more Rumer originals: Richie Havens and Stephen Bishop

Joe writes: Here are my other two favourite discoveries of songs covered by Rumer on her Boys Don't Cry album.

It Could Be The First Day by Richie Havens is simple, concise and beautiful. Rumer has said she was introduced to the song by the producer Steve Brown.




The Same Old Tears On A New Background by Stephen Bishop can't be found on YouTube so here it is on a long-forgotten corner of the internet called MySpace: The Same Old Tears On A New Background

Art Garfunkel actually released the first version of Same Old Tears... on his album Breakaway, but Stephen wrote the song and released his own version on his album Careless.

Here's Stephen's greatest hit On And On:

original versions of the songs from Boys Don't Cry by Rumer

Joe writes: I get excited when artists with great taste make covers albums - it means I can download all the original versions and reasonably expect to discover some great tracks in doing so. Rumer was already planning the release of Boys Don't Cry before she'd signed a record deal. It features lesser known songs of heartbreak by well respected but not necessarily well known male singer songwriters of the early '70s. In other words, music to my ears. A lot of the song suggestions came from Steve Brown who produced Rumer's first album but didn't produce this one after falling out with Rumer.

I have three favourite discoveries from the album. Two of them aren't on YouTube yet which I may remedy shortly. The one that is is Be Nice To Me by Todd Rundgren. I liked the YouTube comment "Ben Folds should give Todd 30 cents of every dollar he makes".

Joe writes: My track of the year is Slow by Rumer

originally written about here

The first time I heard the intro to Slow, it stopped me in my tracks, just as it did for millions of radio listeners a few months later. It is a manifesto as well as a very affecting relationship song. I love the story of how she met her manager Kwame Kwaten and how she was given the time and space to develop by producer Steve Brown. I love the moral of Rumer’s breakthrough: if you persevere, you can overcome any number of hurdles - as long as your music is outstanding.

I love Rumer

Joe writes: Once in a while, an artist comes along with echoes of acts from the classic rock era like Joni Mitchell or Fleetwood Mac or Roberta Flack or The Carpenters. The problem comes when you listen to their music back to back with an album like Blue or Rumours; they invariably fall far short.

Not so with Rumer. She is an achingly great lyricist; an intuitive, unaffected soul singer; a wonderful songwriter.

Her music is so good it makes me wince. She is up there with the best of them.

And to cap it all, she has the great taste to cover Long Long Day from Paul Simon's One Tricky Pony.

(updated post)