In my estimation, the covers that are really worth their salt take a song that you think you know, and then go right ahead to completely re-imagine it. My favorite revisions unearth a hidden nugget of emotional truth, or get at something that you might have missed the first time around. As The Bangles say, “I see you in a different light.”
WAZ is a musician from Southern California who first rose to prominence as the guitarist for Pete Yorn during the musicforthemorningafter era, but now has a solo career in his own right. Waz is a shortening of his last name (no it’s not Mike Wazowski) and everyone ‘cept his momma calls him that. His cover of U2′s “I Will Follow” is bittersweetly intimate and stopped me in my tracks.
I never knew that this song was originally written about the death of Bono’s mother; it has such a huge anthemic blazing image to me, as does much of the U2 from that early era. The original is majestic and almost defiant; it wants to be sung from a thousand enormous arenas. But this version aches, a meandering confessional in front of a backdrop of delicate strings. I love what WAZ does here to reach a different place with this song.
WAZ just opened for Frank Black of the Pixies on some solo shows, culminating at the rad Hotel Utah in SF. More tour dates are anticipated in 2008 to go along with the self-release of his full-length album coming out at the end of January. That album will be released without this track due to some legal wrangling, but he gives his blessing for you to enjoy it here. So do.
This morning I was up dark and early to attend a non-profit community breakfast for our local chapter of Drinking Liberally, at the behest of one of my readers. It was held at some posh digs that are usually outside my sphere of reference in the lovely waaay-south side of the city. As I cruised down the vacant freeway in the early morning darkness, I reveled in my favorite bootleg maybe ever — some fantastic live U2 from (arguably) my favorite U2 era: Achtung Baby. Attention:
These are some 1992-era live performances of songs from the alternate “Outside Broadcast” bootleg. According to this page:
Released to promote the Achtung Baby album and the Zoo TV tour this promo for radio was produced by B.P. Fallon in 1992. B.P. was the opening DJ for the Zoo TV tour in the US. Two versions of this CD were said to have been produced, the version that made up this promo disc, and an alternate version which was not released, featuring additonal live material and less studio material. A bootleg of that second version has appeared in trading circles under the name “Outside Broadcast”.
This version of “Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World” is one of the best things I’ve ever heard (SUCH A TERRIFICALLY SEXY SONG, made even more so with the resonant shining guitar notes here). This whole thing is excellent.
I spent at least a good hour+ last night watching Zoo TV tour footage on YouTube from U2, and then I open my email this morning to find that Cara has fantastically read my mind with this little outtake snippet gem from that era, off an obscure promo cd:
I missed the Zoo TV tour (look at this opener! Music starts at 4:15 after the video sensory overload, and what a song, with those grinding, excoriating guitar licks) . . .
. . . But I caught the PopMart one in ’97, a tour that which usually started each show with the insanely awesome song ‘Mofo’, and the effortlessly cool 4 strutting their way in through cadres of adoring fans in fine swaggering fashion. I do find myself loving the excess of that whole 5-year era:
My Pearl Jam fanclub single for 2006 finally arrived in the mail just now, and I have to say that I literally jumped up and clicked my heels together in joy on the walk back inside. Because I am a dork.
I think the cover art is some of the best yet and made me get a little flutter somewhere in my gut. As previously mentioned, the tunes this year are the Who cover “Love Reign O’er Me” (which gives me even more chills with the pure vinyl audio sound) and the Neil Young cover “Rocking In The Free World,” with U2 from Melbourne last year.
This gives me pause to also mention two Pearl-Jam-related items I’ve been sitting on: ** Vedder will induct R.E.M. into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame on March 12 (link)
** Ed is the ultimate Cubs fanboy (more pics here). Cara saw these and affectionately referred to Vedder as “tiny mofo.” I think she means that as a term of endearment.
They’re totally going all Bono one you: Just received word from Pearl Jam that they are playing the Make Poverty History concert tonight in Melbourne, Australia with JET and others. The concert website is not yet updated to include this information, but PJ says they’re in. There will be a live webcast here, one hour delayed.
Loosely correlated tune: I Got You (live) – Pearl Jam (Split Enz cover – okay, they’re from New Zealand but it’s the closest I could get this morning)
UPDATE: I LOVE THE INTERNET!
Bono joins Pearl Jam for “Rocking In The Free World”!! (the first hint that something was afoot was when Vedder introduced the song by saying, “It’s a beautiful day . . .”)
Even though I didn’t personally know anyone affected by the attacks five years ago on September 11th, it was personal. I grieved that morning as I woke up early to a phone call and stared in disbelief at the TV, as if I knew each person killed or trapped, burning or jumping. I watched the first tower fall, then the second, and all I could think about was all the firefighters and police officers who had rushed in to save people they didn’t even know. As I watched the towers fall and the massive dust clouds rise, I felt like I was going to throw up in the face of such unabashed evil.
Ten days later all the major U.S. television networks aired the America: A Tribute To Heroes telethon to raise money for those left behind in the wake of the attacks. It had some stellar, simple, heartfelt musical performances that touched me, and today I wanted to share.
My City Of Ruins – Bruce Springsteen This was the first song of the program, and for me it just cracked open wide all the emotions that many of us were feeling in the days following the event. As many times as I listen to this song, which Bruce penned in the year before 9/11 about the deterioration of Asbury Park, New Jersey but that fits unbelievably well in this context, it still gets me. There are few who can pen a lyric of loss like Springsteen. In addition to the haunting imagery of the words in the title of this post, there’s also this line, which comes after a wheezing, lonesome, wrenching harmonica solo: “Now there’s tears on the pillow, darlin’ where we slept. And you took my heart when you left . . . “ The simple chord progression there on the last six words is heartbreaking — how do I explain that? Just listen.
As Bruce performs this, he stares off into nothing as if seeing the images from the last week and a half play over in his mind. At times his lips curl in an angry defiance, a rebellion against the destruction. And I’ve always thought that the way he furiously sings “Come on, rise up” over and over almost seems as if he is willing the dead to come back, the towers to rise. It reminds me of the futility of the lyrics in the U2 song “Wake Up Dead Man.” As Bruce nears the end of the song, his determined pleas to rise up take on an air of resignation as he stares off into the blackness of the studio.
This song turned up the following year on Springsteen’s stunning disc The Rising, along with many other songs he penned about the losses on 9/11. Hands down the other track on there that is the most devastating is “You’re Missing,” about a house and a family waiting for someone to come home (who will never come home). Lyrics like, “Coffee cup’s on the counter, jacket’s on the chair, paper’s on the doorstep, but you’re not there” and this, the clincher: “Morning is morning, the evening falls, I have / too much room in my bed, too many phone calls . . .”
Peace On Earth/Walk On – U2(VIDEO) I was deeply touched by the show of solidarity and understanding from Irish boys U2 to their American friends with this song. The whole All That You Can’t Leave Behind album makes me think of the period following 9/11, probably due in part to this performance. I just watched it again tonight on DVD and my eyes well up when the gospel salvation of the “Halle-halle-lujah, halle-halle-lujah” addition kicks in, and then the tears tend to spill over when Bono starts shouting, “See you when I get home! I’ll see you when I get home, sister!” I also appreciated Bono’s confidence in delivering the lyrics about what they can’t steal from us.
There Will Come A Day – Faith Hill (VIDEO) Whether you like country or not, you have to listen to this because it ain’t country, it’s some gooood gospel. I love this song as Hill performs it, with a full, enthusiastic backing gospel choir. The video always strikes me moreso than listening because it is hard to stay blue when you see the choir wiggling and shaking their arms in unison, jumping on their tiptoes in anticipation as the song nears it’s moment: “Song will ring out down those golden streets, the voices of earth with the angels will sing (pause) – HALLELUJAH!” Chill-inducing.
Imagine – Neil Young (VIDEO) Young sits in front of the grand piano with his cowboy hat and sets into Lennon’s chords that somehow always evoke this sense of sadness and a weight of longing in me. Even though I’ve always found the utopian/socialistic lyrics of this landmark tune to honestly be a bit stupid (if there’s nothing that you feel is worth dying for, then what of value do you really have?), that melody always gets me, and Young turns in an impassioned and delicate performance here.
The Long Road – Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready & Neil Young (VIDEO) This is such a simple song, and so lovely, really. From Pearl Jam’s Merkinball EP (1995), I love the different melodies and harmonies that Vedder rotates each time he approaches the refrain “I have wished for so long, how I wish for you today.” Neil only comes in vocally on the final refrain and response, “We all walk the long road.”
Finally, two songs that were not on the telethon but that could have been if I were programming it:
Thanks to Cara over at Scatter o’ Light, I am cross-posting a nice little set she put up from U2′s appearance at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park (London) last year.
She always digs up the best stuff:
01. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (w/ now-single Sir Paul) 02. Vertigo 03. Beautiful Day –> Blackbird 04. One –> Unchained Melody
Perhaps this is some form of sacrilege to post this on Easter, but if you aren’t going to church today, maybe you can spend some time with Bono as he ruminates about Hallelujah (with the help of Leonard Cohen, of course).
At this moment in the evolution of U2 we were right smack-dab between Zooropa and Pop. While it is hard for me to nail down one era of U2 that is my “favorite,” I really liked both of those albums, as well as the pop-modernism of Achtung Baby (ok, that’s actually probably my favorite).
This song is a hybrid of the swanky falsetto of “Numb” and the smoooooth spoken word portions of “If You Wear That Velvet Dress.” It’s awesome.
Take a close listen and tell me how come it sounds soooo dirty the way he enunciates the last word of this line: “And from your lips she drew the hallelujah.” Makes me kind of guffaw and say “Ha haaaa!” in that delighted naughty way. Also, you practically have to wear your wraparound Bono shades when you listen to this. It’s THAT cool.
So everytime I have a U2 question, I turn to c, who runs the awesome (and funny) Scatter O’ Light blog. She always knows the answer, it’s uncanny. So I approached her last week with this lovely little U2 gem “Slow Dancing” that a friend added to my musical rotation last year, but that I didn’t know the provenance of. She encyclopedically informed me that U2 wrote the song for Willie Nelson, and that there are a couple of versions floating around:
A studio version with Willie Nelson singing
A studio version with Bono singing from 1993 (Zooropa b-side)
An acoustic version of Bono singing it on an Australian radio show (“and it is just so very hot,” she adds)
I sent her the one I have for diagnostics (and it is option b). In return she sent me back the other versions I didn’t have, including this really lovely one (option a, with Willie Nelson on lead vocals). It is rustic and smoky, Willie singing lead with Bono in the background, gently reverberating guitars and a late-coming lonely harmonica.
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
In my estimation, the covers that are really worth their salt take a song that you think you know, and then go right ahead to completely re-imagine it. My favorite revisions unearth a hidden nugget of emotional truth, or get at something that you might have missed the first time around. As The Bangles say, “I see you in a different light.”
These are some 1992-era live performances of songs from the alternate “Outside Broadcast” bootleg. According to 
U2 “OUTSIDE BROADCAST” BOOT
Even though I didn’t personally know anyone affected by the attacks five years ago on September 11th, it was personal. I grieved that morning as I woke up early to a phone call and stared in disbelief at the TV, as if I knew each person killed or trapped, burning or jumping. I watched the first tower fall, then the second, and all I could think about was all the firefighters and police officers who had rushed in to save people they didn’t even know. As I watched the towers fall and the massive dust clouds rise, I felt like I was going to throw up in the face of such unabashed evil.
Name: Heather Browne
