Three songs covered in one post
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Artist:
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Album:
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Track:Medley: Pastures of Plenty/This Land Is Your Land
It's Sunday, I have three cover versions worth sharing, so to save work, I'll put them in the same post. The fact that they feature female vocals, and that the composer of the first two songs influenced the composer of the third gives me an excuse of sorts for bundling them here.
OK, the first two are in Lila Downs' "Medley: Pastures of Plenty/This Land Is Your Land" from her 2001 CD Border (La Linea). Like other songs on the CD, these "reflect her continuing fascination with Mexican-American border culture and her own mixed heritage (she is the child of a Mixtec Indian and an American)" (paraphrased from allmusic.com). I love how she created her own original beautiful melodies for these Woody Guthrie lyrics, and made them her own.
The third song is Roberta Flack singing Bob Dylan's song "Just Like a Woman" from her second album Chapter Two (1970). At the end of the bridge when she sings "But what's worse/Is this pain in here/I can't stay in here/Ain't it clear that---," it gets me every time.
Comments (11)
can't figure it out, huh?
It's rough, man it's rough. You can hear Roberta, but to see her, click to that URL.
To insert image in comments from your own uploads, in comment box right click > insert/edit image in the prompt-up menu > paste image url in the "insert/edit image" window like this:
Let me see if I can fiddle with Roberta Flack's song too:
Roberta Flack - Just Like a Woman (6:21)
Wow Spike, I love your choice of ladies to slip under the covers... Both have an extraordinary command of their instruments. Both infuse their feminity into the songs, recreating them in the most idiosyncratic and exquisite ways. (I'm saying "feminity" without any condescending chauvinism of course)
Lila Downs's percussive version revisits Guthrie's song to expose the true colours multicultural land that Woody had in mind. Miss Flack's more orchestral take turns Dylan's song into a potent and dramatic narrative, as she often does whenever she takes on a song.
Just lovely by and large. Thank you very much for introducing these two classy ladies to our Sunday.
Thank you, Bartleby. Also, thank you for your peerless technical help. I'd like to attribute the unkempt quality of my first comment to unstable times, but I could easily have been my doing.
You're very welcome -- Poe has also suggested an alternative way of embedding your uploads. Please see the thread in the forums: click here.
Man, Lila got some fire behind that smoke. On top of the musical reworking the vocal just smolders. Nice. One thing about Dylan covers is that when a clear voiced singer takes them on, you can hear the words..that's a plus, and that its Roberta brings it all back home exceptionally.
Cody, you're right. Thanks.
Now that I am finally permitted to comment here, I just wanted to say that while the Lila Downs is impressive, the Roberta Flack is something of a revelation. I've never been a massive fan of hers, but this "Just Like a Woman" has something missing from the two versions I know best (Dylan's and Nina Simone's). There's a palpable anger in their versions, but Roberta's is just...regretful. There's something more poignant about "it didn't work because I wasn't ready" than "it didn't work because you were a jerk." I think you're right about the way she sings the bridge - there's something so accepting about "this pain in here" that ennobles it without her having to making a show of martyrdom. Interesting that instead of "her fog, her amphetamines, and her pearls" she sings, "her problems, her amphetamines, and her pearls." That's a peculiar word substitution.....
ivylander, I guess you join me in feeling that this recording draws us into its deep complexity and engages our emotions. I love how you can put your finger on key phenomena (which I didn't notice) and describe them clearly. Words can describe only parts of it, but they can add to our consciousness without subtracting from our pleasure.