It Is Time To Recover

 

Joe Jackson gave us a song about immortality. In The Man Who Wrote Danny Boy, the artist doesn’t try to make a pact with the devil to live forever, but to achieve immortality through his music, to be remembered forever.  We lost two artists in the last week who had achieved that immortality, two mortals who will live forever.

In this week of loss I found myself comforted by the music of Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell. And covers.  Gosh I have heard more Leonard Cohen covers in the last week than one normally experiences in an average year.  And each was better than the last.  The most notable may be the Kate McKinnon cathartic rendition of “Hallelujah”.  My favorite has been Daniel Kahn’s version in Yiddish. I’ve listened to it daily.

And Leon? It is difficult to grasp how important Leon Russell was to popular culture over the last 50 years.  He played with everyone.  But a melody?  Listen to David Sanborn and George Benson as each perform Leon’s “This Masquerade”.  For many of us though, Leon doing Leon was always the best.

This is a post about covers and music that will live forever. Below are a few of my favorite covers in no particular order.  Each honors the original author and yet adds something new and original to the performance.  I hope that you will enjoy the links.

All Along The Watchtower                           The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Rock ‘N’ Roll                                                   Detroit

Take Me To The River                                  Talking Heads

Gimme Shelter                                               Grand Funk Railroad

Me and Bobbie McGee                                 Janis Joplin

Lake of Fire                                                    Nirvana

Proud Mary                                                    Ike and Tina Turner

Woodstock                                                      CSNY

With a Little Help From My Friends        Joe Cocker

 

Time to recover,

DAVE