Welcome to our third installment of Monday motivation! This is a one-month interlude of motivational fun, as I’m doing some traveling and unable to write the regular bi-weekly news column. Enjoy! Regular Lit Mag News news roundups will resume in August.
Talking about cover songs that go straight to your heart. This one always gives me shivers. David Bowie covering Nina Simone's "Wild is the Wind". You can't look away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsqlXkkEKxI
Inadvertent Western film connection: that song was written by Ned Washington and Dimitri Tiomkin, who won Oscars for their opening credit song for High Noon.
The High Noon song is an odd one by today’s movie standards. It basically gives the backstory, something that would be supplied today by voiceover, or text on the screen, or skipped altogether if the audience is thought sophisticated enough to handle that.
More modern theme songs, when they have lyrics, rarely have much to do lyrically with the movie’s story. Even something like Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” for Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” only connects thematically with the movie, in sort of a “Streets of Laredo” way.
The High Noon song functions more like the theme song for “Bonanza,” which tells you everything you needed to know about the Cartwright family and then some:
These old movie songs could be annoyingly on the nose. I think it was Rancho Notorious, with Marlene Dietrich, that I saw again not so long ago that had an extremely irritating one. It was basically "here's the story for you, dummies", lol. I found the High Noon one rather poetic.
I do like that weird thumping that Tiomkin has going in the background, sort of a marching armies / clip-clop of horses / impending doom all wrapped up in one sound. Not sure what instrument that even is.
But for a great theme song, give me Nobel Bob any day:
“We all have our favorite writers, the ones that we carried around in our minds when we were young, the ones we’ve kept close to our hearts in times when nothing else could get to those exact sore spots within us” is a wonderful turn of words and belongs perhaps within a larger poem to cloud cocoon and simultaneously nurture it...
I heard “I am my mother’s savage daughter”, for the first time just yesterday at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, performed by a duo named “Twin Flames:” Chelsea June (Algonquin, Métis, Cree + Settler) and Jaaji (Inuk from Nunavik and Mohawk from Kahnawake). It hit my heart hard and sent me running to find a recording. The song was written in 1990 by Karen Kahan, aka Wyndreth Berginsdottir. Here is a cover by Araya and Zoe Spooner, of the Gitxsan people, the Lax Seel clan of northern B.C. I like that Karen Kahan has added her comment to it. The sound is a bit low on this version, but there are quite a few covers on utube, some including lyrics.
Thank you for the Monday motivational post! (I should have watched it at the beginning of the day, not the end. ;) ) The cover song I'm going with is Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" done by Brian Ferry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zwBHd4kll0
Wow, that’s a gas. Trying to figure out how he shortened an almost 7-minute song to just 3. Did he leave some of it out? Sure blows my covers-are-longer theory out of the water.
It’s always fun to see what one singer-songwriter does with another’s song. Here’s Dylan doing Joni Mitchell:
Love this tribute. My all-time fave though is their (First Aid Kit's) tribute to Emmylou Harris. You all must see it, and see it again (the live version, sung to Emmylou). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TzP-o4vhs
Thank’s for this writing prompt, Becky! I’m going to give it a go. Having a prompt with the motivation is a good way to start the week.
I’ve had some success drawing from contemporary poets. I just had a piece accepted for October that was inspired by Aria Aber’s Dirt and Light and the piece I had published in May was inspired by Saeed Jones’ A spell to banish grief. I found Jones and Aber through the New Yorker poetry podcast.
Aretha’s “The Weight” is my favorite cover. I grew up on The Band’s original and I’ve heard countless folk rock renditions from Gillian Welch to Bruce Springsteen. Diana Ross did a version similar to Aretha, but Aretha’s soul and skill are unmatched. If there’s a song written for her I’d expect it to play to her strengths, but this was written for a lower range and she kills it.
Edited to add: should have said, Haley Reinhart is from just down the road. I was going to put Disturbed's version of Paul Simon's "Sound of Silence" here but everybody's seen that one.
Reinhart’s is a pretty good cover and I’d say I prefer it to the original. But in doing so I note that there’s probably still a law on the books somewhere that says a pop song should try to stick to 3 minutes and hers is almost 5, a minute longer than the original despite that one’s 20 second intro. Not sure why the new arrangement is longer, maybe slower tempo, more repetition?
So I guess the question for me today is: are cover artists expected to do longer versions, or need to for some reason? For example, Dylan’s “Watchtower” comes in at a tasty 2.5 minutes, but Hendrix made it into a super-iconic instant classic at 4 minutes.
The Economist recently looked at song lengths over the last 60 years and it appears they’re getting shorter again, although still not as short as in the 60s, when they averaged less than 3 minutes.
I don't think it matters one bit. The artist doing the work makes the call. It's their interpretation. Pretty sure late 60's FM radio erased the notion that songs should go 3 minutes. That sounds more like old Top40 radio.
Wow. Your mother must have been a few years ahead of me at Forest Hills High. Paul’s brother Eddie was in my class. Aside from this reminiscence, I have a poem to Sharon Olds (audio of which posted recently at Stanza Cannon https://stanzacannon.com/issues/issue-6/ ) that fits today’s prompt.
I like me some Ennio Morricone to stir the morning. The human voice as musical instrument, without pesky lyrics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enuOArEfqGo
I often listen to Morricone's soundtrack for "The Mission" when I write. It's perfect.
Talking about cover songs that go straight to your heart. This one always gives me shivers. David Bowie covering Nina Simone's "Wild is the Wind". You can't look away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsqlXkkEKxI
Inadvertent Western film connection: that song was written by Ned Washington and Dimitri Tiomkin, who won Oscars for their opening credit song for High Noon.
I think I knew that, in the back of my mind, lol. The High Noon song is cool too
The High Noon song is an odd one by today’s movie standards. It basically gives the backstory, something that would be supplied today by voiceover, or text on the screen, or skipped altogether if the audience is thought sophisticated enough to handle that.
More modern theme songs, when they have lyrics, rarely have much to do lyrically with the movie’s story. Even something like Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” for Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” only connects thematically with the movie, in sort of a “Streets of Laredo” way.
The High Noon song functions more like the theme song for “Bonanza,” which tells you everything you needed to know about the Cartwright family and then some:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUBgzSBMtpc
These old movie songs could be annoyingly on the nose. I think it was Rancho Notorious, with Marlene Dietrich, that I saw again not so long ago that had an extremely irritating one. It was basically "here's the story for you, dummies", lol. I found the High Noon one rather poetic.
I do like that weird thumping that Tiomkin has going in the background, sort of a marching armies / clip-clop of horses / impending doom all wrapped up in one sound. Not sure what instrument that even is.
But for a great theme song, give me Nobel Bob any day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJpB_AEZf6U
Incidentally, this entire MTV Unplugged concert is now available for streaming from PBS for generous “Passport” members.
“We all have our favorite writers, the ones that we carried around in our minds when we were young, the ones we’ve kept close to our hearts in times when nothing else could get to those exact sore spots within us” is a wonderful turn of words and belongs perhaps within a larger poem to cloud cocoon and simultaneously nurture it...
Wow -- so great
Thank you
Here is one that helps me now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe3uyn8TlSw
Thank you for sharing, Becky!
That chorus in 7/4 at the end: epic.
I heard “I am my mother’s savage daughter”, for the first time just yesterday at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, performed by a duo named “Twin Flames:” Chelsea June (Algonquin, Métis, Cree + Settler) and Jaaji (Inuk from Nunavik and Mohawk from Kahnawake). It hit my heart hard and sent me running to find a recording. The song was written in 1990 by Karen Kahan, aka Wyndreth Berginsdottir. Here is a cover by Araya and Zoe Spooner, of the Gitxsan people, the Lax Seel clan of northern B.C. I like that Karen Kahan has added her comment to it. The sound is a bit low on this version, but there are quite a few covers on utube, some including lyrics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT43gghECps
Thank you for the Monday motivational post! (I should have watched it at the beginning of the day, not the end. ;) ) The cover song I'm going with is Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" done by Brian Ferry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zwBHd4kll0
Wow, that’s a gas. Trying to figure out how he shortened an almost 7-minute song to just 3. Did he leave some of it out? Sure blows my covers-are-longer theory out of the water.
It’s always fun to see what one singer-songwriter does with another’s song. Here’s Dylan doing Joni Mitchell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVsCaNvoDBg
I hadn't heard Dylan's cover of "Big Yellow Taxi." I'm surprised at how good it is, both vocals and arrangement.
Of course, you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Richard Thompson and his beret covering Britney Spears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4WGsMplGxU
(A tip o’ the beret to Cher Scholar, where I spied that gem: https://cherscholar.com/cherblog/2023/06/believe-and-restructuring-pop-songs/ )
That was quite something! Thanks for passing it along.
Love this tribute. My all-time fave though is their (First Aid Kit's) tribute to Emmylou Harris. You all must see it, and see it again (the live version, sung to Emmylou). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TzP-o4vhs
Yes I've seen it. Also beautiful!
Thank’s for this writing prompt, Becky! I’m going to give it a go. Having a prompt with the motivation is a good way to start the week.
I’ve had some success drawing from contemporary poets. I just had a piece accepted for October that was inspired by Aria Aber’s Dirt and Light and the piece I had published in May was inspired by Saeed Jones’ A spell to banish grief. I found Jones and Aber through the New Yorker poetry podcast.
Aretha’s “The Weight” is my favorite cover. I grew up on The Band’s original and I’ve heard countless folk rock renditions from Gillian Welch to Bruce Springsteen. Diana Ross did a version similar to Aretha, but Aretha’s soul and skill are unmatched. If there’s a song written for her I’d expect it to play to her strengths, but this was written for a lower range and she kills it.
Love this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TzP-o4vhs
Great stuff. Thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TzP-o4vhs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3lF2qEA2cw
Edited to add: should have said, Haley Reinhart is from just down the road. I was going to put Disturbed's version of Paul Simon's "Sound of Silence" here but everybody's seen that one.
Reinhart’s is a pretty good cover and I’d say I prefer it to the original. But in doing so I note that there’s probably still a law on the books somewhere that says a pop song should try to stick to 3 minutes and hers is almost 5, a minute longer than the original despite that one’s 20 second intro. Not sure why the new arrangement is longer, maybe slower tempo, more repetition?
So I guess the question for me today is: are cover artists expected to do longer versions, or need to for some reason? For example, Dylan’s “Watchtower” comes in at a tasty 2.5 minutes, but Hendrix made it into a super-iconic instant classic at 4 minutes.
The Economist recently looked at song lengths over the last 60 years and it appears they’re getting shorter again, although still not as short as in the 60s, when they averaged less than 3 minutes.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/02/03/max-martin-knows-how-to-create-a-number-one-hit
I don't think it matters one bit. The artist doing the work makes the call. It's their interpretation. Pretty sure late 60's FM radio erased the notion that songs should go 3 minutes. That sounds more like old Top40 radio.
Wow. Your mother must have been a few years ahead of me at Forest Hills High. Paul’s brother Eddie was in my class. Aside from this reminiscence, I have a poem to Sharon Olds (audio of which posted recently at Stanza Cannon https://stanzacannon.com/issues/issue-6/ ) that fits today’s prompt.
James, no way! That's wild. Jerry Springer was also there at some point (though I'm much less inclined to share clips of his work.:)
Judith Thurman, notable New Yorker staff writer, was in my FHHS year as well.