Great song.

It's one of those classic-sounding songs that, for whatever reason, was lost with time.

Both versions are great (though I like Grape's version better).

It's great to see what too artists do with the same piece.

Cheers.

-LVK

*two, sorry.

-LVK

de rien, sean.

i see it a bit differently. i think that there is definite gratitude in the moby grape version; but in lloyd's, and maybe i can't shake this b/c of who he is, i believe his gratitude is intended to be sardonic, that his gratitude is as cold as his scorn.

... but there's something in those keyboards that tell me it could be both. i could see lloyd being grateful that she finally gave him a reason to turn her away.

Thanks for the Grape/Cole post. It's great to see a song from "69" being covered. I've always thought it was one of the most under-appreciated albums of the late '60's.
That weariness you mentioned permeates the whole album. Check out "It's a Beautiful Day Today." Never has a melody so belied a song title.

Did Lloyd Cole stop producing pap some time between my youth and now? Because, c'mon, I was a kid when "Perfect Skin" was on the radio, and Cole's work was then and remained as long as I heard it plastic and annoying, as opposed to the '80s work I loved, which was.. er.. plastic and endearing. And I didn't much like that first Moby Grape LP, either. Hm.

Hold on, lemme download.

OK, maybe you're right about this MG LP. Like every kid picking through used bins in the Bay Area I picked up a $2 copy of their 1967 debut, found it dull and predictable and completely wrote them off. This tune is pretty nice, and deliciously wearily rendered. Moreover, even before playing Mr. Cole's version, I can just hear why he'd cover this one. Listen to the guitar filigrees in the background, then listen to the sheen on "Perfect Skin" -- sonically he's coming home, I predict.

Yeah, listen to how he brings that tertiary pop decoration forward. Pretty wallpaper is where the man lives, and has for nearly two decades. He was a craftsman even then, I'll give him that, and his craft wears well. But crikey, just as I'm about to like it, with a little reverb-drenched tom fill around the minute mark, he turns on the too-mannered wall of sound and it's all downhill.

My longstanding analytical model for cover songs is simple: it must be much better or much different than the original -- ideally, both, as in the Television Personalities cover of "Bike". This one is different, but not a lot. Pretty though the cover is, the only thing I like about Cole's version is hearing the guitarist's fingers on his strings now and then. That almost makes his version human.

I had planned to argue with Mr. Most-Underappreciated, but he was right (maybe without the superlative). Now I have to dig up a used copy of this one and give it a shot.

Thanks for the original, and screw Lloyd Cole.