Yesterday, my mom, Annie and I are driving up north, and at one point I put on a Nora Jones CD.Mom: "What is this?"
Me: "It's Nora Jones, I listen to her when I want a break from complicated music."
Mom: "I think I saw her on TV. She sat there and played and I just asked myself, Why?"
Me: "Why? Because she's uncomplicated, she's like vanilla ice cream."
Mom: "It's like the kind of music you hear at a party in the 60's and you just wish it would stop."
Long pause.
Me: "You know something? This music is making me angry."
Mom: "Why, because she won't stop whining?"
Annie: "Why, because every song sounds the same?"
Me: "Yes! And because she's so mediocre and so successful!"
I pull out the CD and throw it on the car floor.
Me:"Enough of this junk!"
Annie: "Mommy!"
I pull out a Miles Davis CD and say, "Now, let's listen to some real music!"
Annie: "Poor Nora."
4 comments:
Does it make her seem more complicated when you find out her dad is Ravi Shankar? It did for me.
Aaron, nope.
Is it her voice, her band's arrangements, or just the songs?
Norah covers: Hank Williams, Nick Drake, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Gram Parsons, Waylon Jennings, Joni Mitchell, Townes Van Zandt, Duke Ellington, Dusty Springfield, Carole King, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Roxy Music, Pete Seeger, Herbie Hancock.
I think these folks have at least a clue what a "good" song is; I'd say she has at least some good taste.
Choosing greats songs is easy--to me her sound lacks depth--it skims the surface and I can't feel who she is.
Though she has a pleasant vocal quality, her interpretations of these great songs are all lost on me, and I would rather just listen to the originals.
But it's just my opinion, and I know nothing.
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