This week I will be comparing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and the cover done by Tori Amos.
Musicality
Nirvana is a grunge band so their version sounds much more loud and intense almost making their lyrics incomprehensible. They use guitars and drums that drive the intensity of the song making it more about the instrumentals and less about the lyrics. Whereas Tori Amos is more of a classical and alternative rock singer who sounds more calming and soothing. She only uses a piano in hers but even her lyrics are hard to understand because her voice ranges from really low to really loud at different moments. The way she sings it makes it sound much creepier than the original while the original is just really strange.
Lyrics
There's not really a whole lot of differences between the lyrics in the original and the cover. However Tori Amos didn't include all of the original lyrics and placed the lyrics in different places within her version. One example of that is the stanza: "I'm worse at what I do best/ And for this gift I feel blessed/ Our little group has always been/ And always will until the end." In the original that stanza shows up after a few stanzas and in the cover it is the second stanza in the song.
It's not really clear what the song is really supposed to be about. However the song seems to be talking mainly about teens. The music video seems to show a bunch of teens at what looks like a gym class banging their heads and rocking out to the song. The band plays in the middle of the room with a bunch of cheerleaders in the front. The words are all jumbled but I believe it is talking about how teens tend to follow what everyone else is doing and being unoriginal. There's a stanza that even sounds like they may be talking about drugs and going to parties or raves. That stanza is: "With the lights out, it's less dangerous/ Here we are now, entertain us/ I feel stupid and contagious/ Here we are now, entertain us." The words "stupid" and "contagious" are both very different from each other and the "contagious" part sounds like it could be a drug that it is similar to a disease. In contrast the "entertain us" part sounds like either a party or a bunch of teens trying to pass the time. That and I find the chorus a bit strange which is: "Hello, Hello, Hello, How low" repeated throughout the song. I'm not why that's the chorus, it's like they're trying to say hello to their audience in the music video. However when they wrote the song I highly doubt they were writing it as a form of greeting.
The only stanza that Amos didn't include in her version is: "And I forgot just why I taste/ Oh, yeah, it makes me smile/ I found it hard, it's hard to find/ Oh well, whatever, nevermind." I find it interesting that in that particular stanza he goes from saying "found" the past tense to saying "find" the present tense as if they are still trying to find a specific meaning to something only to form the last lyric of the stanza to say that they have given up. The original song is longer than Amos' version. Overall I believe that both versions are good, except I prefer the original because I'm not a big classic music fan.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Wash away the rain
This week I will be comparing "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden and the cover done by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.
Musicality
Soundgarden is more of a grunge band so their version sounds a bit more gritty and angry. They have guitars and drums to emphasize their points within the song.Whereas Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme are a jazz group so they have more of a calm and soothing tone. Their song mainly features a piano which makes it much less gritty and much more soothing. Since Lawrence and Gorme sing it more so as a duet, the song seems more like a love song or a happy song rather than a sad or angry song. Which really changes the whole tone of the song and the meaning of the lyrics seem more irrelevant in their version than in the original version.
Music Video
Though the song isn't really about anything particular, the music video by Soundgarden seems to depict the apocalypse.The music video shows a bunch of people in a neighborhood with over exaggerated features and grotesque, fake smiles plastered on their faces. The stanza that stands out the most is: "Black hole sun/ Won't you come/ And wash away the rain?/ Black hole sun/ Won't you come?/ Won't you come?" In the middle of the video a tornado comes out of nowhere and sucks all of the people up into the sky like a vortex or a black hole at which point everything erupts into chaos, the music and the guitar seems to blare out. Which I believe is supposed to show the apocalypse sweeping everyone in the neighborhood because they are all bad. They all only seem to care about superficial things that they themselves become artificial caricatures. It shows a lady putting on lipstick to look pretty while staring at a buff guy exercising to look good. It also later shows a woman sunbathing to get a nice tan as well as a bunch of cruel kids trying to kill a harmless bug. The whole music video is strange and one of the strangest parts is a little girl eating vanilla ice cream and at about 2:40 in the video she seems to be regurgitating the ice cream back up right at the part in the lyric where they say "Won't you come" which is very suggestive.
Lyrics
In the beginning of the song another lyric stood out to me "Boiling heat/ Summer stench/ 'Neath the black/ The sky looks dead." Which makes it sound like the neighborhood depicted in the music video is already living in a depressing world. The last lyric "The sky looks dead" seems to foreshadow the fact that world is coming to an end. There's a "boiling heat" except that there is no sun which is why the song keeps saying "Black hole sun/ Won't you come." How could there be any heat without any sun? The sky is black and I'm assuming it's raining because of the lyric "And wash away the rain." Even though in the music video there is no rain, but as I mentioned earlier a tornado comes and starts to sweep the people in the neighborhood up into the sky like the rapture.
The lyrics that best exemplify the idea that the song is about an apocalypse is: "Stuttering/ Cold and damp/ Steal the warm wind/ Tired friend/ Times are gone/ For honest men." Going back to the music video, none of the people in the neighborhood seem like good people. They all look evil and therefore they are characterized as dishonest and egotistical. The song goes on to say "In my shoes/ A walking sleep/ And my youth/ I pray to keep/ Heaven send/ Hell away/ No one sings/ Like you/ Anymore." The lyrics seem to say that the singer wants to stay young and go to Heaven and not Hell, but all of the people in the music video seem to be lifted up into the sky which is the place we associate with Heaven. Except that none of the people are what most people would consider good enough to be sent to Heaven.
Lawrence and Eydie didn't change their lyrics only the sound of the song from gritty to jazzy. The song starts off with Lawrence singing and then Eydie joins in right at the chorus when they start singing the stanza I listed earlier "Black hole sun/Won't you come/ And wash away the rain?/ Black hole sun/ Won't you come? / Won't you come?" Turning it more so into a duet and downplaying the intensity of the original song and the creepiness of the music video by Soundgarden. There also doesn't really seem to be any emphasis on the concepts of Heaven and Hell or any apocalypse in their version. It sounds more like a love song or a lullaby of some sort. Since it is more of a duet, it seems they are singing more so to each other like a type of serenade rather than singing to the audience.
Overall I prefer the original because I am more familiar with it despite the crazy music video. I am not a big jazz fan, however Lawrence and Eydie's version is still just as good as the original by Soundgarden. A lot of covers don't do music videos which I find a little frustrating, because the music video usually gives more of a sense to what the singer or songwriter was trying to say about the song in general. If they had done a music video it would give a better sense as to what Lawrence and Eydie were trying to say about their version.
Musicality
Soundgarden is more of a grunge band so their version sounds a bit more gritty and angry. They have guitars and drums to emphasize their points within the song.Whereas Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme are a jazz group so they have more of a calm and soothing tone. Their song mainly features a piano which makes it much less gritty and much more soothing. Since Lawrence and Gorme sing it more so as a duet, the song seems more like a love song or a happy song rather than a sad or angry song. Which really changes the whole tone of the song and the meaning of the lyrics seem more irrelevant in their version than in the original version.
Music Video
Though the song isn't really about anything particular, the music video by Soundgarden seems to depict the apocalypse.The music video shows a bunch of people in a neighborhood with over exaggerated features and grotesque, fake smiles plastered on their faces. The stanza that stands out the most is: "Black hole sun/ Won't you come/ And wash away the rain?/ Black hole sun/ Won't you come?/ Won't you come?" In the middle of the video a tornado comes out of nowhere and sucks all of the people up into the sky like a vortex or a black hole at which point everything erupts into chaos, the music and the guitar seems to blare out. Which I believe is supposed to show the apocalypse sweeping everyone in the neighborhood because they are all bad. They all only seem to care about superficial things that they themselves become artificial caricatures. It shows a lady putting on lipstick to look pretty while staring at a buff guy exercising to look good. It also later shows a woman sunbathing to get a nice tan as well as a bunch of cruel kids trying to kill a harmless bug. The whole music video is strange and one of the strangest parts is a little girl eating vanilla ice cream and at about 2:40 in the video she seems to be regurgitating the ice cream back up right at the part in the lyric where they say "Won't you come" which is very suggestive.
Lyrics
In the beginning of the song another lyric stood out to me "Boiling heat/ Summer stench/ 'Neath the black/ The sky looks dead." Which makes it sound like the neighborhood depicted in the music video is already living in a depressing world. The last lyric "The sky looks dead" seems to foreshadow the fact that world is coming to an end. There's a "boiling heat" except that there is no sun which is why the song keeps saying "Black hole sun/ Won't you come." How could there be any heat without any sun? The sky is black and I'm assuming it's raining because of the lyric "And wash away the rain." Even though in the music video there is no rain, but as I mentioned earlier a tornado comes and starts to sweep the people in the neighborhood up into the sky like the rapture.
The lyrics that best exemplify the idea that the song is about an apocalypse is: "Stuttering/ Cold and damp/ Steal the warm wind/ Tired friend/ Times are gone/ For honest men." Going back to the music video, none of the people in the neighborhood seem like good people. They all look evil and therefore they are characterized as dishonest and egotistical. The song goes on to say "In my shoes/ A walking sleep/ And my youth/ I pray to keep/ Heaven send/ Hell away/ No one sings/ Like you/ Anymore." The lyrics seem to say that the singer wants to stay young and go to Heaven and not Hell, but all of the people in the music video seem to be lifted up into the sky which is the place we associate with Heaven. Except that none of the people are what most people would consider good enough to be sent to Heaven.
Lawrence and Eydie didn't change their lyrics only the sound of the song from gritty to jazzy. The song starts off with Lawrence singing and then Eydie joins in right at the chorus when they start singing the stanza I listed earlier "Black hole sun/Won't you come/ And wash away the rain?/ Black hole sun/ Won't you come? / Won't you come?" Turning it more so into a duet and downplaying the intensity of the original song and the creepiness of the music video by Soundgarden. There also doesn't really seem to be any emphasis on the concepts of Heaven and Hell or any apocalypse in their version. It sounds more like a love song or a lullaby of some sort. Since it is more of a duet, it seems they are singing more so to each other like a type of serenade rather than singing to the audience.
Overall I prefer the original because I am more familiar with it despite the crazy music video. I am not a big jazz fan, however Lawrence and Eydie's version is still just as good as the original by Soundgarden. A lot of covers don't do music videos which I find a little frustrating, because the music video usually gives more of a sense to what the singer or songwriter was trying to say about the song in general. If they had done a music video it would give a better sense as to what Lawrence and Eydie were trying to say about their version.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Jeremy spoke in class today
This week I will be comparing "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam and the cover done by Courtney Love.
Musicality
The original by Pearl Jam sounds intense and a bit angry. The guitar, the vocals and the drums really make the song come alive and make the listener feel the intensity that the singer feels. While Courtney Love manages to sound even more grittier than Pearl Jam in her version. Her version is played with an acoustic guitar and some of her words are harder to make out compared to Pearl Jam.
Background
The song talks about a boy that constantly gets bullied at school and ignored by his parents. The uncut music video done by Pearl Jam was hard to find. The video shows the deterioration of Jeremy, from drawing pictures to being yelled at by his parents and bullied in school. At about 3:36-3:40 in the music video the kids are all shown doing the Nazi salute which I found really strange. The music builds up in crescendo showing scenes of the boy, Jeremy, going through all of these different scenarios to showing the lead singer Eddie Vedder singing. This all leads to the end of the video where Jeremy comes into class, puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger leaving his classmates shocked and some drenched in his blood.
The song was inspired by two different things. The first was a newspaper article about a 15 year old kid named Jeremy Wade Delle that shot himself in front of his classmates on January 8, 1991. Here is a hyperlink to that article: http://www.fivehorizons.com/songs/aug99/jeremy_article.shtml
While the other story is based on someone Vedder knew in junior high who ending up shooting up one of the classrooms but didn't actually kill himself. Which I believe really makes the song even more intense because its based on a true story as opposed to being made up. Since Vedder actually knew someone who did this, it makes the song a bit more personal. As for Courtney Love, she too has experience with suicide, her husband was Kurt Cobain who was also the lead singer for Nirvana. He committed suicide back in 1994, so this song is probably very personal to her as well.
Lyrics
The original lyrics and Courtney Love's version aren't really different when it comes to the lyrics. The lyrics are really what paint the picture of the song and adds to the effect of what the singer is saying about how Jeremy feels. One lyric that seems to get repeated throughout the song is: "Jeremy spoke in class today" which I guess is supposed to be shocking because Jeremy probably doesn't talk in class unless he's called on because he gets bullied so much in school.To the couple stanzas on how is parents don't really seem to care about him: "Daddy didn't give attention/ To the fact that mommy didn't care/ King Jeremy the wicked/ Ruled his world." The last two lyrics referring to Jeremy as a "King" seems to signify that Jeremy lives in his own world trying to forget who he is and trying to be someone else.
The first lyric that introduces us to Jeremy is; "At home/ Drawing pictures/ Of mountain tops/ With him on top/ Lemon yellow sun/ Arms raised in a V/ Dead lay in pools of maroon below." The first half of the lyrics sound pretty upbeat. Jeremy drawing pictures of himself being somewhere else where he doesn't get bullied and is the "King" of the world as he is portrayed later. The last lyric though sounds very cryptic talking about being dead in a pool of what I'm guessing is referring to blood.
The stanza that really pushes Jeremy over the edge and what ultimately makes him lash out from everything is: "Clearly I remember/ Pickin' on the boy/ Seemed a harmless little fuck/ But we unleashed a lion/ Gnashed his teeth/ And bit the recess lady's breast." The bullying and everything else is really what made Jeremy so bitter in the first place. I know what its like to be bullied and I know what its like to feel like a loser being a loner myself. Jeremy is pictured as a kid that escapes through his drawings, I always escaped through writing music lyrics and poems. This song is one of my favorites because I can relate to it. If the real Jeremy had received some counseling or therapy and talked to someone he probably wouldn't have killed himself.
I believe that the versions of both Pearl Jam and Courtney Love are intense and good for different reasons. The song is more powerful because Vedder and Love both know someone that has done that. Although Love probably has more experience because her husband committed suicide while Vedder said that the kid he knew he had gotten into fights with. Which gives more of an explanation on the stanza about him "pickin' on the boy."
Musicality
The original by Pearl Jam sounds intense and a bit angry. The guitar, the vocals and the drums really make the song come alive and make the listener feel the intensity that the singer feels. While Courtney Love manages to sound even more grittier than Pearl Jam in her version. Her version is played with an acoustic guitar and some of her words are harder to make out compared to Pearl Jam.
Background
The song talks about a boy that constantly gets bullied at school and ignored by his parents. The uncut music video done by Pearl Jam was hard to find. The video shows the deterioration of Jeremy, from drawing pictures to being yelled at by his parents and bullied in school. At about 3:36-3:40 in the music video the kids are all shown doing the Nazi salute which I found really strange. The music builds up in crescendo showing scenes of the boy, Jeremy, going through all of these different scenarios to showing the lead singer Eddie Vedder singing. This all leads to the end of the video where Jeremy comes into class, puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger leaving his classmates shocked and some drenched in his blood.
The song was inspired by two different things. The first was a newspaper article about a 15 year old kid named Jeremy Wade Delle that shot himself in front of his classmates on January 8, 1991. Here is a hyperlink to that article: http://www.fivehorizons.com/songs/aug99/jeremy_article.shtml
While the other story is based on someone Vedder knew in junior high who ending up shooting up one of the classrooms but didn't actually kill himself. Which I believe really makes the song even more intense because its based on a true story as opposed to being made up. Since Vedder actually knew someone who did this, it makes the song a bit more personal. As for Courtney Love, she too has experience with suicide, her husband was Kurt Cobain who was also the lead singer for Nirvana. He committed suicide back in 1994, so this song is probably very personal to her as well.
Lyrics
The original lyrics and Courtney Love's version aren't really different when it comes to the lyrics. The lyrics are really what paint the picture of the song and adds to the effect of what the singer is saying about how Jeremy feels. One lyric that seems to get repeated throughout the song is: "Jeremy spoke in class today" which I guess is supposed to be shocking because Jeremy probably doesn't talk in class unless he's called on because he gets bullied so much in school.To the couple stanzas on how is parents don't really seem to care about him: "Daddy didn't give attention/ To the fact that mommy didn't care/ King Jeremy the wicked/ Ruled his world." The last two lyrics referring to Jeremy as a "King" seems to signify that Jeremy lives in his own world trying to forget who he is and trying to be someone else.
The first lyric that introduces us to Jeremy is; "At home/ Drawing pictures/ Of mountain tops/ With him on top/ Lemon yellow sun/ Arms raised in a V/ Dead lay in pools of maroon below." The first half of the lyrics sound pretty upbeat. Jeremy drawing pictures of himself being somewhere else where he doesn't get bullied and is the "King" of the world as he is portrayed later. The last lyric though sounds very cryptic talking about being dead in a pool of what I'm guessing is referring to blood.
The stanza that really pushes Jeremy over the edge and what ultimately makes him lash out from everything is: "Clearly I remember/ Pickin' on the boy/ Seemed a harmless little fuck/ But we unleashed a lion/ Gnashed his teeth/ And bit the recess lady's breast." The bullying and everything else is really what made Jeremy so bitter in the first place. I know what its like to be bullied and I know what its like to feel like a loser being a loner myself. Jeremy is pictured as a kid that escapes through his drawings, I always escaped through writing music lyrics and poems. This song is one of my favorites because I can relate to it. If the real Jeremy had received some counseling or therapy and talked to someone he probably wouldn't have killed himself.
I believe that the versions of both Pearl Jam and Courtney Love are intense and good for different reasons. The song is more powerful because Vedder and Love both know someone that has done that. Although Love probably has more experience because her husband committed suicide while Vedder said that the kid he knew he had gotten into fights with. Which gives more of an explanation on the stanza about him "pickin' on the boy."
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Born in a dead man's town
This week I am comparing the song "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen and the one covered by Ballboy.
Bruce Springsteen usually exudes raw sexual appeal through both his singing and his live performances. In this song, Springsteen sounds much more serious and takes on a more gritty voice. While the band Ballboy are a Scotland indie band that sounds more sensual and sweet in their version. Springsteen's version emphasizes their instrumentals in the song, with a heavy set of drum sounds in the background and what sounds like a synthesizer. However this is Springsteen's second version, the first one he released was apparently a bit different with the instrumentals. While the band, Ballboy's instrumentals involve an acoustic guitar playing in the background.
The song lyrics are talking about the Vietnam War and the aftereffects on Americans. Springsteen is singing about how people were drafted into fighting in the war. Which is clear from this stanza: "Got in a little hometown jam/ So they put a rifle in my hand/ Sent me off to a foreign land/ To go and kill a yellow man." Springsteen refers to the people in Vietnam as "a yellow man" which I find interesting because he probably considers himself "a white man" and referring to the enemy as a different color seems to promote a type of discrimination. Even though the song seems to be patriotic there are some lyrics that contradict how being an American is a good thing. The best example of this contradiction is the very first stanza: "Born down in a dead man's town/ The first kick I took was when I hit the ground/ You end up like a dog that's been beat too much/ Till you spend half your life just covering up." It seems he is comparing being an American to being treated like a dog. Which really doesn't sound appealing and doesn't sound like a very good thing either.
While Ballboy changed a few lyrics here and there I find it interesting that they are a Scottish band originally from Scotland and the song itself is called "Born in the U.S.A." which is a lyric that they didn't change. One of the lyrics is: "I had a brother at Khe Sahn/ Fighting of the Viet Kong/ Well, they're still there/ But he's all gone, gone, gone." They change the spelling of "Cong" to "Kong" and the original song says gone once. The last stanza of the song is changed as well; the original lyric is: "Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., I'm a long gone daddy in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a." While Ballboy's last lyric is: "I was born in the USA/ I was born in the USA/ I was born in the USA/ I've got nowhere to run/ I've got nowhere to hide." Although Springsteen does say that he's got nowhere to run or go in the second to last stanza, he never says he's got nowhere to hide.
I think both versions are good for different reasons, although it is harder to connect with the Ballboy's version simply because it is clear from their accents that they were not born in the U.S.A. While the song is considered a patriotic song, the Ballboy's version could be misconstrued as them mocking the song since they are technically not Americans. I don't think they are mocking the song in any way, I believe they did a good version of the song because it does sound more happy despite how sad some of the lyrics are. While Springsteen sounds more angry and a little sad in his version which seems to change the meaning of the song even though the lyrics are still basically the same.
Bruce Springsteen usually exudes raw sexual appeal through both his singing and his live performances. In this song, Springsteen sounds much more serious and takes on a more gritty voice. While the band Ballboy are a Scotland indie band that sounds more sensual and sweet in their version. Springsteen's version emphasizes their instrumentals in the song, with a heavy set of drum sounds in the background and what sounds like a synthesizer. However this is Springsteen's second version, the first one he released was apparently a bit different with the instrumentals. While the band, Ballboy's instrumentals involve an acoustic guitar playing in the background.
The song lyrics are talking about the Vietnam War and the aftereffects on Americans. Springsteen is singing about how people were drafted into fighting in the war. Which is clear from this stanza: "Got in a little hometown jam/ So they put a rifle in my hand/ Sent me off to a foreign land/ To go and kill a yellow man." Springsteen refers to the people in Vietnam as "a yellow man" which I find interesting because he probably considers himself "a white man" and referring to the enemy as a different color seems to promote a type of discrimination. Even though the song seems to be patriotic there are some lyrics that contradict how being an American is a good thing. The best example of this contradiction is the very first stanza: "Born down in a dead man's town/ The first kick I took was when I hit the ground/ You end up like a dog that's been beat too much/ Till you spend half your life just covering up." It seems he is comparing being an American to being treated like a dog. Which really doesn't sound appealing and doesn't sound like a very good thing either.
While Ballboy changed a few lyrics here and there I find it interesting that they are a Scottish band originally from Scotland and the song itself is called "Born in the U.S.A." which is a lyric that they didn't change. One of the lyrics is: "I had a brother at Khe Sahn/ Fighting of the Viet Kong/ Well, they're still there/ But he's all gone, gone, gone." They change the spelling of "Cong" to "Kong" and the original song says gone once. The last stanza of the song is changed as well; the original lyric is: "Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., I'm a long gone daddy in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a./ Born in the u.s.a., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a." While Ballboy's last lyric is: "I was born in the USA/ I was born in the USA/ I was born in the USA/ I've got nowhere to run/ I've got nowhere to hide." Although Springsteen does say that he's got nowhere to run or go in the second to last stanza, he never says he's got nowhere to hide.
I think both versions are good for different reasons, although it is harder to connect with the Ballboy's version simply because it is clear from their accents that they were not born in the U.S.A. While the song is considered a patriotic song, the Ballboy's version could be misconstrued as them mocking the song since they are technically not Americans. I don't think they are mocking the song in any way, I believe they did a good version of the song because it does sound more happy despite how sad some of the lyrics are. While Springsteen sounds more angry and a little sad in his version which seems to change the meaning of the song even though the lyrics are still basically the same.
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