Covered Like a Jimmy Hat

Martha Wainwright - The Traitor (2005)



Leonard Cohen - The Traitor (1979)

One of the problems with learning the difference between your musical head and your musical ass is that as you develop a more sophisticated palette, sometimes you skeptically (and unfairly) dismiss otherwise worthwhile material due to sins committed by vastly inferior artists. [1]

For instance (unless you're my mother, you vote republican, or you're 10 years old), you realize that an all-covers bar musician is the lowest form of musicianship possible, far beneath even the toothless guy that plays the bucket in downtown Chicago and smokes metholated reburns. As the sensitive Abercrombie singer-songwriter, the Eagles t-shirt sporting deadbeat dad, or the "ironic" pop-punk cover band, each incarnation is still rooted in the idea that the only way to enjoy music is if you know it already. Obviously, all of these people deserve the business end of a Tyrannosaur phallus.

Sadly, though, due to the staggering number of atrocious covers (is linking to the Ataris even necessary???), many otherwise sophisticated listeners fail to explore the world of covers around the time they stop purchasing Greatest Hits compilations (yeah, there won't ever be a post here defending those vile products). As a result, tributes like 2006's "I'm Your Man" fall beneath their radar.

Designed to pay respects to Canadian troubador Leonard Cohen, "I'm Your Man" was a combination documentary/concert designed to show the dramatic scope of his influence across the music industry. From Jarvis Cocker and Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave to Bono, the project brought out the kind of A-List names usually reserved for eulogies (Cohen, thankfully, remains among us).

One of the lesser known performers, Martha Wainwright (Rufus' sister) fittingly reinterpreted a more obscure track, 1979's examination of fate "The Traitor". Loosening the tempo from the standard meter-perfect rhythm Cohen is known for, Wainwright reconfigured the track as a Randy Newman-esque construct, propelled along sporadically by the performer's whim alone. This new-found slackness makes the protagonists climactic realization about fate all the more compelling. By the end, the listener's only question is if Martha's version of "The Traitor" has unseated Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" as the most profound of all Leonard Cohen reinterpretations.[2]




[1] Another problem is that sometimes, you struggle to separate the music that you're drawn to with the music that will best facilitate your goals. Trying to listen to the new Lil Boosie album while I typed this was fucking impossible.

[2] Yes, I realize Buckley's cover was actually a cover of John Cale's cover. Try harder.