On Music
Did you ever get an urge to hear a song? It's not anything logical, like you just heard it on a show, or you get a song stuck in your head and the only solution is to listen to it. I am talking about just all the sudden, a song pops into your head, and you just want to hear it, and you know that unless you listen to the song, it's going to gnaw away at you, and then it will get stuck in your head, and you'll have to listen to it to make it go away. So why not head it off at the pass, non?
There's this song I heard a while ago by Emiliana Torini. (She sang Gollem's Song from The Lord of the Rings. She also gets points for being half Icelandic half Italian. Love her!) It's this song, "I Hope that I Don't Fall in Love with You." I remember listening to it back on Columbus, and for some reason, it's tied to the corner of Lazelle and South Old State Road. So I just thought of it, and because of the random fluidity of my music library, I actually had to question if I had it anymore. Luckily, I did. And I found out something else interesting. Apparently, 10, 000 Maniacs did the original.
I am not trying to sit here and say that now I feel betrayed. I still love the song, and I like it even more because I love 10, 000 Maniacs. I am also of the opinion that anything Natalie Merchant touches is pure gold. (Listen to Eat for Two and tell me it's not an amazing song.) I just find it funny how many songs that I like tend to be remakes or at least have other versions. I sometimes think there are other songs that I would not normally like were it not for the fact that they are remakes of songs that I do like.
For example, I love "Angel of the Morning." I used to have a CD of oldies that I used to listen to, obsessively, when I had to take the bus to work at Micro Center. I left the disk in the US of course. It was a burned disk, and I had the song on my hard drive. There was no question that was coming with me. Now, I also love that song by Shaggy, "Angel," but really only for the fact that it uses the same music. I hate the Jamaican guy's voice in it. I don't like that style of singing though.
But it's not just this song. There was a song back in the 80's by this group Naked Eyes, Always Something There to Remind Me. It's a pretty good song, but later on, I found out there was a version from the sixties, which I think is even better. It's a much cuter song with a woman singing it, I think. So I listened to it obsessively. Which I tend to do when I like a song.
I was also kind of shocked to learn that Hallelujah is actually a fairly old song. I remember the first time I heard Jeff Buckley sing it. It was so powerful, so raw, so full of emotion. It was amazing, and made me want to listen to everything by him. My roommate in college said he had someone singing a better version of it. It was the Rufus Wainwright version. He lied. Rufus Wainwright had no emotion singing it. It was just....flat. Not a fan. He's a great singer, but well, not impressed. Furthermore, the original version is by Leonard Cohen. He was actually in concert here in France, which I missed. I really don't know much about his singing though so well, eh.
I could easily go on with remakes and covers that I like, but I should probably start digressing, because this is getting long. So that's what I have been thinking about lately. It's amazing how music can effect us like that.
There's this song I heard a while ago by Emiliana Torini. (She sang Gollem's Song from The Lord of the Rings. She also gets points for being half Icelandic half Italian. Love her!) It's this song, "I Hope that I Don't Fall in Love with You." I remember listening to it back on Columbus, and for some reason, it's tied to the corner of Lazelle and South Old State Road. So I just thought of it, and because of the random fluidity of my music library, I actually had to question if I had it anymore. Luckily, I did. And I found out something else interesting. Apparently, 10, 000 Maniacs did the original.
I am not trying to sit here and say that now I feel betrayed. I still love the song, and I like it even more because I love 10, 000 Maniacs. I am also of the opinion that anything Natalie Merchant touches is pure gold. (Listen to Eat for Two and tell me it's not an amazing song.) I just find it funny how many songs that I like tend to be remakes or at least have other versions. I sometimes think there are other songs that I would not normally like were it not for the fact that they are remakes of songs that I do like.
For example, I love "Angel of the Morning." I used to have a CD of oldies that I used to listen to, obsessively, when I had to take the bus to work at Micro Center. I left the disk in the US of course. It was a burned disk, and I had the song on my hard drive. There was no question that was coming with me. Now, I also love that song by Shaggy, "Angel," but really only for the fact that it uses the same music. I hate the Jamaican guy's voice in it. I don't like that style of singing though.
But it's not just this song. There was a song back in the 80's by this group Naked Eyes, Always Something There to Remind Me. It's a pretty good song, but later on, I found out there was a version from the sixties, which I think is even better. It's a much cuter song with a woman singing it, I think. So I listened to it obsessively. Which I tend to do when I like a song.
I was also kind of shocked to learn that Hallelujah is actually a fairly old song. I remember the first time I heard Jeff Buckley sing it. It was so powerful, so raw, so full of emotion. It was amazing, and made me want to listen to everything by him. My roommate in college said he had someone singing a better version of it. It was the Rufus Wainwright version. He lied. Rufus Wainwright had no emotion singing it. It was just....flat. Not a fan. He's a great singer, but well, not impressed. Furthermore, the original version is by Leonard Cohen. He was actually in concert here in France, which I missed. I really don't know much about his singing though so well, eh.
I could easily go on with remakes and covers that I like, but I should probably start digressing, because this is getting long. So that's what I have been thinking about lately. It's amazing how music can effect us like that.