{"id":1432,"date":"2008-05-15T12:01:11","date_gmt":"2008-05-15T16:01:11","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-09-17T13:48:39","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T13:48:39","slug":"songs-that-not-even-lemgamerican-idoll-e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/songs-that-not-even-lemgamerican-idoll-e\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs That Not Even <em>American Idol<\/em> Contestants Can Butcher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YZb_tp0aP-E?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nDriving in today I was listening to <strong>Laura Cantrell<\/strong>&#8216;s take on one of the most lovely, slightly sad songs I know, <strong>Burt Bacharach<\/strong> and <strong>Hal David<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Trains and Boats and Planes&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Laura Cantrell, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/LauraCantrell_TrainsandBoatsandPlanes_01_TrainsandBoatsandPlanes.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Trains and Boats and Planes&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I grew up with a Dionne Warwick\/Bacharach\/David-loving Mom. The Warwick version is fantastic, and every other version I&#8217;ve heard works. It&#8217;s not that this is my favorite Bacharach\/David song, mind you, but the rolling, slightly suspended, extremely deliberate construction of the song seems to give any decent musician a toehold for injecting his or her own special feel. For example, here&#8217;s an essentially instrumental version by <strong>Fred Frith<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fred Frith, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Fred_Frith_Prints_01_TrainsandBoatsandPlanes.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Trains and Boats and Planes&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll go one further, and demonstrate that this song is so tightly constructed that not even the man with a &#8220;voice for songwriting,&#8221; Burt Bacharach himself, can screw it up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Burt Bacharach, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Bacharach_TrainsAndBoatsAndPlanes.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Trains and Boats and Planes&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I try very hard never to watch <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2007\/03\/25\/in_defense_of_american_idol\">American Idol<\/a><\/em>, but when I do catch a minute or two, I&#8217;m usually horrified at contestants&#8217; ability to butcher well-known songs. I believe that &#8220;Trains and Boats and Planes&#8221; is a song not even <em>AI<\/em> contestants can butcher. I have no proof of this, but two YouTube clips on the following page make the case that Bacharach and David might be the songwriting team equivalent of <strong>Bruce Willis<\/strong>&#8216; character in <em>Unbreakable<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>So I ask you, Rock Town Hall&#8230;<strong>What songs do you believe are so well written that not even <em>American Idol<\/em> contestants can butcher them?<\/strong><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong><em>AI<\/em> contestants avoid butchering Bacharach\/David tunes!<\/strong><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/558uPgSzRsg?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>With surgical focus they continue to avoid disaster!<\/strong><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3IQn-oiYc8o?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Driving in today I was listening to Laura Cantrell&#8216;s take on one of the most lovely, slightly sad songs I know, Burt Bacharach and Hal David&#8216;s &#8220;Trains and Boats and Planes&#8221;. Laura Cantrell, &#8220;Trains and Boats and Planes&#8221; I grew up with a Dionne Warwick\/Bacharach\/David-loving Mom. The Warwick version is fantastic, and every other version <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/songs-that-not-even-lemgamerican-idoll-e\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[203],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}