Wednesday, April 16, 2008

cheesy emo song

It is interesting how the current state of the internet allows people who wouldn't otherwise have a loud voice to have their opinions heard, while also giving them the safety of relative anonymity.  No one has to earn the right to voice their opinions on the internet, there is no editor, no one watching the gates.  That is a huge thing.

YouTube always seems to be the worst with this.  I see some of the most disturbing things said about some videos, often times filled with brutal bigotry.  Generally I see heated discussions over things so trivial that I laugh in astonishment.  I've never seen myself at the heart of any of those discussions until today, though, when I happened upon a YouTube video of myself playing Famous Blue Raincoat in October 2006 (probably my personal favorite of the ones up there, save for my haircut, though if you search Street to Nowhere on that site, the results are pretty disappointing, and I'm going to work to fix that when I can).

I found that people had been posting comments about the video and someone very passionate about Leonard Cohen - most likely as passionate as myself, which would lead me to believe we'd be great friends - posted some heartfelt criticism of the performance.  

I have rarely had this sort of thing directed towards me.  STN is niche enough that people seem to either be into the music or ignore it, and that is totally cool.

So you may understand that I felt mixed emotions being at the center of a very brief youtube comment discussion.  At first I was excited by it, and laughed, and then it hurt just a little - how could it not? - but then I laughed again, and was really touched that people came to my defense, especially the person with the handle, LeonardAndNickFan.  I can only assume that the Nick refers to Nick Cave, which means that person is just plain awesome. 

- The comments are below the video -



smpl187 (1 month ago) -1 Reply | Spam
This guys voice is terrible, he cant play the song properly, and turns something with so much integrity into a cheesy emo song.
He sucks.

colm144 (3 weeks ago) 0 Reply | Spam
he has an incredible voice, sure hes no leonard cohen as regards delivery of felling and emotion,
but he does the song justice,
i think it works well as an emo song,
just goes to show how adaptable cohens work is.

smpl187 (3 weeks ago) -1 Reply | Spam
He is singing in a key that he cant hold...his voice sounds strained at points, and he goes off tune. He doesnt even finger pick the guitar.
Next he is going to do suspicious minds by Elvis im sure, and because of his high voice and fake emotions it will be praised like this one.

garymgarino (3 weeks ago) 0 Reply | Spam
Wow--what a hater! I'd like to hear you post a cover of a Cohen song and do better than Street to Nowhere, if your voice is so damn good

smpl187 (1 week ago) 0 Reply | Spam
You are a bit slow I take it? At no point did I say I have a good voice. The fact is...my musical talents dont really matter at this point. This boy has made my favorite song sound bad. Why are all of you people so interested in his defense?

LeonardAndNickFan (1 week ago) -1 Reply | Spam
Did you say... ahem... Cheesy emo song?????? Ohhhh, noooo, no you didn't!! C'mon!! This song could be sung by rabid hyenas and still not sound in any way bad!! Christ, this is one well-written tune!! I admire little spikey haired dude's enthusiasm!! He's giving it a go, eh??!! He's carrying the message!! And, what a GREAT message it is! Fabulous song, lovely attempt... not to match Lenny's version, but still lovely!! Powerful!!

gmanfive0 (2 days ago) 0 Reply | Spam
I am going to agree with smpl here. The delivery is way off, the emotion isn't there...it's way too emo and Cohen didn't do it with that in mind. His voice IS strained & sounds much more angry than Cohen meant for it to be, & he beats the hell out of the guitar! Cohen's delivery is more anguish/anger and down right pain. This guy is...no, it's not there.

I am a musician and I understand interpretation but this...is just crap. This guy just needs to go cut himself maybe he will feel better then.

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Now, cutting myself has never seemed like a very rational way to deal with my problems. Usually the easiest way for me to feel better is to pick up the guitar and play a song I love - often times it is a song written by Leonard Cohen. 

Though, as my father told me when I received my very first negative review years ago, "There's no accounting for taste."
I'm gonna go work on my video for Suspicious Minds now - that was a great idea.