In Cover My World #1, we looked at artists who reshaped, reformed, and re-recorded songs originally made famous by others. Here, we will examine artists who re-visit their own works, covering themselves in new old-fashioned ways.
Suzanne Vega is taking the stripped-down approach with a series of new, mostly acoustic studio recordings of songs selected from her catalog and grouped thematically. Vol. 1 in the “Close Up” series is Love Songs, which she describes as “songs I consider love songs, although they are also songs of attraction, flirtation, and confrontation.”
Sting took the opposite tack and inflated some of his works to symphonic proportions. The Symphonicities album and tour have been met with generally positive reviews. Rob Mathes, who helped produce and arrange the album, wrote an interesting defense of the project on Amazon.
First of all, for those who think that Sting is slacking off and just trying to continually recycle existing material, be aware of this. The record was something that happened almost by accident and the whole venture was essentially another voyage of discovery for Sting, who loves Orchestral music..He did not intend to just make another record of his songs but he really was moved and galvanized by the experience of hearing the songs in a new way.
A more curious case is that of Squeeze, who re-recorded their greatest hits on Spot the Difference, where the goal is to match the original recordings as closely as possible. Glenn Tillbrook explains why in a Pollstar interview:
“In my heart of hearts I’d never dreamt of going back and doing that,” Tilbrook told Pollstar from his London studio where the band was rehearsing for its upcoming tour. “However, Universal, which controls the catalog, does not want to play ball with us at all about giving us any rights to re-release or deal with our own back catalog in any way, shape or form.
“It’s very sad for us because we’re proud of what we’ve done. It’s their business, they have their own agenda. They won’t release it themselves, but they won’t let us do it either.”
Listen > “Gypsy” — Suzanne Vega, Close-Up Vol. 1: Love Songs via NPR
One Cello, a MacBook Pro, Ableton Live, and SooperLooper: that’s what it takes to reach the #1 Spot on iTunes Classical and Electronic charts. That and Zoe Keating to compose and perform the music. Zoe has taken the concepts she learned as an Information Architect and applied them to music; creating modular pieces that sequence, overlap and layer tones, rhythms, melodies and motifs to create complex yet accessible compositions.
Her latest album, Into the Trees, debuted at #7 on the Billboard classical charts, with no marketing or publicity beyond her own website and presence on twitter, facebook, and myspace. The Billboard chart position was achieved solely through bandcamp digital downloads, and she lists her label as “not interested”.
Below is a performance of “Escape Artist” from Into the Trees, and your free dowload is “Optimist” from the same album, generously made available by Zoe in multiple formats, including FLAC and 320K MP3.
If you like your Beatles rare, this is your week. A collection of photos taken by a 16-year old Paul Berriff for the Yorkshire Evening Post are now on display at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool. The negatives sat in his attic for nearly half a century before being discovered earlier this year.
The pictures were taken in 1963 and 1964, during the Beatles first national tour of Britain as the opening act for Helen Shapiro. Paul Beriff speaks briefly about the find in the video below, which features shots of many of the photos. ~ via BBC
Stateside, MSG has released some never-before-seen concert photos of John, Paul, George, and Ringo as solo artists here.
Imagine: Global Harmony for John Lennon and His 70th Birthday
Coming up, the Fab Faux bring a new show to Radio City Music Hall on September 25th: The Fab Faux presents A Night in the Life: A John Lennon 70th Birthday Celebration. The Faux will perform two sets of John Lennon’s greatest music from The Beatles and his solo career.
Covers are HOT this year. The Onion A.V. Club is wrapping up its Undercover Series: 25 Bands, 25 Cover Songs, 1 Small, Round Room. So if you want to hear Superchunk cover The Cure (Yeah!), or Cymbals Eat Guitars cover Superchunk (probably not), you’re…uhh, covered.
Over at NPR, All Songs Considered has selected Five Great Cover Songs From 2010 (So Far). And Peter Gabriel released an album of covers: Scratch My Back, where his voice is accompanied solely by piano and orchestra, leading to some “radical reinterpretations.”
“Songwriting is what drew me into music,” Peter reveals. “The craft and the process of putting together a good song seemed both exciting and magical.” And it’s this magical craft that Scratch My Back salutes, a dozen covers of songs that Peter regards as among the pinnacles of songwriting endeavour. “Songwriting is what turns his crank,” agrees long-standing member of his management team Mike Large, “and there’s a whole bunch of songs that, when he hears them, the meter goes off the end of the scale.“
So this series will present a few of MMT’s favorite covers. The best covers are not just same song/different singer, but re-imaginings that might amplify an undercurrent or illuminate hidden corners of the originals. And speaking of radical reinterpretations, we kick things off with “Creep” as performed by Amanda Palmer. What began as a party goof blossomed into a full album of Radiohead covers. Here’s the one that started it all…
Looking for more Radiohead covers? Check out the surprising “Optimistic” from Hanson (yes, the mmmboppers), and the sublime instrumental performance of “Kinves Out” by the Brad Mehldau Trio.
Sad to see him go. Decades on the road, and no health insurance. Roll right through the night…
He was born February 6, 1946 in Clear Lake, Iowa. He was in a band called The Factory in Los Angeles whose front man was Lowell George. Eventually, Lowell joined Frank Zappa, offered him the song “Willin’,” and Frank wisely said, “Go start your own band, son.” The result was Little Feat, and Richie was the first and, until his health took him off the kit in 2009, eternal drummer for Feat. He was the master of space, time, and drums, and he had as much to do with Feat’s sound as Lowell’s voice, Billy Payne’s keys, Paul’s and Fred’s guitars, Kenny’s bass, or Sam’s percussion.
Ok, so it’s more like trade your email address for a free MP3 download Friday. But you’re probably already on Guitar Center’s mailing list, and you should be on Peter’s. (You can unsubscribe at any time.) Peter’s performance from the unlisted (i.e., don’t try to search for it) YouTube video below is available as an MP3 download here. Beautiful. (More on that later.)
If you have DIRECTV, Guitar Sessions: Peter Gabriel premieres August 21st, 9pm ET/PT on DIRECTV channel 101 and in 3D on n|3D.
Invert the Chords > Lose the Pick > Play Smoke on the Water
Montreux, Switzerland: 1971. Frank Zappa and the Mother’s of Invention play a concert in the theatre of the Montreux Casino on Lake Geneva. Deep Purple is in attendance, preparing to record Machine Head using a mobile studio rented from the Rolling Stones. Unwisely, [...]
Individual videos for many of the songs from Arcade Fire’s concert at Madison Square Garden last week are now available on their Vevo Channel. The live show garnered excellent reviews, as did Terry Gilliam’s webcast production.
From MMT HQ, the sound and video quality were both superb, unfortunately, they were not always in sync. Over [...]
Hanging a Didgeridoo on the Wall
In examining recent search terms that brought readers to My Music Thing, there are multiple entries for “how to hang didgeridoos on the wall” and “hanging a didgeridoo on the wall”. This leads us to believe that the people want to know how to hang a didgeridoo on the wall. [...]
Peter Gabriel covers Tom Wait’s “In the Neighborhood” for The Voice Project, a music-based initiative to support the peace movement in Uganda. Read below to learn more about the situation there and how you might help.
IT BEGAN WITH SONGS, WORDS AND MUSIC
A peace movement is an incredible thing, people coming together, mobilizing like an [...]
