I make no apologies for featuring Warren Zevon again today because this one was suggested by a couple of people in response to last week's ICA over at The Vinyl Villain.
Back In The High Life Again was the title track (minus its last word) of Steve Winwood's biggest hit album, from 1986 - the same one that gave us Higher Love. As with most of Winwood's 80s output, it's extremely polished AOR, and while I've always liked the track, I never paid much attention to the lyrics. It's great radio pop - it washes over you and leaves you feeling good, but it's hardly going to make you sit down and invest yourself in its story.
Steve Winwood - Back In The High Life Again
Until that is, Warren Zevon gets a hold of it. In 2000, Zevon recorded a slowed down, stripped back over of the song on his album Life'll Kill Ya that peeled off the gloss and recast the lyrics with heartbreak and regret. His voice cracks with emotion as he sings it... I can almost see him biting his lip, trying to hold back the tears, as though he knows the hope he's singing about will never be fulfilled. The song becomes an elegy, which I don't think is how Winwood wrote it, but god, is it powerful.
It really is a gorgeous performance.
Often the comments beneath an ICA throw up a short list of two or three tracks that could've made the cut, but it was interesting to note how little duplication there was from us lot following your brilliant Warren Zevon ICA. It speaks volumes of the man and the quality and depth of his work. I'm glad that I wasn't the only one to single out this beauty though.
ReplyDeleteSpecial performance, powerful, gets me every time
ReplyDelete(the big jessie that I am)