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  #101  
Unread 08-27-2017, 12:48 PM
Mark McDonnell Mark McDonnell is offline
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For a heartbreaking little vignette I love this Rufus Wainwright song, 'The Art Teacher'. I like it when people sing in character and away from their own gender too, there's something very folk-song about it. I think it stems from when I first heard Dylan's pre-Animals version of House of the Rising Sun and realised he was singing from the female perspective. Anyway, great song...

The Art Teacher

There I was in uniform
Looking at the art teacher
I was just a girl then;
Never have I loved since then

He was not that much older than I was
He had taken our class to the Metropolitan Museum
He asked us what our favorite work of art was,
But never could I tell that it was him
Oh, I wish I could tell him,
Oh, I wish I could have told him

I looked at the Rubens and Rembrandts
I liked the John Singer Sargents
He told me he liked Turner
Never have I turned since then
No, never have I turned to any other man

All this having been said,
I married an executive company head
All this having been done, a Turner,
Now I own one

Now here I am in this uniformish, pant-suit sort of thing,
Thinking of the art teacher
I was just a girl then;
Never have I loved since then
No, never have I loved any other man

https://youtu.be/Zr9NMQx0VzM
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  #102  
Unread 08-29-2017, 10:04 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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"I like it when people sing in character and away from their own gender too, there's something very folk-song about it."

So do I. Off the top of my head, the only example I can come up with is Emmylou Harris doing The Boxer. A less clear-cut example (since the singer does not refer to herself as a man) is "Valerie," a song done amazingly well in this video by Amy Winehouse. Do you have any others in mind?

(PS -- I can't think of any in which a man sings a song that is meant to be a woman speaking. The closest I can think of is John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery," which, come to think of it, certainly qualifies, but since he wrote it, and it was intended to be the voice of a woman, it's more a persona song when he does it, though perhaps even more powerful when Bonnie Raitt does it).
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  #103  
Unread 08-29-2017, 10:35 AM
Mark McDonnell Mark McDonnell is offline
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Hi Roger!

Yes, I love Any Whitehouse doing 'Valerie'!

Hmm, well the two examples I gave (Dylan and Wainwright) are men singing from a female perspective. The other one that springs to mind is another from a folk song tradition. Bert Jansch singing 'Rosemary Lane'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ymZDtgV58

Rosemary Lane

When I was in service in Rosemary Lane
I won the goodwill of my master and did I
Till a sailor came there one night to lay
And that was the beginning of my misery

He called for a candle to light him to bed
And likewise a silk handkerchief to tie up his head
To tie up his head as sailors will do
And he said my Pretty Polly will you come too

Now this maid being young and foolish she thought it no harm
For to lie into bed to keep herself warm
And what was done there I will never disclose
But I wish that short night had been seven long years

Next morning this sailor so early arose
And into my apron three guineas did throw
Saying take this I will give and more I will do
If you'll be my Polly wherever I go

Now if it's a boy he will fight for the king
And if it's a girl she will wear a gold ring
She will wear a gold ring and a dress all aflame
And remember my service in Rosemary Lane

When I was in service in Rosemary Lane
I won the goodwill of my master and did I
Till a sailor came there one night to lay
And that was the beginning of my misery


Edit: It is harder to think of a song where a woman sings from a male pov...

Edit edit: OOH I've thought of one! Patti Smith doing Van Morrison's 'Gloria' with added sacrilegious poetry at the start! Now this kicks some ass/arse. Of course it's not necessarily from a male perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPO0bTaWcFQ

Last edited by Mark McDonnell; 08-29-2017 at 11:01 AM.
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  #104  
Unread 08-29-2017, 11:12 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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A fascinating question. There are an awful lot of first-person songs, but gey few sung cross-gender. My own favorite is The Pogues' "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day", sung by Cait O'Riordan. Though i do love Amy Winehouse.

Cheers,
John

I think i will give an honorable mention to The Kinks' "Lola". There is also "Luka", sung by Suzanne Vega.

Last edited by John Isbell; 08-29-2017 at 11:16 AM.
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  #105  
Unread 08-29-2017, 11:22 AM
Mark McDonnell Mark McDonnell is offline
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John, the Pogues song is a great example! Damn, I should have thought of it haha. A moment of beautiful calm on an album mainly of brilliant rambunctiousness. Again, it seems very much a folk-song thing. It seems a tragedy not to link to it...

https://youtu.be/FJt4y4fH938

Last edited by Mark McDonnell; 08-29-2017 at 11:26 AM.
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  #106  
Unread 08-29-2017, 11:48 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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Just got off the phone with my sister who loves folk music. She quoted a piece about all the lyrics beginning "As i walked out one midsummer morning", etc., saying that this allowed a guy to sing in a woman's voice. For instance, "Early one morning, just as the sun was rising, / I heard a maiden sing in the valley below", that old classic.
She was talking about how people often change up pronouns in cover versions - Joni Mitchell doing "Me and My Uncle" - but Joan Baez almost never does: "Fennario", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Long Black Veil", the list is a long one.
And then there's Johnny Cash doing "A Boy Named Sue": "My name is Sue / How do you do / Now you gonna die!".

Cheers,
John

Mark, i agree it seems a tragedy not to link to The Pogues. And here's Joan Baez, singing "As we marched down to Fennario": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK-SrZhbAyI

Last edited by John Isbell; 08-29-2017 at 11:51 AM.
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  #107  
Unread 08-30-2017, 06:13 AM
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Michael F Michael F is offline
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Speaking of Winehouse, I’ve posted it before, but this cover of Carole King’s classic is wonderful IMO. Beautifully highlights AW’s unique voice. Love the brass in it … I think it’s much better than the over-amped version they released in “Lioness”.

(I apologize for going OT!)
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  #108  
Unread 08-31-2017, 10:24 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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She was the real deal.
Thanks for posting that video, Michael, nice to have her up front in the mix, as in old soul. Her voice deserves it.

Cheers,
John
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  #109  
Unread 08-31-2017, 08:08 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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Here's another standard she does wonders with. All My Loving
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  #110  
Unread 08-31-2017, 08:56 PM
Aaron Novick Aaron Novick is offline
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Can - Don't Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone

(a) great song
(b) great title
(c) the kicker:
If you really want me, if you really need me,
Don't turn the light on, leave me alone
I don't particularly wish I had written that (brilliant though it is), but I know Thom Yorke wishes he had.

Last edited by Aaron Novick; 08-31-2017 at 08:59 PM.
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