Obscure But Beautiful Cover Version of a CHIC song
by
ELIZABETH FRASER [of Cocteau Twins]
"At Last I Am Free"...
A real obscuro this...
"At Last I Am Free" first turned up
as a Disco/Soul ballad on the second studio album "C'est Chic" by
CHIC in November 1978 on Atlantic Records - penned of course by the mighty duo
of Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers (I think Luther Vandross might have been
one of the backing singers too).
Here the stunning vocals of The Cocteau Twins'
lead singer Elizabeth Fraser takes that forgotten lovely and gives it a new
lease of life in 2003 whilst still retaining the heartbreak melody that Edwards
and Rogers always had in the original.
Elizabeth's version is on "Stop Me If You
Think You've Heard This One Before..." - a 16-Track cover versions CD
compilation put out September 2003 in the UK to celebrate 25 Years of
independent releases on Rough Trade Records (Rough Trade RTRADECD100 – Barcode
5050159810024). Each of the 16 artists covers a diverse set of tunes – Aztec
Camera has their "We Could Send Letters" done by Mystic Chords Of
Memory, Galaxie 500 has "Tugboat" taken on by British Sea Power while
Young Marble Giants see their "Final Day" stabbed at by Belle &
Sebastian. Royal City do an acoustic pretty version of "Is This It" by
The Strokes while Delays pop up the slight menace in the Mazzy Star tune "Ride
It On". And so on...
In truth, its probably more likely that Liz
Frasier based her version of "At Last I Am Free" on a Robert Wyatt
cover of the song that showed up on an Italian Rough Trade LP in 1981 - the
self-titled "Robert Wyatt" album issued on Base Records.
Whatever you look at it - along with Tom Smith's
equally obscure cover of Prefab Sprout's "Bonny" (Tom Smith of The
Editors) and Peter Gabriel's truly innovative strip down of David Bowie's
"Heroes" - its one of those rare occasions in music where the
second-go-round compliments the first - or (it could be argued) even equals it.
Gorgeous and then some...
