Joni Covers: Both Sides Now

Jason Falkner: Both Sides Now

[out of print; purchase more Falkner here]

As if we needed more evidence that Joni's songbook translates far beyond the genre boundaries of her native compositions, here comes Jason Falkner with his mid-nineties full-on third-wave punk-'n-roll b-side cover of Joni's Both Sides Now. And though artists tend to go gentle on this summery paean to clouds and love, as we might have expected from indie genius Falkner, taking it on with the hard stuff works really, really well.

You may not have heard Falkner's name, but odds are good you've heard his work. A multi-instrumentalist and producer who has worked with everyone from Jon Brion and Aimee Mann to Air, Beck, Susanna Hoffs, Brendan Benson, and Paul McCartney, the man's Wikipedia page reads a bit like that of a musical Zelig: founder of several bands that lived on beyond his efforts, player of all the instruments on Daniel Johnston's most recent album, and, inevitably, big in Japan. A true-blue genre chameleon, his lovely, gentle just-for-baby instrumental album Bedtime With The Beatles was our first child's first sleep soundtrack, and comes highly recommended.

Joni Covers: My Secret Place

Owen Duff: My Secret Place

[listen to more Owen Duff here]

The vast majority of Joni covers are of songs from the early part of her career. It’s as if, after the Hejira album, she suddenly stopped writing good songs. And of course, that is not what happened. So, I am sure my fellow Star Makers will have many more “early Joni” songs to finish the week, and I look forward to that. But I also want to draw attention to some of Mitchell’s later songs, because many of them are just as good.

Take My Secret Place. There comes a point in a successful relationship when you feel ready to join your lives together, and share everything. Mitchell reached that point, and married bass player Larry Klein. My Secret Place is a perfect description of that point in a relationship. You don’t think of Joni Mitchell that way, but she found happiness for a time, and she expressed it as beautifully as any emotional state in her songs.

Joni Mitchell’s website has a section listing all cover versions of any of her songs, over 3000 in all. Owen Duff is the only artist who has covered My Secret Place, and I don’t know why. Fortunately, he did a fine job.

Owen Duff is as indie an artist as you are likely to find. His songs are recorded in his home, and he plays all of the instruments himself. His version of My Secret Place starts with just voice, a delicate acoustic guitar part, and an electronic pulse. At what is an anxious point in a relationship, Duff projects a tentative quality at first. But the arrangement fills out as the narrator gains confidence, and the song ends on a strong note. This is going to work! Duff more than does the song justice.

I asked Duff how he came to record the song, and his answer is worth sharing:

“This particular cover I recorded as an experiment really - I like the song a lot and thought it would be interesting to try a more intimate approach, the original has quite a big sound with a lot of voices, so I did mine with just one close-miked vocal track (there are some overdubs at the end). I also wanted to try a more electronic sound out with the guitar, as I was between projects and experimenting with different kinds of production. The song I think was supposed to have been used in a film but wasn't in the end, so I had a sort of cinematic thing going in my head while I was recording as well - I wanted it to be intimate and cinematic at the same time! Lastly I'd say I prefer doing covers of lesser-known songs than well-known ones (although I have done covers of a couple of big pop songs), because I think people can find bad covers of their favourite songs almost sacrilegious, I know I do!”

Joni Covers: Free Man in Paris

Adrienne Young: Free Man in Paris

[purchase]

I'm looking forward to this week. As one of the younger contributors here, Joni Mitchell is not exactly the voice of my generation. I freely admit to not knowing all that much about her career and her music minus the few songs that everybody knows. I look at this week as a possible learning experience.

That said... I do have an idea in my head of what Joni's music represents and I tried to choose an artist who I think embodies the spirit of Joni and her generation.

Adrienne Young is best described as a free spirit whose sound runs the gamut from traditional string band fare to more modern takes on folk and bluegrass music with electric flourishes. She is also a very strong supporter of environmental issues including land preservation and sustainable agriculture. She mentions her causes in her songs, and supports them with her actions... something the Woodstock generation can no doubt appreciate.

This is Adrienne's version of "Free Man in Paris" from her 2007 album Room to Grow. There's a certain line in the chorus that might sound familiar to readers of this site.

Joni Covers: Jazz Saxophone Tributes

Herbie Hancock, ft. Wayne Shorter: Both Sides Now

[purchase]

Paul Desmond: Song to a Seagull

[purchase]

Joshua Redman: I Had a King

[purchase]

Let's check out some jazzy Joni covers, yeah? Here are three that focus on the saxophone. I used to play this amazing instrument, but sadly, none of the songs I ever learned were nearly as cool as these. It may seem counterintuitive to feature songs of a remarkable lyricist that have been stripped of the lyrics, but this allows us to focus on the melodies. Which are also remarkable, as we'll see.

I'll start with the low-hanging fruit. Herbie Hancock, the genius jazz keyboardist who's played with everyone who's anyone in the jazz world, released an entire tribute album to Joni in 2007, called "River: The Joni Letters." To everyone's surprise (except those of us who, you know, actually listened to it), Herbie's tribute ended up as the Grammy Album of the Year. How could it not? I'm going with one of the few instrumentals on the CD, but even then, it features Wayne Shorter, who is every bit as awesomesauce as Herbie. If you're a Steely Dan fan, you've heard him on "Aja". If you're a jazz fan, you know him from later Miles Davis, Weather Report, and, um, other Herbie Hancock recordings.

If you've ever listened to "Take Five," that idiosyncratic, arrhythmic, and classic ode to the 5/4 time signature, then you've heard Paul Desmond's alto saxophone. His was a defining musical voice of West Coast (aka Cool) Jazz. Here's his 1973 take on one of Joni's earliest songs, recorded before even Joni herself began to follow the jazz muse of her later work. And if you pay attention to these sorts of things, Grammy winner Don Sebesky is the arranger.

Another west-coast jazz musician, this one a son of saxman Dewey Redman, gives us our last saxophone tribute to Joni. Joshua Redman has other credits to his name, including the PBS TV shows Arthur and Reading Rainbow, and, and, and OMG he's the saxophonist on the anime series Cowboy Bebop, an oeuvre from which I'll try to work in songs in future posts….oh, where was I? Oh, right. Here's a 1998 Joni cover.

Joni Covers: All I Want

Holly Brook: All I Want

[unreleased; more Holly Brook here]

Jay Brannan: All I Want

[purchase]

Natalie Merchant: All I Want

[out of print; more Natalie Merchant here]

We have an unwritten rule of sticking to older, more classic recordings here on Star Maker Machine. But as caretaker for the collaborative, I'm hereby declaring all eras on the table for the week - after all, in the case of coverage, it's the originals that are timeless.

And how else to showcase a song that seems to work best in the hands of an under-thirty new generation? For though I very much like 32-year-old Natalie Merchant's 1995 conga-driven acoustic-funkified b-side, two relatively recent takes on one of my favorite Joni songs have turned out to be my favorites, simply by turning up the sweetness and light on one of the most cheerful songs in the canon.

Twenty year old Holly Brook's live rarity, recorded backstage at SXSW 2006 for MVYRadio, is airy and innocent and utterly gorgeous, proving that the appalachian dulcimer - Joni's chosen instrument for her own original - does delicacy, too. Meanwhile, YouTube-driven fan favorite Jay Brannan, recording last year for his mostly-covers second studio release at 27, goes for the slow and languid approach, transforming the chord-oriented original into fingerplucked gold, his pure, gentle voice cutting through the clutter of wistful, innocent love.

New York/ Joni Covers: Woodstock, Redux

I just posted four versions of Woodstock for our Summertime theme, just over a week ago, and here I am again. What gives? Well, Woodstock is in New York, and it is one of Joni Mitchell’s signature tunes. But more than that, these two versions add something to the conversation. Each one finds something in the song that the versions I previously posted did not. That’s because Joni Mitchell’s writing is that rich.

Richard Thompson: Woodstock

[unavailable for purchase]

Richard Thompson should need no introduction, but he gets one here. This one comes from a Joni Mitchell tribute concert originally presented on TNT, and I must thank FiL for sending it to me. Thompson plays the song solo, with only his guitar playing for accompaniment. He replaces Mitchell’s parts with an instrumental line that is pure Richard Thompson. Thompson always sings with at least a hint of sorrow in his voice. His Woodstock presents the idealism of Mitchell’s original as a memory of something that was noble, but didn’t pan out.

Big Country: Woodstock

[unavailable for purchase]

Big Country’s Woodstock comes from a radio station performance. In the way of these things, the band plays acoustic, with bongos instead of drums. Here, the idealism of the song is intact. This one seems to me to exemplify the communal spirit of both the song and the festival. There is an almost naïve quality to this performance that perfectly suits the song.

New York: Manhattan

Blossom Dearie: Manhattan

[purchase]

There's just so much jazz either about or coming out of New York City that it seems like we Starbloggers need to represent! Here's a song from the Great American Songbook. Written in 1925 by the duo of Rogers & Hart, this version was recorded in 1958 by jazz vocalist Blossom Dearie. The lyrics stuff in so many New York place names that it could have represented the whole week's theme.

New York: New York City

Cub: New York City

[Purchase]

A song about New York City and called New York City seems a bit obvious for this theme, but alas, I was running out of ideas, and this is a great song. So, creativity be damned!

Cub was a Canadian all-female rock band in the mid-90s. For a while their drummer was current alt-country star Neko Case, and many people liked to refer to their style as "cuddlecore", something I've never quite understood, but whatever. The song is a punk(ish) rock ode to the city that they spent the best night of their lives and where they're headed back to as fast as they can.

New York: Rockaway Beach

The Ramones: Rockaway Beach

[purchase]

The first punk rock group. Two minutes. Three chords. Four guys "named" Ramone.

Rockaway Beach (the place), Wikipedia tells us, is the longest urban beach in the United States. It runs along the south shore of Long Island in the borough of Queens and was once known as the Irish Riviera because of the many Irish Americans living nearby.

Rockaway Beach (the song) was penned by Dee Dee Ramone as a surf rock ode to a place he liked to hang out. It became their most successful single in 1977.

1-2-3-4

New York: Harlem Nocturne

The Lounge Lizards: Harlem Nocturne

[purchase]

There are times when fringe musical genres suddenly burst into the mainstream, and hardcore scenesters declare that anyone who has become popular has “sold out”. These purists then adopt a subgenre that no one else knows about, and continue to revel in the fact that their music is the most obscure on the planet. In the early 80s, Mew York City scenestrers had this problem with punk and new wave. Their solution was no wave.

No wave music never did reach much beyond NYC. It was characterized by a strong beat and dissonant chords. The stranger the harmonies, the better. The no wave acts who became best known were probably the Contortions, Lydia Lunch, and the Lounge Lizards. Not exactly household names, but the musicians who passed through these bands have turned up in some surprising places. The Lounge Lizards are an excellent case in point. The Lounge Lizards seemed to be a band on their first album, but the roster changed with each subsequent release. The constants were the brothers John and Evan Lurie. The group started out playing slightly skewed versions of jazz standards. Harlem Nocturne led off their debut album. The song dates from 1939, and was written by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers. Hagen in particular seems to have been aiming for an imitation of Duke Ellington’s style, and he succeeded well enough that Ellington would later record it. From there, the song became a standard, and any band with a sax player had to cover it. Even later, it was also adapted for electric guitar. The song has seen more than its share of odd covers, from Bill Hailey and His Comets to Conway Twitty. And if it sounds familiar, you may recognize it from the old Mike Hammer TV show.

Returning to the Lounge Lizards, over time, the Lurie brothers began to take on solo projects. John Lurie started to compose music for independent films, notably those of director Jim Jamrush. Jamrush gave his first serious roles to an actor named Tom Waits, and soon musicians who had played with the Lounge Lizards began to turn up on Tom Waits albums. The most notable of these was guitarist Marc Ribot. Other former Lizards have made their marks in New York City’s avant-garde jazz scene. But the most surprising legacy of the Lounge Lizards is what became of Evan Lurie. Would you believe, kid’s music? That’s right. Evan Lurie made contacts with the right people at PBS’s New York affiliate WNET, and now he writes music for PBS kid’s shows. His greatest success is a little show called the Backyardigans. The next time it’s on, play closer attention to the music. Here are these five brightly colored ultra-cute creatures, with their high chirpy voices. But the music underneath might be Bollywood or Ghanian highlife, or who knows what. Our children are being musically subverted, and I for one am grateful. And it all started with the Lounge Lizards.

New York: Across Manhattan Zoo

Bobby Womack: Across 110th Street, Part II

[purchase]


Ol' Dirty Bastard: Brooklyn Zoo

[purchase]


Scott Walker: Manhattan

[purchase]

Three fine and very different New York-related songs in one rather scattered post.

First off a cut from the classic Across 110th Street soundtrack, courtesy of Bobby Womack. This is the lesser-known companion to the famous title track. There's a third version as well, an instrumental one which I almost posted during Instrumentals Week before I decided I had posted enough that week already.

Then a track just as rough and seedy as you'd imagine from someone calling himself Ol' Dirty Bastard. And finally Scott Walker, whose excellence should need no introduction or explaining.

By the way, don't miss this New York mix I posted on my blog two months ago. It's really good. It even has David Hasselhoff doing Frank Sinatra's New York New York. Nuff said.

Why the banana? Because to me New York has always been synonymous with The Velvet Underground. So yeah. A banana.