Replying to Sybil's reminisence about Michael Jackson's heyday.

A post about three versions of Billie Jean.

The Lie Becomes the Truth

I'm one of those folks who was instantly intrigued by the Chris Cornell connection.  I can still remember hearing "Black Hole Sun" for the first time in the 1990s, a time of relative optimism and adventures in living in a new city, and I remained a fan up through Cornell's Audioslave days, though I lost track of his most recent solo work.

When you were giving props to the original Jackson Billie Jean version, Sybil, though, you made me think twice.

OK, here's the thing for me about Michael Jackson's original BJ--it has two absolutely memorable things about it:  the strange, mesmerizing rhthmic bass and synthesizer line (dun, duh! dun duh!), and the lyrical story.  Add on to that Jackson's vocal, which is sort of pleading, almost hysterical--victimized.  Then you have the video and live performances with the moonwalk and hat and dancing.

What I found bizarre in the song when it was ubiquitous--and there was a moment in the 1980s when it was literally playing simultaneously everywhere in the nation--is . .  . you know, f*cking sad song here! Rejected child. Seduction and regret.  A triangle of betrayal: the speaker, Billie Jean, his actual lover. Which results in a another living being.  No going back. 

The brilliance of the lyric is about *moral denial.*  If you're just a hard-hearted bastard, you don't give a sh*t--she got pregnant, too bad, how do I get out of this? This speaker is almost worse--fully recognizing his agency in creating this mini-tragedy, but denying his moral responsibility for it.  In the Michael Jackson version, the emotional tangent with which the lyrics are delivered, the protagonist still thinks that *he's* the victim, not the child.

As a quondam literature teacher, I recognize the difference between the persona you create for a song or a poem, and *you* the writer or singer.  But one cannot ignore that this particular little lyrical gem did not bode well for Jackson's future.

Dancing to all that is just discordant. But dance we did.

So along comes Cornell, and he has a fundamental insight about this song.  It's a blues song.

Lyrically, it's a blues number. Blues, unlike pop, is not afraid of tragedy.  Blues is all about vengeance and regret.  Blues admits you probably f*cked up your life your own damn self. Be careful what you do, before the lie becomes the truth.

It so happens that Cornell's voice, one of the great sonic powerhouses of the nineties,  has aged into a blues voice, with a significant quaver to it.  If you had a chance to see him back in the day, you know it's quite a different voice he has now.*  He's confronting that head on and adapting it into his presentation.

Now, musically, this is just a genius rewrite.  It seems like there's two widely heard versions, the acoustic one that has a million hits on YouTube, and the one Cook used, a still bluesy, but  more rocked-out full band version.

If you watch the plugged-in version, physically, Cornell delivers a completely different performance then Cook will--Cornell's is ironic, detached, shoulders shrugged, mike dangling elegantly in one hand, other hand in pocket. He's telling you the story of some messed up stuff that happened, not necessarily to him. He could be talking to a much younger guy. Take my strong advice.  It's a world weary delivery. Time also makes a difference in the telling of this story.  This version is five whole minutes long, and Cornell and band take it through a very slow-burning build.

Now, to me it's just silly to see some sort of contest between the versions.  Remember that the people on Idol have exactly five days to come up with each performance (Th - Monday), during which they also have to film and rehearse a whole bunch of other stuff and this year, record the studio version of the track.*

What Cook and Rickey Minor's band work out in the live performance is still amazing--yet another version, halfway between Cornell's acoustic and plugged-in versions: the blues arrangement is there, but dialled back, playing up the vocal, appropriately, which is just magnificent.  At this point in his life, Cook can hit enormous notes that Cornell no longer can, and if this were just another Idol number, that's all this would be about. Big voice!

The reason it's something more is that Cook turns this into a tiny and awesome piece of theater, using his face, body, movements, and voice to inhabit the speaker and express his anger, guilt and regret --the emotions that *ought* to be there, and are eerily absent from Jackson's version. The entire focus of the song is the massive, sustained "I." 

As many, many intelligent writers about Idol have pointed out, part of the stupid "covergates" arise from a general lack of musical knowledge and a general plethora of celebrity hype and bulls***.  In the world of jazz and standards, knowing and using different arrangements of a song is celebrated--the same song delivered by Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra or Peggy Lee is a very different thing. As rock gets older, I think young musicians see song reinterpretation as just something that comes with loving and understanding the musical heritage (see Box, Man in)

You know, it's was a win win moment.  Cornell created this version.  Cook made it famous. And himself.

BTW, I suspect that Cook's studio version helped his eventually victory more than people realize.  It took a one-day wonder and made it something that grabbed your ipod and never let go. Another story.

(* By the way, if you like blues and you're ever in Washington, DC, go here http://www.madamsorgan.com/)
(* fronting Soundgarden in 1992,  Lollapalooza.)
(* alledgedly. I can't find the link, but there was an EW 'backstage" article that described a typical week, and the contestants recorded the studio tracks on Monday of the week they were performed.  Makes sense in light of the fact of someone being eliminated.  Not sure what to make of that re all the allegations by People Who Did Not Win of songs being yanked from them last minute.)

-- kaydeecee Totally Accurate Fan Reports at davidcookofficial.com/user/kaydeecee | Totally Irrational Fan Number One Gross