A Geek History of Time - Episode 267 - Covers That Surpassed The Originals Reprise Scherzo Return to Coda (Part II)

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

We were saying that we were going to get into the movies. Yeah, and I'm only going to get into a few of them because there were way too goddamn many for me to really be interested in telling you this clone version or this clone version in the early studio system. It's a good metric to know in a story arc. Where should I be? Oh, there's Beast. I should step over here. Yeah.

At some point, I'm going to have to sit down with you, like, and force you, like, pump you full of coffee and be like, no, okay, look. And are swiftly and brutally put down by the Minutemen who use bayonets to get their point across. Well done there. I'm good Damian, and I'm also glad that I got your name right this time. I apologize for that one TikTok video.

Men of this generation wound up serving the whole lot of them as a percentage of the population because of the war, because of a whole lot of other stuff. Oh, yeah. And actually in his case, it was pre-war, but, but you know, I was joking. Did he seriously join the American Navy? He did. This is a Geek History of Time. Where we connect nerdery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock.

I'm a world history and English teacher here in Northern California. And who are you, sir? I'm Damian Harmony. I am a US history teacher up here in Northern California at the high school level. And we were talking music. So I say, let's crack back open the topic of covers that surpassed their originals. All right.

We had a lot of fun with it the last time we did it. We did. Upset a lot of fun with it the last time we did it. We did. It upset a lot of people because if there's one thing that I have learned is that my idea that music is like broccoli in that it does not affect me a lick what you think of broccoli. I still enjoy it. Right. Yeah, Yeah. It's okay that you prefer cauliflower, um,

because that doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of broccoli. And yet with music, people will tell me 100% all the fucking time, how wrong I am in the taste that I have. So I, I have to say that the moment you say that anybody could prefer cauliflower, I have a visceral reaction because my brother, my little brother, he like our magnet. I oh, yeah. Oh, and again, it's literally a matter of yes, like, yeah. And like, I don't I don't immediately respond with well like he's wrong for thinking that Mm-hmm, but but I can't understand that mindset What I'm gonna say to that is I can't I can't get that like

there's lots of things I can empathize with but but It's not one of them. So anyway, music. Yeah. Why don't I start? There was a song in 1985 written by Prince called Nothing Compares to You. And he actually, he'd written a number of songs that the band The Family ended up using on their debut and only album. And Nothing Compares to You was a filler song

that got like zero notice. It wasn't a single, it wasn't a B-side, it wasn't much of anything. It's very similar to the song Here I Am by Skid Row. No one knows that song, They only know 18 and Life. I Remember You, Maybe You've Gone Wild, Maybe Making a Mess, but they don't remember Here I Am. This is, you know, that was like a third track

on a 12-track album, right? So this is similar to that. So it didn't get much notice. Now, even when I said, here I am, you're probably thinking rock me like a hurricane. Well, that's one possibility. Yeah. I actually went to UB40. Here I am, baby.

Oh, I don't know that one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so that's kind of my point. It's a nothing song on a nothing album that actually focused on other songs. I found actually that Prince had recorded a track of it in 1984, but it didn't get released until after he died.

Yeah, with a whole bunch of other stuff that had been sitting in vault. Yeah. Now, in 1990, there's an Irish musician named Sinead O'Connor, and she took it and ran with it. And she has this deep voice that she does, and she's very isolated vocals. Yeah. And the emotionality of the pain just cracking through was complimented by the almost entirely ephemeral. Is that the word? It's almost a reverb, but

not quite. Yeah. It's like she's singing in an empty room with carpet. Reverb. There's just a hint of reverb. Yeah. Just a hint right? And yeah, just enough to let you know that she is isolated while singing the song and if you think about the lyrics of the song It really really hits. Um, yeah Yeah, it does and it compares to some really powerful musicality by Prince When he did it and they're just such wildly different things. It's a cover. The aloneness that she has in the song vocally, it highlights the heartbreak that she feels in having lost her love. It hit number two on the pop charts. It was number one on the alternative charts for four weeks. Prince, yeah. It was the song that

made her a name in the United States if I remember right. Oh yeah, absolutely. Prince released his version with Rosie Gaines also joining him on vocals so that was in 1993. Yeah, on Damnit, I have the album.

I don't remember, but it's also the same album that Seven is on. I'm trying. I have the album. Um, and I don't remember. It's also the same element that Seven is on. Oh, okay. Um, here's the thing. He's singing it with somebody. Mm-hmm. So nothing compares to you becomes more of a love song or a two people remembering something as opposed to somebody holding it alone. In a shattering kind of, like you want to curl up in a ball kind of way. Yeah. You know? And he also, he doesn't release this until after O'Connor had been so successful and

gained all the success she had on it. Again, it's his song, but she made it hers, you know? Everyone remembers her version as being iconic from 1990. His version is ultimately an Olsen also ran, even though it came first. So I would say that this cover is distinctly better than the original. What do you got well the first one that I want to go to is knocking on heaven's door I don't think I did okay but just in case uh-huh I'll go to do in time by Lana Del Rey, okay that one. Nobody's done Yeah, so I have knocking on heaven's door crossed out because I can't do that. All right. Okay. All right, so there you go

then I will just I will momentarily just reiterate that Guns N' Roses took a song that was very spare and very Simple and turned it into an operatic power ballad. And it's really hard to imagine the song any other way after hearing their version of it. Yeah. So anyway, due in time. Was originally done by Sublime, released in November of 1997 on their self-titled

album. And it made really brilliant use of a sample of the song Summertime by jazz flutist Herbie Mann. Okay song is originally from the musical porgy and Bess and The original song summertime and living is easy. Yeah and and sublime Originally intended for the lyric because the title of the song is due in time and their their Original lyric was due in time and the living's easy but in order they'd recorded it and then they went to Herbie Mann to get the rights to do it to say hey you know we want to use this on the album and either man or his management or somebody said,

okay, you can do it, but you have to keep the lyric intact, which created a problem. Yeah. Because by this time, the lead singer of Sublime Bradley Noel, uh, had died of a heroin overdose. Right. So that line, when you listen to the original sublime version of the song, that one line Is sung by Michael Hapel the band's producer and a friend of the band And then the rest of it is is Noel

Singing and so This it's a this tune is a is a party bopper like this. This has an almost subliminally catchy kind of groove to it Ron is on a microphone with Ross MG all the people in the dance floor agree that we it's it's got this amazing vibe to it. Mm-hmm, and then you listen to the parts of the chorus and it gets really dark and And the original did the title do in time it becomes clear This is effectively a murder ballot

Because the the person singing the song Talks about how his girlfriend is running around on him and he's, you know, stuck at home. She goes, you know, I'm locked down like a penitentiary. She spreads her loving around when she comes home. There's none left for me. You know, and the line is, I'd like to hold her head underwater It's it's it okay like it's great and by the time that that comes around though

You're you're in the in the hook like you're bopping along and then you're And even when you hear that you're like this is fucked up, but like I can't stop swaying along with it Like dead serious. This is a song that like in retrospect This is one one of a number of tunes that makes me wish I'd been more musically eclectic when I was a 20-something mmm Because like I could have been listening to cool stuff like this for like a whole decade longer than than I did Right because I couldn't get out of my head, you know open up open up my musical

boundaries, right It's it's just it's a really a brilliant piece of music making it's really goddamn dark But you can't stop following along to it Sure, it's it's you know, one of the reasons that that sublime is as Pop popular and beloved as they are even though, you know, they really only have the one album, right? and then and then in

2019 Lana Del Rey covered the song and it got even more powerful because Del Rey's voice is absolutely iconic. There's this very sultry, very smoky, like incredibly feminine vibe that that comes comes off of her voice. And her version of the song goes from dark to being just spooky in in the in the best way. The arrangement is really close to the original, but just like what you talked about about with Sinead O'Connor and the reverb effect

on her version of Nothing Compares to You, there is a very, very heavy reverb. So it sounds like she's singing it inside a cathedral or a tomb or a cave. It's got this amazingly spooky is really the best word I can come come up with. It's it sounds haunting and witchy. And there's this dreamlike quality to the instrumentation. It winds up sounding like a fever dream. And it elevates what is essentially a murder ballad, like I said, to the level of being like a Gothic

short story, you know, a la Edgar Allen Poe. Sure. And, and it still has this very, very laid back, very soft comes to mind, or that's not quite the word I'm looking for, energy to it. And it is hypnotic and just absolutely amazing. And when she made it in 2019, it received massive critical of claim. It was a huge hit on the radio. And the surviving members of Sublime came out in strong support pointing to it going, no, no, this is amazing. Like, you know, we, we love this song. This was, this was great, but what she did with it is fucking awesome. And so I very strongly recommend everybody go out and listen to the original because it's amazing. Sure.

And then listen to Lana Del Rey's version and like I'm a hundred percent convinced that that her take on it elevated the song So nice, that's my first one. What's got a Proud Mary by Creedence Claude Clearwater revival. Okay as covered by Tina Turner Okay, so CCR released it on their second album Bayou Country in 1969. John Fogarty had written it by cobbling together bits of different songs that he'd been working on, which I love. He was also inspired by his discharge from the National Guard two days before. Okay. Left a good job in the city. All right. And a Will Rogers movie, Steamboat Round the Bend.

Thomas Kitts, who is a biographer of John Fogarty, said that quote, proud Mary's singer, a low wage earner, leaves what he considers a good job, which he might define as steady work, even though for long hours under a dictatorial boss. He decides to follow his impulse and imagination and hitches a ride on a riverboat queen, bidding farewell to the city. Only when the boat pulls out does he see the good side of the city, which for him is one in the distance, far removed from his life. Down by the river and on the boat,

the singer finds protection from the man and salvation from his working class pains in the nurturing spirit and generosity of simple people who are happy to give and even if you have no money. The river in Fogarty and traditionally in literature and song is a place holding biblical and epical implications. Indeed the river in Proud Mary offers not only escape but also rebirth to the singer.

Right. So feels like a Mark Twain fantasy kind of feel combined with gospel singers in the 30s. It's fun. Yeah. It's fun. Yeah, and then in 1971 Ike and Tina released a version as their second single on their second album Working together that had a lot of what it was missing that nobody knew was missing So the first version CCR version is a banger. It is good. And then suddenly these two Okay, it has so much more soul.

CCR had fun with it, but Tina Turner made me feel it. Made me feel the work that she's putting in. Ike wasn't interested in the song actually until he'd heard another cover version of it. It's in the rare club of songs that are performed live on Playboy After Dark, the Ed Sullivan show and Soul Train. And after she'd left Ike and began her own solo career, Tina Turner, which by the way, there's such an awful divorce. I mean, it was an abuse of his hell marriage. Oh yeah, no, he was, there's a terrible place in the bad place for him.

Yeah. Like, yeah. The one thing that she fought very hard to keep, usually let everything else go if they need to, but keeping my name. And then she set out like re-recording things and doing things again. But she re-recorded the song after she started her own solo career.

This is one of those ones that she re-recorded because she knew this was money. She re-released it on Tina, Live in Europe, 1988. Okay. This is the version that I grew up with. Tina with the big hair, the frilly dress, stomping those gorgeous legs through the stage as she shows us what Roland looks like. She then re-released it for the biopic, What's Love Got to Do With It. And so she's getting multiple versions of it out there where it's just her.

And it takes over as kind of the version for a lot of folks. Again, no shade on the CCR version, but she just took it and just absolutely she added so much soul to it. She added so much verve to something that was previously just fun. And yeah, there's there's a lot more energy. Yes. And it's it's there's a sweatier energy to it. There's a rimier energy. Like, she is she is living it. He was jam banding it. I like that description. Yeah. I want to use your word visceral. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And so what I love about this especially is it's delightfully subversive because while it started as Southern Rock, it ended up R&B. And to me, that's just really fitting for a song about working on the Mississippi River. Yeah, I like that. You know, I do like that. So that's that's that's mine. What do you

get? What do you got next? Istanbul not Constantinople by they might be giants. God damn it. All right. What? No, I just you're absolutely right. I just was when you were going to do I was yeah, I was going to close up with that. Oh, well. Oh well sorry to take it from you. Oh you're good you're good. You know it was it was originally a a it's like a college singing song right? Well what was it? Novelty type you know like does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight kind of song? Kind of yeah yeah. Lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy, music by Nat Simon. And it was written in 1953,

which is the 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. That's right. You know, and the original release of it was performed by a group called the Four Lads. The album got certified as gold, but like nobody remembers it. Sure. But an entire generation remember John and John of they might be giants doing this song on flood in 1990.

This was one of several contenders for theme song of my time in high school. Like I ran I ran with the kind of weird ass nerdy Dungeons and Dragons kid, theater kid crowd that like everybody knew this song and we could, one person could start singing it and like somebody in the other end of the room would pick it up. It was, it was everywhere. And the energy of it was, I mean, it's still it's still comedic, but the way they they treated it. One of the things that they might be giants are great about doing is they take the weirdest wackiest stuff and they treat it with absolute 110% sincerity. Yeah, they play it straight. They played absolutely Yeah, they play it absolutely there. They're

110% committed to the bit Like in every every song on flood is like that. Yes, and and this one is Probably the one with the most conventional patchiness of The songs off of that album. Oh, actually, you're saying I think you know man to particle. Well, I mean, particle man's a banger. Like I don't I'm never going to take anything away from that one. But the the kind of full throated energy of Istanbul dot Constantinople sure sure and just the the structure of

the music I think is is More like I said more conventionally catchy Mm-hmm, you know to people who aren't they might be giant nerd like people. Yeah. Yeah So yeah I am one of one of two songs from that album that's featured by Tiny Tunes That's true. That's true and appeared on the Simpsons Did it now? Yeah mobile home

Used in the ending to the episode it also showed up on the umbrella Academy Netflix series based on the really weird Dark Horse comic book series. So yeah, no. I actually, I played that song for the first year that I taught sophomores. We talked about it. And I still have former students who reach out to me through the magic of social media. And they're like, you know, I still remember that. And that's one of my favorite memories. Like you just sitting there grinning and absolutely playing it straight. And we listened to it. and it had everything to do with the history that you taught us and

Just how goddamn weird and wonderful is that so it's uh, it's it's it's definitely one of those things that has like Followed me throughout. So yeah, it was very cool. Nice. So All right. So I got one killing me softly with his song. Oh Yeah Yeah, go ahead. Well eventually yes So I got one killing me softly with his song. Oh Yeah Yeah, go ahead. Mm-hmm. Well eventually yes, okay so This is a song by Lori Lieberman And then later on gets covered by the Fuji's now Lori Lieberman didn't write it, which is totally fine

You don't have to write a song for it to be your song. You know, yeah, it was originally written by Charles Fox and normal gimbal. Lieberman also helped gimbal with the lyrics, by the way, but she never got the credit. So she struck out on her own and released her own version in 1972. So I yeah, I actually saw a tick tock about this. Oh, okay. That actually, um, put forward that Lieberman had written the lyrics down.

Like the lyrics were hers. She had written them down on a napkin in a club. Yes. Okay. You're, you're already, you're on it. Okay. Yes. All right. So she strikes out on her own and she releases it in 72. That didn't chart, but it was, I've listened to it, it was really good. But at the time she was being heavily exploited by both Fox and Gimble who signed her to a contract whereby they would write her songs,

but then she'd have to give them 20% of her earnings. Add on top of that, the fact that Gimble was having an affair with her, despite the fact that he was 43 and she was 19. Yeah. And he was married. Yeah. So, just for context, when we started this podcast, I was older than he was.

But only by just a bit, right? So 43, let's rewind it by three years. So three years ago. So I was what was that, 2021. At 43, I cannot think of much less that I would like to do than a 19-year-old. How fucking gross. Yeah, it takes a certain personality type.

Yeah. And that, that unfortunately the overlap of that and record producers seems to be high. So now over time, Gimble would change the story to write her out of the origin. Because as you said, she was in a club listening to Don McLean playing the song Empty Chairs. Right. And in 1997, Gimble also showed what a shit he was by demanding that Don McLean take down text from his own webpage, a 1997 webpage by Don McLean. And he demanded that Don McLean take down text from his own webpage where he acknowledged being the inspiration of the origin of her song.

McLean had his lawyers send a 1973 article in which Gimble agreed that that was the origin. And for his part, Charles Fox wrote a book about the song in 2010 and also left out the origins. So just shitty guys being shit. Yeah, that sucks. Now, I'm not gonna say that Roberta Flack doesn't deserve her roses for her performance of it too. She got a Grammy for best album and also for best female pop vocal performance. It's amazing. It's, I think it's better than Lori Lieberman. That said, the Fugees took it and just ran it through the roof. talking like when the city worker pulls the lever on the ecto-containment unit and then

the light shoots through the roof and up into the heavens, that's what the Fuji's did with this. On the Fuji's second album, Lauren Hill, who has an amazing vocal capability and her solo albums are so fucking good. Of course I don't know music very well so I don't pay attention to the names of things but she brought so much more pathos to the song. You feel like she's softly being killed. You feel her longing for his fingers. Her voice carries so strongly and felt like it was

from such a deeper heart than the original or than Roberta Flack. No, Flack. Oh, okay. Well, way more than that. Lieberman. Yeah. But even more so than than flack And the single was insanely popular in Europe first

And then it went triple platinum in the US and that means by the way, it sold three million Units. Oh, wow. Yeah Now they did it Now, they did it because they, being the Fugees, did it because they worked in the beat that a tribe called Quest did for their song, Bonita Applebum. So if you think about the beat behind it, that's actually from Bonita Applebum by a tribe called Quest. Oh. Now, the Fugees version opens with Hill's voice starting, only lyrics, no music.

And then it harmonizes with a few others and there's a slight echo behind. And then the beat sample from Bonita Applebum starts. And now the Fuji start doing the thing that a lot of 90s hip hop did that I don't like, which is that they start talking like they're in the recording studio. But then she starts giving us the next version on top of the beat with vocal aerobics, she's playing with the melody, and she's just adding so much more to the song. In order to get people to buy copies of their next single which is called Ready or Not um which itself was amazing that also sampled Budica by Enya um the the album company actually pulled Killing Me Softly singles from the shelves you're too good at this we need to sell other stuff

You're too good at this. We need to sell other stuff. So people would buy the next single. That's funny. That is one hell of a mark. That's funny. Yeah. Now, I did notice there's a bit of a pattern with what I'm picking so far, and it's going to continue. Okay.

You have an original that's fairly well done, and then the new one comes in and isolates vocals And has a woman singing so yeah, I'll let that be your guess for the next one But that's that's my second one for for this evening. What have you got? I'm gonna go with take on me. Okay, the original song is recorded by the band aha Okay, the original song is recorded by the band aha aha released in October of 1984 and It is a the music video of this song is a core memory for me super iconic for absolutely Everyone yeah, our age down to way below our age quite frankly than it should be yeah

Yeah, it's used. Yeah. Yeah. It's used in advertisements. There was a version of it in the Family Guy. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. And... I always felt that it was a little sketchy, personally. Butthole.

Tss. Nice. Actually, I'm not even mad about that one. Yeah. Well, I illustrated the point well, so... It's really all about framing. Yeah Okay And right there. Yeah right there Really got a pencil out its impact I really

It it actually It was a big hit in in the States But the original 1984 version failed to chart in the UK and Aha is a UK band right yes. Yeah, and it was it was after the exposure of the music video Mm-hmm that It was it was after the exposure of the music video That

That it took off and the video actually won six awards was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards and Yeah, it, it is a kind of a, I'm trying to figure out what I'm, what the word I'm looking for, but it's a very iconic kind of indication of what the state of the art was in pop as a genre and in music video as an art form at that time in the 1980s.

It really was proof of concept in a lot of ways that you could make an artistically satisfying and intriguing video to go along with a reasonably good pop song. Yeah, that was dabbling between pop and modern rock in a lot of ways. Yeah, very much. Yeah, very much. And so real big fish wound up covering the tune in 1996. This is the band that did sell out.

Yes, correct. And in this time period, there was this, there was, everybody expected in around about 1996 this is around the time that the saint with Val Kilmer came out and that was 97 right nice yeah might have been 97 96 I was living on my own yeah and what everybody who was watching the music industry thought was going to be the thing that was going to blow up was Electronica. And the reason I mentioned the saint is because that is the soundtrack to the saint all of the music that was Contracted for that film was very heavily, you know electronic club kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah and What actually happened was?

ska blew up and And there was actually commentary from you know at the end of the year, going into 1987, the the there was there was commentary from people at MTV, you know, saying and you know, the big thing this year was ska. And that that then extended I was I said a moment ago that real big fish did that did their version in 96 They actually did in 98 Okay, I transposed some things there but

For the film of all things the film baseball They They did a cover of the tune The song was released on the baseball soundtrack, and it showed up on the international version of their album. Why do they rock so hard? And and the thing is,

the original version of the song as this very British new wave hop. Earnestness about it. Okay, like like I almost want to say kind of proto emo like, you know It's it's very upbeat it's very sloppy but there is a Kind of plaintive note in the in the singer's voice, you know, take me. I mean, it's very, uh, very melodic in that way. And, uh, the real big fish version takes that and is like, yeah, you know what? Uh, we're, we're going to throw trumpets at this and we're,

you know, like, like Scott, we're going to, we're going to throw in a trombone. We got a whole brass section we're're gonna throw at this and We're gonna take that plaintiveness, and we're just gonna replace it with No, and fuck yeah Yeah, like you know It's gonna be fun. This is this is just gonna be fun. It's kind of in a way it's the reverse of what you're talking about with Tina Turner and

Yeah, we're gonna take all the soul out of it and just make it fun. We're gonna yeah, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna take we're gonna take the the the the emotion out of it, and we're just gonna turn it into a Pop banger Only you know something that you would dance to while doing your laundry Yeah In the best way it's it's this it's this it has the manic pixie dream girl background music Brilliant yes, I was about to say manic energy and yeah a hundred percent correct

Yeah, you know where she's she's doing laundry and singing Into the cup in a public laundromat. Yes, you know, yes a thousand percent that Everybody in the room thinks she's amazing for doing it instead of being like oh my god You are not the fucking main character. Will you please knock it off? Will you please knock it off? I just need to get to the softener. Do you mind? Yeah, can you can you I did there's a dryer open. Can I please you know? As I recall at that time now, this is kind of like the second iteration of Scott too, right? Like yes, okay, because this is this is at the time where I think Big band music is coming back to like cherry pop and daddy's

Yeah around the same. Yeah, Mighty Mighty Boss tones like You just all kinds of which by the way also there were a lot of oh now that I think about it there were a lot of soundtracks that were Platforming these like I'm thinking oh, yeah Chasing Amy. Oh, yeah the background. Oh my God. Yeah. Don't get me started. Um, but it's in the background of that. Uh, there's, uh, I want to say, Oh, who sings there? She goes, there she goes again. Oh, that's, that's in cranberries. Okay. Is it? Uh, no. Okay. No, I don't think so. Oh, anyway,ranberries. Okay, is it? No. Okay. No.

I don't think so. Oh, shit. Anyway, that song shows up in So I Married an Axe Murderer, Reality Bites has a bunch of different music in it. Like, it's almost like it's the- Don't get me started on Reality Bites and Lisa Loeb. Oh my God. The, what I,

the way I wanna highlight this is, all of those bands seem like the split between let's do cocaine versus let's do barbiturates writ large in the 1990s. And of course the electronica is let's do e Let's just load up on on ecstasy right but like There's a whole bunch of just like we're we're gonna do music We're gonna have a lot of fucking fun and we're just gonna just yeah and fall asleep where we were dancing Yeah, and wake up in those wrinkled clothes and go to work Yeah, we're gonna fall asleep while we are dancing right wake up in those wrinkled clothes and go to work. Yeah. We're going to fall asleep while we are dancing and not realize it. Yeah.

And then, you know, on the other side of it is like, you know, this is grungy and we're going to overdose on heroin and all that. Like it's, it's, it's a rubber band reaction to it. Yeah. Yeah. And, and to correct myself, uh, there she goes was by the laws. The laws. Yeah. Oh, how could you forget the laws? Yes. Forget because there she goes was like the one thing they did

right. Yeah. The States. Yeah. Yeah. You know, okay. So like all these bands are coming out and yeah, and they're covering like well, this one's covering a Oz take on me. Yeah. That's interesting. That's it. I, I always wonder it, like, what's going on economically when these things, you

know, maybe we can get an expert in ska on here. Um, so, yeah, cool. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Uh, dude, I, I had, because you brought the question up. The the what's going on economically is what's chronicled in reality bites. You know, which is there's there's a whole generation of folks around yours and my age who suddenly hit a workforce that was immediately feeling the slowing of the economy in the

wake of Reaganomics and the beginnings of the repercussions of, no, this is actually not a system that really works. Right. Valedictor is becoming a gas station attendance. Yeah, kind of shit. So, yeah. So we got to do something to cheer up or

like what the hell. Or some people. And then I start wondering about class to which people were cheering up, you know. Yeah. And also, is there something again? I want to get an expert in ska in here and talk to us about ska because I know jackin' shit

about it. Cool, man, that's awesome. I do love 90s ska, and I will say 90s ska because I know there's gonna be some purists out here who's like, you know, unless it's from the sparkling valley of, you know, Modesto, it's not really, you know, I don't, I don't know. I like the 90s version of Scott. I know that has less of a modern rock feel and more of a let's have fun feel. Yeah. I like, I like the way you described that. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. Well, I'm going to keep consistent

here. Yeah. I will always love you by Dolly Parton as covered by Whitney Houston. Yeah. Yeah. So Dolly Parton co-wrote this song with her partner with whom she'd enjoyed a seven year relationship and it was coming to an end professionally. But still, I totally get it. Like, this is not a, you know, it's just, it's also a feminist manifesto in a lot of ways, as Country Music Historian wrote, quote, it speaks about the breakup of a relationship between a man and a woman that does not descend into unremitting domestic turmoil, but instead envisions parting with respect because of the initiative of the woman.

Okay. I had not, I had not ever viewed it through that lens and now I will never see it any differently. It, you know what the version, the thing that it reminds me of in my own life is good riddance Okay, bye bye green day, you know, I hope you have the time of your life like yeah fucking sad and it's heartbreaking God, I hope you had a good time Yeah, I loved I loved that. It's an amazing energy. Yeah so now what's

fucking wild here bonkers like are you kidding me is that do you know what she wrote the exact same day? Oh shit I remember having my mind blown when I when I learned it and now I've forgotten what it what was it? Jolene Because of course it was Joe this right this is not fair like It released on the Jolene album too like oh my god Yeah, one person being responsible for that many bangers in that short a period of time is just not fair. And on such opposite ends of the spectrum. Like, don't steal my man.

And this other one is like, this was great. I'm glad that it happened and I'll always love you. And it's like, wow. Talk about getting into different characters. Yeah, it's just, okay. It's kind of like learning that the sum total of the human experience could be summed up by the Eagles with take it to the limit and take it easy. Yeah.

Yeah. Somewhere in between is a corner in Winslow, Arizona. So I will say this, Dolly's version is great, but it is a bit too twangy for me but she's also she's a country star from the 70s so of course yeah so I mean yeah look at the hairdo she has on in the photo like you know before extensions yeah so I will say this her voice has a lovely waver and slight rasp to it that is as lovely to hear. She sings with her lips still rushing back to cover her teeth it sounds like. Okay, yeah.

And it's really cute. I think she does a lovely job of it but honestly the song feels rushed when she does it. And that might be because this was back when Three Minutes was your upper limit of a song, right? Yeah, yeah. So it is rushed. I mean, the tempo is stepped up. And then enter Whitney Houston. She was looking for a good single to attach to her movie,

The Bodyguard. And Kevin Costner actually suggested to her, why don't you try, I Will Always Love You, based on the Linda Rodstadt recording. So he said, check out this. And by the way, that one's pretty good too. But when Dolly Parton heard that Houston was using Ron Stats recording as a template,

she actually calls up Houston's producers to give them the final verse, which was missing from Ronstadt's version, because she felt it was important to the song. And if Whitney's going to do it, she's going to do it really well. Which just speaks to Dolly as a class act. Yes. Like, yeah. And obviously I am a sucker for vocals here. I can't think of a more perfect use of a perfect voice.

And again, I mean, you'll see a pattern here. Just the start of the song. It starts with just Whitney's voice and it commands my attention. And the piano catches up to her when she gets to the first chorus and then everything else comes in too. Which frankly, I could take her to leave it save for the bass and the percussion because it is the early 90s. So contractually, I think you're obligated to have the alto sax. So they did, which I, that's not what made the song for me. It was the bass, it was the percussion, and it was her voice. But Whitney Houston goes from this soft key, this soft and lovely sound with the first choruses, and then she kicks my chest in right after that pause.

Like there's that pause and then the drum kicks in and she belts me. Dolly actually spoke most of the part leading up to that in her version, which I did not like. But Whitney sang all the way through it and I loved it. And these are just different conventions, like it's broccoli, it comes down to taste. But Whitney kept things going so strong through the whole thing that it was so effective.

A New York Times critic said, quote, "'Houston transforms a plaintive country ballad "'into a towering pop gospel assertion "'of lasting devotion to a departing lover. Her voice breaking and tensing, she treats the song as a series of emotional bursts in a steady climb toward a final full-out declamation. Along the way, her virtuosic gospel embellishments enhance the emotion. And the way that she ends up floating her voice

through the fluctuating notes at the end of the use of, and at the use of the word way, shows that her journey is gonna be an uneven one. She's gonna have these feelings. Okay. You know? Yeah. Fun little fact, Dolly Departan was approached

by none other than Elvis wanting to buy the song Really? Yeah Here's what she said about it She said quote. I said, I'm really sorry and I cried all night I mean it was like the worst thing, you know, it's like oh my god Elvis Presley and other people were saying you're nuts It's Elvis Presley. I said I can't do that Something in my heart says don't do that and I just don't didn't do it. He would have killed it. But anyway But anyway, so he didn't then when Whitney Houston's version came out. I made enough money to buy Graceland

Yeah, and it makes sense. Houston version went four times platinum and it's now certified diamond as of 2022. She's only the third female artist to go certified diamond. Now that's 10 million units sold or streamed. Right. In 2020, the Library of Congress elevated it to preservation status for being, quote, culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, which means that Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You is right up there with the orchestra wrestling match that Jeff Jarrett had with Dutch Mantell. That's, that's high praise.

Exactly. That's that's high high brace exactly Yeah, that's that's really really critically Culturally important. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's vital to our to our culture Yeah, so so yeah, that's the one that I went for. All right, what you got? I've got a Simon and Garfunkel tune I've got a Simon and Garfunkel tune, but not the one everybody would think of, because I think we already did that one in the earlier, because the disturbed version of Sound of Silence, of course, is one that everybody says is like everybody's go to. Yeah. Oh my God.

Yeah. This is another one by Simon and Garfunkel, but, uh, this is a hazy shade of winter. So just learned tonight that that is not a bangle song. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. Cause I love that song. Oh, no kidding. So, so it is for Simon and Garfunkel on their recording. It is, it has a harder edge and a lot of stuff they did, but it is still very much a folk rock kind of tune.

They recorded it in 1966. Originally, it was released as a standalone single in October of 66. But it got included on the album Bookends in 1968. Okay. It peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 83. And they they put it down on on wax because it was the 1980s. They still did that for the soundtrack of Less Than Zero in 1987. And Susanna Hoffs explained, I'm listening to K. Earth 101, an old East station.

I'm alone in this dark room and all I had was the radio. Hazy shade of winter came on one day. I thought I was a Simon and Garfunkel aficionado, but I somehow had missed that bad ass folk rock song of theirs. I ran to our band rehearsal that night and was like, we have to cover this song. And their version of it is propulsive. Like from the, the opening bars of, of the song from, from the opening guitar, da da da da da da da da da da da Oh, yeah, like there is there is an incredible energy and and there is a Darkness

For lack of a better word. There is there is a shadow. Yeah in in the lyrics I think there's there's something to be said with with the the juxtaposition between the hard grinding, frenetic going guitar riffs and then their voices lilting in the back corner of your mind. Yeah. And like, it's so up in your face with the music part and then that's just way back there and it causes you to try To live in that middle space. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it sounds it sounds like if Macbeth's witches

Were playing Stratocasters Like You get what I mean? I'm here for it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's all four. It's all four of them singing lead vocals. There's a there's a short solo by Susanna Hoffs toward the end. But it was a rare thing for them to have all four of them. You know, they usually just you know, this is going to be this is going to be her song and this is going to be her song and it's going to be her song, right?

Um, and that coral effect of it. And I think, you know, I, I think there's, there's something, there's something in the difference between the timber of a masculine voice and the timber of a feminine voice. And I think it's part of the reason so many of yours involve, you know, a female vocalist with isolated vocals. There is just on an emotional level and we can, you know, debate or not about whether that's, you know, something, you know something neurological and kind of keyed into our brains or if it's cultural or what. Either way, there is a remarkable emotional kind of resonance that happens with this quartet

of women singing those lyrics with this. I don't want to say desperate, but there is there is there's an urgency. There's urgency. That's it. That's the word I'm trying to find. There's an urgency to the way they're delivering it. And it's this the lyrics themselves are just this poem about fall turning into winter but with the tone they use and with the pace of the guitar there's like on the edge of desperation. Yeah age is coming for you way too quickly you know the seasons of your life is changing way too quickly for you you know. Yeah and the guitar stops and the springtime of your life is changing way too quickly for you, you know? Yeah. And the guitar stops and the springtime of my life. Yeah. And then and then this pause that is...

I love the use of silence in a song. Yeah. It's an amazing interpretation of the tune. And I very nearly got into a fistfight with one of my college roommates Over this because He he grew up being like steeped in Simon and Garfunkel and he was a huge Simon and Garfunkel fan and This this version of the song came on the radio one day and I

Ranked it because like how could you not? Right? Sure, sure. And he went across there and went turn that off. Well yeah, I mean there's one thing that Simon and Garfunkel fans are known for is they know how to fucking fight. Like they were Krav Maga before Krav Maga was Krav Maga.

Yeah, well yeah. Christ. They were crab McGaw before crab McGaw was crab McGaw. Yeah. Well, yeah price. Yeah, but he he got he got uncharacteristically Like worked up over it. I was like they will throw your ass off a bridge over troubled waters Like they will you do not give a shit well play. No that would be the song, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well done But yeah, and and I was like no this and he played the Simon and Garfunkel version. And it was this one of the few times that he and I actually like I looked at him and went, you're wrong. You're just I understand, like, opinions can be opinions, but no they're their versions thousand percent better like I

I I Don't have the vocabulary to explain why right now, but you're just wrong. That's funny Yeah, and then we went to Jack in the box and forgot about it five minutes later, but yeah so What do you got? Well, I got um, I've got a real short one just cuz it's absolutely obviously true I don't even think it's a matter of taste But I Want to point out that I get by with a little help with my friends or from my friends by the Beatles is lovely

I'm a huge Ringo Stan. Yeah Joe Cocker Yes, that is his song. 100%. Not even if you've never even watched the Wonder Years. But Joe Cocker absolutely just ate it up, as the kids say. He took a fun, boppy, silly little song and he seizureed his way off beat to making it soulful and meaningful. Also, the backup lyrics helped really well with it and balanced it out with the singers that he had his, there's no comparing. Like it's just, it's so clean. It's so clean with the Beatles.

Like it's wonderful, it's lovely, it's silly. It's on a very silly album too. It's on Sgt. Pepper's. Yeah, well, yeah, which is like them at peak. Theme album, but super silly. Everybody smoke pot, everybody smoke pot. Like, I mean, come on. But then.

Like they were, and it shows. And then Joe Cocker does it, and he's in like, like a frayed button-up shirt with, like hasn't shaved in six weeks. His hair is white guy throwing out, and he's seizing on the stage. Yeah. And it adds to it. Like it's just. Yeah.

It's it is it is. Yeah. He he they they sang it as a fun little throw away. Right. He he bled out emotionally. Yeah. No, that's really. Yeah. He bled that song out like, yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. So I'm going to use that as like a tiny one, but I will, I will say this one. And I think maybe we'll close with this one. All right. Yeah. Just cause it's, I find it fascinating. So the song landslide by Fleetwood Mac,

yeah, as covered by the chicks Okay, and I understand fully that I am speaking blasphemy because who could ever do something better than Fleetwood Mac I completely get it and normally I would agree Mm-hmm Stevie Nicks wrote a beautiful song about her choosing whether or not to go back to school since she was largely the only source of financial support for herself and Buckingham at the time. And she was waiting tables to make ends meet. But yeah, capitalism's rad.

What the fuck? Like, I love how you're able to deliver that so so deadpan. So deadpan. But yeah, capitalism's rad. No. And she said that she came up with the song, quote, looking out at the Rocky Mountains, pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us. At that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways. And then a year later,

their album simply titled Fleetwood Mac, which was the second album titled that. It's the first one without Bob Welch, by the way. He left in 1974, and Lindsay Buckingham took over on guitar. And interestingly, Landslide was not a single that had come off of this album despite its beauty. The singles from that album were actually Over My Head, Warm Ways, Rhiannon, and Say You Love Me.

Oh wow. All right. Yeah. Now I still think this song is amazing by Fleetwood Mac. Oh, yeah. It's really it's a class. It is. It is a classic. There is no arguing. Yeah. The guitar at the beginning is just incredibly lovely with the isolation of just the guitar. It's very stripped down. Stevie Nicks' voice being in that middle range is just so perfect with it. Yeah. And that first build of, well, I've been afraid of changing in her voice as she continues is, and then she lets it drop off and lets the music take over. There's so much heart in it. Like it is quite potentially the best song that the original is still outstripped by the cover

because it is hard to beat Fleetwood Mac doing Landslide. And with all that said, the formerly Dixie Chicks did it better. First off, it was on their 2002 album called Home. This was their sixth album, but man did they go in a different direction from the original. And that's the thing that I love about it is that it's so unique compared to the original. It's not simply a cover. Like they really reimagined it. Multiple stringed instruments to start. I think there's a banjo, a mandolin, and a guitar, and it has a shorter start. So the intro's not nearly as long.

Natalie Maines gets to the lyrics with just a single voice at first, almost straining at the saw my reflection in a snow-covered hill. And they keep it going. There's no waiting. There's no slowing down and yet it feels like they took even more time. Which is a really cool thing that they did with time. The second verse there's a violin that gets added which brings in another layer to accompany her voice as the banjo just gently plucks us through the growing harmonizing that they're all starting to do with her. In the music video, one of them's actually clearly pregnant, by the way, and what I love there is she makes no move to hide it. Oh yeah. Yeah, fairly unapologetic and I love that. Yeah. Incidentally, one of the reasons that the chicks did this song for 2002's album was

because Natalie Maines was the same age as Stevie Nicks when she'd written that song originally. Oh, wow. Which is pretty cool. Yeah. All right. And so, yeah. Now, the chicks would go on to have absolutely zero problem within American culture. And no musicians would respond to them picking a fight

by amping it up to crazy times 11. They wouldn't lose any part of their career whatsoever for the very reasonable stand that they took that most of us knew at the time. Some of us were practicing being the smart guy in the middle, looking at myself. But yeah, luckily their career has never had a single hiccup and they've just constantly been just carried on

on a constant upward arc. Exactly. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. But besides that, Landslide is is easily one of my top five favorite stringed songs. Nice. Yeah, it's just utterly gorgeous. So and and I got to say, one of the things I admire about the chicks musically speaking, is that they are not afraid to completely change up their approach to a song. Yeah, to what they do. No, uh, because, you know, having having mentioned them, I remember now a couple of years back when March came out or their their tune in in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Yes. And

that is starkly different in its musical. I mean, it's about something completely different, of course. But you know, you you know, a group and you know, kind of what what they do and what they're known for. And their ability to go like, Okay, you know, for that's that's going out the window. We're doing something different. We're going in this direction with this. Yeah, to trust in their talent. Yeah. To be able to do that is a wonderful thing. Yeah. And just the willingness to like,

hi, we're making music and yes, we want it to sell, but we also need to express ourselves the way that we feel the most comfortable. And their willingness to do that and on some levels to put shit on the line because most album labels would be like, no, you don't get to change the formula here. We're making a lot of money like this. And they would put all kinds of pressure on people to do that. And in this instance, it doesn't hit with them,

which is really cool. Their willingness to take stands. So, cool. Well, I think that there is more in the tank for another episode down the road. So yes. And if not go find more. I still have more. But I think this is a good place to cut it. So you are a shadow in the warp. I remain one. Yes. Cool. But we could be found where? We, collectively. Oh wait a minute. I'm out of order. I'm all screwed up. I apologize. You're out of order.

I'm out of order. This whole system's out of order. So, and I'm going to keep this in too. So what do you recommend for people to read? That's what I meant to say or You recommend for them to take in Yeah, okay I picked up And had an awful lot of fun with Actually, it's it's now out of it is sadly out of print in physical form, but it can be obtained electronically the Sadly out of print in physical form, but it can be obtained electronically The manga artist Masamune Shiro

Put together a one of his many comic series is Orion and I very highly recommend it It is a departure from the rest of his stuff. He he is known for his cyberpunk work. And I know that's the context in which I've mentioned him before. Orion is a really fun science fantasy jaunt that takes place in an imagined magical technological empire millions of years before our civilization ever appears in a part of the galaxy near one of the stars in the constellation of Orion, which is where the comet gets its name from. And it is a hoot. It is just way too much fun. It's a great adventure jaunt with a female main character who is a a dumpster fire,

but really highly competent and really highly skilled. But like all of her interpersonal skills suck. And she winds up accidentally summoning the god of destruction To to help her solve her problems And yeah, and it's just chaotic fun from there on out so Orion by Masamune Shiro And it's available through Or if you can find it someplace else online How about you?

Let's see I'm gonna recommend can't find my way home America in the great stoned age from 1945 to 2000 I think the last time I recommended this it was in the smugglers episode But this this is drugs in America post-war all the way through 2000. So lots of music. Okay, cool. Lots of music. So yeah, tons of music stuff in there.

And it's a really good and accessible read. I first ran into the author Martin Torgoff on a documentary on VH1 about drugs. It was a six-part documentary and it was the best fucking documentary I had ever seen about drugs. Like it was a very honest look. They interviewed guys from the doors, they interviewed guys from the Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, the Grateful Dead, the Stones. Okay. And they're using interviews from the 60s and forward. And there's some interviews by Arlo Guthrie.

At one point he says, you know, we learned that pot and whiskey were just as bad as the other. And if I knew then what I know now, I would have drank a whole lot more whiskey. Such a good quote. But it was a really honest account and an honest book at drug culture. I used it actually as an instructional piece for a while. But the book is fantastic. He was interviewed for that documentary. That's where I found him. So yeah, Martin Torgoff. Really, really good. Can't find my way home. So highly recommended. Very cool. Yeah. Let's see. You are a shadow in the work. We've said

that. We collectively are findable at www.geekhistba wubba wubba dot geek history time comm Where you can go through our archive and find? 200 and how many no episodes. Oh, we're up to like 260 260. Well by the time this drops We've got to be yeah 260 even even more easy. Yeah Even even more easy. Yeah And you know look through the titles and find anything that catches your interest and start there bounce around You know don't don't start in the middle of a series obviously like some kind of heathen, but you know

Go go by topic and We are Wherever it is that you found us to be listening to us right now, whether that be on the Amazon podcast app, the Apple podcast app or on Spotify, take a moment to subscribe. Take another moment to give us the five star review that you know we deserve for a witty repartee. And yeah, that's about it. Wait, where can you be found? There we go. Sorry. Well you could finally let's see by the time this drops July 5th, August 2nd, September 6th, pick one of those, pick all of those, pick one of them, and go and buy a ticket to go see it live, at Capital Punishment at the Sacramento Comedy Spot. Go online, buy your tickets in advance. Then pick the other two and stream those.

Same link, just go click on the streaming option, and then check it out, wear your underwear, and only that, get a big half a gallon of green tea ice cream and just knock yourself out while you're watching. That's oddly specific. It is. It is. I'm just trying to help people out here. But yeah, first Friday of every month, 9 PM, comedy spot, 12 bucks to show up live.

I strongly recommend you get advance tickets because we've been selling out. So that's what I would recommend to you. Nice. Well, for A Geek History of Time, I'm rockin' Damian Harmony. And I'm rollin' Ed Blaylock. And until next time, keep rollin' 20s.