Drowned Out Sound:
Coversongs Of Silence and the Struggle To Hear
An interesting challenge faces us this evening: my annual bout of virulent bronchitis has left me partially deaf, and the world is muffled, as if I was now living my life completely underwater. As if that wasn’t bad enough, one of the side effects of the added sinus pressure has been a significant increase in volume in what was already a relatively permanent ringing in my right ear, which I can now identify as a piercingly high-pitched C#.
Listening to music in this state is abhorrent. Midranges turn to mud; high tones struggle to out themselves, grating against the tinnitus ring. My own breathing echoes in my skull like crowd noise; my swallows pop like a scratch in the record. And without the ability to trust my own ear, I cannot in good conscience stand before you to recommend anything new, or even trust my ability to accurately describe the experience of a particular song or songwriter.
A topic mix, then, with little fanfare: a broad set of folk and folk-tinged coversongs on the subject of silence, and the struggle to hear and be heard, which I have collected over the years. I trust these songs because I have banked them away against just such an inevitability, choosing these over a plethora of other topical possibilities, but other than the fact that they are good and relevant coverfolk, I’ll be damned if I can tell you why each one made the original playlist. I guess the best I can say here is that I believe my older, listening self to be a reasonable judge of musicianship and interpretation. As such, I pass along these songs with his blessing.
- Pat MacDonald: Enjoy The Silence (orig. Depeche Mode)
(from Strange Love: PM does DM, 2003) - Crooked Still: Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ (orig. Bill Monroe)
(from Shaken by a Low Sound, 2006) - John Denver: What’s That I Hear? (orig. Phil Ochs)
(from John Denver Sings, 1964) - Karen Savoca: No More Songs (orig. Phil Ochs)
(from What’s That I Hear: The Songs of Phil Ochs, 1998) Emiliana Torrini: Sound of Silence (orig. Simon and Garfunkel)
(from Icelandic covers compilation Stone Free, 1996)
[Link removed due to hotlinking -- please don't abuse bandwidth!]- Lisa Ekdahl: It’s Oh So Quiet (pop. Bjork; orig. Betty Hutton)
(from Heaven, Earth and Beyond, 2002) - Shelby Lynne: I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore (orig. Dusty Springfield)
(from Just a Little Lovin’, 2007) - Odetta: Listening to Old Voices (orig. John Hiatt)
(from Rollin’ Into Memphis: The Songs of John Hiatt, 2000) - Pete Seeger: Beans in my Ears (orig. Len Chandler)
(from Dangerous Songs!?, 1966) - Elizabeth Mitchell: If You Listen (orig. Francoise Hardy)
(from You Are My Little Bird, 2006)
Cover Lay Down posts new coverfolk features Wednesdays, Sundays, and the occasional otherday. Y’all come back now, hear?
Category: Uncategorized
January 7th, 2009 at 8:18 am
“It’s Oh So Quiet” performed by Björk is in itself a cover of the Betty Hutton song “Blow a Fuse”.
January 7th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Can you fix the link for “Sounds of Silence”? It isn’t working.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I sympathize - I get both issues just as you do. Any amount of time without my “normal hearing” (and I have extremely lousy hearing to start - genetics) causes my tinnitus to have to go through a new retuning process.
Eventually it just becomes background noise - but it sucks in the meantime.
s
January 7th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Hutton source added; Torinni link fixed. Thanks, as always, for all sympathies and peer editing, folks!
January 7th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I hope you feel better soon. I think I’m heading into my own annual bronchitis (is it the music we like?:), but at least I don’t have ringing in my ears - I’m especially sorry about that. Take care of yourself.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Hope you get better soon!
January 8th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Hope you’re feeling better.
I thought the comment about not being able to hear “Sounds of Silence” was a joke. Not hearing silence? Get it? Get it? Never mind.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:52 am
sorry mate, but I wrongly thought that a direct link to your blog could be enough.. no big deal link changed…
January 9th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Sorry to hear about your ‘loss.’ That must suck. Much sympathy to you. You have a great blog, adn I hope it all comes back (and goes away, as the case may be) soon!
Brad
January 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I, too, sympathize, Howdy. Just about totally deaf in my left ear makes me appreciate the hearing I still have. I tell people I get 50% off at iTunes
Seriously, though, prayers and best wishes to a really decent guy and one of the best writers on the net!
January 12th, 2009 at 12:08 am
[...] Block: On Writing Against The Noise (plus coverfolk of and by musicians with tinnitus)Drowned Out Sound: Coversongs Of Silence and the Struggle To HearFestival Coverfolk: The Boston Celtic Music Festival (January 9-10, Cambridge, MA)New Artists, NEW [...]
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
[...] fall off-schedule, I offer two sets of songs originally posted last January: one on the topic of silence and hearing, the other featuring songs of and from musicians with tinnitus. As always, I’ve included a [...]