Dave Van Ronk - "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me"
1. There are more cello voices than trumpet voices in this world and many more trumpet voices than woodwind ones. Double reed voices are more rare than the raw steak I'm eating right now, so sell Dave Van Ronk's voice on eBay; it'll fetch a fortune.
2. Ronk tends toward the lightest vocal skronk - the air tightening up, escaping thick and congested from Ronk's bronchus. Ronk's name is very funny, but his song is very sad. I'm laughing through my tears as I write this, alternately seduced by the suicidal impetus of Ronk's sonk and saved by the very hilarity of Ronk's nomenronkture.
3. "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" is a perfect driving song if the vehicle is a horse and the destination is your own execution. "Put the rope around my neck/hung me up so high/last words I heard him say/'won't be long now 'fore you die.'" Sensitive. [Buy]
***
Normally a big fat genius of interpretation, Cat Power here plays Otis Redding's "Remember Me" too slowly, too loosely, too formlessly. Even still, her many vocal flourishes (including her appropriation of Redding's patented I-can't-keep-it-inside-anymore ascending slide) are gifts of which - I'm sorry to say it - we are undeserving. [Available for exclusive download at eMusic.]
Posted by Jordan at October 5, 2006 4:11 AMOut of all the eleventy billion blogs I have read..."There are more cello voices than trumpet voices in this world and many more trumpet voices than woodwind ones. Double reed voices are more rare than the raw steak I'm eating right now, so sell Dave Van Ronk's voice on eBay; it'll fetch a fortune.
"your quick quirky throwaway bit..is some of the best flying I have ever seen..right up to the point where you got killed...you never leave your wingman...
this is great writing and you should rub it in the faces of the so and sos who say otherwise....
MacFaux.
Posted by macfaux at October 5, 2006 7:31 AMyeah it's great but wouldn't matter if it weren't dead on (which it is) but still it seems that ever since a certain so and so said that little thing about the writing on StG there has been a lack of weird stories, odd prose and/or random poetry. I hope it'll be back soon
Posted by craig at October 5, 2006 2:58 PMHey
Thanks for putting these two but up against each other.
About two weeks ago (sept 18) rbally ran a Cat Power link that included a live performance of "he was a friend of mine". It clicked with me, and I went to the van ronk myspace page (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=93719928)
where there is his long-ago recording of "he was a friend of mine"..
one a double reed of the heart, the other a double reed of the voice.
Nice post
Thanks (again)
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I wonder if it's necessary or polite to post "I don't like this" responses. It just seems irrelevant to me, and discouraging. Eh?
Posted by danica at October 5, 2006 9:53 PMI agree with your Cat Power comment- the cover is too loose and in my opinion a bit too sparse and umambitious. But her voice...dear God. Beautiful doesn't even come close. We truly are undeserving.
Carry on the good work!
Posted by Adam at October 7, 2006 8:00 AMI agree with the catpower comment. But it seems shes been going through alot lately...maybe thats it. She needs to get out of New York.
Thank god you can hear her voice though. That was my biggest gripe about "the Greatest." Somebody, maybe her, covered her voice up with pedals- totaly killing the album. Its her voice that makes the sparks fly. The silvertone helps too...but its really her voice. She could have an entire album acapella and I'd be triuphantly satisfied.
Posted by Chans fan at October 10, 2006 4:25 PM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
