Ok, so what's the plan b?

Slow Motion (live 3/13/06) - David Gray


[full show here; highly recommended]

A Thousand Miles Behind :: New live covers album from David Gray

When I saw David Gray last year in Denver, his cover of Tim Buckley's ethereal "Song To The Siren" hit me in the gut and sliced diagonal across my heart. I have the boot of that show, and I still sometimes can't listen to that track; there's a funeral-playable quality to the song itself, and I loved the haunting, circuitous way Gray performed it. He also covered (and endearingly flubbed) Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings" at that show as well, so it's like I got a mini-preview of this concept album back then. I loved his take on both songs.

You can find excellent versions of both those tunes on David Gray's new self-produced live covers album A Thousand Miles Behind, as well as 11 others from varied original artists -- three Dylan, two Springsteen, Will Oldham (devastating), Barry Gibb (surprisingly fantastic), Johnny Cash, and more.

The cover of British songwriter John Martyn's "Go Down Easy" is emotive and amazing and sounds like something Gray could have penned himself. And wow, I just recognized the Randy Newman cover as being sung by Bette Midler on the Beaches soundtrack, of which I just remembered in a horrifying flashback that I used to own on cassette.

One With The Birds (Will Oldham) - David Gray
In The Morning (Barry Gibb) - David Gray

The album is available exclusively through DavidGray.com, as of last week.

While you're on his site, also take a listen to 1 of the two new original songs from his forthcoming Greatest Hits collection (Nov 13) -- "The World To Me" is streaming at the bottom of the main page.

A THOUSAND MILES BEHIND: TRACKLIST
1. Song To The Siren (Larry Beckett, Tim Buckley)
2. To Ramona (Bob Dylan)
3. One With The Birds (Will Oldham)
4. Long Black Veil (Danny Dill, Marijohn Wilkin)
5. One Too Many Mornings (Bob Dylan)
6. I Think It's Going To Rain Today (Randy Newman)
7. Mansion on the Hill (Bruce Springsteen)
8. In The Morning (Barry Gibb)
9. I Tremble For You (John Cash, Lewis Calvin De Witt, Jr.)
10. Buckets of Rain (Bob Dylan)
11. Go Down Easy (John Martyn)
12. Streets of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen)


And hey! Why not go see him on tour too?

UPCOMING DAVID GRAY TOUR DATES
Nov 6 - Newcastle Carling Academy
Nov 8 - Glasgow Academy
Nov 9 - Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Nov 10 - Manchester Apollo
Nov 12 - London Roundhouse
Nov 13 - London Roundhouse
Nov 14 - London Roundhouse
Nov 17 - Dublin National Stadium
Nov 18 - Killarney INEC
Dec 2 - Toronto, ON Massey Hall (On-sale Oct 19)
Dec 4 - New York, NY Beacon Theatre (On-sale Oct 19)
Dec 5 - Boston, MA Orpheum Theatre (On-sale Oct 20)
Dec 7 - Denver, CO Paramount Theatre (On-sale Oct 20)

And now, a cover that is vastly better than the original

I'd go on a limb and say that on most days my favorite David Gray song is "Say Hello Wave Goodbye," the beautiful, winding, 9-minute behemoth from White Ladder. It's not catchy, no chorus that sticks in your head; it reminds me more of a confessional poem of a complicated relationship. I have a hard time articulating exactly why I love it so much, but from those opening notes (do it, click the blue arrow) it just seems to encapsulate some ephemeral longing and an intangible sadness.

Say Hello Wave Goodbye - David Gray

The nine minutes give the lyrics time to unfold and breathe --it is long enough to tell an intricate, sad story with the brutal refrain of "Take your hands off me, hey. I don't belong to you, you say. Take a look at my face for the last time. I never knew you, you never knew me. Say hello, goodbye . . ."

To me, it's about a mismatched pair that nonetheless feels that inexorable pull: "We tried to make it work, you in a cocktail skirt and me in a suit, but it just wasn't me. You're used to wearing less, and now you're life's a mess, so insecure you see." And perhaps I like the line about how he claims to want "a nice little housewife who'll give me the steady life, and not keep going off the rails" -- but the subtext of the song tells me that he really wants her and not that at all.

My jaw dropped to the floor when I learned that this is originally a Soft Cell song (yes, they of the Tainted Love fame), and it is horrific, clunky, and synthy. In retrospect, perhaps I should have known, though -- do songs get any more '80s than one that starts with the lyric, "Standing in the door of the Pink Flamingo crying in the rain"?

I had that recent post about cover songs that are awful, this is one cover that actually redeems the original.

Say Hello Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell


Gray also adds his own outro to the original lyrics, and it always gets to me:

We were born before the wind, who are we to understand?
We were born before the wind . . .
Say goodbye
Through the rain, hail, sleet and snow
Say goodbye
Get on the train, the train, the train and
Say goodbye
Say goodbye
Say goodbye
In the wind and the rain my darling . . .
Say goodbye

In the wind and the rain my darling . . .

And with that, as you listen you can almost picture the train start moving on the tracks and pulling away from the station. It's cinematic.

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And just since the mood kind of fits, here is one other interesting cover, from Embrace's Ashes CD single (the b-side):

How Come - Embrace

How Come - D12 and Eminem
(the original - ha!)

David Gray: "Falling Free"

This is an incandescent bit of poetry masquerading as a love song. The lyrics, oh. The lyrics are saturated with an intense beauty that tightens up my throat a bit -- the feeling of falling and being not in control. The realization that sometimes connections with another person don't make sense. From David Gray's reissued 1994 album Flesh, this version live at KCRW (god bless em).

Falling Free - David Gray (live on KCRW)

All of my senses overthrown
by the might of your skin
and the lamplight on your cheekbones
drawing me further in

No sentence I can speak
for the wonder so unique
breaking like a wave upon the shore

Mercy me
I'm falling free
since you opened up the door

See how the sky is made of sapphire
the colours flowing through our hands
the moon is fire in your hair
a million miles beyond what science understands

Smell that purple heather
I don't remember ever
feeling like this before

Mercy me
I'm falling free
since you opened up the door

And if every window pane should shatter
if every wall should fall apart
well it might hurt a bit
but would it matter
with this diamond in my heart?

And there's no need to nail it to the ground
no need to smother it with sense
just listen to the rhythm of your heart
that pounding
and trust it all to chance

Cos we're standing face to face
with the angel of grace
and don't it just taste so pure

Mercy me I'm falling free
mercy me I'm falling free
mercy me I'm falling free
since you opened up the door

Seeing David Gray's spit and sweat

David Gray was amazing last night. My sister Kristy and I got to the lecture hall in the Denver Convention Center last night with our tickets in-hand. These were a birthday present from my sis last August, but then the show was canceled in October, so this was the rescheduled date. We walked in to the ushers, who ush us on our way, pointing to the front section. This was delightful, that they told us to keep moving closer. They keep ushing us forward 'til one blazered chap tells us that our seats are, indeed, in the FIRST ROW. Right in the center. Thank you Ticketmaster! I didn't know Ticketmaster loved me so much. What a great late birthday present! I haven't been in the first row of a huge show like that since Pearl Jam in 1995 in San Diego. We kept looking at each other and laughing in disbelief that we were so close!

David Gray absolutely gouges me; his beautiful playing on both piano and guitar, the way he pours his soul into he music (which you can really see up close - he feels it with his whole body), and that *voice,* both the lower register for the verses and then that sweet, affected, honest higher tenor for the emphasis and soaring parts. It was sheerly fabulous. I lack words (yet I keep trying).

And yep, that setlist includes both a Bob Dylan cover (One Too Many Mornings) AND a Tim Buckley cover immediately following (Song to the Siren, which was haunting in its ethereal beauty). I was in heaven. Ain't No Love (read the lyrics on his site - gorgeous) and Lately were also both show-stopping, as well as one entitled Shine. And as many times as I've heard Please Forgive Me, it remains such an amazing song; it could be one of my top ten. I love the lyric, "feels like lightning runnin' through my veins every time I look at you."

I was really hoping for Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (possibly my favorite song he sings, although I was shocked - shocked! - recently to find out that it is a Soft Cell tune), but no such luck. It's okay, I really couldn't have absorbed any more.

AUDIO FROM THE NIGHT [via]:

Alive (new) - David Gray
One Too Many Mornings (Dylan cover) - David Gray
Song To The Siren (Tim Buckley) - David Gray
Far From Here (new song) - David Gray

VIDEO: Simon also took some video of the recent show in Cinci:

Video 1 - Video 2 - Video 3

By the way, these cell-phone pics are all I have to regale you with. Not the best quality, but kind of avant-garde artsy, no? I finally figured how to get them off my phone and it wasn't as hard as I thought! They were just getting stuck in my spam filter.

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Oh, and speaking of good shows, if I were in the San Francisco Bay Area tonight, I would be tempted to head on out to Hotel Utah and enjoy me some Newcastle while partaking in a good show with two local band favorites. Santa Clara University's own favorite good-time band The Otters are playing with 735 Institution at rad historic venue the Hotel Utah Saloon tonight at 9pm:

"Perhaps the most underrated SF institution, the Hotel Utah has outlasted DJ-bar mania, dive-bar revival and every other nightlife trend to hit the city. Since its doors opened in 1908, the hip factor has never been part of the Utah's organic M.O. This classic saloon showcases 20th-century novelties like a walk-in wooden phone booth, old-fashioned, inner-lit streetlamps and hand-carved mahogany bar back. The Utah packs in a casual and virtually ageless crowd."

It's only $6, so if you are one of my readers from Santa Clara, Stanford, San Fran, Palo Alto, San Jose, Oakland, etc. etc. etc., head on over. The Otters are preparing a rockin' little acoustic set with some original tunes, and I hear there may also be a sexy little number by the Rolling Stones thrown in the mix.

Ooh, bring on that harmonica.