Run For Cover is a weekly music column comparing cover songs to the original version. Prepare for a major bending of rules as we hear musicians throw around genres, tempos, style, and intent. Whether they’re picking up another’s song out of respect or boredom, the results have impressed us.
Yoko Ono just recently cracked 81 years old, but her style keeps her looking youger and younger. The Japanese artist, singer-songwriter, and peace activist is best known for being the second wife and widow of John Lennon (and often blamed as being responsible for The Beatles breakup), but her avant-garde creations follow suit right behind that. She helped bring feminism to the forefront with her music, later influencing everyone from the B-52s to Meredith Monk.
Ono’s singing style is hard to swallow, but it’s worth it once you do.
Inspired by twelve-tone composers, Ono began studying new variations of singing at an early age. At the time, her singing teacher felt such composers were off-track, but the unique sound kept Ono interested despite being dissuaded. When he realized how persistent she was in pursuing this sound, he directed her towards then-burgeoning musicians (and now cultural icons) John Cage and Henry Cowell. Once she met Cage after leaving college, Ono’s began taking music more seriously and eventually performed her first few pieces at Carnegie Recital Hall.
In 1972, Ono released Some Time in New York City, a collaborative release with Lennon. While it wasn’t nearly as successful as his other solo release like Imagine, the record does have a few gems, such as “We’re All Water.” A country rock song spotted with horns and jazzy key solos, the track is worth noting for Ono’s inspiring lyrics–”We’re all water from different rivers / Some day we’ll evaporate together”–and a rockin’ solo by Lennon while Ono yelps like a monkey.
In 2006, the modern music scene got its own peace crusader and fearless female shrieker: Merrill Garbus. Going under the moniker tUnE-yArDs (where she’s accompanied by Nate Brenner on electric bass), Garbus’ music stands on a foundation of layered drum loops, ukulele, and varied vocals. This lo-fi, freak-folk sound was first heard on 2009′s BiRd-BrAiNs LP and then again on the critically acclaimed w h o k i l l in 2011. On her most recent album, Nikki Nack, Garbus has returned with a brighter, cleaner sound that still pushes boundaries the way Ono’s music does.
And thank God she does.
By carrying that spirit into a new decade, tUnE-yArDs has found a way to make people accept the feeling of being uncomfortable, to feel safe with harsh sounds and sharp notes that western ears aren’t accustom to. The music falls under the afrobeat genre due to Garbus’ heavy influence from African styles and traditional music, much of which she learned about or got soundbites from when visiting the country regularly.
At Iceland Airwaves in 2011, tUnE-yArDs covered Yoko Ono’s “We’re All Water” for the first time — with Ono joining her for extra screaming partway into it. It’s interesting to watch tUnE-yArDs compile the sounds live, particularly on this one, to see how she forms melodies from harsh singing and how Brenner’s bass finds harmony in its inharmonious part. Almost two years later, she decided to release a recorded version of the song as a part of her series of 10″ singles featuring covers from Ono’s back catalog, with 100% of the proceeds donated to Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, a Hurricane Sandy relief fund.
Yoko Ono, much like her husband, set out to change the world with words and sounds. Her style is distinct and got people rethinking what sounds qualify as music; so did tUnE-yArDs. Ono’s beautiful choice of words on this one, though, get somewhat lost in her version. Garbus picks them up and strings them on a clothesline so they’re divided cleanly, making their depth impossible to avoid. ”More musicians should learn Yoko’s history as a songwriter and performer,” Garbus said when putting out the single. “She’s been light years ahead of us for decades.” Thanks to her cover, tUnE-yArDs is making it easier to see why Ono’s work is worth revisiting, even if in this updated form.
