2007!
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:59 pm (Uncategorized)
Happy Holidays and New Year and all that to everyone. I haven’t posted anything on Songstory for a while now, and I apologize if there’s anyone out there who has been disappointed by that. My plan was to post an extravagent collection of material on James Brown’s life and legacy, but that’s not quite ready yet. In the mean time I received an excellent submission from my friend Harlene who features a song by Canadian indie rock-pop-folk artist Feist. Harlene really breaks it down. Leave it up to a intelligent woman to elegantly explain the emotional impact of a heartwrenching ballad. Ok, I will.
Inside & Out - Feist By Harlene Weijs
It has been many, many, many moons since a song has managed to pull at the heartstrings in the way this one has.
I discovered the original “inside & out” in it’s disco form on Feist’s first album and it caught me then as a catchy number with pretty clever lyrics and besides, I love disco. Many months later this live acoustic version discovered me and not only am I caught, I am tangled.
In my books there is nothing that can beat the archetypal brave and lonesome singer/songwriter on stage with their instrument. When they are good they can shake the melancholy loose in even the most unsentimental of people. When they are great, their voices and their style haunt you forever.
Feist’s sweet longing in her simple and pure lyrics lay bare those raw love moments of awe, fear, struggle, vulnerability, doubt, power, relentlessness and truth.
“You figure it’s the love that keeps you warm let this moment be forever we won’t ever feel the storm.”
Inside & Out is not only a ballad of the resilience of the heart, it is a tribute to the passionate intensity of love’s sickness. It is about the naivety, or shall I say invincibility we wear like armor when we charge into love. It’s for those happily in love, trapped by love, longing to love, longing to be loved, and for the ambiguity within it all.
Whether we are enmeshed in a relationship or cocooned in the idea of one it is the very preciousness of this affection for another that keeps us fearing the question she askes in this song: “what are we gonna do if we loose that fire?”
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tony said,
January 2, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Oh yes baby yes. Har, great great song. I’ve had a crush on Feist for months now. She’s a beautiful lady, sure, but her phrasing–the way she sings and speaks her words and the resulting sounds of the sentences they form–is something I really dig about her. There’s also a great classic twang to her voice that I love. I picture her singing this song on a sinking ship, or in a burning tenement or something of the like.
She’s a troubadore alright. A troubadoris, actually.
Tony
H said,
January 3, 2007 at 5:15 am
troubadoris. niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. I just watched Alexander. Am I a little more greeker? I mean, Graikos. and he’s Macedonian. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I’ll never get it right! I’ll never be greek!
about the song…You should check out the Remixes of her album if you haven’t. It is like eating the same meal with different sauce. Still familiar. Different Zing.
songstory said,
January 3, 2007 at 9:59 am
Wow Harlene, I’m sorry, I just realized that for some inexplicable reason I spelt your name incorrectly in one sentance and then correctly in the next. It’s been fixed now.
I have a question for you. What would you guess that the gender breakdown for Feist fans would be? As in what percentage are girls and what percentage are guys?
40 pianos guy said,
January 4, 2007 at 2:15 am
I am hairy. I am Irish-Canadian. I am man. I like feist. I hope that helps answer your question songstory.
songstory said,
January 4, 2007 at 8:32 am
No, not really.
songstory said,
January 4, 2007 at 1:38 pm
This song is much more difficult for me to analyze. There’s really no instrumentation to critique, or lyrics that are extremely crappy or extremely brilliant. I guess all I have left is to discuss how it makes me feel.
Harlene says that “Feist’s sweet longing in her simple and pure lyrics lay bare those raw love moments of awe, fear, struggle, vulnerability, doubt, power, relentlessness and truth.” I can’t disagree with that. Those are the themes she sings of. Tony says he likes “her phrasing–the way she sings and speaks her words and the resulting sounds of the sentences they form”. I kind of get what Tony’s saying here, although I’ve never been able to appreciate phrasing the way Tony does. And on top of all this, I think that Feist has a beautiful voice. However, the song doesn’t affect me that much. I like listening to it, but it I’m not deeply moved by it. I’m not sure why this is, and I’m a little concerned that I’ve somehow become devoid of any sentimentality whatsoever. I used to be able to appreciate melancholy love songs, I don’t know what happened. Maybe I’m emotionally guarded as of late. But this isn’t about a personal breakdown, its about musical breakdowns.
Suffice to say that I am a much bigger fan of Harlene’s analysis of the song than I am of the song itself.
H said,
January 5, 2007 at 3:26 am
fair enough songstory. i’ll get you crying yet. even from korea.
as for the gender breakdown… i dunno? i’d say it’s probably pretty even. She collaborate with alot of people and can hold her own alone adn with a band. She can do folk, do rock, do electro… variety opens your fanbase.
songstory said,
January 5, 2007 at 12:53 pm
I just listened to the original version of this Feist song and it makes me appreciate what Tony said about phrasing a lot more. She really transformed the song. To be able to do credible disco and folk versions of the same song is some impressive shit. I couldn’t even remember how this version sounded after listening to the original and vice versa. This doesn’t really mean I ‘feel’ the song more, but my appreciation for her talent has increased a lot. I will say this though…I can’t get this f-ing song out of my head. But let’s not read too much into that…I also have the dick in a box song stuck in my head as well.