Audiogrammes

Marie Laurencin, Trois jeunes femmes, vers 1953

It started with a pang.
At dawn
Was it hunger, an irresistible thirst or just my guilty conscience running away with me?
I obviously opted for hunger.
“French toast with molasses
Croquet and baked alaskas”

I’d been listening to this new box-set of REM rarities and found this gorgeous track.
Turns out they were covering Indie band Beat Happening

Of course, it’s not about food or a a picnic or just about “Indian summer” the golf and country club in Olympia (where beat Happening are from).
Star-crossed lovers? Oral sex? Theories abound.

“Touch girl, apple blossom
Just a boy playing possum
We’ll come back for Indian summer
And go our separate ways”

I just really like it. Makes me feel sad in a good way.

And to think I always thought it was a Ben Gibbard song

In the end, your subconscious always gets the upper hand.
Anyway…
It reminded me of another sad summer-y breakup track. Also a cover; this time by The National and St. Vincent

“Weary sun, sleep tonight, go crashing into the ocean
Cut the line that ties the tide and moon, ancient and blue
We take our empty hearts and fill them up with broken things
To hang on humming wire like cheap lamps down a dead end street
Close your weary eyes until the wintertime
And every time we turn away it hits me like a tidal wave
I would change for you but, babe, that doesn’t mean I’m gonna be a better man
Give the ocean what I took from you so one day you could find it in the sand
And hold it in your hands again

Cold ways kill cool lovers
Strange ways we used each other
Why won’t you fall back in love with me?
There ain’t no way we’re gonna find another
The way we sleep all summer
So why won’t you fall back in love with me?”

Indie artists covering Indie-er artists
I prefer the cover, but here’s the original by Crooked Fingers

And then randomness (who’s always been my closest ally) gives me the perfect outro: Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra covering Joe Dassin.

If you don’t know the original, here you go. Weirdly enough, he was American but sang in French…
For me it’s the civil war in Lebanon, Dédé and the unfortunately not too frequent “so bad it’s good” moments on Radio Nostalgie.

“je me souviens, je me souviens très bien
De ce que je t’ai dit ce matin-là
Il y a un an, y a un siècle, y a une éternité”

Post-Scriptum / Anatomy of a post:
Seems that very low voices were the common thread… or maybe that’s always the case…
Interested in vocal ranges? check this link

Reminds me of that lyric from Leonard Cohen ‘s Tower of Song:
“I was born like this, I had no choice. I was born with the gift of a golden voice”…