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READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
🦋 Cover versions
Over at Before You Listen, NickS is asking, "What makes a good cover?" Well -- I've been thinking about it some and the more I reflect, the more it seems like I'm a really easy target for cover versions in general. This came to me today when I was listening to WFUV's Sunday Breakfast, and Alison Kraus came on the radio singing Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" -- this is just fantastic! and what is it about cover versions that gets me so reliably interested?
I think it's pretty simple really: When I listen to a cover of a song I like, I've got the version I know playing in my head and the version I'm listening to playing harmony. Lots of opportunities for interplay between the variations, a psychic duet between the two singers. Fun! Even better, when I get to know multiple versions and have them all playing together. (Take a look at this list of covers of "Summertime Blues" -- some great stuff in there. I guess The Who's version and Eddie Cochran's are the two most familiar to me; Blue Cheer's, which I heard for the first time yesterday, is totally worth while. Plus T. Rex! Richie Valens! Bruce! James Taylor! and many more. A couple of versions below the fold.)
(Note: Doing a clumsy post like this makes me grateful for the existence of bloggers like NickS who can write meaningful, articulate takes on what is happening in the music they're listening to.)
posted morning of Sunday, August 31st, 2008 ➳ More posts about Cover Versions ➳ More posts about Music
Nice examples.
You ask "what is it about cover versions that gets me so reliably interested?" I think the answer, which you suggest in your post, is that it give an opportunity to try to separate the song from a performance. It makes it easier to abstract out performance (or songwriting) decisions because it gives you an example of other decisions that could be made.
Also, I liked the second cover and looking it up lead me to this cool thread.
How well would you have to know someone's work to pick out your five least favorite moments? That suggests a level of dedication.
Oh yeah -- on re-listening, that's true. I was listening to it before more as a Simple Minds performance; I don't think I even knew who Johnny Marr was until I looked him up on Wikipædia just now.
This is an interesting take on what I wrote about a "psychic duet" -- my first reaction was to think No, I don't want to abstract out the performance decisions, it's the individual performances that are key to how I'm listening to the song. But thinking about it more, I am reacting to this sort of as if you had said you have a Platonic ideal of "9 to 5"on another plane, that the two performances by Dolly and by Alison are emulating in our reality -- by listening to the two versions together in my head I can begin to approach the ideal.
Now I don't think that's how reality works -- and I'm pretty sure that's not quite what you're saying -- but it does make for some nice imagery.
NickS is thinking about cover versions -- what can make them memorable or distinctive. He includes a link to a delightful cover of "Money" by The Flying Lizards.
Li Wei is a photographer and acrobat from Beijing, specializing in pictures of himself in difficult situations. Thanks to the Wooster Collective for hipping me to this.
Li Wei is a photographer and acrobat from Beijing, specializing in pictures of himself in 