- FRIDAY JAM: A rovin’ a rovin’ a rovin’ I’ll go (12/1/23)1
- SATURDAY JAM: You feel the turning of the world, so soft and slow (11/11/23)
- SUNDAY JAM: Hello, Darkness, my old friend (11/5/23)
- FRIDAY JAM: Plowin’ straight ahead, come what may (10/27/23)1
- WEDNESDAY JAM: Some folks say there ain't no bears in Arkansas (10/25/23)1
- FRIDAY JAM: I took a drive today... (10/20/23)
- SATURDAY JAM: Canadian coldfront movin’ in (8/12/23)1
Friday Jam: Everybody Wants to Rule the World-Mayer Hawthorne
This post is a last-minute change. I had already written a blog about a pair of Kiss songs, but you'll have to wait for those.
This song was just released yesterday and I got an email about it when I was sitting at my desk shortly after midnight.
It's intriguing to me for two reasons. First, I generally like the music I hear from Mayer Hawthorne. Modern artists making classic soul music usually makes me happy.
Secondly, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a great song, my favorite from Tears for Fears. It makes me so many things, including watching MTV as a child in the '80s as well as "Dennis Miller Live" in the '90s. (Remember Dennis Miler? He was a great comedian, then a bad football commentator and now a neoconservative curmudgeon.)
As I might have suspected, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" isn't exactly the neo soul for which Hawthorne is know. That's understandable, considering he's covering a new wave classic. (I promise there are a few of those.)
Hawthorne presents us with a version featuring his usual soulful vocals, but instrumentation echoing the '80s influences of the original.
Only it's a minimalist arrangement of those synths and drum machines that made new wave what it was. It's a great example of making a cover one's own without reinventing the wheel.
I hope you enjoy it ... or it at least prompts you to listen to something else by Hawthorne or Tears for Fears.
Have a good weekend, people.
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