Veronica (cover)

A cover of micayetoca's wonderful Veronica.

I hope that it's not creepy to cover such a personal song, it feels a bit like I'm intruding on a private moment. But it such a great song that I couldn't help it.

I wanted to cover this one badly, but I gave myself two rules:
I had to keep the 6/8 time and I had to sing it in Spanish.
I so don't speak spanish. Basically I listened to mica's original, wrote it out phonetically and spent Tuesday night practicing it over and over, then did everything else this afternoon. I figured it could either work okay or be very, very embarrassing. My fear is that by getting an accent wrong I'm changing the whole meaning of something. My bigger fear is that I come across like one of those ultra-waspy white guy news anchors who suddenly, pretentiously, pronounces "Nicaragua!" like he's from there or something.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by chococat (14 comments total)

It has taken me several minutes to close my mouth, literally. The first couple of minutes I spent saying a expression in Spanish that could be translated as "it can't be true, it can't be true". At some point during those first minutes I sent my sister the link to the song over the IM. She said "I can't even imagine how you are feeling."

You know, with this cover challenge I had wondered if someone would cover one of my songs. I really wanted it, but I decided not to get my hopes too high. "Language doesn't help", I told myself. "Don't expect one of your songs to get covered because, even if someone wanted to, most of the songs are NotInEnglish".

It was really nice to come here and find that song covered by you. Your version is fantastic. Even the little (read, little) details that are not pronounced perfectly are balanced by the soft singing and, in all seriousness, it's hard to object your voice. I'm sure everyone would prefer to hear it sung by you with mistakes than perfectly pronounced by me.

Ah, I was forgetting. After listening for the, I don't know, fifth time, I called Veronica at work and told her there was a new cover in the page. This time a song called... Veronica (surprise exclamation) covered by...bgm!! (longer surprise exclamation). She sounded thrilled. So, in response to your worry about intruding: I couldn't be happier, and she sounded really excited, even if she hasn't actually heard it.

Thanks a million for this.
posted by micayetoca at 3:25 PM on June 12, 2008 [3 favorites]

This is awesome!
As was the original...
posted by puckupdate at 4:46 PM on June 12, 2008

Goddamn. chococat, you are truly one of the all-stars of MeFi Music.
posted by danb at 6:02 PM on June 12, 2008

Really great cover of a really great song. The only thing I really miss is the awesome drums in the original.

I'm sure everyone would prefer to hear it sung by you with mistakes than perfectly pronounced by me.

Hey now, I love your voice! Especially in this song.
posted by Corduroy at 6:37 PM on June 12, 2008

Thanks guys.

Corduroy, I'm about 98% sure there wasn't any drums in the original...maybe you're trying to tell me that this version needs drums? You may be right, I almost did it but opted for some sort of suggested percussion at the end.

Micayetoca, I'm SO glad you like it. I have to say that I want to crawl into a hole when I hear the vocals. They're pretty rough but I was so concentrated on trying to get the pronunciation that I wasn't really aware of the quality of the singing.
I have to admit that, way back when, when you sent me your demo of I Shine, I was very quietly and NON-JUDGEMENTALLY amused at your accent singing the English words...the "th's" for ""d's" and "v's" for "b's" take on a whole new vibe in English. So it's only fair that you mock the hell out of me for bastardizing the beautiful words you wrote and my faking of them. And they are beautiful; even though I don't speak the language, I read the translation but I wanted to do them in Spanish because it flows so much nicer. And also I get to use the NotInEnglish tag for the first time!
I scanned the cheat sheet I made to help me sing the words, I thought you might find it funny. The multiple rrrrr's mean I'm supposed to roll my tongue, which I found so hard. Also, as many Canadians will attest, whenever I try to speak a different language it often comes out with a French-Canadian accent, due to the years of slightly fascist, Government-imposed French teachings I had as a youth.
posted by chococat at 7:44 PM on June 12, 2008

Nice job, chococat! Love the gently rolling lilt this has.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:43 PM on June 12, 2008

Niiice! How many gutars are going on here? Three?

My bigger fear is that I come across like one of those ultra-waspy white guy news anchors who suddenly, pretentiously, pronounces "Nicaragua!" like he's from there or something.

Heh heh. Did you ever see that SNL skit with Jimmy Smits where they're ordering Mexican food? Heh.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 2:45 AM on June 13, 2008

Lovely!
posted by Jofus at 3:11 AM on June 13, 2008

Chococat, I'm listening to the original now, and perhaps it isn't drums, but there is some noise that comes in with the chorus and the 'oooooo's. It almost sounds like muted strumming, perhaps. I miss those.
posted by Corduroy at 5:19 AM on June 13, 2008

Corduroy, the original only had a the voice, guitar, a cuatro, and a low humming sound made with a beatbox, but it's just a hmmmm, not even a percussive sound. I think what you are hearing as drums is the strumming. The guitar and the cuatro have different "patterns" and it could sound kinda like a cajon peruano.

chococat, thanks for that cheat sheet. I'm one of those music freaks that would read and remember the entire booklets records used to come with, and in this age of online music, it's only things like that than can fill in for that sort of behind-the-scenes paraphernalia.

And I gotta tell you about V's reaction to the song: she was really happy about it, like if she had just won a prize. She said she couldn't help to feel honored to hear the song covered by someone else and she asked me to thank you and to say that she really likes your music, and that she is really happy that you did the song. Musically, she really liked that "descending scale" you do in the "Berónica scoochay crreymmeh" (as per the cheat sheet) bits. I really like that too. If I ever do a new version of the song, I'm definitely gonna steal that.
posted by micayetoca at 8:31 AM on June 13, 2008

This is amazing. chococat, you have magic, man. This is truly a work of love!
posted by snsranch at 2:39 PM on June 14, 2008

damn, i said barco instead of varco. i thought i caught all the b's.
so happy that v liked it, mica. and steal away.
and k the j, i think there's 5 guitars; but 2 are doubling the descending line on the right side.
posted by chococat at 10:53 PM on June 15, 2008

Wow, I was floored when I heard this - the descending line you added and the little bell/xylophone... yeah, sent chills up my spine.
posted by not_on_display at 3:07 PM on June 30, 2008

This is pretty awesome, really good stuff
posted by BrnP84 at 8:58 PM on July 14, 2008