As listeners, we have a completely different idea of what a song is to that song’s creator. To us, the finished, recorded work - that 3 to 4 minute track set in stone on record, on the streaming platforms - that is the song. Somehow, other versions pale in significance (there are exceptions of course). If the artist plays the song live, we don't want to hear some radically re-worked version - we want it close to the official version.
The creator has a different perspective. They have already made multiple versions of that song. The finished recorded version is just one - often the one that’s deemed good enough - though rarely perfect. As John Grant recently said in an interview, the studio isn’t really even where the artist learns to sing that song - that happens later on the road. Personally I always loved the way Freddie Mercury sang ‘BoRhap’ live: the different intonation and expression on the words “never been...born at all” always sent a thrill down my spine. To me that was the definitive version.
Another glimpse into songs of course are demos. In the Song Economy (a phrase coined btw, by your humble editor) volume reigns supreme, and we are seeing artists pour their ‘non-definitive’ works onto streaming platforms: b-sides, remixes, remasters and demos. How does an artist introduce these as rarities in these days of abundance?
PJ Harvey has been quietly releasing her demos album by album onto streaming, and the works really warrant attentive listening for fans. But, even if you know only a little of PJ’s work, then playing the demo version then the full finished version is a thoroughly absorbing way to spend eartime. We ask music journalist and author (and PJ fan) Annie Zaleski to dissect these demo albums and guide us through it, discerning listeners. It’s a peach of an article and playlist, embellished by Lina Moon's extraordinary PJ portrait. What a PJ package!
Another aspect of the Song Economy (cough, cough, thank you) has been the super-resurgence of the catalogue artist. Speaking earlier of Freddie Mercury - you might have seen a recent Billboard article suggesting that Queen’s catalogue could now be worth over one billion dollars. I don’t doubt it. I remember looking at Queen on Spotify in 2015 and I swear to you the band was ‘183rd in the world’. As I write this, the band sits pretty at 37th.
A significant part of the concerted effort by ‘Queen Army’ (I wonder who can be counted as part of this military operation) was of course Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie. Some way much lower down the superstar scale, I suspect a far better movie is about to be released on The Velvet Underground. Directed by Todd Haynes the documentary has already received rave reviews from the preview screening at Cannes 2021.
As you seek out the best place to see a good music film in these strange times, let us take you on a tour of the life of one of the band’s most infamous collaborators, the chanteuse Nico. The subject of a new book (also receiving favourable reviews) by our sometime curator the music historian and professor of fandom Dr Jen Otter Bickerdike. Jen’s tour of Nico is the place to get started on what turns out to be something of a wild goose chase in tracking down the rest of Nico’s life.
