Paper

Writing about Cover Songs

PROMPT:

Pick a song you like, one that is a cover or a remix of an original song; make an argument about how, rhetorically, the cover/remix version works differently from the original, and to what effect.

ELABORATION:

Songs can mean really different things depending on who sings them, when they’re sung, how the lyrics and/or melodies are changed from one musician to another, who’s listening to the song, when that audience is listening, and whole bunch of other rhetorical factors.

Take, for example, my sample lecture on the difference between the old, traditional Jewish spiritual as sung by Don Mclean (rock and roll artist of the 70s), versus the same song redone by Boney M (a Caribbean band of the same decade). The song means different things (i.e., works differently) in each case, and that’s because many of the rhetorical factors that I’ve listed above have changed.

Your job is to do something like that, in writing. Once you’ve chosen your song, look closely at both the original and the cover/remix version. In noting details of what is similar and what has changed (both in the song and its rhetoric), make an argument for how the song works in a rhetorically different ways in each version. Analyze the rhetoric of each version of the song, and use that analysis to help you explain how the song works differently in each setting. Your argument in this paper should be one about how the song has changed (and why) as a result of specific rhetorical factors you discuss. The more knowledgeable you can come off about the rhetorical stuff you’ve learned in this unit, the better your paper will be. Your job is NOT to say which version is “better.”

LOGISTICS:

Don’t include a title page. Provide a header on the first page that includes your name and “Major Assignment #1.” Also include a title, preferably one that creatively suggests your argument regarding your chosen song and its cover. Double-space. Use Times New Roman, 12-point font. Number your pages. Make sure the paper (excluding the header and the title) is at least 1,200 words.

1

(Name redacted)

(Name redacted)

Blake Sanz

Writ 1122

1/21/19

Writing Assignment #1 “I Got A Woman”

As Ray Charles and Ranald Richard sat on their tour bus a song came on the radio titled “It Must Be Jesus” by a gospel singer named The Southern Tones. They grew a liking to this song and in 1955 they released a sample if the song titled “I got a woman” originally titled “I’ve got a woman” (All Music). The song would later be sampled and covered by over 25 major artists including the Beatles and Elvis, but the most popular of the covers was done by Kanye West, titled “Gold Digger” (Who Sampled). Ray Charles’ “I got a woman” and Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” have similarities in the way the songs impacted the artists’ careers and differ quite a bit in their audience, message, and time of release. Comment by Manuel Sanz: You’ve got the fundamentals of an argument here, and your first paragraph says things related to each song, but even still, there are ways to create more of a natural connection between the first few sentences and the final one. Beyond that, there are ways to provide more detail to the argument evident in the final sentence. If you’d like more specific advice on how to do those things, let’s talk.

When listening to both songs it is easy to notice the differences between them. “I’ve Got a Woman” sings happily about being in love with a girl who helps him out financially and takes care of him. In the chorus, Charles sings, “I’ve got a woman, way over town, that’s good to me… She gives me money when I’m in need, Yeah, she’s a kind of a friend indeed” (Genius). I got a woman, way over town” Kanye’s “Gold Digger” reverses the gender roles as well as the changes the light in which woman is portrayed. Kanye changes the chorus to “She take my money when I’m in need. Yeah, she’s a triflin’ friend indeed. Oh, she’s a gold digger, way over town, that digs on me” (Genius). For the first two verses Kanye portrays situations in which a woman takes advantage of a man financially, but in the last verse, Kanye switches the roles back to the male using the female for financial gain. Comment by Manuel Sanz: While it might be okay to start with what is easy to notice, writing this paper should be a way for you to quickly move beyond what is easy to see, and to things that you could only notice after thinking about it for a while. Comment by Manuel Sanz: What line are you referring to here? It’s not clear how the song does this.

One reason we see such a drastic change in the message portrayed in the lyrics is due to the 50-year gap between when the two songs were released. “I Got a Woman” was released in the 1950s, a time when people were much more conservative, and patriarchy was still acceptable, while “Gold Digger” was released in the 2005 people were a lot more progressive and the music industry was a lot more provocative. Both songs were very fitting for their time and were embraced and appreciated by their audience as well as help grow their writers’ careers tremendously. Ray Charles “I Got a Woman” was his first hit of many, topping at number one on the top 100 R&B list (All Music). Kanye’s “Gold Digger” was an even bigger success. The song hit number one Billboard Hot 100, Pop 100 as well as several other charts (Billboard). The song also broke many records as well such as most downloads in the first week. As we can see both songs were huge hits during their time of release. One interesting thing to consider in timing “I Got a Woman” is more recently the song is being seen as sexist. Most people understand that the social standards in the ’50s were much different from now but, if the song was released today it would get a lot of heat for the way it supports patriarchal ways (Star). One line stating, “She knows a woman’s place is right there, now, in her home” (Genius) especially highlights the sexism in the song. Instead of glorifying the female stereotypes Kanye villainizes certain female stereotypes and because of this he also received a small amount of backlash. Comment by Manuel Sanz: And yet, Charles’s song was highly controversial for its time. Did you discover that in your work for this paper? It would make more sense, I believe, for you to bring a bit more knowledge to the table when making this particular claim. Comment by Manuel Sanz: More progressive how? More provocative how? It’s not enough to make a general claim like this and assume that readers know what you mean by it. The more specific you can get about these things, the more convincing the argument here will become? Comment by Manuel Sanz: How so? What do you mean by this? Many would argue that, given Charles’s roots in gospel music, church music, a song sung in a gospel style but, about meeting a mistress on the sly, was not at all “fitting for the time.” What do you think? These are the kinds of rhetorical factors that this paper is meant to get you to analyze and make a comment on. My point is that there is more to say about the difference between these songs than the general stuff you’re laying out here. Comment by Manuel Sanz: I’m curious how the fact of the songs being hits matters to the way that they sound different. Comment by Manuel Sanz: It’s totally a smart move to compare the patriarchal quality of Charles’s song to the masculine attitudes in West’s. Like with what I said above, there’s a whole lot more to write about this—this sentence is a good start. What else do you think there might be to say? If you’re not sure where to go from here on this point, let’s talk, and I’ll give you some ideas.

At the time of Gold Digger’s release, Kanye West was about to release his sophomore album and was beginning to gain traction. Coming from the middle class into the world of fame and fortune was a big change for Kanye (Biography). Like many others new to fame Kanye didn’t know how to handle the fame and flaunted what he had. We see this in his lyrics a lot in Gold Digger. As he indirectly flaunts what he has in the chorus and first verse. Ray Charles, on the other hand, was much humbler in his songs. This could be linked to adversity he faced throughout his life growing up black in the south in the ’30s and ’40s (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Charles also watched his four-year-old brother drown when he was five, went totally blind at seven, lost his mother when he was fifteen and father at seventeen, according to his autobiography (Brother Ray, Charles). He used music as an outlet to help cope with a lot of the adversities he faced which added a lot of depth and emotion to his music Comment by Manuel Sanz: Point out the connection you’re talking about specifically. You’re definitely getting close here to making the kind of argument that the paper is asking you to make. Comment by Manuel Sanz: Do we see evidence of that m.o. in this particular song of his? If so, show it.

The brand that the artist built itself also plays a big role in the contrast between the songs. Part of Charles image was his Christian and conservative views which showed in his music by often following the nuclear love story. Much of Ray Charles revolved around him chasing and falling in love with women especially in this specific album titled Ray Charles later renamed Hallelujah I Lover Her So(Genius). In the album, we also see a few other songs titled “Come Back Baby” “Ain’t That Love” and “This Little Girl of Mine”(Genius). We can see that at that time of this album a lot of his music was happier R&B music revolving around women and the ideas of a perfect woman back in the ’50s. When we look at the genre and industry itself that he worked on a lot of the music at the time followed this same blueprint of men chasing women and falling in love. For instance, A song titled “Pledging My Love” stayed number one on Billboard 100 for ten weeks that year and another song titled “My Babe” for five weeks (Billboard). Comment by Manuel Sanz: I mean, the dude had 12 children by 10 women. I don’t know how “conservative” it makes sense to call him. Or how much it makes sense to imagine his songs about relationships are trying to paint some rosy, perfect picture of idealized love, given this rhetorical fact. What do you think? Throughout the rest of this paragraph, you lean toward this womanizing version of him more, but even then, there’s not much of a connection you’re yet drawing between Comment by Manuel Sanz: I’m curious: where’s your idea of the 50s coming from? You don’t have it wrong, exactly, but you’re speaking about it in general terms, and what you want to do here is make your writing much more specific to Charles himself, and his experience.

When we look at Kanye’s album much of his music at the time revolved around his new-found independence after dropping out of school and making some money from his freshman album. His sophomore album Late Registration revolves mostly around the idea him gaining money and traction in the music industry after dropping out. The four skits in the album give more context to his views on college life as the main character in the skit mocks fraternity life as he starts his own frat based on some broke African Americans (Genius). The rap industry was still changing, partially because of Kanye, into a more of pop culture, but a big part in the industry was showing off what you have and proving “street cred”. Comment by Manuel Sanz: Yes to this! I really appreciate that you’re thinking to connect “Gold Digger” to the sound on the rest of the album, and where he was musically at that time. That’s exactly the right move to make. The next step here is to connect the assertions you make about him at this time to “Gold Digger” itself. To do that, consider answering this question: given the cool insight you’ve got about how the album involved West showing his street cred, how do you think “Gold Digger” helps do that?

Ray Charles “I got a Woman” and Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” both helped launch their artists’ careers and were big hits during the time of their release. The songs vary due to the timing and what was socially acceptable and socially acceptable at the time. One revolving around a nuclear love story during the ’50s and the other based around a toxic relationship built on financial gain in the 2000s. While both songs have been seen as supporting sexist and patriarchal stereotypes, they portray two different messages. Although the songs have received some criticism, they, for the most part, were revolutionary songs that had huge impacts on their industries, changing and shaping genres of music forever.

Citations

“’Gold Digger’ Notches 10th Week At No. 1.” Billboard, Billboard, 4 Jan. 2013, www.billboard.com/articles/news/60728/gold-digger-notches-10th-week-at-no-1.

Charles, Ray, and Renald Richard. “I Got a Woman by Ray Charles on WhoSampled.” WhoSampled, George Martin, 1 Jan. 1970, www.whosampled.com/Ray-Charles/I-Got-a-Woman/.

Gerome, John. “Ray Charles Turned Gospel Song into Classic: Author.” Thestar.com, Toronto Star, 20 Apr. 2007, www.thestar.com/entertainment/2007/04/19/ray_charles_turned_gospel_song_into_classic_author.html.

“Get down Girl, Go ‘Head, Get Down.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., 30 Aug. 2005, genius.com/37856.

“Gold Digger (Kanye West Song).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Digger_(Kanye_West_song)#cite_note-riaa.com-13.

“I Got a Woman.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Got_a_Woman.

“Kanye West.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 16 Jan. 2019, www.biography.com/people/kanye-west-362922.

Planer, Lindsay. “I Got a Woman – Ray Charles | Song Info.” AllMusic, www.allmusic.com/song/i-got-a-woman-mt0006296970.

“Ray Charles.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 5 Aug. 2015, www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/ray-charles-about-ray-charles/554/.

“Ray Charles Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, Advameg, Inc., www.notablebiographies.com/Ch-Co/Charles-Ray.html.

“She Gives Me Money When I’m in Need / Yeah, She’s a Kind of Friend Indeed.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., 1 Jan. 1957, genius.com/4037890.

(Grade redacted) Name redacted– What I most appreciate about this draft are the places where I can see you developing an argument about the songs that goes beyond the obvious. That feels most present in the penultimate paragraph (that means “second-to-last”) where you describe what Kanye was going for in this album. There, you say a thing about how he’s after street cred, and that argument feels like it came from a place of having done some research. In that paragraph, the next move to make would be to provide a touch more evidence of how you’d show that the album is in fact trying to do that, and then, to connect that aspiration to “Gold Digger”—that is, show how that song is, in fact, West trying to show his cred in a certain way.

What I’m suggesting you might do to that paragraph is similar to what you could do to other paragraphs, too. Except that, first, in those other paragraphs, you’d need to get to the point of having an argument to make that went beyond the obvious. Take the third paragraph of the paper as an example: yes, both songs were really popular. Yes, the songs came out something like 50 years apart. Yes, that means that, like, the times were different. But all of that is pretty obvious, right? Strive to learn more about each specific time—1954 and 2005—but in a way that shows that you’re not just relying on pre-existing generalizations of those times. Rather, look to show something more directly tied to each singer’s relationship to their times. In that way, then, you’d be in a position, then, to see what kinds of claims there are to make, what kinds of evidence you would need to support those claims, and also, how those claims relate to other arguments you’re making in other parts of the paper.

This kind of work will require big-picture thinking of what you want to claim about how the songs are different, and why. You might find it most doable with some guidance from me. If that’s something that you’d like to have, I’d be happy to provide it.

(Name redacted)

Unit 1 Draft

January 22, 2018 Comment by Manuel Sanz: Strive for a title that refers to your topic and your argument.

With a million songs in the world, it is virtually impossible to be original at this point. While inspiration is not impossible to spark from another piece of work, it is extremely unlikely that inspiration may come into existence from anywhere other than from an internal and original idea. Therefore, even something as small as a cover song can give way to a plethora of shoot off projects and inspirations. For example, someone as famous as Bruce Springsteen was found releasing a cover song, but there was a piece of information that was not clear to the fans of this artist. “Because of the Night”, which was at first released by a woman named Patti Smith, the chorus and melody were originally written by Springsteen. Patti Smith was a newer artist who did not receive the same amount of attention as Springsteen has had continually had throughout many years, but this song seemed to be a take off point for her career. Reviewing the variations of reasons for the song between artists, it reveals what this truly meant to these artists was a use of combined talent that eventually led to two versions of a love song. Though originally produced as a work by Bruce Springsteen, “Because of the Night” was eventually attributed to lesser known artist Patti Smith due do varying feelings of repetition in lyrics felt by Bruce Springsteen. Comment by Manuel Sanz: Here, it seems to me, is where you begin to address issues that are directly related to the purpose of this paper. The stuff above is potentially interesting, but I’m not sure I see how it relates to a claim about why these two songs sound different. Comment by Manuel Sanz: When was she a newer artist? In what year? The more you can accurately delineate some of those basics of the rhetorical situation, the easier it will be to see what, exactly, you’re comparing. Comment by Manuel Sanz: You’re starting here to get at the key question of how they’re different and why. But when I read this sentence—and I’ve read it now four times—I don’t really know what it’s trying to say. Can you clarify? You’re at a crucial point in the paper where arguments are being laid out. You’ll want to be as clear as possible. Comment by Manuel Sanz: I’m not really sure what this means. Can you explain, and then, re-word?

Collaboration was a trend when it came to these two artists. In 1975, Bruce Springsteen was in a recording studio where he met Patti Smith and decided he did not want to continue the writing of this song due to it being described as “just another love song.” This is where he concluded that this song would be better heard by its intended audience if it were recited by Patti. With the melody and chorus created by Springsteen, the song just needed some extra verses, which Patti had no trouble adding based on the fact that she wrote them overnight. While Patti had written her additional lyrics, Springsteen also had written his own version of the song with entirely different approach. Patti’s lyrics are more seductive, as if the melody were lighter hearted, with words such as “So touch me now…we are two lovers.” With lust being the overarching motif of this song, she does take less of a dominant role when she says “Come on now and try to understand how I feel under your command.” Patti adopted a theme of femininity and sex, while Springsteen imaged himself through the lens of a man who is protecting his woman. It is made clear through Springsteen’s lyrics that he was claiming he was a working man, a dominant archetype which was extremely popular during this era. With the lyrics “I work all day in the hot sun” and “What I got I earned” it is very obvious that this man wants to express his masculinity through the optic of a working man. Here, two mutually exclusive focal points of this song are displayed as ironically similar, leading to the conclusion that is this is a song of love and passion (Bruce). Comment by Manuel Sanz: Who described it this way, and why was he influenced to stop writing because of someone saying something about it? Comment by Manuel Sanz: Recited? Do you mean “sung”? Why did he conclude this? Maybe if we know more about his relationship with her, his opinions on what she did well as a singer, then you would be in a position to give a more educated guess about why this happened. As it stands, the unanswered questions that this paragraph leaves us with kind of distract from the larger claims you’re building up to. Comment by Manuel Sanz: ??? Comment by Manuel Sanz: At this point, it’s clear that you’ve got some really cool information about how the song was composed, and the role that collaboration played, and the ways that each songwriter took the song and wrote it from their own point of view. All of this information is super great—it’s among the best info of this type that any student has found—and yet, I feel there’s work to be done in how you present that information.
Some important issues to address: (1) clarifying the nature of your claims about each version, (2) providing compelling evidence not only to back up these claims, but to also show why you think the songs are different in the way you’re pointing out.

It took some time for Bruce Springsteen to claim this song as his own until his official track in 2010. During the time of the creation, Springsteen was found in a legal quarrel with his previous manager. As one would be in a state of stress when handling a legal battle, Springsteen would not be thought to be as positive as he once was. His songwriting was paused due to this personal life, but that did not stop him from joining Patti when she sang this song. Since Springsteen had not been performing this song by his lonesome, the additional performance of Patti and Springsteen would tend to be in Patti’s version (Because the Night). As time went on, he decided to sing the song with his own words in his tour at the end of the 1970’s. The only time this song was listened to was when he performed it live, until 30 years after the creation it was finally released as a track. Comment by Manuel Sanz: Is this version of the song—the one they sung together in 2010—a third version that you want to compare to the other two versions? I’m a little unclear on where you’re taking us here. Comment by Manuel Sanz: I’m trying to figure how this tidbit has bearing on why the two versions sound different. It feels more like a kind of “by the way, did you know that X is true” type of statements. Which are less the kind of sentence that are going to keep us as readers on track with the larger purpose of the paper.

When Patti Smith released this song, she believed that her career was truly going to take off. In 1975, “Because the Night” had reached spot thirteen on the top 100 charts. After that, she was not necessarily the most well-known artist (Hughes). As singing was not her only talent in the arts, it did not seem to affect her as one might think. This song has not had a break in the number of remixes people tend to make of this song but the one with the most meaning would have to be when Patti Smith decided to join her kids in song. After Smith’s husband passed away due to heart failure, she decided to not only use her own talent but the talent of her children. Because this song was the only hit that Patti had ever had and her children had musical talent of their own, they decided to make a tribute to a very important man in their life (Patti). Without the passing of her husband, there would not be a version of this song that had so much meaning. This song was a representation of Patti Smith and her husband’s love as it was written while she was waiting for a call from him after their first date. Comment by Manuel Sanz: This is really good info! Tell us more about how the version recorded as a tribute to the dead husband was received by fans. Break down the lyrics to show how they could be connected to Smith’s relationship with her husband. Doing these sorts of thing will make it clearer what you think about what the Patti Smith version does that the Springsteen version does not, which is totally a big part of the purpose of the paper.

Without the similar taste in rock music this song would never had been as iconic as it was. As both artists enjoyed rock, it brought both of their talents into one song which explains the amount of publicity it was exposed to. It was said to be the uproar of the rock community as they has been in place of repetition in style (The Life). The intrinsically personal style of these songs influenced the genre positively to the point of giving people something to sing along to and dance to instead of just listening along monotonously. With new and improved the upbeat melody and by both being songs that the lyrics are intensely divergent of one another, these two melodies blend to an anti-cacophonous finale of sound. However, both Springsteen and Smith continuously perform “Because of the Night”, which is interesting due to the level of adaptation the song has been through over the years.

Overall, though Springsteen’s original melody “Because of the Night” has both had its chorus adapted as well as the style in which it is meant to be sung edited multiple times in multiple ways, the song prevails as a hallmark of rock even today. This goes to show that adaptation to an existing project is not always detrimental, and in some cases (such as the case of
“Because of the Night”), can be highly beneficial to a song’s overall popularity, glamour, and catering abilities to the volatile audience of hard rock fans. Both Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith are iconographic of the rock scene of the 70’s in America, and with this song and others like it effectively solidified themselves as quintessential to any true rock fan of the era.

Sources

“Because the Night.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Nov. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Because_the_Night#cite_note-3.

“Bruce Springsteen.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen.

Hughes, Hilary. “Patti Smith on ‘Because The Night’ at 40: How Her Bruce Springsteen Collaboration Is ‘A Whole Life in A Song’.” Billboard, Billboard, 30 June 2018,

www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8462017/patti-smith-because-the-night-40th-anniversary-oral-history

.

“Patti Smith.” Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,

www.rockhall.com/inductees/patti-smith

.

Sturges, Fiona. “The Life of a Song: ‘Because the Night’.” Financial Times, Financial Times, 4 Oct. 2016,

www.ft.com/content/ef3ba7a0-84a7-11e6-8897-2359a58ac7a5

.

(Grade redacted) (Name redacted) – Thank you for this very industrious effort! I especially appreciate the high quality of interesting and often useful information you have found out about the dual creation of this song, both by Springsteen and Smith. This songwriting arrangement seems pretty unique, and the strange way each version came about feels like it has great relevance to answering the question of why the versions sound like they do.

As you can see from my comments, I’m especially hoping that, in revision, you can clarify some of your claims, and provide more evidence for them, so that I can get a better vision of what you’re aiming to argue. For example, in the first paragraph, you claim that “reviewing the variations of reasons for the song between artists, it reveals what this truly meant to these artists was a use of combined talent that eventually led to two versions of a love song.” Try there to be more specific about what led to the two versions, and what “the variation of reasons” were. In other places as well, I find myself a little unsure about what you’re claiming—ask me in conference, and I’ll point more specifics out.

Additionally, I hope that you’ll work to find ways to make a higher percentage of the cool info you’ve found out about Smith and Springsteen relevant to the larger purpose of the paper (which should be to explain how/why the versions work differently). In fact, use that as a filter: does X bit of info help explain how/why Y version of the song works as it does, or why that version is different from Z version? If so, keep. If not, omit.

If you want, I’d be happy to provide you more feedback on how to make these calls on a tidbit-by-tidbit basis, so that you feel more surely like you’re headed in a good direction. This is among the more important things you could do to improve this draft for the final version of the paper due at the end of the quarter.