Some weeks ago I watched a documentary about a piano prodigy. In his young teens, the boy spoke about music with a profound wisdom. One thing he said, in particular, stayed with me. I’m paraphrasing, but it went something like:
“The more you work with a piece of music, the more you find in it. Some people work with a piece long enough, with enough diligence, that they come to know the music better than the composer, find things in the music the composer didn’t realize were there.”
Sometimes an artist covers someone else’s material and finds something transcendant in it. I think that’s what Feist has done with Ron Sexsmith’s Secret Heart. Sexsmith is a helluva songwriter. Secret Heart has a splendid melody, and his lyrical insight into fearful love is profound, but Feist and her idiosyncratic spirit transform this song.
What’s more interesting is that Feist’s own studio recording of Secret Heart has little of the verve, risk or emotion bursting from this live performance on a Paris stage.
Feist live in Paris? A true Gem.
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[…] thrill when I find some beloved song masterfully covered by another artist. (See my post regarding Feist’s transcendant cover of Secret Heart.) What I also love are the emotional inflections each cover artist brings to a song. For example, […]
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It really is a fantastic version – perfect for a spot of air-guitar – but did you hear the bum note she hits right at the end? Funny.
Singing? There’s one that’s a bit off, yep. Sarah McLachlan, I hear, has perfect pitch. Neil Young and Feist? Not so much. I’m willing to forgive them both. :)
Speaking of Canadians with varying degrees of pitch sense, have you ever tried listening to Avril Lavigne live? Oh dear…