i am ... willing
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Moby Grape - "I Am Not Willing". Peter Lewis' voice goes nowhere in particular, bobbing like walnut shells. But the piano is insistent, fateful, even inevitable. There's peace in the karmic wheel; it's something to be "grateful" about. Moby Grape have enough confidence in the Way Things Are that the guitar solo can fade right out. If this is psychedelic rock, it's the kind that turns right inwards, watching the pulse of your own capillaries - following the shivering slow of your heart.

[buy]


Lloyd Cole - "I Am Not Willing". Strange that Lloyd Cole's new album isn't even out yet: everyone's been talking about him thanks to Camera Obcura's recent namedrops. Here he takes on the Moby Grape classic, and I hear none of Lewis' weariness. Cole is feeling new things as he treads through this life. He's surprised at his feelings (see the way the glimmering MOR synths give way to real life drums) - but he truly is grateful. A song about the end of a relationship can feel like a song about starting something new: pushing through the veil with the knowledge that you can always, always walk forward.

[pre-order]

thanks fred

---

strange flickermoving painting of light & shape in a japanese way, over at red ruin.

Posted by Sean at August 28, 2006 3:00 AM
Comments

Great song.

It's one of those classic-sounding songs that, for whatever reason, was lost with time.

Both versions are great (though I like Grape's version better).

It's great to see what too artists do with the same piece.

Cheers.

-LVK

Posted by Ludwig at August 28, 2006 6:10 PM

*two, sorry.

-LVK

Posted by Ludwig at August 28, 2006 6:11 PM

de rien, sean.

i see it a bit differently. i think that there is definite gratitude in the moby grape version; but in lloyd's, and maybe i can't shake this b/c of who he is, i believe his gratitude is intended to be sardonic, that his gratitude is as cold as his scorn.

... but there's something in those keyboards that tell me it could be both. i could see lloyd being grateful that she finally gave him a reason to turn her away.

Posted by fred at August 28, 2006 9:34 PM

Thanks for the Grape/Cole post. It's great to see a song from "69" being covered. I've always thought it was one of the most under-appreciated albums of the late '60's.
That weariness you mentioned permeates the whole album. Check out "It's a Beautiful Day Today." Never has a melody so belied a song title.

Posted by Robin Hall at August 29, 2006 11:44 AM

Did Lloyd Cole stop producing pap some time between my youth and now? Because, c'mon, I was a kid when "Perfect Skin" was on the radio, and Cole's work was then and remained as long as I heard it plastic and annoying, as opposed to the '80s work I loved, which was.. er.. plastic and endearing. And I didn't much like that first Moby Grape LP, either. Hm.

Hold on, lemme download.

OK, maybe you're right about this MG LP. Like every kid picking through used bins in the Bay Area I picked up a $2 copy of their 1967 debut, found it dull and predictable and completely wrote them off. This tune is pretty nice, and deliciously wearily rendered. Moreover, even before playing Mr. Cole's version, I can just hear why he'd cover this one. Listen to the guitar filigrees in the background, then listen to the sheen on "Perfect Skin" -- sonically he's coming home, I predict.

Yeah, listen to how he brings that tertiary pop decoration forward. Pretty wallpaper is where the man lives, and has for nearly two decades. He was a craftsman even then, I'll give him that, and his craft wears well. But crikey, just as I'm about to like it, with a little reverb-drenched tom fill around the minute mark, he turns on the too-mannered wall of sound and it's all downhill.

My longstanding analytical model for cover songs is simple: it must be much better or much different than the original -- ideally, both, as in the Television Personalities cover of "Bike". This one is different, but not a lot. Pretty though the cover is, the only thing I like about Cole's version is hearing the guitarist's fingers on his strings now and then. That almost makes his version human.

I had planned to argue with Mr. Most-Underappreciated, but he was right (maybe without the superlative). Now I have to dig up a used copy of this one and give it a shot.

Thanks for the original, and screw Lloyd Cole.

Posted by wcw at September 3, 2006 11:41 PM

Post a comment







(Please be patient, it can be slow.)
about said the gramophone
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.

To hear a song in your browser, click the and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'

All songs are removed within a few weeks of posting.

Said the Gramophone launched in March 2003, and added songs in November of that year. It was one of the world's first mp3blogs.

If you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch:
Montreal, Canada: Sean
Toronto, Canada: Emma
Montreal, Canada: Jeff
Montreal, Canada: Mitz

Please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets like soundcloud: Said the Gramophone posts are always accompanied by MP3s.

If you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. Please do not direct link to any of these tracks. Please love and wonder.

"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.

Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.

Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.

Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.

Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
our patrons
Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. We are supported by the incredible generosity of our readers. These were our donors in 2013.
watch StG's wonderful video contest winners
search


Archives
elsewhere
our favourite blogs
(◊ means they write about music)

Back to the World
La Blogothèque
Weird Canada
Destination: Out
Endless Banquet
A Grammar (Nitsuh Abebe)
Ill Doctrine
A London Salmagundi
Dau.pe
Words and Music
Petites planétes
Gorilla vs Bear
Herohill
Silent Shout
Clouds of Evil
The Dolby Apposition
Awesome Tapes from Africa
Molars
Daytrotter
Matana Roberts
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews
i like you [podcast]
Musicophilia
Anagramatron
Nicola Meighan
Fluxblog
radiolab [podcast]
CKUT Music
plethoric pundrigrions
Wattled Smoky Honeyeater
The Clear-Minded Creative
Torture Garden
LPWTF?
Passion of the Weiss
Juan and Only
Horses Think
White Hotel
Then Play Long (Marcello Carlin)
Uno Moralez
Coming Up For Air (Matt Forsythe)
ftrain
my love for you is a stampede of horses
It's Nice That
Marathonpacks
Song, by Toad
In Focus
AMASS BLOG
Inventory
Waxy
WTF [podcast]
Masalacism
The Rest is Noise (Alex Ross)
Goldkicks
My Daguerreotype Boyfriend
The Hood Internet

things we like in Montreal
eat:
st-viateur bagel
café olimpico
Euro-Deli Batory
le pick up
lawrence
kem coba
le couteau
au pied de cochon
mamie clafoutis
tourtière australienne
chez boris
ripples
alati caserta
vices & versa
+ paltoquet, cocoa locale, idée fixe, patati patata, the sparrow, pho tay ho, qin hua dumplings, caffé italia, hung phat banh mi, caffé san simeon, meu-meu, pho lien, romodos, patisserie guillaume, patisserie rhubarbe, kazu, lallouz, maison du nord, cuisine szechuan &c

shop:
phonopolis
drawn + quarterly
+ bottines &c

shows:
casa + sala + the hotel
blue skies turn black
montreal improv theatre
passovah productions
le cagibi
cinema du parc
pop pmontreal
yoga teacher Thea Metcalfe


(maga)zines
Cult Montreal
The Believer
The Morning News
McSweeney's
State
The Skinny

community
ILX