Bettye LaVette-The Album
1. "The Word"
I didn’t even buy "Rubber Soul" when it came out. The American version had no hits! And I had only a little bit of money, and had to use it wisely and preferred to buy albums that contained big radio tracks. Yes, I had a very brief ride on the singles train, I was an album guy way back in ’64.
Of course I was wrong. I love "Revolver" more, but you can’t name a better album than "Rubber Soul". But the original Beatles take is so English, cut exuberantly inside while it rains outside. Bettye’s take… It’s a gospel explosion with a funk groove. It’s John Lennon’s sweet vocal that makes the original so great, it’s the attitude in Bettye’s version that makes it so great.
2. "No Time To Live"
My favorite track on the album.
The original, of course, is on the second Traffic album, which contained no hits, and the lack of commercial success caused the band to implode. All these years later, we can say that "Traffic" had the original "Feelin’ Alright", but as great as that track is, there’s not a single loser on this all time classic album.
There’s a desolation in the original. Which Bettye captures in her take. You feel strong as you’re alone, maybe on the edge of a cliff contemplating life on a blustery day in the U.K.
This is the anti-Top Forty. But it wipes the deck clean. You listen and you feel something inside. The compressed rhythm tracks on today’s radio are all external, but this is life itself.
3. "Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood"
My favorite Animals track is "Don’t Bring Me Down"… But if you were conscious back in ’65, you know every lick of their hit version. But Bettye’s rendition is the opposite of her take of "The Word". In this case, it’s the original that’s got the attitude, Bettye’s take is reflective.
The Animals were from dreary England, you can hear Eric Burdon’s desire to escape in the track. Whereas Bettye’s version sounds like it was cut in Muscle Shoals. It’s not about the urgency, but the underlying message. You won’t even realize it’s the same song until she gets to the chorus, then again, you still might not know. But what’ll get you in the gut, what’ll rivet you, is the little instrumental bit at the end of the chorus, like someone tugging at your shirtsleeve, imploring you to turn around as they smile and try to make a connection.
4. "All My Love"
Yes, the best track from Zeppelin’s "In Through The Out Door"! The riff from the original is gone. You know, that keyboard figure. But Bettye’s track is dark in a way that Jimmy and Robert can understand.
5. "Isn’t It A Pity"
Poor George, almost forgotten, when "All Things Must Pass" was considered by many to be the best album of 1970.
When was the last time you heard "Apple Scruffs"? Or the Bob Dylan cover "If Not For You"?
This is every bit as good as George’s original. Fat where his take is thin. But sad underneath in the same way.
6. "Wish You Were Here"
My favorite version of this song is the live one by Fred Durst and Johnny Rzeznik from the "America: A Tribute To Heroes" concert. I like it even more than the Pink Floyd original.
Fascinating choice, but in this instance, Bettye does not trump either of the foregoing takes. Then again, she does turn it into something different that you have to accept on its own terms.
7. "It Don’t Come Easy"
Some tracks just cannot tire you out, you never burn out on them, you smile every time you hear them. Songs like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "It Don’t Come Easy".
It certainly don’t.
But listening to Ringo, you think it eventually does come, you get what you want, the track is optimistic. Whereas Bettye’s version is after the party, after the audience has gone home, after everybody’s had a good time and the truth is being uttered backstage, or in the bus on the way to the next gig.
She emphasizes different parts of the song. She stretches it out. It’s not all of one vibe, rather it encompasses the range of emotions. Everybody gets to play, everybody gets to shine. It sounds like it was cut in Muscle Shoals after the engineer went home. When everybody’s spent, yet too keyed up to leave and starts to jam. The guitar squeal that sounds like a horn section, the fingers dancing across the piano keys like Barry Beckett, you listen and alternately ooh and ahh and get introspective.
It definitely don’t come easy. But somehow you keep on keepin’ on. And what helps is music. You don’t have to be rich or powerful to get it, to experience it, to love it… Then again, listening to the right track you feel like the King of the World! Bettye LaVette’s take of "It Don’t Come Easy" is such a track.
8. "Maybe I’m Amazed"
Do you know the live version off the Faces’ "Long Player"? It’s NOTHING like it was live. Live, Ronnie Lane would stand in front of the microphone and sing thinly and then…Rod the Mod would rush up alongside him and sing from the bottom of his soul. Ronnie Wood would rage, and you’d throw your head back and say WHEW!
McCartney’s genius is captured in the original. Only he could write it. Bettye doesn’t challenge it. Rather than try to go over the top, out-sing him, she slows it down and lets the meaning of the words shine through.
9. "Salt Of The Earth"
"Beggars Banquet" came out the same time as the White Album. And had a fraction of the impact. But this was the Stones’ transformative moment. This is when they stopped imitating and forged their own path.
Yes, the track with all the airplay was and still is "Sympathy For The Devil". But as great as that signature track is, what comes after is in its own way better. Rather than swinging for the fences, the band looked inward, listening felt like pulling back the curtain and taking a peek inside.
Who can forget the intro to "Stray Cat Blues"…that was edgy in the days before Internet porn!
God, every track is so great.
But the closer both sums the record up and creeps you out.
Yes, it’s "Salt Of The Earth".
I’d like to say Bettye’s take trumps the Stones’ original, but that might be impossible, the way intercourse with even the best looking person in the world cannot compete with sex with a loved one. We don’t need riches and fame, we just need honest feelings. And the Stones deliver.
Still, a great choice. The more people who know this song, the better.
10. "Nights In White Satin"
I hate that the Moody Blues have been forgotten, or if remembered, are a punch line. In their day, they were truly cutting edge. They were the first to cut an entire album with an orchestra, they made album-length statements, they were interested in music more than hits.
Bettye’s take is absent the majesty of the original. And that’s good, rather than compete by throwing everything into the mix, she breaks the song down to its essence, turning it into something different. It’s now a dirge. But when she builds to the chorus, professing her love, the crescendo makes you lift your head to the heavens, you ultimately twist and turn your noggin, caught up in emotion, the same way your parents did with classical music.
11. "Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad"
Eric Clapton’s never cut an album as good as "Layla". This has got a different groove, a different feel from the original, it’s got horns, and Bettye squeezes out the chorus like toothpaste from a tube. There is a guitar solo, but if only Derek was the one doing the wailing…
12. "Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me"
Elton’s throwaway albums are better than the long players of today. "Caribou" is not as good as "Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player", but it does contain the classic "The Bitch Is Back". And this.
But whereas the original is majestic, in the fashion of "Tumbleweed Connection"’s first side closer "My Father’s Gun", Ms. LaVette’s take is stripped down. The guitar sounds like the haunting picking on Elton’s American debut, and the whole thing has a world-weariness, in opposition to Elton and Bernie’s fascination with the west on "Tumbleweed".
13. "Love Reign O’er Me"
The inspiration. The live take from the Kennedy Center.
"American Idol" can get viewers, but that’s about the competition, the drama of who’s going to win, Ms. LaVette triumphs here by injecting the drama in the song itself! Unlike the Mariah clones, she doesn’t start out at 10 and stay there, she works a whole range of emotions, from soft to loud, from intimate to intense.
This track has gotten all the hype. The press needs a hook, saying how Pete Townshend loved it. All I can say is it provided inspiration to do this whole album.
