Like many people, I absolutely love the Big Star original. I've also made a hobby of collecting cover versions of it, though a quick look at AMG shows that I've a by-no-means-comprehensive collection. And while I think I heard the Wilco version even before the original, and while the Elliott Smith recordings are great, it's Kathryn Williams's cover that's my favorite. The violin in this is great, I think - adding an undercurrent of tension and uncertainty, as well as a solid bass level to balance Williams's higher voice. She loses a little of the emotion that Tweedy and Smith put into their covers, maybe, but the quiet beauty of her vocal has a power all its own - the phrasing in particular really sells this (check out the "would you be an outlaw/for my love" part).
More after the break...
It would be easy to listen to a lot of Pixies songs without ever realizing that Black Francis was a huge Beach Boys fan. The influence is there, I think, but subtle. With his solo work, though, Black showed just how much he was into the band; this song, from his first album, isn't a cover of a released Beach Boys song. No, it's Frank Black's take on an unreleased version of a Pet Sounds track. Which is pretty cool in itself, but wouldn't count for much if the cover sucked.
Thankfully, it doesn't. Black takes the song and makes it sound entirely his own, while still preserving a lot of the spirit of the original. I can't say that I prefer this to the Beach Boys version, since in the transition to proto-grunge/new-wave/whatever it loses a lot of the anguish of the original. But it gains something, too - that awesome synth part, those gravelly "hang on" backup parts, the subtextual resonance of Black recording this post-Pixies-breakup. It's a cover that doesn't supplant the original, but definitely compliments it.
posted by Odorless Boatman at 12:31 PM
4 Comments:
Thirteen: I haven't heard any other versions of this song but I definitely see the song benefiting from a little more emotion (since the lyrics suggest that there should be quite a bit there) but other that that, it kinda rocked
Hang On To Your Ego: I happened to have the Beach Boys version on hand (although I hadn't heard it yet;) The original is pretty good! Frank Black...ummm (I'm In the middle of it right now...and done) it's not doing it for me so much.
i don't think it's possible to beat the big star version.
maybe it is.
but this one is definetly not better. i just listened to it and i don't feel the least bit like crying.
i have to disagree with you, and this might just be my intense hatred of cover versions, but i think that thirteen had exactly the right amount of emotion the first time around. it's called thirteen. were either of your hearts full of emotion at thirteen? i doubt it, they were probably full of pokemon cards and sack lunches. and, i'm all for women taking everything back, but not that song. it's a boy's song, and i don't like the woman's voice. other than that, thumbsup!
i'm pretty sure that if you listened to Here comes Your Man that it'd be almost impossible to miss the sufer-y beach boys influence. i think black's version is too sexual.
I didn't mean to imply that I thought this version of "Thirteen" was superior to the original - it's definitely not.
And in response to Megan's comment on Pixies/Beach Boys: I agree, and there are other songs where the influence is equally strong, but when most people talk about the Pixies in conjunction with other bands, the Beach Boys don't come up at all. Sometimes, "Here Comes Your Man" is dismissed entirely as an overly-poppy anomaly. Which, I think you'll agree, it most certainly is not.
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