Five Songs

[ckd]

Another round of the song letter meme. This time, whumpdotcom gave me "K". My zealousness in rating songs means that I can trivially generate a list of 5-star songs that start with K, then trim it down to the following:

"Kind & Generous", Natalie Merchant. While not my favorite of her work ("Wonder" still takes the crown there), it's probably my favorite track from Ophelia (edging out "Break Your Heart" and "Life Is Sweet"). It's the kind of song that's become a cliché to be played at graduations and the like, but at least in this case the lyrics actually bear out the intended resonance (unlike the all too common playing of "Every Breath You Take" at weddings).

"Kiss From A Rose", Seal. I have several versions of this in my iTunes library. The acoustic version from the Best Of 1991-2004 bonus disc is my favorite; it brings the song's emotional core down to just his voice, without the somewhat more bombastic delivery of his "regular" version. I'm not actually sure why "a kiss from a rose on the grave" is such a good thing to sing about, though.

I'm sure I've mentioned (once or twice) my love of cover songs. Even so, the fact that the remaining three songs are all cover versions seems a bit excessive, even by my standards....

"King Of Pain", Alanis Morissette (Police cover). This is another acoustic track (from her MTV Unplugged album), which is also unsurprising given my preference for those. I still like the original (and "King Of Suede", for that matter), but her enunciation is a bit clearer than Sting's is and the song really needs understandable lyrics for its full power. That said, the end bit where she sings it as "Queen Of Pain" bugs me. I'm not sure why.

"King Of The Road", The Proclaimers (Roger Miller cover). I have no idea why this song works so well for me with a Scottish accent; it just does. The video's available here if you want to see for yourself.

"Knockin' On Heaven's Door", Warren Zevon (Bob Dylan cover). Because of the circumstances surrounding The Wind, it's possibly the most poignant version of the song ever recorded. A dying man singing this song? A dying Warren Zevon singing this song? Open up. Open up.

Comments

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

I love, love, love Ophelia, though my favorites from that album are unabashedly "My Skin," "Farewell to May," and "When They Ring Them Golden Bells." :)

I really must find that version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."

[ckd]

It's fairly easy to get; it's on The Wind, his last album, and that's available on iTunes.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*takes notes*

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I love kiss from the rose too (though when I finally listened to the words, instead of snatching images, I decided, noooope, back to images, thank you.)

[tober.livejournal.com]

People play "Every Breath You Take", the song by The Police, at weddings? Wow. I think my head asplode. I mean, ok, it is in fact a good song and you can in fact dance to it, but still... the lyrics are really... stalker-y.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I've heard it really skeeves out Sting as well. I'm sure he's skeeved out all the way to the bank.

[mdyesowitch.livejournal.com]

I rank that with people who play EMF "Unbelievable" (which, back when I listend to Bilboard's top 40 with Casey Casem someone had dedicated to a summer fling/love of his. I rememeber that if I were the girl, I'd have found him and brained him with a skillet.) or "Mambo #5" at weddings. At least when Hoppie and I picked "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" we were aware of the appropriateness of the song, as were most of the attendees.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

One of the songs you could count on hearing at weddings in my (very extended) family was "You Always Hurt the One You Love". Truth in advertising, I suppose. (Now the younger part of my family tends to go for "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" which kind of makes my head hurt.)