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"Nobody bought it," said Bobbie Gentry about The Delta Sweete"But I did not lose sleep because of that. I have never tried to prejudge the taste of the public. "
Only a few months after its success in 1967, 'Ode To Billie Joe'Bobbie Gentry, worried, went beyond the kind of lyric narrative that made her famous. She was more and more interested in the possibilities of musical arrangement. This, combined with a more abstract approach to composition, was the basis of his second exceptional album.
Listen The Delta Sweete now.
The Delta Sweete is gloriously contradictory. It seems alienating and warm at the same time; sincere and sardonic; and irresistibly dreamlike, while remaining tactile like wet soil. Although avant-garde, it is not a distant intellectual exercise. It's a personal diorama of Gentry's childhood experiences.
Good luck to Mercury Rev, who has released a track-by-track reinterpretation of this intimate, unpredictable and magical album. Perhaps wisely, they do not do it themselves. There are 13 vocal guests on The Delta Sweete Revisited Bobbie Gentrys 12 tracks. This makes sense because Gentry continually plays with the character and perspective of the album.
Mythical qualities
The "Okolona River Bottom Band" opener, in Gentry's original vision, embodies The Delta SweeteThe paradoxical nature: it is both energetic and languid. On their new version, Mercury Rev and singer Norah Jones towards the quiet end of Gentry's mood, laying the general foundation for The Delta Sweete Revisited. But while Gentry can certainly be mellow, his songs whistle and soar. She often infuses his work with black humor or a sinister eye twinkle. Mercury Rev tends to play his songs a lot more right.
Gentry herself was not shy with the covers and was part of The Delta SweeteThe genius of his choice lies in integrating his wise choices into his own work. Very unusual for such a conceptually complete album, it contains a quarter of other songs: "Big Boss Man", "Parchman Farm", "Tobacco Road" and "Louisiana Man". Mercury Rev "Louisiana Man" – certainly the least essential track – but their version of "Tobacco Road" is a hypnotic treat, Suzanne Sundfør preparing her voice in the mud for the occasion.
The strongest transformations on The Delta Sweete Revisited occur when new interpretations take calculated risks with Gentry's hardware. Margo Price's treatment of "Sermon" moves him from the ironic detachment of Gentry to something more frightening, similar to the atmosphere of Nina simone"Sinnerman". Marissa Nadler, with a strangely sung voice, interprets surrealist and semi-violent "refractions" by weaving together Gothic horror and bbad cruelty. It looks like she sings through a rotten lace and that the mythical qualities of the original really translate.
Nice contradictions
But reinterpretations do not always work. & # 39; & # 39 ;, Meeting The Delta SweeteThe most adventurous song loses its barrage of human voices pecking at each other; its replacement, a sound of uterine-like voices, is a mediocre substitute. Elsewhere on the album, the songs can be too hard and too hard.
The majority of contributors to The Delta Sweete Revisited are at least a generation younger than Bobbie Gentry. There is one important exception, however: Vashti Bunyan, like Gentry, is 70 years old. At the time of The Delta SweeteAfter his release, Bunyan was about to embark on a trip to Scotland writing the songs of his 1970 album, Just another diamond day, on my way. On "Penduli Pendulum", Bunyan comes closest to Gentry's metamorphosis. In collaboration with Kaela Sinclair, Bunyan transforms one of The Delta SweeteThe lightest moments in a supernatural force, something wraithl and shimmering.
Bobbie Gentry's ability to be open and obtuse – another of her beautiful contradictions – could be one of the reasons she resonates so strongly with Mercury Rev. Their music, at its best, does the same. Mercury Rev has probably never wanted their tribute to be equal to the original; However, they managed to explain why Bobbie Gentry's vision was so unique.
Original version of Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete appears on the box 8CD The Chickasaw County Girl: The Complete Capitol Masters, which is out now and can be ordered here.
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