(TV) Bowie's Cover of 'Kingdom Come' / Too much coffee?

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

>as I do about the cover of "Kingdom Come"---Woof!!!

Agreed. 

No matter what you may think of Verlaine's 
sometimes strangulated or adenoidal vocals (I have 
found they've actually grown on me over the years), 
there's certainly more passion in Verlaine singing just 
his line: "I'm going up for a pardon. Well pardon me" 
than in Bowie's emotionless falsetto on the cover 
version.

And the differences in the guitar playing and the 
arrangements on the two versions are striking: 

Verlaine's initial rising and falling guitar riffs 
together with Smith and Daugherty's bottom-end create 
the musical analogue for the repetitive, Sisyphean, 
desperate life of the chain gang. 

But then near the song's end Verlaine switches to 
more majestic chords that hint at the narrator's
transcending his grim earthly existence.  

Although I am usually a big fan of and Alomar 
and Fripp's guitar playing (and Visconti's 
production), on the cover the guitars and melody 
don't change much----they just keep chugging 
along like a lumbering freight train.

Sorry, I've had too much coffee today.

Interestingly enough I just bought a used CD 
of Scary Monsters yesterday to complement my LP 
copy. I love this album, and don't get me wrong,
the Kingdom Come cover's serviceable enough--it's
just that that this cover could've/should've 
been better--it doesn't come close to the original.

	Leo 
PS: "One of his favorite devices is to use blue or modal 
chords in the verse, then switch to triumphant major 
chords for the chorus.."--- Village Voice

-----Original Message-----
From: bill@celefex.com ]
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2002 12:56 PM
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: Re: (TV) Bowie: the music , the man

>I like it too. But I feel the same way about the cover of Neil Young's
>"I've Been Waiting for You" (one of my all time favorites)as I do 
>about the cover of "Kingdom Come"---Woof!!!
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