Marvin'd

[andy-hughes]

This is a new adjective I've invented.

It describes what happens when a wonderful vibrant exciting and memorable song or piece of music has all that emotion sucked out of it, and replaced by an anodine pedestrian plodding samey drudge that has all the evocation of a set of pan pipes.

If you want a demo - listen to Hank Marvin's version of Waterloo Sunset off his new album - the beauty and fragility of Ray Davies's hymn to his city have been replaced by the sledgehammer crud of a housebrick being dropped from a first floor window.

How can one of the most original, innovative, exciting hugely influential and truly groundbreaking musicians of the last sixty years come out with stuff like this?

It's a mystery to me.

[Sipowicz]

It's not a shadow of the original!

[Zeuhl]

Doesn't Hank Marvin have previous?

I have a vague recollection from the 80s (?)

'Theme from the Deer Hunter'??

[The Builder]

Record Companies, Andy. Often, the only way they can get a deal is to put the artist's name to an album of non-threatening "lift music".

The Jazz world is riddled with "Smooth Jazz". Top players (who really don't make as much money as people think) have to churn out ear candy to reach a wider audience.

With Sax players, you only have to think of Kenny G. Sadly, one of the best-selling.

[andy-hughes]

Zeuhl - "Doesn't Hank Marvin have previous?

I have a vague recollection from the 80s (?)

'Theme from the Deer Hunter'??"

Exactly! John Williams' acoustic piece full of emotion and atmosphere, Marvin'd - well and truly!!!

[SeaJayPea]

Can I give you the version of Hallelujah by Alexandra Burke?

Marvined, definitely.

[douglas9401]

"How can one of the most original, innovative, exciting hugely influential and truly groundbreaking musicians of the last sixty years come out with stuff like this?"

Hank Marvin? My attention must have wandered for a decade or two.

[andy-hughes]

SraJayPea - "Can I give you the version of Hallelujah by Alexandra Burke?

Marvined, definitely."

Indeed - you have perfectly captured the concept.

May I take your Hallelujah by Alexandra Burke, and raise you a 'Light My Fire' by Will Young?

Already Marvin'd by Jose Feliciano, and then Marvin-Squared by the whey-faced talent(?)-show personage!

[andy-hughes]

douglas 9401 - ""How can one of the most original, innovative, exciting hugely influential and truly groundbreaking musicians of the last sixty years come out with stuff like this?"

Hank Marvin? My attention must have wandered for a decade or two."

Maybe yours did douglas, but the respective attentions of Messrs. Clapton, Townsend, Page, Green and so on, were fully focused on Mr Marvin's output - they all cite him as a major influence on them picking up an electric guitar.

[jno]

that does sound a bit pointless. I don't know that it's actually bad - if I'd never heard the original I wouldn't think so - but why remake something if you've got nothing to add and a lot to lose?

[andy-hughes]

jno - absolutely.

And to return to m'learned friend SeaJayPea's point about the fulsome Ms Burke's prolonged assasination of the Cohen classic - it does remind everyone that no song, however utterly majestic in its original form, cannot be Marvin'd by someone out there, who paradoxically will then proceed to massively outsell the original.

The only saving grace is that Mr Cohen had Ms Burke's abonination, his own wonderful version, and the version-to-beat that is jeff Buckley's wonded classic, all in the charts together, so he will have been buttoning up his suit, putting on his trilby, and strolling to the bank with a huge smile on his still-handsome face.

[ludwig]

// Maybe yours did douglas, but the respective attentions of Messrs. Clapton, Townsend, Page, Green and so on, were fully focused on Mr Marvin's output - they all cite him as a major influence on them picking up an electric guitar. //

Yeah, probably because they thought, 'jeez, that's a doddle. If he can do it, so can I'. I haven't heard his Waterloo Sunset, but I don't have to to know exactly what it will sound like. There were plenty of other people doing that twangy Strat thing before Hank. I don't think he was particularly innovative or technically brilliant, but I've got nothing against it.

[Zeuhl]

Now Bert Weedon ...

there was a remarkable musician and inspiration!

[andy-hughes]

ludwig - "There were plenty of other people doing that twangy Strat thing before Hank. I don't think he was particularly innovative or technically brilliant, but I've got nothing against it."

I think that's a little harsh.

i would never hold HM up as a shining example of virtuosity, but my point was, and is, that his influence was deep and wide, and he did have a big part in influencing some of the world's greatest guitarists, from the UK at least.

Influence is not always about being the best - just the best recognised.

[andy-hughes]

Zeuhl - "Now Bert Weedon ...

there was a remarkable musician and inspiration!"

No arguments here!

[douglas9401]

When those towering giants of rock and roll were being influenced by the then new and inovative Hank Marvin the world was grooving to big bands and trad.
Thankfully they took the basic skills of the bespectacled one and ran with them.

[Aquariel]

I think we definitely can include Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb. What a travesty compared to the epic original!

[andy-hughes]

Aquariel - "I think we definitely can include Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb. What a travesty compared to the epic original!"

For every rule there is an exception, and I actually think the SS version is rather wonderful!

[SeaJayPea]

Andy - I'll see your 'Light My Fire' and raise you a 'Macarthur Park' by Donna Summer.

[andy-hughes]

SeaJayPea - I'll see your 'Macarthur Park' and raise you 'American Pie' by Madonna.

[douglas9401]

Right back at you all with Rolf and Stairway To Heaven.
None of your pish about irony, I win. :)