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Monday, March 7, 2011

354. "She's the One" by Saint Etienne


Edward of Sim appears, on loan from Linus, to instantly demonstrate that as many different approaches as I've tried out on covers over the past year, I haven't come anywhere near hitting on them all. Specifically, I never attempted to do a multitracked vocal accompanied only by a bass guitar, which is just as well, since if I had, Mr. of Sim's version would have buried it.

I'm told it was recorded this way out of necessity and a lack of other instruments at hand, but it's a bit of a revelation in any case. The chord structure of the original is dictated in places by the material being sampled, and it sort of pivots on chords and seems to be in different keys from time to time in a very Saint Etienne way. Edward's version moves through those changes and makes them sound natural... maybe it's the swing he put into the rhythm. Even more interesting, though, is his suitably creepy stereo-harmonized reading of the coda: I most certainly heard "She's the One" before I ever heard "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" by The Crystals, but part of me has known that it's the source of that section of the song for a long time, but I never really heard it correctly until listening to this cover.

Personnel:
Edward of Sim, limited by Time and Space

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