The Pedantry of a True Fan

March 22nd, 2009, 2 Comments »

Last night I was watching an episode of “True Blood” on my laptop. In one scene, a character puts a CD on, and we hear the familiar strains of the Cowboy Junkies’ moody cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane”. Directors seem to love this song–I’ve heard it in movies and on TV almost as often as that darn cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

Being a big geek, I wanted a closer look at the CD cover the character was holding. I took a screenshot–click for the large size:

She Plays "Sweet Jane"

It doesn’t look like any Junkies cover that I’ve ever seen. Of course, the CD’s owner is the kind of guy who would put the CD back in the wrong case. However, he’s also not the kind of guy who would own “The Trinity Sessions”, where this song originally appears. As you can see, I was troubled. Maybe the director wasn’t sure what song they’d use when they shot the scene?

As for “True Blood”, I’d give it a cautious thumbs up. It’s not brilliant television, but it’s got an offbeat, amusing story set against the creepy backdrop of rural Louisiana, a part of the world we rarely see on television.

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Why Hasn’t There Been a Tragically Hip Tribute Album?

December 12th, 2007, 9 Comments »

I’ve been a fan of The Tragically Hip for, what, fifteen years. I’m biased, but I think they’ve been one of the country’s seminal and most influential bands over the past two decades.

So where’s the Tragically Hip tribute album? Gordon Lightfoot’s got one. So does Murray Mclachlan. Same with Neil Young. I guess they’re all considerably older than the Hip, but heck, even Stars have one. Kind of.

That would be a cool project, actually, to drive interest in such a tribute album. You set up a site that enables fans to vote on what songs they’d like covered, and which bands should cover them. Then you take that (and the mailing list and RSS subscribers you’ve got from the site) to the top vote-getting bands themselves, and see if they’ll contribute a song. Then you put all that together, and you’ve got yourself a Hip tribute album.

9 Comments »