Search This Blog

Saturday, October 2, 2010

198. "Still Listening" by Carole Klinger


Requested by Carole Klinger.

The random selection of this request highlights a few fundamental questions about what I'm doing here.

The first is, can a person request a cover of their own work? That's easy: hell yes, and I even encourage it.

The second is a whole different can of worms. In this case the original is not a recording but a written piece, a poem. Strictly speaking I'm more adapting it than "covering" it. On this particular day I actually sent out a request of my own for a simple song to do, mentioning a spoken word piece as a possibility. The poem fit the bill quite well, the only caveat being that I had to record the "original" track myself a well. I decided to do the "original" as a straight reading, and get more interpretive on the "cover". The music on the cover, by the way, was entirely created by Miranda and Ridley... in this case, I didn't give them any guidance or add any instruments of my own to the mix, and I'm really impressed by the results.

I'm not entirely sure where lieth the line determining what I should and shouldn't cover in terms of the written word. A poem of this length seems reasonable, but I don't know that I should be in the business of taking requests to "cover" Gravity's Rainbow. Maybe, though... interpretation would allow me to do whatever I felt appropriate to cover a massive novel, and, to be fair, there are "songs" in my library that clock in over the hour mark and definite qualify as larger "works"... so I guess I'll just feel this issue out when and if it arises again. Meanwhile, this one worked out well, I think.

Personnel:
Miranda Broome ~ percussion, keyboard
Ridley Broome ~ percussion, keyboard, harmonica
Rex Broome ~ vocal, mixing

2 comments:

  1. An excellent reading, RB -- very true to the version in my head. Even the echo. Thank you.

    But the second link needs repointed -- same as first. Not precisely a complaint...but would like to hear Broome, Broome and Broome. Please?

    ReplyDelete