ANNIE LENNOX / “Waiting In Vain”

08 Waiting in Vain.mp3 (5.20 MB)

"Waiting In Vain" is probably on the shortlist of the best-known and best-loved Bob Marley songs, and deservedly so. When Annie Lennox decided to cover it, she made a wise decision right from the outset. From the first note, she never attempts to copy, or even reference, any of the musical cues of the original.

 

Over a somber synth-bassline and an acoustic guitar (neither of which suggest even a hint of reggae), Annie begins Bob’s lyrics in a clean, clear falsetto. When she sings, “The waiting feeling’s fine” and “Don’t treat me like a puppet on a string” and “I want to know when you’re going to come,” she sings the lines 'straight.' That is, we hear them as they are written—as a desperate plea to an absent lover. But when Bob performs the same lyrics, his tone is half-teasing and half-melancholic; the performance is as much cool come-on as it is passion and pleading. When Annie wails “tears in my eyes burn” there’s no teasing in her tone. She means it. As Annie reaches the last refrain (“Summer is here—I’m still waiting / Winter is here—I’m still waiting”), the bass and strings build to a crescendo. You’re left with the impression that the strain in Annie’s usually composed voice isn’t due only to the volume at which she’s singing, but also to the hopelessness of what she’s singing about.

Listen to these performances of "Waiting In Vain" back-to-back and it’s like listening to different and unrelated stories—not even the sentiment of the lyrics remains the same. I like the original because of the way Bob juxtaposes the breezy Lover’s Rock of the track with the yearning of the lyrics. Bob’s confidence is so unshakeable that when he sings about waiting and waiting, you just know he won’t be waiting much longer. “What woman could resist a plea like this one?” he seems to be asking. I like Annie’s version, by contrast, because she forgoes any attempt at juxtaposition. The way she performs the song, not only does she know she’s going to be kept waiting, she’s pretty well convinced she’s not going to get her man at all.

—Mtume ya Salaam

 

          Hit the rewind/remix button         

Mtume, I’m glad you dropped this one on us. I never would have thought of it, but now that the evidence is before the jury, I have to acquit: no harm, no foul, if the song sound good, you can’t say shit—both the arrangement and the vocals are first class; Annie Lennox does a hell of a job and thoroughly convinces in her interpretation of a great song.

This sends me in to two different directions: Sade and Lauryn Hill. Now hear me out before you write me off as completely bonkers. The Sade connection is sonically obvious, although far less bombastic—think of Sade as a female, light-skinned Nat King Cole (the polar opposite in appearance but exactly the same stylistically). I mean, there is a trend of “the cool” in Black music that has been there for a long time. Sade is a master, and Annie Lennox’s take on Marley just conjured up Sade in the sense that there is a coolness to Annie, a hip coolness.

 

I pulled out my DVD of Sade with the video track, "King of Sorrow," which, for me, is a partial (and only a partial) definition of one side of Sade’s magical and mythic stature. When I saw the video I said, yeah, that’s it: single Black woman fighting against the tide to simultaneously be an artist, mother and breadwinner. People often conflate entertainment with luxury not realizing that for a majority of the artists, being an artist is fraught with hard-ass trials and economically-severe tribulations. So, anyway, Sade’s video shows that side of the music and shows at what cost a certain kind of coolness is secured, a coolness that is a distillate of white-hot hardships, e.g. Bob and Rita in Trenchtown. (See a 40-sec. video interview where Sade talks about King of Sorrow, click here.) I had never thought of Sade in that sense, nor had I ever thought of Annie Lennox like that, but after listening to Annie interpret Bob and seeing Sade interpret "King of Sorrow," I’m certain that between them there is more than the simple geographic connection of both being based in England; what it is, is both are purveyors of the cool.

The Lauryn connection has to do with interpreting Bob. That remake/remix of "Turn Your Lights Down Low" is one of those, “I wonder who thought of that—damn, they actually pulled it off” updates of a classic, this time using Bob’s voice. Although young enough to be Bob’s daughter (not to mention her romantic link to one of Bob’s sons), Lauryn sings unabashedly like she’s Bob’s last-night lover. It’s disturbingly brilliant, disturbing in that like the Nat Cole/Natalie Cole remakes, one half-wishes they would let the legends stay legendary rather than update them, and yet, when you listen, you say: damn, that sounds good.

Which all brings me back to how I got to thinking about Sade and Lauryn, and that is by listening to Annie Lennox interpret Bob: damn, that sounds good.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

 

          Mtume’s "cool" response         

Sade is certainly the modern purveyor of cool, but I wouldn't say the same thing about Annie Lennox. Considering the Eurythmics and her solo stuff, Annie's music is much more varied. That said, I'm not a big Annie Lennox fan—I have her three solo albums, but I don't listen to them all the time. Sade on the other hand.... Well, I'll get into that later. I could write a dissertation.

As for the Lauryn song, I just can't get over the Singing-About-Sexing-Up-My-Own-Grandfather thing. I remember when that album first came out. I sort of liked the song, but halfway through it, the thought occured to me: Lauryn has a kid for this dude's son. For me, that's all she wrote. I pressed the skip button.

I just thought of something else. Like Kalamu mentioned, maybe they were going for the Nat/Natalie Cole angle. There's a difference though. "Unforgettable" is the type of song that can go either way. You can do it as a straight-up love song or you can do it as a non-romantic, platonic song. "Turn Your Lights Down Low" can only go one way. And I'm not trying to hear Lauryn singing that way to her Baby Daddy's Daddy.

—Mtume ya Salaam

 

          The cool complex         

Well, I wasn’t just talking about singing styles. I admit my lack of familiarity when it comes to critiquing Annie Lennox’s music, but the whole visual style seems to me to be about being cool, as in emotionally restrained rather than exuberant: why shout when a whisper will do, why giggle when you can wink, why guffaw when a half-smile will be just as effective. The cool attire is all about angles and curves, and nothing out of place or hanging out, off, or on one’s personage. It seems to me, every photo I’ve seen of Annie Lenox and crew oozes that aesthetic.

And all I got to say about the Lauryn and baby’s daddy’s daddy thing is: you’re still too young to know you’re never too old.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 28th, 2005 at 12:03 am and is filed under Cover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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