Uncomfortably Numb

So far I have been doing cover songs that I believe are generally good, this week I am doing a cover song that really pales in comparison to the original. "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd and the cover done by Scissor Sisters.



The original by Pink Floyd sounds depressing and more like they're tripping on some drugs while singing it or possibly even when they were writing it. While the Scissor Sisters sound more like the Bee Gees or some other disco era band, I actually thought for a split second as I was listening to the Scissor Sisters' version that they were the Bee Gees. The Scissor Sisters' version sounds a little like techno too, throughout the song my ears felt like they were being raped by the beats from the song. They have too many unnecessary beats and tones in their song that really gives me a bit of a headache. While Pink Floyd sings their version really slowly, the Scissor Sisters sing their version extremely fast and a bit flamboyantly with their beats and tones.



The original lyrics by Pink Floyd make it clear that they are talking about being on some type of drugs. The best example of that being this stanza: "O.K./ Just a little pin prick/ There'll be no more aaaaaaaah!/ But you may feel a little sick." The pin prick they're talking about sounds like a syringe of some sort used for intravenous drugs like heroin. They also paint an interesting picture with this stanza: "There is no pain you are receding/ A distant smoke's on the horizon/ You are only coming through in waves/ Your lips move/ But I can't hear what you're saying." This stanza seems to show that they're probably high off of drugs and they're seeing things that aren't actually there.

The Scissor Sisters didn't really change any lyrics aside from making their version sound a lot more inappropriate. I couldn't help but notice that they seem to stress out the word "relax"which reminded me of the song "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood which is all about sex except that they're song is way more subtle than this one. They also changed the lyric from "Comfortably numb" to "Com-Com-fortably numb" I don't understand why they felt the need to stress out that particular word. They have to be alluding to sex, from the album cover that the song is featured on to the words they stressed out to their band name Scissor Sisters. It's like they were purposely trying to make the listener feel uncomfortable. Everything about the band seems to scream sex and it is really annoying that they seemed to miss the point of the original song altogether.

I think it's pretty obvious that I didn't particularly like the cover done by Scissor Sisters. Honestly it felt like they were mocking the song more so than trying to do a good cover of it. They really managed to change the whole meaning of the song though with the words that they stressed out. Some of the lyrics were sung so quickly that you can't even make some of them out especially with the beats and tones in the background overpowering the lyrics. However I've only ever listened to one other song by them that's not a cover which is good and they might be singing about sex in that one too, but it's more subtle and not as obvious.