Introducing the first installment of Family Tree, a new series at Hangover Mass where we're shining a light on songs and the artists who've adapted them over the years.
| Grown So Ugly |
Robert Pete Williams: "Grown So Ugly" is a song born of bitterness and frustration from a man who spent twelve years in jail and many more in servitude parole for a murder done in self-defense. Apostasy is what Williams did best. His music never followed traditional blues tunings or chord progressions, yet he did so for some intended effect. We see this here: a single guitar theme played ad nauseam with very little modification, mimicking the sickness griping him as he's forced to meet the aged man he's become.
Captain Beefheart: The Captain Beefheart version appears on the 1967 album, Safe As Milk, recorded alongside his rotating cast of supporting musicians, the Magic Band. While the first half of the cover is a replica of William's tune, Beefheart builds into the verse a chilling variation. The narrator visits an old girlfriend who no longer recognizes him as the man she had once loved. Ry Cooder's composition brings a jittery pace to the budding story and emphasizes the narrator's emotional crisis.
The Black Keys: Among the handful of covered tracks on The Black Keys' Rubber Factory, none is more well-taken than "Grown So Ugly." Covers aren't meant to be verisimilitudes of the originals - they are best served as caricatures that accentuate certain aspects. The Black Key's deliver that wonderfully here as Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney wring out as much dread as they can from the Cooder arrangement. Carney beats the hell out of the drums in measured amounts and Auerback spins contorted riffs howling with distortion.
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