melomanias, etc.

terça-feira, janeiro 29, 2008

copycats I love #1

Ok, maybe not really copycats - I would answer to your complaints. The politically correct version would be something like interpreters. But this is my blog and I don't care about that: copycats it is.

The #1 bit let's us foresee that there will be others. Well, originality is an extinct species anyway. So I imagine I am going to have various sources of inspiration for these thematic posts, apart from the ones I can already recollect from past memories.

Now, to what really made me want to write this (in addition to the frustration of seeing my blog creatively frozen for several days in a row - a situation which has no novelty about itself - now this parenthesis is already too long, but like I said, it's my blog and I'll leave it like this just because I want to and, more importantly, I CAN): let's start with, hum, Elliott Smith. It could be Franz Ferdinand, and I would like that also, but no. I'd rather start with something more Indie so as to make a statement (even before saying anything).

Because. Beatles wrote it. It is a simple song and quite beautiful, harmony-based. (Most of the times, those are the hardest to create). I've met it for the first time listening to Elliott Smith and let myself float. Elliott's interpretation doesn't strip the song of its beatlelesque qualities. Conversely, it refines its harmonies and affirms its dreamy spirit.

It is not the type of song one can imagine Elliott Smith writing. Not that its formal beauty is somehow a foreigner to Elliott's works. That formal beauty characterized by vocal harmonies and idealized sounds is present in several of his best creations. But Elliott didn't picture the world as a redundantly pleasurable place - like the one present in Because. He usually completed his songs with pessimistic lyrics that, combined with the dreamy soundscapes, bore a unique feeling of authenticity (because the world is beautiful, but tragically beautiful).

And now I've said more about Elliott than I have said about the song. But it's by perceiving Elliott's character that we can better comprehend the song and the reason that took a depressed soul to choose The Beatles repertoire for his favorite source of covers. Anyone who's feeling depressed would aim at living in such a perfect place as the one composed of their songs. Just Because.