jennings rampage

It’s just not a cheeseburger without it.

June 27th, 2007 | by Scott Jennings |

After I explained the Fundamental Theorem of Barbecue (by cooking a fatty and stringy cut of meat, such as pork shoulder, at a temperature lower than the boiling point of water but higher than the melting point of collagen, you can render away the connective tissue and produce a finished product that is both unctuous and tender) to a vegetarian, she played for me Ted Leo’s cover of Since U Been Gone, which is probably the best pop song of the decade. The cover was terrible and totally ruined it. Here is a video so you can not watch:

Now, I’m not at all opposed to covers, and I’m not at all opposed to bringing your own artistic interpretation and license to the party, but this particular cover fails for the usual reason: a fundamental failure to understand the original song. The original song is about the bridge, it’s all a buildup to get us to the bridge, without the bridge, there’s no song. So instead of the bridge, Ted Leo starts singing a different song that means the exact opposite of what the bridge meant, and we did this all for nothing. Huge letdown, because I sort of enjoyed it until then.

This isn’t the worst cover of all time (the nominees are: Madonna’s version of “American Pie,” Sugar Ray’s version of “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” and Counting Crows’ version of “Big Yellow Taxi”), and I don’t want you to think I’m complaining too much, but I’m very sensitive to how words mean things and how specific and precise emotions make words mean bigger things. (It’s the usual reason contestants on American Idol fail to connect and transcend the ordinary; “loud” is not an emotion.) And I did leave with a couple of very thoughtful slices of provolone, so that was nice.