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Cry Baby Cry

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A comment by Moose on the teenage top ten thread about the White Album dislodged a memory. Back in the late 80s I was slightly peeved to discover that my favourite song by Throwing Muses was a cover of a Beatles track. Liking covers, in my skew-whiff view of things, meant I wasn’t really a fan, didn’t really ‘get’ the artist/band. Still, it was a fantastic song, so kudos to the Fabs for coming up with another classic that I hadn’t known was theirs.

I never actually listened to the original – I think it must have passed me by on one of the few occasions I struggled through the White Album so I could tick it off the list/say I’d heard it. So, tonight, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I did. And it’s nothing like the Throwing Muses version.

So my question to you is – can I reclaim my perverse musical self-worth by really liking a Throwing Muses original, or is there some way in which it is a copy, but I’m just not hearing it?

Feel free to post other crying songs, if the mood takes you. I can think of tracks by INXS, Röyksopp and Janis Joplin that would fit the bill.

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Comments

    • It’s one of my faves on Ol’ Whitey. It creeps along sideways with sly menace. The bit where Thumbs and Bongo kick in rumblingly coincides with Lennon getting all clipped and sarky (“The Duchess of Kircaldy, always sssmiling and arriving late for tea”). The people in this song think they’re in Enid Blyton – they’re actually in Lord of the Flies, or A Clockwork Orange.

  5. Your self worth is intact.

    The “Cry Baby Cry” you posted (off “Chains Changed”) is a Muses original, but they also recorded a cover of the Beatles song of that name and released it as a b-side of “Not Too Soon”.

    I remember this as I made the same mistake and, thinking there weren’t any new songs on there, didn’t buy “Not Too Soon”. Meaning that I had to pay over the odds on ebay years later when I realised.

  7. Thanks for your answers and musical offerings, guys.
    *I enjoyed watching the Godley & Creme video – they really got the lip synching (and emoting) down pat – better than some TOTP performances. I will deal with my neuroses and emotional problems as I have always done / by ignoring them – back into the subconscious this one can go now – to join all the others,
    *That Garnet Mimms has got a beautiful voice – a joy to listen to
    * I’ll check out the White Album version, Johhnny – thanks for the tip
    * Thanks to Mike, but particularly Deviant for the detailed response to my question. Those tinkers * I wonder if they were unique in releasing two songs with the same name?
    * The Money Mark track is a luscious smooth groove, with lovely ripply pips across it – I had some Money Mark once, but I mislaid it – not essential, but very nice.

    Crying songs – useful preparation for Friday and thereafter, I suspect.

    • Thanks for all theses tracks, @Harold-Holt – all new for me, and very much in the US rock style – am I right? This John Hiatt track would be my favourite of them, as much for his distinctive voice as anything else – I only knew ‘Thunderbird’ before (off or from on a Word of Mouth cover CD) which I liked for its easy charm. I’ll keep my ear out for more. Interesting to read he was a professional songwriter in Nashville – must have been good practice.

      • Hiatt’s great, and often covered by others like Bonny Raitt.
        The ones I posted are all US/UK and presumably well known, ‘cept for Richard Pleasance below, an Australian musician/producer responsible for several of my favourite Oz albums of the 90s. His own ‘Galleon’, Deborah Conway ‘String of Pearls’ (with Only The Beginning) and Boom Crash Opera ‘These Here Are Crazy Times’ (with Onion Skin) among others.

  19. Willie Nelson’s Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain

    I think I first heard this on one of Andy Kershaw’s early evening shows on Radio 1 (1986-ish?), when he played it back-to-back with a much faster, jangle-pop version by The Remayns (“Remayns with a ‘y'”).

    I can find no trace of The Remayns’ version of the song on the internet, but I see that there was a band of that name of which Julian Cope’s (one-time?) manager was a member.

      • Yes, it is @salwarpe – Willie Nelson has written some great songs: Always On My Mind, Crazy, Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground, Funny How Time Slips Away….

        I love the warmth and sincerity that comes through a lot of country music. I’m no aficionado, but I am fond of (non-Rhinestone) people like Patsy Cline, Charlie Rich, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam and Allison Moorer.

        Here’s Allison Moorer doing a fine version of Willie Nelson’s Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground.

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