The summer of 1984-85 had its ups, downs and sideways moments for me. One of the unmitigated ups was Pat Benatar’s best song IMHO, We Belong. Here is the studio version, and here is Pat in recent times performing it live. Also here.
Today I have discovered that the song has also been covered by Tori Amos. Here is Tori singing it live to her own piano accompaniment, and I have to confess that Tori lays down a real challenge to Pat’s ownership of the song.
For the record, We Belong was also the second song I worked out on the Fender acoustic guitar which I purchased in December 2004 (the first being Bridal Train by The Waifs), but I would not suggest that my rendition poses any real prospect that the Pat versus Tori contest could become a three-cornered affair.
Eek, spooky — I’ve just finished writing and am about to put up a post about learning to play a particular song on one’s guitar, and came over here to get the URL for Nabs’s comment about Bobbie Gentry, which is what started the whole train of thought.
Never had a Fender, though.
Both of these are cool. Personally, it’s still Benetar’s version for me, but there’s definitely something worth taking from both versions.
Comparing Amos’s minimalistic take on the song to Benetar’s brought up a broader issue in musical appreciation. While it doesn’t apply here (as noted, both versions are exccellent) there seems to be a belief in some quarters that minimalistic, preferably acoustic instrumentation automatically leads to a better, “more honest” interpretation of a song.
For mine at least, Eric Clapton’s original electric take on “Layla” is far more powerful than the acoustic version he did many years later.
OMG, that’s awful. You’d think that someone like Tori Amos could afford to get the piano tuned. And the recording is a disaster, the crackling, the really bad compression artefacts, the garbled midrange… it just makes me want to cringe. It cleans up a bit towards the end, but it is a great example of what Mal Webb calls “advertisements for live performances”.
I quite like Tori Amos as an artist, and I can imagine her doing this song quite well. Does anyone have a link to a decent attempt?
It’s often true that studio versions are overproduced rubbish. After all, if you’re paying a producer you want to use them.
“something worth taking from both versions”
Agreed. In Benatar’s case, joy. In Tori’s, Tori.
Tori Amos has some interesting covers. Her album ‘Strange LIttle Girls’ consisted of covers of songs originally sung by men which dealt with violence in some way.
I particularly enjoyed her version on that album of ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ which was used to great effect in an episode of the West Wing.
I’ve been a fan of Tori since her release of LE, so I have some bias in her direction. But then, Pat’s version of the song is the ‘original’ that sets the standard, and the standard in this instance is quite high. Hard to pick.
Pat’s rendition expresses sadness and confusion; Tori’s rendition has a more plaintive lamentating quality to it. Call it draw, as each version is a different interpretation of the song.
And I’m with Robert regarding “Layla”. My first exposure to that song was the later acoustic version. It was okay. I enjoyed listening to it. But when I heard the original redition by Clapton I was blown away; it is far, far superior.
A theory which, if applied to a song like Anarchy in the UK, could have interesting consequences!
I recall a performance by Johnette Napolitano in Brisbane in 1998 which included an unaccompanied version of Joey. It didn’t do it for me the way the Concrete Blonde studio version did.
Anarchy in the UK should be done Tony Bennett/Michael Buble style. You know it makes sense.
Well there’s Nouvelle Vague’s cover of God Save The Queen
Roger @9: perhaps you could convince Frank Bennett to give it shot…
Probably because it’s a bootleg captured with a mike in the audience. The sort of quality you’re missing only comes off the mixing desk.
I’ve been a fan of her covers since Smells Like Teen Spirit. Personally my favourite off Strange Little Girls is Rattlesnakes.
The original version of Layla is the best ’cause Duane Allman was helping Eric out on guitar
One of fave EPs of yore is Tori’s “Winter” with covers of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Angie, and Led Zep’s “Thank You” inna minimalist piano stylee.
And also Tori’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case Of You” that Diana Krall ripped off for her “Live in Paris” DVD (which further influenced k.d.lang’s version on “Hymns From The 49th Parallel”).
“Probably because it’s a bootleg captured with a mike in the audience. The sort of quality you’re missing only comes off the mixing desk.”
And weren’t it great back in the 90s when the Copyright amanedments opened a legal loophole for unauthorised live recordings (and a corresponding sad day with the Parliament closed it)? I’ve two Tori bootlegs from those days, one terrific one from the “Under the Pink” Tour, and one dicey one that’s all wow and flutter.
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You’re lucky you never owned a Fender acoustic, PC. The only ones I ever played were horrid. Of course, that’s well before the one Paul was discussing, late 60s I think. (The electrics are another matter entirely, of course, although I actually prefer Matons for playability.)
That said, I still own a CBS-branded guitar from the days when they owned Fender – I bought it in about 1974, and it’s a lovely sounding instrument. I had to do a lot of work on it (lift the bridge and sand about 1/8 inch off the back, and then build a new nut) to make it playable, though.
Robert @2“…a belief … that minimalistic, preferably acoustic instrumentation automatically leads to a better, “more honest” interpretation of a song.”
Pual @8 “A theory which, if applied to a song like Anarchy in the UK, could have interesting consequences!”
I once heard a recording by mates of mates of an ambient-acoustic rendition of “Motorhead”. I don’t know about “better”, or “more honest”, but it was certainly revolutionary, and transformed my understanding of the song
Is not a contest.
Dreadful! Worst cover since Radiohead wheezed and grizzled their way through Union City Blue, another ’80s cover from a singer who could really sing and a band that could both rock and at the same time roll.
@13
Not to mention the brilliant coda. Duane’s slide and the grand piano just soar.
In case anyone is wondering, I did not post about a song with the lyric “Have we become a habit? Do we distort the facts?” in order to have a poke at greenhouse denialists or News Ltd. journalists.
Shudders, Paul, not one of the highlights of that period for me, though I can remember the song well. That was the “Do They Know it’s Christmas Time?” summer, wasn’t it? There hadn’t been so much yoof hope around since the Summer of Love.
My friends and I were starting to move away from our five minutes of teeny-bopperdom to New Wave and New Romantic, mainly British. No funk thankyouverymuch. And we were all greasy-haired and covered in pimples and 14-year-old angst.
o New Wave and New Romantic, mainly British. No funk thankyouverymuch.
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How do you get New Romantic without funk exactly?
Apologies to critics, but I simply can’t hear a bad word said against Tori Amos. Hey, she made three great records in a row — Under the Pink, Boys for Pele, and From the Choirgirl Hotel. That’s enuf for any mortal. Especially when you consider that she seems like she was designed in a lab by a mad scientist for the express purpose of annoying me personally. Sorry, Doctor X, it didn’t work. Somehow I think “Bells for Her” and the end of “The Wrong Band” are among the best bits (and in the case of the latter, also the wittiest) of pop songwriting in our time. At least before that craft totally expired, as lately it seems to’ve. –Of. Have. I know the latter is correct, but this bit of grammar has always been a nuisance.
Adrien @ 23, no mainstream funk. Pointer Sisters bad, for example.
Chookie #22, that was the Do They Know It’s Christmas? summer. Also the We Are The World summer and the Vote 1 Peter Garrett and the Nuclear Disarmament Party summer. In the intervening quarter century some of the yoof hope has been, in Roger Waters’ words, “lost in a daze of alcohol-soft middle age”.
no mainstream funk.
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Duran Duran? Spandau Ballet? Frankie Goes To Hollywood?
A slight double-take on the opening post. The best song which Pat Benatar was ever involved in recording is this one.