents today. Two down, five to go.
***
Finally got around to figuring out who sings that wonderfully haunting tune in V for Vendetta . . . the song playing on V’s juke box when Evie comes in out of the rain.
The artist is Cat Power. The song is “I Found a Reason,” and oh, what a voice. I bought two CDs online, and I promise I’ll review them here.
***
Shaina, you come around to some old guy’s blog to tempt him with your boobs, and that makes the old guy the perv?
Fine. I’m a perv. And you got a great rack.
D.
Thirteen female vocalists
Last week’s YouTube Thirteen was so much fun (for me, anyway) that I decided to do another. This one will be musical.
I’ve always preferred women’s voices to men’s, and unusual voices at that. You’ll find some boring old standards here, but I hope a few of these will be new to you.
Music for the Resistance
Cross-posted over at Daily Kos.
I’m not sure which is more depressing: that the House and Senate caved to White House intimidation over the “need” for broader domestic surveillance powers, or that none of my patients — including a local attorney — seems to have heard anything about it.
Like many Americans, I had a spike of hope when Democrats won control of the House and Senate last November. Since then, Republican/White House obstructionism combined with the cowardice of certain Democratic members of Congress has tempered (if not destroyed) that hope. And when I despair, I turn to the political blogs for hope; and when those blogs drive me further into depression, I listen to music.
This is a post about the new Nine Inch Nails CD, Year Zero.
Gogol Bordello on Letterman
. . . performing Wanderlust King off their new CD, Super Taranta.
I couldn’t watch the whole thing. From across the room (and it’s a big room), Karen yammered, “That is NOT good music.” Okay, okay. To each her own.
Jake and I are going to the Del Norte County Fair today. I think I’ll take Dean & SxKitten’s advice and shoot lots and lots of pictures. Maybe I’ll have something fun to share later today.
D.
There’s a story in here somewhere
Even I get tired of Gogol Bordello and Nine Inch Nails after a while. Hungry for something new, I bought something old: greatest hits compilations from Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday. I listened to them back to back, and something struck me at once: both singers did covers of the song, “My Man.”
Excerpt:
He’s not much on looks
He’s no hero out of books
But I love him
Yes, I love himTwo or three girls
Has he
That he likes as well as me
But I love himI don’t know why I should
He isn’t true
He beats me, too
What can I do?
It’s an old French song from the Twenties, “Mon Homme.” Someone must have liked it well enough to translate it into English, whereupon Billie Holiday, Fanny Brice, Barbra Streisand, Alice Faye, Peggy Lee, and doubtless many more women decided to put their mark on it.
My question is, why?
Read the lyrics (linked above). If you’re wondering why she “love(s) him so,” you can go on wondering, because her man has no redeeming features whatsoever. Did the song speak to a common problem among women, the hopeless and illogical infatuation with scum? Is that why it was so popular?
Billie Holiday puts a little shame into that line, “He beats me, too.” Indeed, her voice conveys regret, disappointment, and (maybe I’m reading too much into this) self-loathing. Not so Peggy Lee, who sings with great joy and seems oblivious to the song’s intrinsic darkness. “He beats me, too,” smacks of a powder room confessional, to be followed with tittered laughter and a rejoinder of, “Well, if you think that’s bad, wait until you hear this.”
I’m perplexed. I’m intrigued. And I can find precious little about it on the ‘net.
What’s the story behind the song? Why did so many famous singers feel the need to cover it? What would happen if a woman nowadays sung it — how would that go over?
A flipside version, “My Gal,” would be fun, don’t you think?
D.