So not yet two weeks into 2014 and Joseph McElroy is jamming to his wife Donna’s Ipod in Room 708, “Basically stoned and listening to tunes as she leaves the party,” he wrote on his Facebook wall yesterday, “ Jump on it!”
Me? I am about as miserable as you’d expect and suffering from a terrible cold, all in all my I would be hard pressed to be much further down. The frigid temperature suits my mood (not to mention my writing abilities the past couple of days).
I’ve been thinking a lot about grieving and comfort but haven’t been able to get what I feel down; I’ll get to it when the time is right, I hope. Meanwhile, I was listening to Aretha perform “Bridge Over troubled Water” and got me to wondering about all the different version of this balm to the soul. It feels like a song to a lover but it is really for anybody who is “weary, feeling low”. Essentially there is a Universal balm here that suggests a God like perspective. And also a much smaller one, “I’m on your side when darkness comes and pain is all around” and the basic image after that is one of subjugation…
1. Simon And Garfunkel – This is why they broke up. Art, with that pristine angelic voice, used to take his big solo on this song and Paul would watch in the wings seething because HE WROTE IT. Paul wanted to sing it himself – A+
2. Johnny Cash – He flattens the passion and like “Hurt” , also on The Man Comes Around, it becomes a painful allegory and the laying down is more thorough than you might imagine. The “sail on silverbird” has an added significance – B+
3. Josh Groban And Brian McKnight – This is a song built for singers, if you can holler in tune, you can sing it. Josh Groban is faux opera and Brian has too much soul for this, the adlibs are a nightmare – C-
4. Glee Club – Soulful in theory, in practice the improvised ending is a nightmare – C-
5. Clay Aiken – So easy to sing badly, it lends itself to every mistake “The X Factor’ and “American Idol” make: all oversinging thundering voice and ululations – C-
6. LeAnn Rhimes – MOR not country, put played straight enough – B
7. Roberta Flack – Slowed to a crawl just in case you can’t make out the words. You can go to the fridge, flip a top and get back to your living room by the time she has stopped stretching out “briiiiidddgggggggeeeeeeeeee” – C+
8. Willie Nelson – It sounds a lot like Willie singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water’ with organ but maybe a guitar…? He sounds like somebody warned him not to drawl. – C+
9. Barry Manilow – The problem here is barry has nothing to add to the song and the soaring arrangement is nothing special – B-
10. Chet Atkins And Jerry Reed – No Smokey and the Bandit jokes here folks, this instrumental features two master country pop guitarists on a tear – A
11. Charlotte Church – I never much liked her and her voice here is horrible, like a bird chirping right in your ear – D+
12. Stevie Wonder – Why does every black singer believe that the only way to sing this is by pulling it like taffy – C
13. Jackson 5 – Off their third album and that isn’t Michael that’s Jermaine – C-
14. Nana Moskouri – This is so tender and pensive it actually works – B+
15. Buck Owens – Buck Owens???? He suffers from add a syllable where there is none “I will dry them all? I will???? – C
16. Glen Campbell – Nothing at all to add to this one – C+
17. Bobby Darin – I think Darin thought it was giving him depth. “Little girl feeling small?” what the hell is wrong with him. And ugh the choir – C-
18. Cilla Black – Those first 20 seconds? Can nobody do anything with them? Even Chet and Jerry keep it in. This is album filler – C-
19. The shadows – rearranged for electric guitar, but the intro? Piano for 20 seconds before the hitars take over – B+
20. Aretha Franklin – Well I like the start but otherwise the Gospel arrangement doesn’t work – B
21. Elvis Presley – You think this would be a no brainer and it is a no brainer… that’s why it doesn’t work – C+
