Entertainment For Lively Minds
Hugh Laurie's new single
Chris Evans played Hugh Laurie's new single "You Don't Know My Mind" on Radio 2 this morning. I can't find a clip of the entire thing, but this gives you the flavour:
I'm no expert when it comes to the blues, and had to Google to discover it was a Leadbelly song. I can imagine the arrangement is probably reasonably faithful and I didn't mind it.
Here comes the "but".
The thing that struck me about it the most was Laurie's accent. I find it extremely hard to take seriously a highly-successful, Cambridge-educated, white, middle-class English man putting on an accent to sing lyrics such as:
Walkin' down the levee with my head hangin' low
Lookin' for my sweet mama and she ain't here no more
Baby you don't know, don't know my mind
When you see me laughin', laughin' just to keep from cryin'
I have no problem with him being House, but somehow this... No.
Am I wrong, or is he?
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It'd sound a bit odd...
if he didn't put on an accent to sing those words.
Bang on.
You'd half expect him to say 'soupy twist' at the end.
I agree
but I can't get past the artifice, so can't buy the sentiment.
Can't get past the artifice...
I guess you don't buy the sentiment in much popular music then? :-)
In this case, no.
I accept House, the cantankerous American doctor, because the acting, writing and directing allows me to suspend my disbelief, and I don't sit there thinking "it's the English chap from Fry and Laurie".
But the guy doing that blues number is Hugh Laurie doing an accent, and I can't get past that.
Taking Mick Jagger, as mentioned below; even though he's a middle-class bloke from Kent, he was always the singer in a rock and roll band to me, so I rarely notice his artifice, even though it's not really any different.
Mick Jagger's been getting away with it
for over forty years. Someone should tell him he's from Kent.
I just wonder
who on earth does he think is going to buy this. I started a thread about this sometime back, IIRC. It's just an ego trip. Same for Nicky Campbell's swing album. Sank without trace, as you'd expect.
Nicky Campbell made a swing album?
You live and learn.
Brian Perkins' dubstep CD was pretty good though.
Almost as good as
James Naughtie and Sue McGregor's Norwegian death metal covers project.
If that Sue McGregor....
comes round here burning our churches down, I swear I'll do time.
To you she may be merely "Sue McGregor"
to the faithful she is "Grishnackh! Hound of SATAN!"
Could have been a lot worse
Based on one hearing this morning, I'm undecided about whether this works or not. But my main issue with Hugh Laurie singing the blues is not so much his background and class, it's the fact that he's done a few musical spoofs during his career - which makes it harder (though not impossible) to accept him as a serious musician.
Who's releasing it?
Is it a NewsCorp label? Smells like cross-promotion to me.
I think he's been playing regularly
in a little band for fun for many years. Probably offered to do this album by people who see him as 'that House guy' who know nothing of his excellent work with Mr Fry. And as most comics seem to yearn to be musicaians he no doubt jumped at the chance. Good luck to him, say I
Maybe you'd prefer this
Hear hear
Hugh Laurie's always been a musician. He's been offered the chance to do a record so he does it, fired by genuine love and respect for the music he loves. Whether it's any good or not isn't really the point. You can't blame him for having a bash.
I understand that singing in
I understand that singing in your normal voice/accent isn't always the best way to get the right sound to fit the song, and although I myself am well spoken, I would think nothing of dropping some 'T's from my pronunciation of certain words, just because it sounds far better.
BUT.....
I wouldn't change my accent to become Irish when singing a Pogues song.
I wouldn't become Jamaican to sing a Bob Marley song.
That would be a bit too extreme of a voice change.
This is, unfortunately, what it sounds like Hugh is doing on this track, and makes me feel a little embarrassed for him.
On the other hand, he does do it very very well!!
Reminds me
of the conundrum I'm presented with when covering Marley's 'Is This Love' at pub gigs. It's a nice song to play - until I get up to the line 'For Jah provide the bread'. I change it to 'God'. I'm no more Christian than I am Rastafari but it just seems more appropriate somehow. (I also do the song in a mid-Atlantic accent even though I'm no more American than I am Jamaican.)
When it was suggested...
to Johnny Cash that he could change the wording on Marley's redemption song (the use of I) he wouldn't do it as felt it disrespectful to Marley and his writing.
To be honest if I heard it as "God provide the bread" I would really cringe.
To be honest...
...I would really cringe if I heard any English person doing Bob Marley. It's too culturally specific. It'd be the same way around if Bob Marley was covering, I dunno, the Bonzos or something.
Careful
What about English people of Carribbean heritage? See how easy it is to fall into the Midsomer Murders trap!
True.
Careless typing, careless thinking. I suppose I meant I'd feel ridiculous singing Bob Marley songs, which is what cringing is, I suppose, isn't it? Imagining how embarrassed you'd be in a given situation?
You won't like this then
Um, it's not as bad as all that
I do a slightly different arrangement. Strip it down to the bare chords and melody and it's a nice tune and not as incongruous as you might think. I think it's pretty much the only Marley song that works on that level. Hearing No Woman No Cry sung by English people really is cringeful.
As for the 'God' bit - I cringe myself. I kind of mutter it and it comes out 'gah'. But there's just no way I'm singing 'Jah'.
Question
Do you sing the "I" bits? That grates a bit to me on the Strummer version, although I do like it overall.
Or the Bonzos singing in Jamacian patois
oh, hang on
hey it was a different time and space. Starts around 2:00min mark
Bob said "It'd be the same way around if...
... Bob Marley was covering, I dunno, the Bonzos or something."
"Irie! Nice to be wit' ya. Glad you could stick aroun'
I and I like to introduce `Legs' Larry Smit' on de drums
An' Sam Spoons on de riddim pole
An' Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell on de bass guitar..."
Vernon 'Family Man' Bohay-Nowell
surely?
From 'A Bit Of Fry And Laurie'
Must be 20 years ago now?
I'd Like
to Hear Brian Sewell do a version of this.
Brian Sewell Sampler
You could probably knock up a passable blues song from this Brian Sewell sampler.
http://www.briansewell.co.uk/brian-sewell-written-word/brian-sewell-soun...
It's not the accent
that's a problem. The voice is just not strong enough to carry the song.
File under "Prominent Oxbridge Media Oligarchist Vanity Project"
And move on...
Signed
A Sayle
This Alexei Sayle?
POMOVP ahoy!
OK, so he didn't go to Oxbridge but PLMOVP isn't so easy to pronounce.
I'm confused....
POMOVP.. PLMOVP? Sounds like the Dutch First Division League table.
I'll need help with the acronym I'm afraid.
POMOVP
"Prominent Oxbridge Media Oligarchist Vanity Project"
I heard it too
Not a bad song, but that accent is too silly for words.
Care in the Community springs to mind.
You can take the luvvie out of the .....
Suggestions for an ending to this line, please?
I don't know, I think he's caught the spirit of the blues..
I certainly felt slightly Magdalen after listening.
I'll get me coat.....
Has anybody read his novel?
I see it's still in print, and got some good reviews, if the quotes on the jacket are anything to go by.
Yes
It's a good yarn and genuinely funny.
Thanks, I'll buy it.
I'm always in the market for a good yarn. I skimmed through it in the local bookshop and got the impression of an Eric Ambler type thriller, which for me is a good thing. If it's funny as well, that's a bonus.
Indeed
I've always wondered what Mr Fry thought of his chum knocking off a novel that was much funnier than any of his
...but you can't take the reverse snobbery out of the English
this accent any better?
Heh, heh, heh
Reverse snobbery alive and kicking...
So what should he be singing?
The Middle-Class White Boy Blues?
Cyclin' down the High Street to go shoppin'
'Cos Waitrose Carpark's all full up again
Left the kids back at my home
Hugo, Ludo, Theo, Giles and Ben
Organic Brie gone up fo' the third time this year
Costs a man a packet
It's sure started to rain a bit
I gone forgot my new Rab jacket
Got the middle-class home-counties white-boy blues, etc
Or, as The Liverpool Scene once sang...
EDIT: It's on Youtube...
Excellent
Absolutely brilliant.
Great minds, and all that
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/laurie-to-release-terribly-ni...
He's always sung in a funny accent
Check out the strange Stephen Fry-like child at the start
It reminds me of this -
That said, Hugh Laurie gets a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card from me for "A Bit Of Fry And Laurie," "Jeeves And Wooster" etc.
I wouldn't buy his music but if he has fun making it, good on him.
Speaking for The Joe Henry Fanclub
And since I can't be bothered to watch this or look up extra details anywhere else right now, isn't that our man hovering over the mixing desk?
Yes, it is Joe Henry
Joe Henry produced the record. Allen Toussaint and Dr John are both on it plus Tom Jones apparently.
Colin Meloy's Shovel
Listened to the new Decemberists this morning and Colin Meloy is singing a song about working with a shovel. The track is Rox In The Box.
Let's get that right: Colin Meloy, working with a shovel. Is that any more ridiculous/less believable than Hugh Laurie's Delta Blues accent?
Next we'll be questioning Nick Cave's authenticity for not having offed a few folk before writing The Mercy Seat.
Has the world gone mad I ask you? (continues page 94)
It is more ridiculous to my ears, yes.
Presumably you're not suggesting that there are never occasions when you have problems with the idea of a particular artist doing a particular song - Duran Duran doing "9/11 is a joke"..?
My point wasn't that I've got a dogmatic view that singers may only sing songs from their own perspective, but that I found it difficult to accept it in this case. I couldn't disassociate Hugh Laurie singing that song from Hugh Laurie the man and therefore it didn't work for me.
Dang right
there should be a law against Duran Duran covering "911 Is A Joke."
The whole GBS willing suspension of disbelief thing is more than a tad subjective. This thread is a most enjoyable read with some great opinions, and you sir have curated it very well.
Thank you.
Colin Meloy...using a shovel... (walks away muttering)
Actually
I'd settle for a law against Duran Duran.
I curated it..?
[updates CV]
I really wanted to like it..
...and the music is great but I just can't hear the voice without thinking that its another spoof.
This is great
and why I'd consider buying his new album having not heard one note.
Is it
a house tune?
Hugh Laurie is one of those
Hugh Laurie is one of those annoying people who are good at everything; actor, comic, novelist, musician and I believe he even rowed for the varsity. He can also play more than one instrument and is obvioulsy very clever. Despite this I actually like him and will give him a pass on the vanity record.
Also...
...his struggles with very serious depression just show that being multifariously talented, good looking, rich and famous is absolutely no guarantee of happiness. Which, while horrible for him, is good news for limited, chubby, indebted, unknown me.
I love Hugh Laurie, me. F&L's first two series were almost perfect, as were Blackadders 2-4, so he gets a pass on just about anything and everything, as far as I'm concerned. As does his big hopelessly overexposed mate, who I really wish would disappear for a couple of years. But not in a "Cell Mates" kind of way.