Archives : all posts by Jordan

The Tom Thumb cover is surprisingly fantastic. I always emit a groan when I hear someone's about to play "Atlantic City" (aside from an acoustic Springsteen, that is,) but I like the way that this ramps up and down, the sudden flourishes of drums, the undecorated longing in the vocals.

I dare him to cover Louis Malle's great film, Atlantic City. Or to cover Atlantic City itself

Yes!

Eep! The George Jackson is heavily sampled on Ghostface's _Supreme Clientele_'s adolescent love song. It is very strange to hear something like this that you know very well but not where it comes from.

I anticipate your groan, Sean, and raise you a "How dare he!" We debated the propriety of attempting a good cover of a great song, as opposed to a great cover of a bad song. I've been known to cringe upon hearing that someone has covered a song I love. I hope there aren't too many cringes, groans and cries of indignation when people hear this one.

Sean- Thanks for giving it a chance.

Jordan- Thanks so much for putting it up. And don't tempt me with the Christo challenge; my ambition is boundless.

I think the most important thing when covering a song, a good one or a bad one, is to bring something new to it. It's about interpretation, mutation and elaboration... Yo! And if you're covering a great song, putting a whole different spin on it gives the cover its own merit comletely seperate from the original.

I also think that the better a song is, the more potential for excellent covers it's likely to have. Like Shakespeare, ya know? That's what you've got going with this Spingsteen cover, Tom.

Oh, damn. Completely. Springsteen (Why do I only aquire an eye for typos after the post button has been pressed?).

That Tom Thumb song cover all kinds of ass.

Um, right. Deleted "kicks" instead of "song." ^"cover kicks all kinds" etc.

There's a live Al Green version which is, ahem, perhaps even better. Heh.

Sam Cooke's is better. He died shortly after the recording. It also sits better in history (early '60s civil rights era); it is more a product of its author and period then Otis Redding's cover.

that reminds me... do a post on some good rock songs with clapping -- an untirely underrated effect.

i love otis, but can't beat the original...

This Birds of America song is splendid! It's breezy and oceanic, but cozy and fireplace-y at the same time. Mmmmm...yes.

Thanks!

The Birds of America song -is- great - it's exactly the sort of tune that I'd love to see made with some mega-huge big-studio-sound producer, Trevor Horn or someone, to make the handclaps like god's handclaps, the singsong like a mouth that's opened up in the side of your heart.

And yeah, the Sam Cooke one kills this ebullient Otis version.

Thanks so much for sharing your opinion on the Redding vs. Cooke controversy that has been plaguing my mind for months now. Your thoughts are my thoughts exactly. Cooke gives an undoubtedly more soulful performance.

I love that this is a debate which weighs heavily on (many) peoples' minds. Yay music.

Sam's is better IMO. No comparison.

i've thought for a while now that the cooke version of this song is probably the greatest soul song of all time.

There is a early/mid-90's Terence Trent D'arby version of "Change is Gonna Come" that is far worse than both Sam and Otis.

Sam's is the best by the way - just goosebumps.

Sam Cooke's is ridiculously more enjoyable.

Change is gonna come is one of the greatest recordings of all time.

Thanks for sharing it!

K

Hey Jordan, so what Cooke song talks about Wittgenstein? "Pass over in silence"?

I'm a big music fan. All genre. I spend countless hours, researching, playing, listening to music. I run a damn audioblog.

And I've never found anything as brillant, moving, exhilarating & aching as "A Change Is Gonna Come" ...

Am i going nuts? Didn't you blog this song last year? Might have been a different blog, but this song made me run out and buy his greatest hits and I'm so grateful for it.

Hey Zaidie!
So did he (Jordan, not Sam Cooke) learn about a singer 'singing behind the band' from listening to Frank Sinatra, one of the greatest masters of the technique?
Be proud of this boy, he's got great taste!
Thanks, Jordan, for the Cooke cut.
J

May I also suggest this other "best of" :

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009N1ZV/qid=1115139958/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-9653227-6403853?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

There aren't that many songs that give me as many goose bumps as "Change". Probably one of top 10 or so songs of all time. It kills me every time I hear him sing how his brother "winds up knockin' me back down on my knees..." That's as bleak as you get, and to hear him sing right after how he thinks he's "able to carry on" *really* kills me (in a good way this time).

Thanks for spreading the word.

long time reader, first time commenter. firstly, thank you for introducing to me to a wealth of great music over the last 6 months or so i've been reading. i, too, can swear that you blogged this sometime late last year -- i think it was one of the first songs i got from this site, and it really is just absolutely gorgeous. it's become one of my favorite songs.

anyway, thanks.

Thanks for all the Sam Cooke love.

Mathew - I remember taking note that Cooke mentions Wittgenstein in a song, but now I can't find it and I'm beginning to worry that I can't tell the difference between 'Frankenstein' and 'Wittgenstein.' Either way, Cooke's not as thorough a Wittgenstein scholar as, say, Saul Kripke, but he brings more soul to the table, by far.

Beth (can I call you Beth?) and Matt - I first heard "Change" two weeks ago, and I started writing for STG about eight months ago, so I can assure you that I didn't post this song a year ago. However, it is possible that Sean posted it. In which case... Oops.

Did you, Sean?

I wish I had, but I, um, hadn't.

And doing a search for "Cooke" gives no other returns... A mystery!

Yep I remember you blogging it Jordan! A collective mystery... Maybe it pops up everytime there's an important election. Here in the UK I ~do~ hope a change's gonna come... I sure campaigned for it! (Blair out!)

It was posted over at Soul Sides a couple months ago as part of a "Revolutionary Mixtape". It was a great post, also including Nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free), an amazing song in its own right.

Sam Cooke sings, "don't know much about history, don't know much biology..." (yes he says trigonometry, too) on "Win Your Love". In "Another Saturday Night" he compares a girl he went out on a date with to Frankenstein.
Soulful? Yes. Scholarly? No.

In "Change Is Gonna Come", when he talks about his brother, he isn't talking about his relative. He's talking about his "brother" or "soul brother". In fact, I don't think it's him talking. I don't think he wrote the song.

I am Sean's old aunt and I have loved Sam Cooke for many years....he has a heavenly voice.... Thanks for sharing this track....

He clearly wrote it himself. Check out Guralnik's chapter on Sam Cooke in "Sweet Soul Music" : he wrote it right after he heard "Times They Are A Changing" by Dylan

I too blogged this song earlier this year, on new years eve ...

It wasn't here. Music.for-robots posted it last year. I remember Tuwa mentioning it on his (sadly) short-lived blog.

Great song still..

that's it, then. must've got it from music for robots. mystery solved.

Never heard it before! THANK YOU!

That guys voice in the magnetic fields song is terrible... It would be an okay song otherwise. I think Ryan Adams could probably pull it off better.

i think Stephen Merritt's voice is great!

I'm with Jorge!

I'm with Jorge and Jay and Jordan.

That's actually LD Beghtol singing that song - there are a lot of guest vocals on "69 Love Songs".

what i find funny is that michael's comment need not necessarily be a correction; jay might have been making a non sequitur. :)

loooove the smokey robinson (obviously!)

Man i love that Magnetic Fields song, as i do pretty much all of 69 love songs. Sooo good.

"You've Really Got a Hold On Me" is-- sometimes for months at a stretch-- often atop my Greatest Songs of All Time list. Also, it recently struck me how minimal most of the guitar parts in pre-psychadelic Motown are. I wonder if the guitarists ever got bored with their parts, but I imagine it would be difficult to be anything less than entertained when playing amongst the Funk Brothers.

All my little words = amazing.

How many bands try to write songs about relationships that don't work out? How many of them make it work this well? He's meaningful without being maudlin and he makes up the word "unboyfriendable"! Instead of playing the stereotypical "there's nothing left in the world" type this song's character is REAL. He knows that life will go on, even though he doesn't really want to give up on the relationship. The song is so powerful because the singer's character is so well written. The character escapes the stereotypes. I could go on and on, but I'm not sure I'm even making sense at the moment.

One last point, though. He even plays with us, saying "now that you've made me want to die," but he isn't dying from sadness of being left. He is dying to date her; he is dying to be in love with her, not because she rejected him. Most people, I think would use the whole death thing in the other way.

ps - I love this song.

i still think his voice is great!

Well, I think they're both brilliant. Though the Beatles/Live at the BBC version of "You Really Got a Hold on Me" is tip-top too.

Fantastic Mingus track, will have to look into it... *sigh*

Isn't that TJO track called the poisoned *mine*?

Ryan - Thanks. No matter how many times I read that it's called "The Poisoned Mine," I still believe that it's called "The Poisoned Well." Slow learner.

who what the hell is crackpot? this stuff is intersting...

i enjoyed both songs muchly, thanks.

Wow! Crackpot are great!
"everything you say is wonderful, that is why you are so fuckable" ??? pure gold. Do you know when this album with be released?

Hullo, my name is Chris Burns and I am the founding father of Crackpot.

The two songs found in the "info" link are from our self-titled, debut CD (which is available in all the finer Montreal record shops-- if you do not live in Montreal, but would like to purchase it, e-mail me).

The toon that Jordan wrote about is by the other guitarist, Simon Fazakerley. It's working title is "Applesauce" and, as Jordan pointed out, is a rough mix taken from some recent sessions we did at Little King Studio, engineered by Ryan Mills. We recorded 11 toons, not all of which are necessarily keepers, and I can't be sure what will come of them. Hopefully, there will be another full length CD under Crackpot's belt but, at the moment, we are searching for a new drummer and definetely won't be taking any steps to release anything until the band re-establishes a solid line-up.

If you think you might be interested in auditioning for Crackpot, e-mail me at:

chrispyburns@canoemail.com

hey crackpot, I like your song. It reminded me of Silkworm, which is the tenuous basis on which I recommend you check them out- if you haven't already.