Comfortably Numbs

Some songs cannot transcend their origins. “Comfortably Numb” is such a song. It sucks no matter who performs it. But The Scissor Sisters’ version sucks the least.

Luther: actually, I’d argue that the problem with the original version isn’t that it sucks on its own as that it’s inextricably bound up with the moment that Roger Waters’ ego finally wanked itself past the speed of light in “The Wall.” If “Comfortably Numb” had been on any other album (say, somewhere in the middle of side two of “Dark Side of the Moon”, where it would have fit unobtrusively), we’d remember it fondly if fuzzily as one of Dave Gilmour’s better songs. Faint praise and all that, but there you go.

Oh, and to answer the question: the Bad Plus version, all the way. I like the Sisters possibly more than is healthy, but their version always struck me as a little self-congratulatorily clever.

The van morrison version. There should be laws against touching this song if you’re underqualified, and a man like van Morrison is clearly underqualified. And at the Berlin wall concert, no less… compare with Sinead O’connor’s version of Mother…

Of those two, the Scissor Sisters is clearly better. Clearly? First, covers should almost never be noticably longer than the originals, unless there’s new content there: just slowing down doesn’t constitute an interesting artistic transformation. Second, the Bad Plus version is not just about drugs, but sounds drugged, which is not pleasant or successful: there are words lost, no narrative thread, etc. A good jazz version of the song could be interesting — especially given the history of drugs in jazz — but that’s not even close.

just slowing down doesn’t constitute an interesting artistic transformation.

It can. There are different performances (all, admittedly, by Gnarls Barkley) of “Crazy” at different speeds and it makes a real difference to the feel of the song.

Scissor Sisters link:
“This video contains content from Vevo, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.” Thanks Google.

Sorry, that didn’t come out right: I don’t know the “Crazy” versions you’re talking about, but presumably there’s something more about the presentation that changes with the speed. There are broad exceptions, I suppose, in instrumental music (our “Ravel’s Greatest Hit” CD contains full versions of “Bolero” ranging from, I think, 9 to 14 minutes in length; in addition to the altered orchestration, instrumentation etc,. versions), but rarely is simply slowing down going to represent a significant artistic move.

This is stupid. The real question is: is the Cardigans’ version of Iron Man better than Black Sabbaths’?

Or, more generally, is Dread Zeppelin better than Led Zeppelin? The truth will rock your world.

Well, I just remembered I have the Bad Plus (mp3) album which includes Comfortably Numb, but it’s not one of the songs I like. Some of their rearrangements work for me, some don’t. I appreciate their artistic intent, though.

Although I don’t like the Scissors Sister version enough to want to listen to all of it, the sample excerpt I found on Amazon did elicit a brief smile.

Dar Williams also covers Comfortably Numb on her album My Better Half.

It is simply unfathomable to me that anyone could dislike the original Comfortably Numb. It is hands down the best guitar solo ever to appear in a mainstream rock song. But to answer the question, the Bad Plus version is the lesser cover. Not as bad as the Bad Plus doing Sabbath, but bad.

Opps sorry, the musicians are barely passable. Their covers were not passable. They were total crap.

There are reasons to like the original besides “oh cool guitar solo”. The lyrics are several cuts above your average pop song, and include at least two strong and engaging images. “When I was a child I had a fever/my hands felt like two balloons” manages to be both evocative and novel — it’s striking even today, and would have been that much more so in 1979.

It’s been _de rigeur_ to harsh on Roger Waters for the last 30 years or so — make that 35 if you’re hardcore Floydist — but if we’re keeping ourselves within the limits of this single track, there’s not that much evidence for the prosecution beyond “well, that last verse gets pretty bathetic dunnit?”

Random bit of Floyd trivia: they originally wanted to have the Beach Boys singing backup on “Waiting for the Worms”. It almost happened; apparently Waters had some sort of last-minute hissy that caused it to be cancelled.

OTOH, there’s also an alternate universe where Floyd decided to produce “Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking” as their Big Concept Album, trading most of “The Wall” to Waters for solo use in return. Yes, apparently this was seriously considered. And while I think PACOH is a somewhat unfairly maligned album, still I think we can all agree that we got the better of the deal on that one.

Doug M.

Merely slowing it down might not be big, clever or funny, but Snuff managed to entertain a lot of people by proving that speeding up by a silly amount is all three. Esp “I think we’re alone now”.

Ah Queensryche, how we do love you! Thank you Steve. For me though, there’s no better version than when David Gilmour sings it.

I didn’t watch the movie of The Wall until I was an adult, but it did capture very well for me the feeling of going to school and growing up in 70s/80s England – I was surprised at all the horrid memories that came bubbling up through it. The only other music that captures it as well for me is Living with the Big Lie by Marillion. “Learning to keep your head down when they’re choosing the sides” says everything you need to know about rural schools in the UK back in the late 70s/early 80s.

Did you all happen to know how exceptionally popular the original song is in Poland?

Nearly 17 million views worldwide, the video takes youtube Honors awards for Most Favorited, Most Viewed, Most Discussed, and Top Rated (each in Poland) — it’s actually the #1 most viewed video there, as well as the #1 most favorited.

This just seems like the sort of thing that people who like to know things would like to know.

I guess this thread is over, but I thought the folks here were sophisticated.

Wotta bunch o’ cretins.

And dude, the piano arpeggios (not glissandos) are SUPPOSED to be off. You try playing it that way.

sheesh

Yeah, they both blow. And I even kinda like the Scissor Sisters but, as an empirical matter, disco Floyd — as awesomely fabulous as it may sound — just doesn’t really work. And the first one is far too slow to be a good anything.

Witness The Fool’s full classic-rock troll performance here:

http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/9670.html

I just reread part of it, McGrabass, and my comments stand up quite well. I argued a reasoned and reasonable position, while you and your cretinous allies mainly flung a bunch of poo and assumed that you were obviously right.

That’s excellent work. Hey, if you and the Troll of Sorrow have ever had an argument I’d be interested in a link.