This was a bubble-gum, unattractive song by its original artist - who I will not even link to. When I first heard Alison Krauss sing it, I was floored. Somebody in that band has the remarkable ability to hear the beautiful potential even when the vessel is flawed. That may be rarer than the ability to write good songs. There's a sermon in that somewhere, about how God sees us and we should see each other.
The chord changes at about 1:15 are exactly the sort of subtle but dramatic improvement that such folks can bring.
Actually, the chord changes are the same as in the original. But I agree that Alison's version is much better.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of something else I came across recently. Another Alison--Alison Brown--and her band did a remake of "Every Day I Write the Book." And I also found the remake a nice improvement over the original in many ways. You can hear it here, but there is no video accompanying it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great song (and a great album)--I remember being deeply moved when I first heard Krauss's version. And upon quick listen, AVI may be right: after the guitar licks, at about 1:15, doesn't she transform the key up a whole note?
ReplyDeleteThis has been going on forever. Look what Louis Armstrong could do to a tired pop song: truly the Rumplestiltskin of music.
ReplyDeleteYes, the song in the original also had a key change there, but this version takes it up a half-step and takes the chord upstairs to make the open string more contrasted.
ReplyDeleteI like the atonality
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