It may have been Aretha Franklin who was asked for her favorite contemporary female singers, around 1990, and said "The bald ones." I do like Sinead O'Connor, and can only imagine her singing "Mother." And Van Morrison I think is tremendous.
returning to neglected gems, how about R.D. Laing's "Life Before Death"? Out of print now, and impossible to find. He declaims the sonnet sequence over a pretty simple orchestration.
"To write a sonnet in this day and age
May seem to some an almost wanton waste
Of ink upon a page."
Or, after a breakup:
"She's gone, all gone. I should have kissed her more."
Some of the sonnets are in his "Sonnets", but I prefer the vinyl.
Cheers,
John
|