Thank you, black people!!
Anyone who knows me knows of my love of soul music.
When I say soul, I mean Otis Redding, and your Motown, and your Aretha, and "Across 110th Street", and stuff like that.
I personally believe that nothing is purer in the music world. At its best, it is raw, beautiful, and stands up to repeat listenings.
I can't think of a rock song that I could listen to as many times as I have heard "Midnight Train to Georgia" without ever for a second becoming bored.
The reason I decided to post about this is because of soul singers' ability to take a cover song and make it almost completely unrecognizable and yet, still most excellent.
I dare you to find the link between the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" and Aretha Franklin's cover. I'm not even sure she heard the song before recording.
A hobby of mine has, for a while now, collecting all the crazy soul covers I can find. I have like 5 soul covers of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" and they are all by different people (The best being Otis Redding's version".
Some are weird, like Aretha Franklin covering The Band's "The Weight" and the Jackson 5 covering Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes." In fact, I would not believe they existed, but I have them. I paid for them too, so I know that it's really them.
Side note: A pet peeve of mine is people attributing a song to the wrong artist and then giving it away for free over the internet, spreading the ignorance. Cat Stevens did not sing "Cats in the Cradle". I know it's hard because his name IS Cat, but he didn't sing it. Harry Chapin did.
I have more covers by Aretha than anything because damn if she never heard a song she didn't decide to record. My iTunes includes her covers of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Ray Charles, The Temptations, The Beatles, even Elton John.
There are a couple of missteps there, but for the most part, it's good.
God damn, nothing is better than a good soul record and if it includes a cover or two, even better. Thank you, black people for soul music. I am sorry that so much suffering went into it and I appreciate you sharing it with the world.
Go turn on Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and turn it to "The Tracks of my Tears", listen to that awesome opening guitar riff and smile.
When I say soul, I mean Otis Redding, and your Motown, and your Aretha, and "Across 110th Street", and stuff like that.
I personally believe that nothing is purer in the music world. At its best, it is raw, beautiful, and stands up to repeat listenings.
I can't think of a rock song that I could listen to as many times as I have heard "Midnight Train to Georgia" without ever for a second becoming bored.
The reason I decided to post about this is because of soul singers' ability to take a cover song and make it almost completely unrecognizable and yet, still most excellent.
I dare you to find the link between the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" and Aretha Franklin's cover. I'm not even sure she heard the song before recording.
A hobby of mine has, for a while now, collecting all the crazy soul covers I can find. I have like 5 soul covers of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" and they are all by different people (The best being Otis Redding's version".
Some are weird, like Aretha Franklin covering The Band's "The Weight" and the Jackson 5 covering Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes." In fact, I would not believe they existed, but I have them. I paid for them too, so I know that it's really them.
Side note: A pet peeve of mine is people attributing a song to the wrong artist and then giving it away for free over the internet, spreading the ignorance. Cat Stevens did not sing "Cats in the Cradle". I know it's hard because his name IS Cat, but he didn't sing it. Harry Chapin did.
I have more covers by Aretha than anything because damn if she never heard a song she didn't decide to record. My iTunes includes her covers of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Ray Charles, The Temptations, The Beatles, even Elton John.
There are a couple of missteps there, but for the most part, it's good.
God damn, nothing is better than a good soul record and if it includes a cover or two, even better. Thank you, black people for soul music. I am sorry that so much suffering went into it and I appreciate you sharing it with the world.
Go turn on Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and turn it to "The Tracks of my Tears", listen to that awesome opening guitar riff and smile.
posted by Grant Alter at 12:26 AM
2 Comments:
Black people called, they said you're welcome.
Sam Cooke is Mr. Soul!
How come they don't really have soul music anymore? And how did your search for Bill Withers go?
Aw, black people are so nice.
Yeah, Bill Withers lives, but apparently, he's not too into doing music anymore. He says in an interview I found that he just didn't have the ego to keep pushing his career, so he just walked away and was a dad instead. But he still gets sort of a lot of sales off his greatest hits, so he can probably live off that alone. I do so wish he'd come back.
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