ElvisFan said:
Oh dear, Garp tries to argue with me again. The first time it was about the vocal talent of Elvis Presley. I provided him with an answer that he couldn't argue with. Last time was about the X-factor. He tried to be clever by answering each of my points in turn. I rubbished each of his points and he never again returned to the thread.
No, I just rarely bother replying. I generally find it not worth the hassle. On your previous posts I have started composing a reply and decided it wasn't worth the hassle. Oddly enough I don't come here to argue with people. I'm not a contrary type. I rarely feel it necessary to spend a long time constructing posts, and I'm not about to do it in an argument.
Strange as it may seem, I don't target you specifically, you'll see similar responses from me to other people who post similar style comments, like Penski and his blanket insults and several others.
So here we are again.
The word "Contrived". Are you thick? because the structure of the two songs mentioned are an example of someone thinking, "How can I make this song different, just to be different?"
Thats not true, in part because she probably never even intended it for release. She'd got her one album ready for release, "Eva by Heart" (not heard that one yet), most other stuff is just odds and ends of recordings gathered together.
Take a look down the list of this thread. Each artist has taken the songs named and done them in their own style, putting something of them into them. Every instrumentalist has a distinct style, even if they can play in others you'll find them naturally returning to the same tricks or habits. You barely have to listen to Jools Holland for more than a few minutes to be able to identify him as the artist, even when he's playing straight classical. Same applies for, say, John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Elton John et al.
We're in danger of heading down the same route as part of that X-Factor argument here when we start talking about covers
, but the good covers listed here are all ones that have been done in the artists own style.
In this artists case, her albums (at least the two I have) seem to be full of straight simple acoustic numbers for the most part, relying on finger picking or straight rhythm work, as an underlying accompaniment to her singing.
I would agree in that Imagine isn't anything fantastic as a cover. Its her in its own particular way but its nothing that makes you stop and think wow.
"Somewhere over the rainbow" was an absolutely breathtaking performance, a totally fresh approach to a known song, with this haunting expressive voice over the top of it, all done live as just some jazz club singer. I remember watching it on TOTP2 when it was first shown and barely even breathing. Now a-days I turn the radio or TV off if I hear it. Over exposure has stripped it of any magic. Way to go media industry. Imagine is missing that certain je ne se quais, like a good number of cover songs. Its nice, but nothing special. If this thread was a list of nice but not special covers I think it could be close to endless
I didn't even know she was dead
Little bit of light reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Cassidy 
but the Lovers version is a Mellow kind of Reggae that was popular about 20 odd years ago.
