Some Songs Considered

“Across the Universe” – David Bowie
(Words/music: John Lennon & Paul McCartney, available on Young Americans, Virgin 1975) 

The Beatles’ recording of “Across the Universe,” recorded primarily on February 4, 1968, gradually unfolds itself and lets subtle layers of strings and harmonies roll out as the song progresses.  It’s appropriate, given both the song’s famous opening line and the way John Lennon described the song “flowing” into him one night in bed.  With its Sanskrit mantra mixed in, “Across the Universe” thrives on this circular interconnectivity on both the lyrical and musical level.

All this makes David Bowie’s version a little stranger.  Where Lennon’s performance flows effortlessly, Bowie’s version lags.  Anchored by a strong backbeat, the rest of the song feels like it’s moving in slow motion – the harmonies are strained and stretched out and the guitar melodies expand past their original length.  This isn’t a bad thing, either.  In fact, a straight-ahead cover from Bowie would be boring and out of character.  Instead, as it appears with the rest of the “plastic soul” Young Americans, Bowie’s universe feels slightly melted and warped and just slightly more irregular than Lennon’s perfect circle.  However, even with slightly disjointed parts, Bowie’s version reaches a moment of connectivity as well when Lennon shows up and trades off vocals at the end.  If Lennon’s original is a meditation, Bowie and Lennon’s trade off feels like resolution in the face of hardship.  With disjointed pieces and all, it’s a reminder that sometimes inner peace comes from ourselves rather than our surroundings.

More on David Bowie: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Jealous Guy” – John Lennon
(Words/music: John Lennon, available on Imagine, Apple Records / EMI 1971)

Like many other great artists, John Lennon took moments that others might call mundane and coaxed out the inner beauty.  While “Jealous Guy” might feel a little over-sentimentalized (mainly because of those syrupy sweet strings in the background), his narrator hits the right emotional notes.  Specifically, the narrator hones in on the insecurity behind jealousy.  No matter how we dress it up, jealousy comes back to this deep-rooted feeling that we aren’t good enough (or, perhaps, that someone else is better).  Rather than fall into a cycle of anger that jealousy often starts, Lennon’s narrator opens himself up to his vulnerability by owning his jealous behavior and admitting to his flaws.  It’s this disarming sweetness that makes him human, and it makes the claim that a hurtful result could come from a place of love a little more believable.  After all, we’re all imperfect, and while good intentions alone won’t yield results, hiding from one’s failings won’t lead to growth either.

Today, six years after Elliott Smith died, I’m thinking not only about his songs but about “Jealous Guy” too.  While many might link the two songwriters together based on their premature deaths, I think of the types of characters both men created.  Both wrote songs about imperfect people who strove to be better, and while many focused on these characters’ flaws and thought of the songs as depressing, it’s an incomplete part of the picture.  Often, both Lennon and Smith balanced the low points with a pervading sweetness and often a sense of hope.  “Jealous Guy,” which Smith playfully covered on several occasions, acknowledges the narrator’s failure yet doesn’t mire itself in pity.  Instead, it’s a plea to remedy the situation and move forward – and hearing Smith’s voice rise as he sings these lines (and laugh as he invites the crowd to whistle along with him) underscores the hope that next time the narrator won’t make the same mistake.

More on John Lennon: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Young Americans” – David Bowie
(Words/music: David Bowie, available on Young Americans, Virgin 1975)

In completely isolated circumstances – never having heard the song before nor knowing that it is a David Bowie song – “Young Americans” requires a slight leap of faith to get into it.  Knowing the song, the opening drum notes are enough to guarantee that I will do nothing but listen to this song for the next five minutes.  However, I understand how the unfamiliar might be put off by the opening; the cascading piano keys and the absurdly prominent honking saxophone makes the song sound like the type of soft-rock fare heard while shopping in a drug store.  Bowie eventually rewards the listener’s patience as slowly all of the different layers come in, starting with the moment the backing vocals enter during the first chorus. Featuring future star Luther Vandross, Bowie’s backing singers push his own vocal performance as he tries to keep up with them.  Slowly, he settles into the song and works himself up into a soulful fervor.  Maybe it’s his background singers pushing him to compete with them, perhaps Bowie gets more worked up as he goes deeper into his cynical look at life in the 70s, or maybe it’s just a superb arrangement with an excellent bridge leading into the final climax.  Regardless, Bowie turns in perhaps his finest vocal performance, especially in the last minute and a half as he sounds like a man possessed, tossing off line after line until his band stops and Bowie puts his cracking falsetto squarely into the spotlight.  Bowie’s vocal performance alone makes this an essential song, but it’s the flawless arrangement that catapults “Young Americans” into the stratosphere.   I even kind of like that damn saxophone even though it’s a little too loud for my taste.

To me, the most interesting line is the borrowed line from the opening of “A Day in the Life” in that final stretch run.  My friend Mike and I discussed it a while back and we agreed that the single line fits only because it’s the perfect length – any more and it would derail the song.  I see a few different reasons for the line (“I heard the news today, oh boy”).  First, it could be a hat tip to John Lennon, who guests on two other songs on Young Americans.  It also fits the thematic content of the song – Bowie fills his song with details of racism, economic depression, and social injustice (among other bummers) and his backing singers offer the line almost like a Greek chorus commenting on the plot.  It’s important that the backing singers and not Bowie get this line as well, letting it work as a bit of call-and-response, as the line triggers Bowie’s most impassioned segment of the song.  It also creates this sort of dialogue between Bowie’s sketch of American life in the 1970s with Lennon’s depiction of youthful boredom in 1960’s England.  Mike summarizes the conversation as “Life in England is full of tedium and repetition… Yeah, well America’s just as bad, it’s just more hedonistic.”  I’m inclined to agree with his interpretation.

More on David Bowie: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm