Sunday Music: Gold, Cher
Nov. 24th, 2013 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowAlbum Title: Gold
Why I Bought It: Mainly for her early work: "Half-Breed", "Dark Lady", "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves".
What I Like (Sad): "You Better Sit Down Kids". A man talking to his kids about divorce, and the fact that he's going to be leaving them... sung by a female singer, and very well indeed. This is linked in my mind with Elvis' "Don't Cry, Daddy", for some reason.
What I Like (Bitter): "Half-Breed". A song about falling into the cracks between two worlds. "...but I can't run away from what I am!" No catharsis here; just pain. Honorable Mention: "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves".
What I Like (Joyous): "I Got You Babe". Yeah, it's sappy, and naive, and all that, but it captures something real and joyful.
What I Like (Content): "After All". Looking back, through trials and tribulations, and hanging on to the one thing needful. It's "I Got You Babe" through the other end of the telescope.
Overall: This is a two-disk set, and there's a neat separation between the two. The first disk is raw, unpolished, sometimes dissonant, but powerful. The second, from her later career, is technically more sophisticated, but for the most part doesn't have much emotional resonance for me. On the one hand, sad songs like "Bang Bang" and "Dark Lady"; on the other, the equally sad but colder "We All Sleep Alone" and "Living in a House Divided". "All I Really Want to Do" and "All I Ever Need Is You", up against "Believe" and "A Different Kind of Love Song".... Some of her later work is powerful ("If I Could Turn Back Time"), but for the most part it's a triumph of technique over substance. I like both disks, in different ways, but I regard the earlier work as... more real, somehow.
Why I Bought It: Mainly for her early work: "Half-Breed", "Dark Lady", "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves".
What I Like (Sad): "You Better Sit Down Kids". A man talking to his kids about divorce, and the fact that he's going to be leaving them... sung by a female singer, and very well indeed. This is linked in my mind with Elvis' "Don't Cry, Daddy", for some reason.
What I Like (Bitter): "Half-Breed". A song about falling into the cracks between two worlds. "...but I can't run away from what I am!" No catharsis here; just pain. Honorable Mention: "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves".
What I Like (Joyous): "I Got You Babe". Yeah, it's sappy, and naive, and all that, but it captures something real and joyful.
What I Like (Content): "After All". Looking back, through trials and tribulations, and hanging on to the one thing needful. It's "I Got You Babe" through the other end of the telescope.
Overall: This is a two-disk set, and there's a neat separation between the two. The first disk is raw, unpolished, sometimes dissonant, but powerful. The second, from her later career, is technically more sophisticated, but for the most part doesn't have much emotional resonance for me. On the one hand, sad songs like "Bang Bang" and "Dark Lady"; on the other, the equally sad but colder "We All Sleep Alone" and "Living in a House Divided". "All I Really Want to Do" and "All I Ever Need Is You", up against "Believe" and "A Different Kind of Love Song".... Some of her later work is powerful ("If I Could Turn Back Time"), but for the most part it's a triumph of technique over substance. I like both disks, in different ways, but I regard the earlier work as... more real, somehow.
