DJ Xero, Operative of SeeDarkly™ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seedarklyxero) wrote2019-09-08 10:00 am
seedarklyxero) wrote2019-09-08 10:00 am
SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies: Sadness of Summertime
Welcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.
For our Second Sunday Slowly downtempo selection I'm dipping into a branch of musical artists who are, by all rights, not really goth, most certainly considered "pop," but exist in a sort of free zone of acceptance within certain sects of the goth/dark alternative music scene. Not the "purists" of course, but they're free to their opinion. It won't change that a number of goth and dark alternative DJs will drop such music and watch their dance-floors explode with the gothiest of gothlings. Today we're looking at a cover of a late nineties So-Cal ska/punk hit that this somber singer transforms into a simmering and sexy serenade to say so long to the summer!:
Lana Del Rey – Doin' Time (Sublime)
Sublime released their self-titled, and final, original album in July 1996. This was on the heels of the drug overdose death of their lead singer/songwriter, Bradley Nowell, just two months before. Doin' Time was originally not going to appear on the album at all because the band could not secure rights to a lyrical sample of Gershwin's Summertime from the 1935 opera, Porgy and Bess. The band was eventually allowed the rights to use the sample, but only, as the story is told, if they replaced the titular lyric "Doin' Time" to "Summertime." Unfortunately the permissions came after Nowell's death so he was unable to record the lyric and it was instead recorded by their producer Michael Happoldt. Because of this arrangement, several sources regard Doin' Time as a "loose cover" of Summertime, when it would seem to actually be more of an interpolation, apparently unintended in its original conception with little else in common with the showtune. In fact, Gershwin was not given any songwriting credit on the album's liner notes, though there was a final note of appreciation given to an executive manager of the Gershwin archive who likely negotiated the rights release. The inclusion of another lyrical sample from the 1986 track Slow and Low by The Beastie Boys furthers the difference between the songs.
The song itself was about the feeling of being imprisoned by a relationship in which the partner is unfaithful and abusive. The last of four singles from the album, Doin' Time was the only one of them to break the top 100 on the mainstream charts, even though the other three were top ten hits on the modern alternative charts.
The track has only been covered around a half dozen times.
The label Interscope came to Lana Del Rey to do a cover of Doin' Time for their documentary on the life of Sublime. Del Rey says it was Nowell's widow, Troy (who married him only a week before his death) who suggested to the label that she should record the song for the film. Del Rey said in an interview, "Not a day goes by that I don't listen to at least one Sublime song. They epitomized the So-Cal vibe and made a genre and sound totally their own." She did worry she might "fuck it up" but ultimately her love for their music inspired the cover she unveiled a couple of weeks before her latest album Norman Fucking Rockwell was released in mid-May, simultaneously with the debut of Sublime at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Where the original resonates with its unique reggae vibe, Del Rey's trip hop approach with notes of middle eastern melody suits the song beautifully in a sway-worthy seduction of sound. Who's to say if she's "scandalous and evil," but most definitely she found a way to make the end of summer get hotter.:
The Cover:
The Original:
(Original Pre-Album Recording with Nowell's Titular Lyric)
Next week:
For our Third Sunday Throwback to the Twentieth Century this month, we'll keep things both on the downtempo/triphop side and on the borderline of pop from a group commonly accepted as "goth adjacent."
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.
I've got some gigs coming up and possibly more to announce soon! What IS confirmed is a few weeks away and in two vastly separate areas of New England, but if you care to join either, please check my schedule for details!
(And if, after 4 years and 228 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, please click over to my profile and find out how you can leave us a tip if you like.)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 01 - HexRX – Living On Video (Trans-X)
Aug 25 - Iris – I Wanna Be Adored (The Stone Roses)
Aug 18 - Apoptygma Berzerk – All Tomorrow's Parties (The Velvet Underground & Nico)
Aug 11 - Kidneythieves – Crazy (Patsy Cline)
Aug 04 - In Strict Confidence feat. Melotron – The Sun Always Shines On TV (A-ha)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.
For our Second Sunday Slowly downtempo selection I'm dipping into a branch of musical artists who are, by all rights, not really goth, most certainly considered "pop," but exist in a sort of free zone of acceptance within certain sects of the goth/dark alternative music scene. Not the "purists" of course, but they're free to their opinion. It won't change that a number of goth and dark alternative DJs will drop such music and watch their dance-floors explode with the gothiest of gothlings. Today we're looking at a cover of a late nineties So-Cal ska/punk hit that this somber singer transforms into a simmering and sexy serenade to say so long to the summer!:
Lana Del Rey – Doin' Time (Sublime)
Sublime released their self-titled, and final, original album in July 1996. This was on the heels of the drug overdose death of their lead singer/songwriter, Bradley Nowell, just two months before. Doin' Time was originally not going to appear on the album at all because the band could not secure rights to a lyrical sample of Gershwin's Summertime from the 1935 opera, Porgy and Bess. The band was eventually allowed the rights to use the sample, but only, as the story is told, if they replaced the titular lyric "Doin' Time" to "Summertime." Unfortunately the permissions came after Nowell's death so he was unable to record the lyric and it was instead recorded by their producer Michael Happoldt. Because of this arrangement, several sources regard Doin' Time as a "loose cover" of Summertime, when it would seem to actually be more of an interpolation, apparently unintended in its original conception with little else in common with the showtune. In fact, Gershwin was not given any songwriting credit on the album's liner notes, though there was a final note of appreciation given to an executive manager of the Gershwin archive who likely negotiated the rights release. The inclusion of another lyrical sample from the 1986 track Slow and Low by The Beastie Boys furthers the difference between the songs.
The song itself was about the feeling of being imprisoned by a relationship in which the partner is unfaithful and abusive. The last of four singles from the album, Doin' Time was the only one of them to break the top 100 on the mainstream charts, even though the other three were top ten hits on the modern alternative charts.
The track has only been covered around a half dozen times.
The label Interscope came to Lana Del Rey to do a cover of Doin' Time for their documentary on the life of Sublime. Del Rey says it was Nowell's widow, Troy (who married him only a week before his death) who suggested to the label that she should record the song for the film. Del Rey said in an interview, "Not a day goes by that I don't listen to at least one Sublime song. They epitomized the So-Cal vibe and made a genre and sound totally their own." She did worry she might "fuck it up" but ultimately her love for their music inspired the cover she unveiled a couple of weeks before her latest album Norman Fucking Rockwell was released in mid-May, simultaneously with the debut of Sublime at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Where the original resonates with its unique reggae vibe, Del Rey's trip hop approach with notes of middle eastern melody suits the song beautifully in a sway-worthy seduction of sound. Who's to say if she's "scandalous and evil," but most definitely she found a way to make the end of summer get hotter.:
The Cover:
The Original:
(Original Pre-Album Recording with Nowell's Titular Lyric)
Next week:
For our Third Sunday Throwback to the Twentieth Century this month, we'll keep things both on the downtempo/triphop side and on the borderline of pop from a group commonly accepted as "goth adjacent."
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.
I've got some gigs coming up and possibly more to announce soon! What IS confirmed is a few weeks away and in two vastly separate areas of New England, but if you care to join either, please check my schedule for details!
(And if, after 4 years and 228 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, please click over to my profile and find out how you can leave us a tip if you like.)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 01 - HexRX – Living On Video (Trans-X)
Aug 25 - Iris – I Wanna Be Adored (The Stone Roses)
Aug 18 - Apoptygma Berzerk – All Tomorrow's Parties (The Velvet Underground & Nico)
Aug 11 - Kidneythieves – Crazy (Patsy Cline)
Aug 04 - In Strict Confidence feat. Melotron – The Sun Always Shines On TV (A-ha)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .