This really has nothing to do with heavy metal, and more to do with my love of Johnny Thunders and the New York Dolls. Yes, I’m of the demographic that attributes the Dolls as the genesis of punk rock.
Broken Twin (aka, Majke Voss Romme) has covered the Thunders classic, “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory,” and premiered the video over at Spin. Incidentally, the publication mistitled the song as “You Can’t Wrap Your Arms Around a Memory” — idiots. But Romme did more than cover the song, she murdered it, right after she ripped its soul out and shit on it.
But could you expect anything more from someone that’s neither metal nor punk, from someone who’s basically the hipster equivalent of Sarah McLachlan? And she totally McLachlanized the song, which is supposed to be heart wrenching and lost in a daze of heroin, sloppy and messy, just like love is. Of course, Romme did just stumble upon the song; it’s not like she’s a fan of one of the greatest junk guitarists to ever live:
I stumbled upon this song and instantly loved the title. And I love his version. The slightly off vocal, the energy. I also knew that I would have to do something completely different with the song if I did it. I like that. When covers don’t replicate the original. With this song I didn’t have to worry about doing that.
Yup, she only liked the song title. The rest of what she said I’m inferring to mean she thought it was crap, but she has to say nice things. Yeah, his fucking “slightly off vocal” characterizes pretty much everything he did. He was a horrible singer, but he sang from the heart and he was in pain, and high trying to numb that pain, and all that is why he was so great.
Anyway, this sucks and I’m done with it. I’m happily going to listen to the Thunders version to purge this version from my memory.
Duff McKagan captured the song’s essence on G’N’R’s Spaghetti Incident. Or course he had a point of reference to sing from:
Or course he had a point of reference to sing from.
What do you think of the Broken Twin cover?
Rock Hard \m/
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