The Worst Beatle

I am far from an opera buff, but I know enough to know that my tastes in opera are hopelessly vulgar. I love Puccini. I love Maria Callas.

Puccini -- with his overly dramatic plots and gorgeous but saccharine melodies. Maria Callas -- with her sometimes harsh technique (which to some opera buffs is the epitome of ingratiating) but incredible feeling and passion.

She sings the way I love literature to be: beautiful sometimes, ugly sometimes, but everything is for the art, everything is approached passionately, as if one was willing to die for it. I get chills listening to her.

On my sister's hard drive is my entire collection of Maria Callas -- a staggeringly huge thing that I would love to cherry pick from to show you my love for Maria. But since I don't have it near me, YouTube will have to do.

From Madame Butterfly:




From La Boheme:

So today, after listening to an offbeat mashup between Kid Cudi and Snoop Dogg's That Tree and M.I.A.'s Paper Planes, I realized why mashups get such a bad rap.

Even listening to pleasant combinations can feel cheap.

But this is one of the better mashup albums -- probably the best so far this year. The secret is that the dark, sparse production of the xx highlights Biggie's famous delivery.

I got to admit: it made me appreciate the xx debut more. And isn't that the point of mashups? To recontextualize music so that we appreciate it more.

In many ways, this cover is a train-wreck. Lauryn improvises out of her range, straining like hell for 4 minutes straight. There's also this weird verbal tic that she has where she sounds like she's laughing.

The reason I'm posting it is because it's beautiful at the beginning. Marley's lyrics come from the heart for Lauryn, which makes sense considering that she married a Marley. When the song goes, "So don't you forget who you are and where you stand in the struggle," you believe that Lauryn damn sure hasn't forgotten.

I think Lauren dropping out of the public eye and then returning to record this song and a few others for MTV Unplugged shows both her talent and how her personal life conflicted with this talent. Her squealing "They don't know me" repeately near the end pretty much sums it up. Once she was allowed to be as "authentic" as she likes, she proves to be a mixed bag.

Lauryn Hill - So Many Things To Say (Bob Marley Cover)

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