SOUNDTRACK: ST. VINCENT AND THE NATIONAL-“Sleep All Summer” from Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers (2009).
This cover is by The National with St. Vincent singing a duet with The National’s singer. The original, by Crooked Fingers, is also a male/female duet, so this works nicely. Indeed, having listened to the original, there’s not a lot of difference between these two versions.
The singer from The National has a distinctively deep voice. And I really like St Vincent, although on this song, she’s not really doing anything amazing, she’s just singing (very nicely, but she could be anyone).
It’s a perfectly nice song, in both versions. The original is a bit more interesting musically, but I like the vocals in the new version better.
[READ: March 15, 2012] “Gentleman’s Servant”
If you have read my other three posts about articles from Colonial Williamsburg, you have seen the cover of this magazine. And, man, does it make me uncomfortable. About as uncomfortable as I feared this article was going to make me. I almost didn’t read it. In the previous article I mentioned how the photos look…wrong. And none look more wrong to me than the series of pictures for this article.
However, this article was not about slaves exactly. It was more about servants or valets. The article immediately puts us at our ease by telling us that there are schools today that teach how to be a valet, primarily in England. And they make it out to be not such a bad gig. It puts me in mind of Jeeves and Wooster, and what a lark it must all be.
Of course in the 18th century things were quite different (although it is described as similar duties–caring for the master and the master’s clothes and horse and such). This paragraph tucks in a key phrase as it tries to make it all seem casual: (more…)
I Just Read About That... 