I was enjoying a sweet power outage this evening, reading The Cookoo's Call by headlamp. But my phone still worked. And I heard about two performances at tonight's Grammys in particular: Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car," which was awarded a Grammy for best song in 1989 (or maybe it was Chapman herself who won the Grammy for best new artist?) and tonight was performed as a duet by Tracy and the song's recent interpreter, Luke Combs; and Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now." Both of which I immediately sought out when the confoundedly wonderful and magical electricity reappeared. Here they are—the first, in its original version (I found the duet fine, but her own iteration is, well, better):
And the second, via a link to the Grammy performance (because the YouTube video I first found got taken down) and in its original version from 1969:
It's so good. The sweet forthrightness of her voice.
I always count myself lucky to have lived when I did, music-wise. But I suppose anyone would do that. I don't follow music, and so don't recognize most of the winners this evening. Maybe I'll try to give a listen. Or... maybe I'll just stick to the 60s, 70s, 80s, which feed my soul.
Which reminds me of a podcast I recently heard recommended by Rick Rubin: The History of Rock and Roll in 500 Songs (which was covered in a New Yorker article by Bill McKibben last July). I have added it to my queue of shows to listen to on my daily walk. It sounds fabulous.
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