One Song(writer), Many Voices: Dylan

A while back I wrote about freeing myself from Bob Dylan. I mean, freeing myself of the idea that I absolutely must love someone so critically adored. It was, um, freeing. Anyway, I realized that I actually do like quite a few Dylan covers, particularly covers done by female artists. It doesn't make his misogyny any more palatable, but it does add another dimension to some of those songs I professed to "hate." Here are a few that I think stand out for various reasons. Some border on camp, some self-serious, but I'm drawn to all of them:

Advice to Feminist Bloggers? Don't Be a Feminist Blogger

Advice for young feminists? Do something else besides feminism. I’m serious. The feminist blogosphere is oversaturated in my opinion. Please, find something else you love and take feminist theory there. It gets lonely over here in tech and video games – I have a great crew of other feminists but we are a little island in a vast sea. We need more feminist minded business bloggers, feminist theory wielding finance bloggers. Labor organizers with a feminist lens blogging. Can you imagine what Deadspin (the sports blog) would look like with a feminist on staff? Restructure writes about science, tech and feminism – join her! Publish a blog doing literary criticism with a feminist lens! Take on the NYT! Talk about class issues and feminism. Whatever it is, apply your feminism in a different space. -- Latoya Peterson from whereisyourline.org  

I think what Latoya is suggesting is actually going on. There are quite a few bloggers who look at literature, music, and technology through a feminist lens, but because they fall under the umbrella of "feminist," they remain unknown to the world at large.

In the course of a year, my blog has evolved from a "womyn's" music blog to a pop culture blog that's informed by feminism. I'm not political enough to be a social justice blogger, but writing about pop culture without examining the problematic behavior of those creating it feels disingenuous. I know what I do is not unique (actually, there are several sites that do it much better than I ever could), but in a blogosphere focused on branding or creating a niche, not really knowing where you fit in definitely has its disadvantages. The thing is, if you're a feminist or a womanist, your writing will be filtered through that lens. I sometimes write for another pop culture site that isn't explicitly political, and I find it hard to write "objectively." (Read: no ladystuff) It starts to feel like straddling two worlds, neither feeling completely authentic.

This is why we need feminist writers in mainstream blogs. I'd love to see a feminist on staff at Deadspin, but I can't imagine that happening anytime soon. I'd love to see smaller blogs whose feminism is stealthily snuck in as part of the larger, "Big F" feminist blogosphere, which doesn't happen nearly enough either.

One Song, Many Voices: Nico's Afraid

"Afraid" is a little-known song from Nico's 1970 album, Desertshore.



I'll admit, I haven't really listened to much of Nico's work aside from Chelsea Girl and The Marble Index. Desertshore is her third solo album, and by the time it was recorded, she had mostly moved away from the Velvets' sound and that of her earlier records.

I don't remember what I was looking for when I stumbled upon Patrick Wolf's version, but I was blown away:



And then I noticed Antony Hegarty also covered it, and was again blown away:

One Song, Many Voices: Hallelujah

Very few performers get "Hallelujah" right. What is, really, a nasty, bleak, and bitter song is all too often transformed into a turgid power ballad. And that's unfortunate, because to hear Leonard Cohen's original, you know it wasn't all about grandiose emotion.

Now is a good time, I suppose, to let you in on one of my secret pop culture transgressions: I'm a child of the 90s and I hate Jeff Buckley's take on the Cohen classic. I'm pretty sure this is the one that spawned a thousand terrible "Hallelujahs." So what are some successful versions? John Cale's, from Fragments of a Rainy Season stands heads above most and, at least in my eyes, is the definitive "Hallelujah" cover. That Cale and Cohen have similar "dark" voices is a huge part of that. He doesn't deviate much from the original, and gives it an upscale touch:



Kathryn Williams does a great version, too, keeping it sparse and simple. Lovely:



Yasmin Levy mixes Flamenco, Jazz and traditional Sephardic music to create a modern take:

One Song, Many Voices: You Don't Own Me

Being a child of the 80s, my first exposure to Lesley Gore's hit, "You Don't Own Me," came courtesy of The Blow Monkeys from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. (Which, if you were a teenage girl in 1987 you had to own, along with the corresponding poster of Patrick Swayze.) I was heavily into trashy hair metal that year, so needless to say it didn't make a lasting impression on me. I have a soft spot for the original, though.

One Song, Many Voices: Pirate Jenny

"Pirate Jenny," one of the most well-known songs from Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera has a long history in contemporary pop and jazz music. In his book, Chronicles, Bob Dylan says of the song, "Each phrase comes at you from a 10-foot drop, scuttles across the road and then another comes like a punch on the chin." Many artists from Nina Simone to Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls have covered it some of whom I'll share here, but first a little backstory:

"The song depicts Jenny, a lowly maid at a crummy old hotel, imaging avenging herself for the contempt received by the townspeople. A pirate ship – with eight sails, and with 50 cannons – enters the harbor, fires on the city and flattens every building except the hotel. The pirates come ashore, chain up all the townspeople, and present them to Jenny, who orders the pirates to kill them all. She then sails away with the pirates.

The song was originally placed in the first act and is sung by Mackie's bride, Polly Peachum, who resents her parents' opposition to her trying her luck with Mackie and is phantasising about avenging herself on the constraints of her family. However, the song is frequently moved to the second act and given to the prostitute Jenny. Jenny has given Mackie, her former lover, shelter from the police but is jealous of his wife, Polly. Eventually, she tips of the police, who catch Mackie and take him to his hanging. Her song suggests that she likes the idea of having Mackie's fate in her hands." (Wikipedia)

One of the most revered versions is Nina Simone's. From 1964's Nina Simone in Concert, she gives the song "a grim civil rights undertone, with the 'black freighter' symbolizing the coming black revolution."(Wikipedia) Says nojojo from Alas, A Blog: "She means every word of it, too — you can hear that in her voice. The first time I listened to it, I thought, If I was white, I would sleep with one eye open. For the rest. Of. My. Life. Because it’s blatantly obvious from the barely-contained rage in this song that Simone is not singing about pirates..."



I dug around youtube and found several other versions from the sublime to the just plain odd. Here are some of my favorites: