Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Manics' 'This is the Day'
Posted by DougieJ on 27 October 2011 - 12:42am.
I like it.
I have my doubts as to whether he meant it or not, but James Dean Bradfield (the singer all us forty-somethings would love to be if we're honest) can't help but turn Matt Johnson's (I refuse to type his spectacularly craply named band) existensialist classic into a life-affirming anthem.
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Agreed
Only this lot could turn a song from one of the most angst-ridden albums ever made into an anthem of self-empowerment. Next week, they transform Joy Divsion's 'The Eternal' into a bark of proletarian pride, prefaced with a quote from Jacques Derrida.
One of my faves
The original is one of my all time favourite songs (by one of my all time favourite bands). So by rights I should hate the Manics version, but I actually think it's pretty good. They've always had a way of picking a good cover version, whether it's Last Christmas or Suicide is Painless, and - as they might say on X Factor - making it their own. I have no idea how they made it sound so uplifting, but I'm impressed.
A handy by-product is that I've been hearing The The a fair bit on the radio too. Oh, and Dougie - I always liked the name, and the way people are sometimes uncertain how to say it. The Thee? Thee The? etc
I'm not familiar with the original
but this is good. Always nice to hear some love for the manics. Off to seek out the original for comparison.
I'm less impressed
The original is one of my favourite songs ever and I wanted to like their version. Actually, I did until it hit Matt J's delicate meter in the line "you've been reading some old letters", and proceed to stomp on it like a club-footed mastodon until it lay battered into submission on the floor.
Why did they have to do that?
It's a decent version
The Manics have generally done good covers as noted above - the second disc of Lipstick Traces has some corkers, It's So Easy, What's My Name and Suicide is Painless.
Uncle M - I'm hearing more and more Johnson on the radio too. "Infected" seems to have infiltrated some mainstream playlist somewhere along the line.
Good
Is all I can say. Soul Mining, Infected, Mind Bomb and Dusk have a seriously good concentration of songs. The first three especially are simply astonishingly good to my cloth ears.
"Are you ready, Jesus...?"
Are you ready, Jesus?
Armageddon Days........Possibly more valid today as it was in 1988........was Matt Johnson channeling Nostradamus?
Honestly,
I do not and have never wished I was a chubby little pub singer like JD Bradfield. (A young Scott Walker, yes...)
I Like It
A cover, yet you can still hear clearly its The Manics.
Is it as good as the original? No, because the original is so perfectly conceived, performed and produced, no other version could be as good.
But this comes close
The singer all us forty-somethings would love to be?
*** splurts ***
No, that would be Bobby Bland in my case.
Or the Reverend Al Green
in mine...
As a wee clarification...
yes of course I know about Sinatra, Walker, Green et al, but I've always identified with JDB's voice. To say it's achievable would be a huge disservice to him, but it reminds me of the way I used to feel about Weller's voice. Something life-affirming about it, which this track epitomises.
Can I be Chris Martin
at bedtime?
I like the chuggalong MJ version and I also like the anthemic Manics version. They've been shrewd enough to see what they could do with this great song and what this great song could do for them. (A perfect example of what I was looking for in my unloved "You are the svengali" thread a while back..)
Had a bit of a sniff watching the video too. Although I have been drinking..
where are the the?
used to love them. Anyone know if Matt has a new album planned?