Quite recently I read Julian Barnes' book "Nothing To Be Frightened Of". A meditation on death and dying, it's very good, but perhaps not to be read actually, you know, in the hospital.
In it he writes about the idea that, not only will we die as individuals, but everything we create will at some point be experienced for the last time. Every book will have a final reader. Every song, too, will have a final listener.
Now some songs roll on through the culture, like giant blocks of stone pushed by multitudes. Others, though, get left behind. (Some of these songs undoubtedly deserve this neglect, but for others, it's a shame.) I realised that there's one song I play, just to myself and at least once every couple of weeks, that I've been playing my whole adult life, and realised too that I might be one of a very few people in the world who know and play this song.
I heard it on a compilation of English blues artists that my parents had in the house when I was growing up and learning the guitar (both of which activities I'm still engaged in). I hadn't listened to the record for years, and couldn't remember the album or artist's name, but then last night, after some brain-racking and google-grinding, I managed to track it down. The album was called "Firepoint" and the song's called "City Women" by the English bluesman Duffy Power.
Among blues afficionados he's still a known performer, but this tune in particular is quite a rarity and, as I said, I doubt there are many people still listening to it, and even fewer who ever play it.
Both the album and individual tracks are available online, so please check it out for yourself. I didn't want to upload his version, for copyright reasons, but here's my own:
I appreciate, of course, that covering it is an infringement in itself, but I'm hoping my good intentions in doing so will make up for any damage :) I strongly urge you to check out the original. He has one of the greatest English blues voices, and I, on a good day, have a voice that rather more inspires than embodies the blues.
Apart from wanting to share a favourite song of mine, my wider intention is to say that there must be many such songs which deserve to keep coming along with us through the culture. If you have such a song in your own life, share it with people, and if you are a musician, cover it and reinterpret it. Pick at least one deserving and little-known song to bring along with you through life to make sure you're not its final listener. To put it another way: if you can, carry a tune :)
If you have any songs in this category that you'd like to share in the comments section, I'd be delighted to hear them.
Chris
3 comments
Of course there are good covers as well. Personally I don't really like Bob Dylan that much, but some of his songs are brilliant - when covered by someone else. I guess in general I may like covers if I've never felt anything for the original song. There are exceptions to this rule as well (i.e. when I've enjoyed both the original and the cover), but those are pretty rare.
Now you've given me a whole new perspective on covers. :) They might have a valuable place in the music world, when the original song is about to be forgotten. Usually this might not be the case, as many covers are of well-known hit songs, but still... And of course I've always known that an interesting cover version might stimulate people to get to know the original version as well, which I guess is always good.
Another thing for me is that, coming from a jazz background, the "cover" doesn't have the same connotations it has in pop and rock. Everyone plays the standard tunes at least some of the time; they're a kind of right of passage. Since we're playing covers anyway, I wish more jazzers would introduce the occasional more obscure thing, for the reasons above.
P.S. my captcha was "iimoron". I hope they're not all faintly insulting, although it might be fun if they were.. :)
P.P.S. You didn't say whether you know a song nearing the end of its natural life that deserves sharing?
But actually I remember one song by a short-lived band my friend and his high school friends had. They never recorded anything in a proper studio and unfortunately I never managed to see them live, but my friend thought me the main riff to one of their songs, and I sometimes find myself playing that on the guitar. (I remember having heard them play the song as well, so it must have been from a 4-track tape or a VHS of their gig or something...) I'm sure all the band members could play that song as well but I haven't heard it in 15 years - so perhaps I actually am carrying at least a riff, if not a complete tune. :)
P.S. I'm afraid my captchas have been totally obscure and random (i.e. boring). Got "tivikav" and "gogiwou" this time.
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