Take This One Down - Fool Such as I
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01:55 pm
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Fool Such as I
Ask most fans of Bright Eyes, J. Cash, Joy Division, or D. Johnston, and they will tell you with gleaming globes that the singer must be immediately present in his song. Hhe has to be living what he is saying. It must be true and "heart felt" or else it will come across as false. One could call this the method approach to singing. This explanation might be true, but it does not explain the aesthetic success of Elvis and Dean Martin. These gentlemen, like John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, "phone in" their performances. With the exception of Thunder Road (Jesus wept), they all perform other people's material. Elvis sings about being a black man in America. Mitchum is drunk on brown liquor performing surgery he'll have us believe in a hospital. These dopey sons of bitches pull it off because they are filled with joy while facing the material. "Little Old Wine Drinker Me" has little sorrow and thank you because it would take away from it. In fact, it always takes away. That is why Screamo is so unsuccessful. The more pain you pour in does not add to the song. Sometimes these guys accidentally hit it because they approached the song with love. Elvis sings this song about being a fool. He says pardon me if I'm sentimental when we say goodbye. No fake or genuine hurt in his voice. You hear this approach piped in through Starbucks often, singers who can't stand what they are doing for a living any more than the lady behind the desk at the post office. The Sex Pistols were REAL, boy, but they hated music and so we hate listening to them. Don't we? Yes, we do.
Elvis is a shower singer. He loves black music though he may only have a level of understanding of the people on par with Barbara Bush. He doesn't have to cut himself to get inside the pain of being a fool such as I.
Also, try the Jim Reeves version. He sticks his lips out on all the oos in the song. Makes for a sentimental slow dance. You have been slowdancing at home, haven't yoo? Slowdances are so intimate they should not be the subject of criticism. I leave you two alone with it.
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