Under Cloud Cover and Drifting Away

Well, I touched down from a brief retreat to Chicago this weekend for Greek Easter, but even my family and my fair city by the lake weren't enough to snap me out of my funk, so we'll keep it short this time, offering a sort of soundtrack to my moping around while I continue to make a mess of my life after hurting my Big Toe.

First up in this duo of covers -- sad bastard music, as Jack Black would undoubtedly say, but pretty nonetheless -- is a B-side from fellow Chicagoan Andrew Bird, covering the old Dylan tune, "Oh Sister." Besides showcasing his standard weapons -- the ethereal whistle, plucked violin, and soothing croon -- and being a nice reinvention of the original, this is another example from Bird of how perfectly some voices go together, the counterpoint coming again from Nora O'Connor, a woman whose voice sounds like it was created just to be paired with Bird's, as I've said so often before. A brilliant little tune that simply and stolidly marches along, this one's lyrics and pace hit the right notes to calm my melancholic edge. Check it out...here.


The second one should be no surprise as it comes from the subject of my last post, the ever-trusty Elliott, who is again being called on -- as so many times in the past -- to help tease a little prettiness out of my blue, blue mood. This one's a relatively recent find for me, compared to my years-old obsession for the rest of his tunes, as it's a rare live nugget that he occasionally played while on tour.

The song may not be his -- it's a cover of of his friends Quasi's tune, "Clouds" -- but the lyrics are quintessentially Elliott, cutting both ways depending on your mood. On one pass it can be read as a pretty little love tune, the song's two subjects floating away as one in the devastating titular lyric. ("I am mist, you are steam, we are clouds. And we are drifting away, drifting away...") On another -- like now -- it can be a bitter lament on loss and incompatibility. Either way, the song is another Elliott gem, one that manages to surpass its original -- like his equally heartbreaking cover of Big Star's "Thirteen." (An interpretation rivaled only by hometown hero Wilco head Jeff Tweedy's.) The video that accompanies this is utter schmaltz, and for that I apologize -- I couldn't find a good version of the song anywhere else online -- so just start it up and close your eyes so as to avert the cheesey damage.



That's all for now, kids -- thanks to Pie for breaking the curse and bringing another opinion to the collective. (I echo the Spoon shoutout -- they've been one of my faves for years. I'll have to post the tracklist from my "One You Should Know"-style greatest hits disc later on.) Let's keep it going...

RdS