Bradley's Buzz

The William Hung Curse

A few months ago I was perusing one of my favorite sites www.knotslanding.net (I know obsessive) when some German dude made the bold announcement he had just found a really strange Lisa Hartman cover – the Swivek version of “Where The Boys Are.” He was not very impressed with my take on the song, and perhaps had it not been I who did the cover, I would be slightly irked as well… if I were a Lisa Hartman fan (:0)) but as it turned out, I informed this neo well do-er that though he felt it was his duty to inform the world of Knots Landing and Lisa Hartman lovers that someone had pissed all over his beloved’s song; I knew there were people who actually liked my version. If not for the sheer overall camp of the whole thing. As it turned out, I was correct numerous people responded on the fact they loved it. The guy stuck to his German guns but informed us that his wife thought it was good and would be great in gay disco clubs. Well, no shit huh?

But the good news of the whole thing meant that people were actually rushing over to www.flexiblerecords.com. my pal Patrick’s internet label (and CD label if you got a few bucks in cash).

And now today, after months and months of waiting, I finally got the email I’ve been waiting for. I belong to Yahoo groups for just about every little thing that I love – from Laura Branigan to porn; it’s all there to enjoy. One of my groups is the Rachel Sweet group. Now you all know how I love that pixie with the big ass voice, which is why I went ahead and did a little cover of her song “Billy & The Gun.” Opting to restrain from the guitar and piano ballad she did so brilliantly in 1981, I went for an electro version with blips and guitar kicks in just the right touches, to mostly emphasize the strange and moody lyrics but to also keep it as far away from the original as possible. Well, it worked and I thought it worked well. As did Patrick of Flexible who with four or five Swivek songs ready to go for an EP decided instead to put “Get Up On It” and the “Billy” cover as a single last August.

Well, today I got the email from a bereft Yahoo Rachel Sweet lister who informed the group that "Okay here's something interesting lol". Now unless “lol” means love only love, I don’t think I like this particular poster.

Once again I had to send out an email claiming my own ingenious. I asked this poster if I was correct in assuming he did not like the cover version. I also told everyone that I thought it was well done, slightly moody and ethereal. I also thought that a cover version should not be a carbon copy of the original and thought the Swivek version added a fresh new take on the song. I finally ended up telling them all that perhaps I was a tad biased seeing as it was my band that put the cover out there.

Oh, it’s so hard to be detested and yet I keep going and going. I believe one would call that the William Hung curse.

posted by swivek @ 12:49 PM