Y'know what's a great song? "The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton," by the Mountain Goats. But nowadays usually when I want to listen to it, I don't turn to the lo-fi, solo version of it from All Hail West Texas. I turn to one of these two live performances uploaded to Paste's youtube channel.
The first one is what I'd recommend to anybody who hadn't heard the song before. "I'm gonna give you what I got" threatens John Darnielle before launching into it. "He means it!" jokes Peter Hughes, but it's not a joke, because the three-piece band puts everything they have into the performance, giving it an energy it doesn't really have in the original recording. Darnielle sticks close to the original recording's lyrics and delivery in this one, treating it as a tragicomedy just like the album version does, but it really benefits from the fuller sound that it gets now that he's got a real backing band.
Still, there's another one that's my favorite. This one's just Darnielle, closing out a one-man acoustic set. The vibe of this version is different. Though the video title only mentions the main song, the recording includes the lead-in of "Maybe Sprout Wings" to set the mood, and instead of jokey banter, he gets real, prefacing the song with a short talk about his intention with the song and a dedication to the real-life friends of his it was written in honor of. There are a couple of lyrical changes here: both songs mention "the top three contenders," but instead of "after weeks of debate," he acknowledges the popularity and influence of the song with "some of which have now been used." More pointedly, "the school" toward the end becomes "the school in Utah" to acknowledge that this rendition isn't a tragicomedy, it's just a tragedy. He goes so hard on the climactic line of "a plan to get even" that he can't even take a breath before the next line. There's so much power and passion in this version of the song that the other versions don't do it for me anymore.
Does anyone else have songs like this, where the original has been supplanted for you by a particularly good or special live rendition?
The first one is what I'd recommend to anybody who hadn't heard the song before. "I'm gonna give you what I got" threatens John Darnielle before launching into it. "He means it!" jokes Peter Hughes, but it's not a joke, because the three-piece band puts everything they have into the performance, giving it an energy it doesn't really have in the original recording. Darnielle sticks close to the original recording's lyrics and delivery in this one, treating it as a tragicomedy just like the album version does, but it really benefits from the fuller sound that it gets now that he's got a real backing band.
Still, there's another one that's my favorite. This one's just Darnielle, closing out a one-man acoustic set. The vibe of this version is different. Though the video title only mentions the main song, the recording includes the lead-in of "Maybe Sprout Wings" to set the mood, and instead of jokey banter, he gets real, prefacing the song with a short talk about his intention with the song and a dedication to the real-life friends of his it was written in honor of. There are a couple of lyrical changes here: both songs mention "the top three contenders," but instead of "after weeks of debate," he acknowledges the popularity and influence of the song with "some of which have now been used." More pointedly, "the school" toward the end becomes "the school in Utah" to acknowledge that this rendition isn't a tragicomedy, it's just a tragedy. He goes so hard on the climactic line of "a plan to get even" that he can't even take a breath before the next line. There's so much power and passion in this version of the song that the other versions don't do it for me anymore.
Does anyone else have songs like this, where the original has been supplanted for you by a particularly good or special live rendition?
