Run Run Run

My Velvet Underground homework. There's some backing falsetto in here and some piano and stuff.

Full disclosure: I don't like the song "Run Run Run" at all (musically, I mean - the lyrics are great). It kind of hurts my ears to listen to. So I tried to turn it into a song I liked more. It ended up pretty vanilla, but then again, vanilla is delicious.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by ORthey (10 comments total)

I'm having sort of the same feeling about the original (about a lot of stuff on VU+N, actually), and I really like this treatment.
posted by cortex at 1:39 PM on July 7

Hey - this really works in that style! Sounds like some old traditional number - I'm not that familiar with the genre, but you know - Woody Guthrie-esque(ish). Very well done!
posted by MajorDundee at 3:43 PM on July 7

I don't understand what you two don't like about it. Before songs were assigned Run Run Run was in my mental "songs I wouldn't mind being assigned" (other categories were "I would kill to be assigned this one" or "oh, no, not that one!").

But your version is flawless. It doesn't sound vanilla to me. It's clean and it's nice, but it doesn't sound bleached or weak. What did you do that bass with? Is that the guitarrón?
posted by micayetoca at 4:01 PM on July 7

Ya know, what makes this vanilla so delicious is that you were able to take a song that you don't even like and made something pretty powerful with it.

(I'm gonna get keel-hauled for saying such things, but...) When I hear versions of VU songs like this, it reminds me of what I always kinda thought anyway...they were posers.

Your treatment of this song is, although kinda vanilla, deeper than what Reed produced. The subject, for me anyway, DEMANDS some depth, love and some desperation. YOU provided.

Great work, man!
posted by snsranch at 8:21 PM on July 7

This is beautiful. If by vanilla you mean 'acoustically and melodically pleasing,' I'd like to see more vanilla on MeFiMu.
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:24 PM on July 7

I love the simple, back porch in summer vibe of this. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that didn't like the original versions on VU+N. Lou Reed's a great songwriter--kind of a nice in-between for getting from Bob Dylan and David Bowie--but their performances elicit a "meh" from me, at best.

Andy Warhol's still a tosser, though.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 9:29 PM on July 7

Looking for the [applause] button.
posted by not_on_display at 10:28 PM on July 8

You know, ORthey, this is really quite similar to the sound I had floating in my head when I thought of pairing you with this song. Specifically, I imagined a very sweet arrangement, with that certain 'chimeyness' in the strings, and that's what you came up with! Nice job.

I think it's pretty cool when a musician can do such justice to tune that he doesn't even particularly like. It shows a high degree of musicianship and discipline, I think, and it makes me glad that MajorDundee came up with this idea of assigning songs to people for this album Challenge.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:24 PM on July 10

splendid - well played sir!
posted by bokeh at 7:54 AM on July 14

This is great. You've got such a good feel for the instruments; the little piano touches are especially nice.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:31 AM on July 30