Nov 9
Rock Star: INXS
Over the weekend, a friend of mine asked me if I had watched Rock Star: INXS. Although a one-time fan of INXS, I hadn’t watched it. He informed me that some girl did a beautiful Bowie song, but he didn’t know what song it was. A little later that evening, someone else asked me the same question. I was curious. Neither of those friends are much of a Bowie fan, so for them to remember it enough to mention it to me meant to me it had to be that good. Yesterday, Terri filled me in. A girl named Jordis sang it. She even filled me in that it’s on a CD already:
The link to the CD has sound clips. So I listened. Quite honestly, I was less impressed than I thought I would be. It’s not bad at all, but, it doesn’t hold a candle to the best version ever:
No one ever did this song better than Curt Cobain. I’m not even a Cobain fan. TMWSTW is not an emotional song, it’s a song devoid of emotion. It’s supposed to sound like a world-weary traveler. Cobain sounded tired. Jordis sounds like she’s singing it for all it’s worth. Good for talent shows, not good for strict interpretation. To make this circle complete, Mig Ayesa performs Smells Like Teen Spirit.
However, what surprised me even more was that a fellow named Wil Seabrook performed ‘Heroes’. I was much closer to liking what I heard of ‘Heroes’ than TMWSTW.
What I am most curious about is how INXS knew to taunt me with two of my all time favorite Bowie songs. There were no rap songs or thrash trash. It was a song list ( for the most part ) that I would sing myself in the van or even the shower. There’s The Talking Heads ( wrong song tho ), Kiss, Janice Joplin, Kinks, Bob Dylan, The Who, The Pretenders, and Blondie. INXS sounds like a bunch of guys I need to party with. Or at least cruise in the van with. It’s a fun CD. And, for a Bowie fan, it’s a fun tribute that people are still singing the classics for all it’s worth. And some of them are pretty good.
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