Is this a joke?

Subject: Is this a joke?
From: Morticia
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 07:01 AM

When Pixie was ferreting around in the bowels of Kazaa last night, she came across Richard Thompson singing Britney Spears.She sent it to me and I listened carefully and sure enough, there is my hero or a remarkable facsimile thereof singing "Oops I did it again".

Needless to say it is pretty awful.Has anyone else come across it? Is it a joke? Was he, to put it mildly, in his cups or in a strait jacket? What was going on? I am happy to send this piece of musical flotsam to anyone who wants to send me their e-mail, either to verify it is him or simply as a curious musical anomaly.

Oh Richard.......why?

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 07:02 AM

not only that he apparently flashed his left boob at his last concert....

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 07:27 AM

Its on his 1000 years CD: see his web site. It also features an ABBA song, Prince, Lennon/McCartney...

...as he says "The idea for this project came from Playboy Magazine - I was asked to submit a list, in late 1999, of the ten greatest songs of the Millenium. Hah! I thought, hypocrites - they don't mean millennium, they mean twenty years - I'll call their bluff and do a real thousand-year selection." and he admits that there's "too much weight on Music Hall and Rock & Roll". But, no, it's not a joke.

(I haven't heard the rack in question, but the ABBA track's all right..)

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: GUEST, Hamish, no cookie
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 07:28 AM

Oh - that was me at post #3

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: ReeBop
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 11:40 AM

I actually don't know about the version that you are talking about, but I do know that Travis did a version of "Baby One more time" (also Ms Spears) a few years back that was just great. I think they did mean it as a partial joke, but it proves that a good song can be enjoyed in many different genres...I LIKE the song that way.

My band and I performed a bluegrass version of Pink's "Like a Pill" that really went over well. Not just as a joke, but because we think that it is a good song.

Ree "You can't judge a song by its covers" Bop

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 12:17 PM

I heard RT do "Oops..." a few weeks ago on one of NPR's weekend news shows. I didn't think it was bad, but I've never heard Ms Spears' version so I had no preconceived notions about how badly the song sucked. One of Richard's points in doing that particular song is precisely that our attitude toward a song is often determined not by the merits of the song itself, but by the treatment it's given by the particular "artist" with whome it's associated.

I always hated Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" until I heard the guy who actually wrote the song do it with just his own guitar accompaniment. I still don't rate the song among my all-time favorites, but I realize how much my attitude toward it was affected by my dislike of Mr. Rogers and the production values associated with his music.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 01:23 PM

Wouldn't it be a gas if we discovered that Britney could actually write good songs—she just couldn't perform them?

I don't suppose she writes he own songs, though—or does she?

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: ReeBop
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 01:39 PM

Ms. Spears has teams of talented writers writing those songs for her. It's a great gig to be in on, especially when other people start covering the songs on their albums...

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 01:48 PM

I figured it was his response to Luka Blumes cover of Princes "When Doves Cry"...

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 03:39 PM

RT covered Dion and the Belmonts "My Girl In The Month Of May" years ago and has been seen doing "Wooly Bully" with Beausoleil. I love unlikely cover versions. Have you heard David Byrne do "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"
If an artist who was definitely defined as say a "Folk Singer" covers ANY tune, does that make it a "Folk Song". Just curious.

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: ReeBop
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 04:13 PM

That brings us into the question of what makes something a folk song...

and that could get dangerous...

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 05:55 PM

... and has been done to death here before ....

but will we let that stop us?

Subject: RE: Is this a joke?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 06:11 PM

John Spiers & Jon Boden do it too, just as well as RT.
At the Towersey Festival last year it inspired a morris conga at the Late Night Extra. This was the most truly surreal ceilidh I have ever been at, and so much fun. Radio Oxford had it up on their site with me in it.   Hurrah!

Call 'Hit Me Baby' a folk song if you want to. I don't care,