So, I've been reading these Waits' fans' posts where they encourage the public to save their money and just buy Waits albums instead of "Scarlett Sings Tom Waits", the intended title of the Johansson album. They're writing this even before they hear Johansson's work. Well, hell, it's a safe bet, but for the adventurous music lover this is an opportunity to experience what could be the elevating of Waits to the likes of Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael and ... dare I say? (I dare)... George Gershwin.
Well, isn't this how it happens after all? Your music is good; people cover it. We all knew the Beatles were immortal once their tunes made Musak. Waits maybe isn't as accessible as the Beatles or as the old standards, but take note, just last week at a conference I witnessed over a hundred bankers rush to the dance floor and perform their tight little '80s twists to AD/DC's "You Shook Me All night Long". This was well before any of them could have consumed enough liquor between then and the last conference session to be even a bit tipsy. So in the age when Angus Young's righteous riffs are getting banker ladies all excited, Waits' stuff doesn't seem that far out to be brought into the mainstream by a talented singer.Allow me to beat this dead horse: What would have happened if Hoagy Carmichael purists had poo-poo'd Ray Charles' rendition of "Georgia"? Would it be that state's song right now? Patsy Cline made "Crazy" famous when the song's writer, Willie Nelson, didn't have the rep or voice to do so. Now the song is both of theirs. And then there's "Stardust", another Carmichael standard, that was violated by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, Connie Francis, Harry Connick Jr, Ella Fitzgerald, Django Reinhardt, John Coltrane, and other talentless hacks (all sarcasm intended).
This project probably seems weird to many because this sort of thing isn't done any more these days and certainly not by top celebrities. Maybe by hanging out with Bob Redford and Woody Allen, Johansson has been injected with a little nostalgia - pardon the disgusting innuendo, although I could have mentioned something about creative juices, too. With these iconoclastic influences mentoring her, Johansson could do well by passing on, instead of the usual dreck spewed by our pop idols, some good taste and some class to the rest of us, especially to those of us who are still clinging to "alternative" music like the name still means something.Granted, this album could go either way - train wreck or Emmy nominee. But for the sake of illustrating the potential this project has, just let me remind you of a little-known single back in the mid-nineties that revealed Kurt Cobain's talent for lyric-writing. Tori Amos covered Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a ballad. She exposed, beautifully, some remarkable lyrics that had been undecipherable by most listeners. So, again, vision is the key with Johansson's project.
I know I'm eagerly awaiting this October, 2007 release. It'll be on my iPod before you can say, "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis".
