YouTube: Denise Johnson - "Well I Wonder" (October 2, 2020)

The late Denise Johnson's cover now on YouTube.



Regards,
FWD.

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Related item:

• Denise Johnson dies - New album features a Smiths cover version ("Well I Wonder") - July 28, 2020

 

[Deleted member 28251]

On a diva related topic - was this an inspiration for The Last of the International Playboys?

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I’ve met all of The Smiths, if a handshake is enough. And I’ve spoke to three for a while. None of the latter mention this world. And it was/is of course everything.

 

[Mayfly]

Just found this out of The Songs That Saved Your Life:

"Never performed in public, it stands as the most surprising omission from The Smiths’ concert career and the only track from their first three studio albums never to be played live.

As such ‘Well I Wonder’ occupies a unique alcove in Smithdom, hanging on its own wall with no encroaching neighbours, its hypnotisingly sad canvas thick with the same mystic blues and jewelled yellows as Van Gogh’s The Starry Night; a work of art every inch as priceless."

The Smiths probably had their reason for never playing "Well I wonder" live.
It would be very hard to reproduce this intensely sad and fragile atmosphere live IMO, so better to leave it alone.

That's where the cover fails too, but at least for me, a cover can stray from the original. She has a beautiful and powerful voice, but the guitar playing turns it more into a folk / protest song.

 

[reelfountain]

The Smiths probably had their reason for never playing "Well I wonder" live.
It would be very hard to reproduce this intensely sad and fragile atmosphere live IMO, so better to leave it alone.

That's where the cover fails too, but at least for me, a cover can stray from the original. She has a beautiful and powerful voice, but the guitar playing turns it more into a folk / protest song.

I agree. The guitar playing lets it down. It's not fluid enough.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

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The Smiths probably had their reason for never playing "Well I wonder" live.
It would be very hard to reproduce this intensely sad and fragile atmosphere live IMO, so better to leave it alone.

That's where the cover fails too, but at least for me, a cover can stray from the original. She has a beautiful and powerful voice, but the guitar playing turns it more into a folk / protest song.

I made a new friend in 1992. He was obsessed with Bowie. We fell out in the end: his girlfriend admired cancer research and I contested that it was killing more beings than it saved.

It was at the start of my Morrissey fascination, and he knew loads about music, and I asked him about The Smiths’ best ever song. In an instant he answered Well I Wonder. He was from Manchester, he didn’t like Morrissey, he found him too conservative (in 1992) and he might well have been right. About the song, obviously.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

I agree. The guitar playing lets it down. It's not fluid enough.

Yes, I agree.

 

[reelfountain]

Yes, I agree.

Tackling one of the Smiths most tender and sensitive songs isn't a decision you should take lightly.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

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Tackling one of the Smiths most tender and sensitive songs isn't a decision you should take lightly.

It was only when I heard the rest of the album that I realised the guitar wasn’t a homage, or a creative choice. Yes: it’s a folk version of a folk song. That might be good, or it could be bad. But that’s what it is.

 

[reelfountain]

I made a new friend in 1992. He was obsessed with Bowie. We fell out in the end: his girlfriend admired cancer research and I contested that it was killing more beings than it saved.

It was at the start of my Morrissey fascination, and he knew loads about music, and I asked him about The Smiths’ best ever song. In an instant he answered Well I Wonder. He was from Manchester, he didn’t like Morrissey, he found him too conservative (in 1992) and he might well have been right. About the song, obviously.

I think songs like Well I Wonder, Unloveable, Asleep, Suffer Little Children etc are uncoverable.

They are beyond greatness.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

I think songs like Well I Wonder, Unloveable, Asleep, Suffer Little Children etc are uncoverable.

They are beyond greatness.

I find it interesting that when people lazily sum up The Smiths it sounds like they’re speaking about those songs. Songs they’ve never even heard.

I suppose, in a way, those tracks are The Smiths songs their other songs hint at.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

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Compared to the original?


Well, it would be difficult to improve on
it, though this may not have been her aim.


What would you rather she have or anyone have done with the song?

It ends wonderfully. I’m left feeling frustrated that it didn’t start that way.

It’s utterly pedestrian in the main.

Nevertheless, it’s on my running playlist which is sacrosanct. No complaints about the voice—it’s gorgeous.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

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I know politics is full of sneaky garbage & pro-maskers can be up their own backside - but surely Donald Trump getting Covid & being in hospital is giving you some pause for thought?

He's a month away from election day - he's made downplaying Covid a key part of his political strategy, he's used masks as a symbol of political correctness stifling freedom - & now he's wearing masks & tweeting that it's a plague.

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I think you’ll find Covid is about to become an even bigger part of his strategy.

He will win. It’s hilarious that we’re doubting, again.

This ‘fact’ does not please me.

 

[reelfountain]

Remember, back in days yonder when Oliver Cromwell took England's reigns he banned Christmas, singing, dancing, socailising and all things fun (for everyone apart from himself of course).

During his reign he set down a New Normal - just like they're doing now.

He was eventually overthrown. Then life carried on as normal and the next king made sure to build lots of theatres for the public etc to have fun in.

The only thing that hasn't happened yet is the "overthrown" bit.

Please wake up everyone. Covid is a glorified common cold.

 

[Deleted member 29417]

I think you’ll find Covid is about to become an even bigger part of his strategy.

He will win. It’s hilarious that we’re doubting, again.

This ‘fact’ does not please me.

You can never say never... but, I think he's in a bad way.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

You can never say never... but, I think he's in a bad way.

He’s in the sweet spot and fingers crossed.

We’ll never hear the last of it when he pulls through.

 

[reelfountain]

Ah no, Trump has caught a cold.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

It’s one of the things you notice when you meet him: he’s quite big.

David Hasselhoff is f***ing massive.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

Ah no, Trump has caught a cold.

Morrissey must’ve sneezed.

 

[Verso]

Please wake up everyone. Covid is a glorified common cold.

Know anyone who has it?

 

[reelfountain]

Know anyone who has it?

Does anyone?

 

[Verso]

Does anyone?

You're talking to someone who's got it right now, congratulations. Consider your horizons expanded.