Late Night Stargazing

Jez

February 10

For those of you who haven't given last night's edition of the Friday Night Music Club a listen, the openig tune was Tom Wait's barfly-tastic I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You, followed by an equally wonderful song by 10,000 Maniacs.

This was, I must admit, entirely by design and definitely no accident or coincidence.

For tonight's tune is 10,000 Maniacs covering that very same Tom Waits song. And, as with pretty much anything that (now former) lead Maniac Natalie Merchant turns her tonsils too, it's pretty wonderful too.

Now, I'm pretty sure I have this as an extra track on a CD single somewhere, but it's not listed on Discogs and very place I look on that there t'interet tells me it was only commercially released on their Campfire Songs album, a Hatful of Hollow, if you like, only for fans of gorgeous female voices instead of...well, y'know.

If only I could be arsed to go dig out my CD single from the drawer marked CD Singles and Cassingles I could clear this up. But I can't be arsed, so unresolved it will remain. I will accept that Discogs is probably right and I'm not.

Anyway, here's Natalie and the boys doing a pretty good, if not overwhelmingly so, version:

10,000 Maniacs - I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You

I have no idea what Mr Waits thought of this cover version, because he, if he disliked it, then he was gracious enough to shut the f-*% up and pocket the royalties.

Some folks, though, do not accept so well what is clearly intended to be an homage .

In 1992, 10,000 Maniacs released their Candy Everyone Wants single. The CD single contained two cover versions: R.E.M.'s (Don't Go Back To) Rockville and Morrissey's Everyday is Like Sunday.

You can probably guess who, of the two, was less kind about the cover version than the other...

Here's their version:

10,000 Maniacs - Every Day is Like Sunday

Now. I love Natalie Merchant's voice. I would literally listen to her read out [enter something dull that isn't the telephone book here]. But I have to admit, that's not the most...invigorating of covers versions.

Not when compared to the original which, yes, I'm going to post, because I have managed to separate the man from the music. See, just because I hold very different political views to those he appears to support (the word "appears" inserted for legal reasons), then I won't dim the lights and refuse to listen to anything he ever recorded (which I did, for a while, and then I missed hearing The Smiths so I reassessed).

Morrissey - Every Day is Like Sunday

Let's imagine for a second that you're an internationally famous musician. Somebody has recorded a version of one of your songs, and they've done it because they love it. But you don't particulalry like their version. You'd do the decent thing, right? You'd either pretend to like it, or you'd say things in interviews about how its not really your cup of tea, but it's fine, and good luck to them, and all that kind of thing.

I'd like to think that what you wouldn't do is write a song slagging off the person who'd just covered one of your songs and, potentially opened up your music to a previously untapped market.

Guess which one old sourpuss did, squeezing it out as an extra track on this underwhelming single from 1995..?