Thursday, March 15, 2007

Some Velvet Morning

No one knows what this song is about. Not even wikipedia knows what the hell this song is about. Oh sure, the name Phaedra is a reference to a figure from Greek mythology, but that's about it - your guess is as good as mine.

One thing we do know is that this is sort of a corny stab at psychedelia coming from the ultra square, country club and cocktail world of Nancy Sinatra. In the song, Sinatra plays the nature queen "Phaedra" who wanders the bluffs wearing all white polyester, gathering flowers.



Meanwhile, Lee Hazlewood rides around on a black horse with a black leather vest, looking like either a moody psychoanalyst or an S/M dude. Maybe it's just me, but I keep thinking that at any moment Hazlewood is going to round the point and come face to face with a half-buried Statue of Liberty emerging out of the sand. "God damn you! Damn you all to hell!" Like the Planet of the Apes, this song has the same heavy handed symbolism and pseudo-profundity that we love about the pop culture of the late 60s and early 70s.



Anyway... it's a super cool tune, we think. And lots of people have covered it. Primal Scream does a version which I can't say I'm too crazy about. I'm partial to Slowdive's take while Jen prefers Lydia Lunch and Rowland S. Howard's version. We recommend them both.

No comments: