A crowd of people stood and stared

Dear friends,

I wish I could hang up a "Gone Fishing" sign 'cause in a sense, that's what I'm doing right now. Please bear with me and enjoy these covers.

1. The elegant Captain commands from the dunes.

Mojo magazine decided to get a bunch of bands to cover Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety and Captain had the nerve to do A Day in the Life. We heard it in the car on the way to New Paltz. J drove the long way just so I could look out the window at the Hudson. As the song came on over a stretch of barren turnpike, I wondered just how it would work on a shoestring. It's lovely really. Like the original in matchbox form. No strings but still shimmering somehow. When the last chord rang out, cutting off sooner than the original, The Monkey said "Lame." I don't agree. Not everyone has simultaneous access to multiple pianos. One does what one can.

Song to seek:

A Day in the Life/Captain (mp3)

Befriend Captain on My Space.

Buy This Is Hazelville by Captain

2. Bryan Ferry has been playing the soulful lounge lizard for years now. I like this crackadoodle cover because I can almost picture the prancing, bored with the Beguine-ing, winking Ferry of Roxy singing it. He gives you a tiny, menacing smile and goes back to his martini without a hair out of place.

Song to seek:

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue/Bryan Ferry (mp3)

Buy Frantic by Bryan Ferry

3. I'll never forget reading an article on Serge Gainsbourg's passing in The Voice and asking my moms what "provocateur" meant. Because of that word, I HAD to find out about this guy and his music. Mick Harvey knows provocation, just give a listen to the sleazy neon cabaret of Crime and the City Solution and of course, his work as a Bad Seed. Harvey recorded a couple of Gainsbourg cover albums sung in English. In theory, they should have been lousy* but weren't. I loved the original paean to Brigitte Bardot that much more once I understood the voyeuristic urgency of the lyric. The way the strings correspond with the movement; the fluttering hair on a beautiful woman as she runs through the street. Both cover albums are fantastic, though I'm partial to the first for this song and also for the seasick carnival swirl of Harvey's Intoxicated Man cover.

Song to seek:

Initials B.B./Mick Harvey (mp3)

Buy Intoxicated Man by Mick Harvey

Love, D

* I'm not opposed, generally, to French to English song translation, but Gainsbourg in English seemed like an especially bad idea.