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rinueI was first introduced to the album Grace, by Jeff Buckley, my freshman year of college. And at that point he'd already drowned and was already mythologized, and at that point I was already more interested in his posthumous album, My Sweetheart the Drunk, because of the ways it was less polished, although I was assured that this was not what Jeff Buckley would have wanted because look at the smoothness of Grace. Wouldn't it have wound up more like Grace?
So I listened to Grace and I own Grace and I'm very familiar with Grace and I like the songs on it.
Only... I keep gradually recognizing not only how much of Grace is covers, but how much of Grace is straight imitations. He's not just singing "Lilac Wine." He's singing "Lilac Wine" exactly like Nina Simone. He's singing "Corpus Christi Carol" like Janet Baker, and Janet Baker sings it how everybody sings Corpus Christi Carol, because that's how Benjamin Britten wrote it. My love for that song probably doesn't have much to do with Jeff Buckley and probably has a lot to do with how much I like Benjamin Britten.
I feel confused about what to feel because I could say that Jeff Buckley introduced me to those songs, but I sort probably would have found them anyway. We live in an age of recorded music. There was not a time Jeff Buckley was alive when he would have had to say "let me sing it to you so you know what I'm talking about." He could always have put on the record.
I'm not sure what the point of cover bands is, if they're not reinterpreting. I mean, I sing karaoke and I love to. But I mostly do it alone in a room, because who cares? Who cares that I can sing that song the same way it's sung on the recording? I sing Lilac Wine like Nina Simone does. I'm not Nina Simone.
I don't know. I run into this problem with Cream too, with early blues, although there at least there's an actual recording technology gap.
I feel weird about it. Simultaneously, I am in the process of ordering the Benjamin Britten sheet music.
So I listened to Grace and I own Grace and I'm very familiar with Grace and I like the songs on it.
Only... I keep gradually recognizing not only how much of Grace is covers, but how much of Grace is straight imitations. He's not just singing "Lilac Wine." He's singing "Lilac Wine" exactly like Nina Simone. He's singing "Corpus Christi Carol" like Janet Baker, and Janet Baker sings it how everybody sings Corpus Christi Carol, because that's how Benjamin Britten wrote it. My love for that song probably doesn't have much to do with Jeff Buckley and probably has a lot to do with how much I like Benjamin Britten.
I feel confused about what to feel because I could say that Jeff Buckley introduced me to those songs, but I sort probably would have found them anyway. We live in an age of recorded music. There was not a time Jeff Buckley was alive when he would have had to say "let me sing it to you so you know what I'm talking about." He could always have put on the record.
I'm not sure what the point of cover bands is, if they're not reinterpreting. I mean, I sing karaoke and I love to. But I mostly do it alone in a room, because who cares? Who cares that I can sing that song the same way it's sung on the recording? I sing Lilac Wine like Nina Simone does. I'm not Nina Simone.
I don't know. I run into this problem with Cream too, with early blues, although there at least there's an actual recording technology gap.
I feel weird about it. Simultaneously, I am in the process of ordering the Benjamin Britten sheet music.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-08 01:02 pm (UTC)I might also be thrown off by how much I did not like his opera Billy Budd (which I haven't seen in like 30 years, but suspect I still don't like). It's so... not tuneful, when the tunefulness is what I like about him when I like him. So my brain is still on some level like 'nah, can't be that guy.'
Plus I think Britten and I both like Henry Purcell a lot, so he's sometimes dropping Purcell into things, and I think "ahhh Purcell" and then belatedly am like "oh Britten's here too, I see." Bit of a Joe Cocker and the Beatles situation, I guess.
My favorite "Pirate Jenny" is Ute Lemper's, in German. I think she also sings it in English, but I prefer it in German not for authenticity reasons but because the lyric "fünfzig kanonen" is the best part for me. The way those words match up with the music, and the meaning of them, is perfect, and I haven't found an English translation that hits the same way. Haven't been able to come up with one myself, either.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-08 08:48 pm (UTC)In case it hasn't come around on the radio, please enjoy "Where do we go from here?" (1943), my favorite obscure Britten composition since I have never heard another version since this centenary recording in 2013 and you'd think it would have become at least a minor torch standard once reintroduced to the wild. It was performed for its original broadcast by Adelaide Hall, but if there was a recording I've never been able to find it. I still want the rest of the Broadway musical it sounds like the first-act finale to.
It's so... not tuneful, when the tunefulness is what I like about him when I like him.
How have his other operas treated you? I am unsurprisingly imprinted on Peter Grimes.
My favorite "Pirate Jenny" is Ute Lemper's, in German.
Fair! I like Ute Lemper and she is an invaluable interpreter of Weill, but for whatever reason I do not love her "Pirate Jenny." I learned "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" from her, however, after years of noncommittally glancing off Mary Martin.
the lyric "fünfzig kanonen" is the best part for me. The way those words match up with the music, and the meaning of them, is perfect, and I haven't found an English translation that hits the same way. Haven't been able to come up with one myself, either.
I have this problem with the "Kanonen-Song."