Otis Redding - "A Change Is Gonna Come"

After posting Sam Cooke's original version of this song earlier in the week, I started to encounter murmurings of dissent. These murmurings quickly grew into an unignorable din of complaint and outrage: why had I posted the Cooke version when there exists a "much better" Otis Redding version? My girlfriend left me and my parents disowned me (then adopted my girlfriend (ouch!)).

Controversy:

If I had never heard either song and you said to me,"Hey Jordan, it's good to see you. You look good. There's this song that both Sam Cooke and Otis Redding perform called "A Change is Gonna Come." The Cooke version is dominated by soaring strings, whereas the Redding version is driven by hard hitting horns with a healthy dose of tight piano and tremolo guitar interplay. Which do you think you'd like better?" I would pick the Redding version.

But I don't think I'd be right.

Redding is wounded and raw, his performance more visceral than Cooke's. But he leaves me wondering if the only reason that a change is gonna come is that it can't possibly get any worse. Redding's wails and screams connote anguish, but what Cooke expresses in his more restrained, thoughtful performance is the human capacity for perseverance, hope and exceptional dignity.

Both are awesome, though. So, whatever. [Buy]

***

Birds of America - "The Eyes of Our Youth Are Evil"

Shining through the low fidelity of this recording is the fun that can be had in making music. Not fun that diminishes the seriousness of the music, but fun that comes from discovering the perfect bed of shuffling hand-clap and shaker percussion. The fun of listening to an already good song over and over again until you realize that all it needs to make it a million times better is the long tone of a saxophone. The fun of finding the ultimately complimentary setting on an old keyboard, running it through a delay and letting it echo. [Buy]