Borne Back Ceaselessly (and Gleefully) Into the Past (With Some Guitars, Instead of Boats)

Here's a new blog. This is a manifestation of the disjointed musical obsessions and other various observations on anything---books, news, clothes, television---that might take residence in my brain and eat away at it until I write it down.

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I think sometimes the most glorious kinds of music is not necessarily the the shiny new stuff, but is when someone takes something old(er) and molds it to their talent. One of the best examples is the Beatles with "Twist and Shout" which was not a terribly exciting song before they got their hands on it. I've realized that a lot of the classic rock guys I've been listening to do this quite often (Led Zeppelin deftly inserting Elvis' "That's Alright" and "Mess of Blues" into "Whole Lotta Love"; Jackson Browne singing "Stay" by the Zodiacs---shout out to Dirty Dancing there; Creedence Clearwater Revival doing "Susie Q." I think of these things as a nod to an "older" time, but now that I think about it, they were just doing stuff from a decade or so before. It was still a skillful glance backwards at their rock forebears.

On the same note, I guess I used to think covering a song wasn't as noble as writing your own but I realize how fucking fantastic some covers can be, even if their originals were just as good. "Proud Mary"---again with CCR--was a great rock song before Ike and Tina Turner got their hands on it. And then it became another kind of great rock song. And then Glee got their hands on it, and it became another fabulous incarnation.