A dollar well spent is to go over to iTunes and buy Greg Laswell's cover of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".* Laswell offers what I have been arguing for years via karaoke is the correct interpretation of the song: to be sung by a male, not a female, and to be sung sadly/ruefully/bitterly, not exuberantly. It's unclear from the recording, however, if he also steals my tactic of choosing an audience member at random to be the target of this rue.
Two other songs I downloaded from the same list: "Infinity" by Merrick, and an acoustic rendition of "Overkill" by Colin Hay. The latter is interesting for being recorded over twenty years after than the hit version by the same artist and being, perhaps inarguably, better. All these songs are of the mellow and easy-to-work-by variety.
* Via a list on the private blog of a certain friend; my ability to link to friend's blogs has been hindered in recent months by the rise of the private blog.
8 comments:
There is circumstantial evidence to support your interpretation. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was written by Robert Hazard, and the only other song of his to get any substantial radio play in the 1980's was Escalator of Life, which also sounds rueful, sad, etc. But now that I think of it, I could imagine that song done quite differently as well.
I love to work by Colin Hay. His acoustic "I just don't think I'll ever get over you" from the Garden State soundtrack is also good...
What pharmaceutical books did you read? Which one(s) were best?
Hay also does acoustic versions of "Who Can It Be Now" and "Down Under" on that same album, and those are both good, too.
He did the acoustic "Overkill" as a patient in the opener to Season Two (iirc) of Scrubs. (Continuing, or perhaps explaining, the GS connection.)
Ken, as I understand it, Zach Braff befriended Cary Brothers and other musicians at Northwestern, and they got him into Colin Hay (and, well, Cary Brothers, who's also on the GS soundtrack).
This can be heard on his myspace page without paying a dollar.
Ditto on the Colin Hays.
It's on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTHduQqfqUo
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