Customer Reviews

Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was browsing at an honest-to-god record store when The Word came on over the stereo and I thought 'who IS this?', when Traffic's 'No Time To Live' (also covered wonderfully by Brian Auger) came up, I swooned and asked the clerk for a copy. Listening to the album in the store was fun because it's not always readily apparent who's songs she's covering: it took me a few minutes to realize she was covering Led Zeppelin. Both the store manager and I were getting ready to cringe as Nights In White Satin approached, but she made that song new too. Others are going to write in more detail about the individual performances but I'd just like to say that I cannot believe that anyone could take this list of incredibly familiar songs and just take them all home and make them her own from start to finish. Brilliant. I think it may be one of my favorites for a while.

This is an interesting album based on an interesting idea.
In the mid-1960s, Brotish bands took their interpretations of American R&B back to the States in the so-called "British invasion".
On this album, the veteran, Detroit-raised blues diva ( and a contemporary of more famous peers like Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson) returns the compliment and goes the opposite route.
Well, we know, she has always done things her way, from her youthful excursions with James Brown and Otis Redding.
Decades on, her rocking, rip-roaring soul vocal style has established a broad fan base, and this latest album comes with endorsements from many of the artists she's covered, including Elton John, Pete Townshend and Keith Richards.
"Interpretations" centres on LaVette's charismatic takes on 1960s/70s British rock classics .
She has a rasping voice somewhere between Nina Simone and Tina Turner.
She is now turning to the great British rock songbook, reworking the back pages of The Beatles ("The Word"), The Stones ("Salt Of The Earth") and Pink Floyd ("Wish You Were Here") in a series of devastating melodramas.
LaVette's passionate vocals crackle with soul, raunch and innovation, and it sounds like the songs (originally inspired by US R&B) have come full circle.
This is no conventional covers album, it is more a showcase of extraordinary standards.
The accompaniments are of the tastefully restrained variety, with plenty o' Memphis folded in, and the tempos are at the slow end of the scale.
She has chosen songs that give her the most wiggle room -- the chance to strip the whole thing back and rebuild it.
Thus, we get Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy".
The opening couplet is a bit of a throwaway when Ringo sings it, but it's a whole other matter when Lavette confronts you: "You wanna sing the blues? You gotta pay some dues. 'Cos it ain't coming easy".
"Yet, whether she's singing "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Nights in White Satin" or "Wish You Here", Lavette makes it sound effortless". - Mark Edwards
Raw, powerful, emotional.
If you like her style, you will love this album.

Scene of the Crime
I've Got My Own Hell to Raise

First off, Bettye LaVette sure has a wonderful voice - all earth, gravel and feeling. However, as viewers of Idol and other programs or visitors to African-Americans places or worship can attest, there is apparently an infinite supply of black Americans with great pipes. What differentiates the great soul singer from the mundane are, for me, just two things. First there is soul - not the appearance of soul - but the genuine article. The myth that only black Americans can sing soul or rhythm and blues is if course as preposterous as the presumption that a singer has soul simply because he or she is of colour. Bettye has soul in abundance! Second there is the material. The songs chosen for this collection are an interesting bunch. Led Zeppelin to Moody Blues to Ringo to Floyd to Stones. I like some of the originals much more than others. Bettye makes them all her own and therefore I find myself really admiring her take on Ringo Starr's It Don't Come Easy, not a song I've played five times in my life!

Some have complained that, for the most part, the songs here are slower than the originals; that there is an unfortunate sameness infecting the disc. There is some truth to this observation. After an exuberant gospel inspired The Word (from Rubber Soul) most of the recording is very slow-paced. In lesser hands this could have been disastrous - boring and repetitive music - music that you'd play once or twice and then discard. In this case I think that the deliberate nature of the pacing allows the performer to shed new light on the material. It's great stuff and I know that when I play it for friends they will turn to me (we all love this don't we?) and say "Phil, who's this?" I'll reply "Bettye LaVette" and they will look puzzled and wonder how on earth this 63 year old escaped their radar.

I sense there is a movement to give Bettye Lavette the recognition she should have received earlier in her career, and I really, really wanted to like this album, but unfortunately it doesn't deserve the accolades. First, too many dirges - and many of the slow songs are paced even more slowly than the originals. The album drags, badly. Second, too many rasping, tortured vocals which, combined with the lack of variety in tempos, eventually seem monotonous and nearly monotone. There are two songs I like very much: "The Word," which is the only really cooking soul workout on the album (if only there were more like this), and "It Don't Come Easy," which imbues Ringo's poppy original with real emotional weight. Other than those two, I would rather listen to the far superior originals of every song on this album, including the over-rated Kennedy Center performance of The Who classic (maybe you have to see it). I have ordered the re-release of her 70s album "Do Your Duty" from Amazon and judging from the samples, I think I'll like it a lot better. It appears to be Bettye in her prime and in her element.

These are very slow, very loose bluesy adaptations that rarely improve on the originals. Really slow. So slow and lacking in melodic phrasing that in many instances they obliterate the original song and are merely familiar lyrics recited to new, lugubrious arrangments. If I were not looking for a phrase or two in the painfully slow "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," I would not have guessed it was a song I had heard before. Often, what she changes is the very thing that made a song great. It's an accomplishment of sorts to take an incredibly catchy pop hit and make it different, but I think this goes too far. Had these been the original performances, none of these songs would have been hits. Other artists have done covers more successfully, e.g. Cat Power's Covers Record album, where the covers are great in their own right. It's very disappointing, because some of Ms. Lavette's songs on other albums are among my all time favorites.

I just couldn't wait for this to be released, after hearing her on NPR. Played LOUD, in the car, windows closed, no one to hear my lousy singing, paying homage to the diva. She is what I tried to be, only with great success. Go Bettye!

If American Idol wants someone who can demonstrate the art of "making a song your own," they need to reach out to Bettye LaVette. On this album, LaVette takes classic British rock songs and offers radical renovations that play to her powerful soul and funk artistry. There is a lot of poetic justice here, as 60's British rockers borrowed heavily from the Motown/soul catalogue during the 1960s.

LaVette is one of those soul artists that "almost made it" in the 1960s, faded from sight, and resurfaced decades later, with blazing talent (check out Howard Tate and Solomon burke for other superb examples). Her voice packs a powerful emotional punch; you believe her when she sings "It Don't Come Easy," and you hear the pain when she sings ""Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."

Each of the songs here is a work of art; there is no "filler." Standouts for me:

1. The driving, funky delivery of the Beatles "The Word": beautiful brass, outstanding back-up singing, and Bettye's silky/sandpapery vocals.
2. "Isn't It a Pity": George Harrison's words take on additional poignancy thanks to the sparse, slower arrangement and Bettye's incredible vocals.
3. "It Don't Come Easy": Ringo Starr's pop song is transformed into a classic, classy Blues number. Bettye speaks with authority about "paying some dues."
4. "Maybe I'm Amazed": McCartney's beautiful song is a perfect vehicle for the raw power of LaVette's voice.
5. "Salt of the Earth": I'm a sucker for masterful back-up singing, and this twist on the Stone's song delivers a small sample of perfection (LaVette arranged the background vocals on all the songs on the album).

The CD contains a bonus track: LaVette's performance of "Love Reigns Over Me," that blew Pete Townsend's mind at the Kennedy Center Honors" concert in 2008.

If you can get your hands on it, be sure to check out "Child of the Seventies," the album LaVette recorded decades ago that remained unreleased until a few years ago, and her last two albums, Scene of the Crime and "I've Got My Own Hell to Raise."

They're called "classic rock songs" for a reason. Classic rock records are well-loved fossils holding space in yours and my iPods, decorating our walls and tee shirts with their art, and playing 24/7 on everything from TV series openings to radio as far away as satellite's Classic Vinyl or as close as the "Eagle" or "Fox" in your town. Their riffs are anticipated from the song's first note; they're universal baby boomer comfort food.

But great songs from any area stand the test of interpretation. They can be slowed, hardened, and opened to personal experience, opportunities unanticipated when the Moody Blues close with their gong or the Who with Roger Daltrey's demanding wail.

On "Interpretations," soul survivor Bettye LaVette challenges and wins you over with a baker's dozen of these beloved British rockers. The Beatles are represented collectively ("The Word") and three members individually: she finds the sullen blues melody in Ringo's "It Don't Come Easy" and walks slowly with McCartney-style, Abbey Road-esque piano on "Maybe I'm Amazed." She turns the plaintive cries "I love you," the most overlooked part of the anthemic "Nights In White Satin," back into the desperation of its forebear, Ben E. King's "I Who Have Nothing." She drains the irony from the Rolling Stones "Salt of The Earth" transforming it into salute and challenge worthy of Aretha Franklin's brazen 60's reinventions ("The Weight," "Eleanor Rigby.")

By rights, this should have closed "Interpretations" as it did "Beggars Banquet" or "Good Night" closed the White Album; minutes of sarcastic calm permitting rest after the anger and dissonance of those two seminal 1968 albums. But LaVette gives speed and intimacy to Clapton ("Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad") and intimacy to Elton John at his most glamtastic ("Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," which could have gone to see after George Michael's horrid remake.) Her measured live version of "Love Reign O'er Me" (which inspired her producers to take this project) may in context do for her what Tina Turner's appearances with Rod Stewart a generation ago did to return her glory.

If you loved Tina Turner's "Private Dancer," or these songs in their original contexts, buy this and reacquaint yourself. Bettye LaVette separates rock's dinosaurs from their signatures, revulsion and rebellion. Her reinventions show their lyric vulnerability, return them to their blues roots and reintroduce their songs and message distinct from their beloved bluster. Lovingly, strongly recommended.

I've heard of Betty LaVette and put her in the company of Lena Horne,Etta James and even Eartha Kitt. I bought this CD mainly for curiosity to see what magic she has spun on some of Rock's greatest songs. I'm now on my 4th rotating spin on my CD player. Each time I here these songs it takes me away from the original artist and places me in the soulful "soul" of Ms. LaVette. Her magical touch is fantastic. The British Rock Songbook speaks very humbly of her take on these songs. Give it a spin, sit on the couch with your feet up and enjoy the wonder that is Ms. Betty LaVette.

I first heard Bettye on the Kennedy Center Honors with a riveting performance of The Who's "Love Reign Over Me." I was spellbound by the arrangement and her approach to the words. This album is her take on many classic songs from a rich catalogue of British artists. The opening track, "The Word," a Lennon and McCartney song, is an often overlooked track from Rubber Soul. Her version has a funky R&B edge that tells you this album is not full of duplicate renderings of other artists songs. I think the best thing Bettye does is often slow a song down and share the quality of thought the lyrics hold. We are not overwhelmed by the music but drenched in words. Her own voice often carries the pace and rythym of the song, which keeps you focused on what she wants to convey about it. "Isn't It a Pity" is an arrangement I think George Harrison would be proud of. I felt more of the sadness in the words than I honestly felt in his own quality performance. The album as a whole is a nice listen and I hope she chooses a 2nd volume. It would be interesting to see what other British classics bend her ear.