Monday Music: We're So Peculiar


The main site has three versions of the song "Ain't That Peculiar" Marvin Gaye's original and the remakes by Rita Coolidge and Marthe Reeves http://www.column-of-life.com/lower.html -- a veritable paean to masochism.

Honey you do me wrong but still I'm crazy about you
Stay away too long and I can't do without you
Every chance you get you seem to hurt me more and more
But each hurt makes my love stronger than before
I know flowers go through rain
But how can love go through pain

Ain't that peculiar
A peculiar ality
Ain't that peculiar baby
Peculiar as can be

You tell me lies that should be obvious to me
I've been so much in love with you baby til i don't wanna see
That things you do and say are designed to make me blue
It's a dog gone shame my love for you makes all
Your lies seem true
But if the truth makes love last longer
Why do lies make my love stronger

Ain't that peculiar
Peculiar as can be
Ain't that peculiar baby
Peculiar ality

I cried so much just like a child thats lost its toy
Maybe baby you think these tears i cry are tears of joy
A child can cry so much until you do everything they say
But unlike a child my tears don't help me to get my way
I know love can last through years
But how can love last through tears





From Amazon.com:

(1)Harold J. Gaugler
In her long recording career, Rita Coolidge has yet to top ... her 1971 eponymous debut. Rita moved much too quickly from a soulful Southern rocker to an adult contemporary hit maker to suit me. Her later, more radio friendly work brought her several hit singles, but they don't hold up as well as the timeless songwriters whose work she covered here. Her version of the Marvin Gaye hit, "Ain't That Peculiar", is just about the best cover of a Motown classic I've ever heard. There are many highlights here: "Born Under a bad Sign", written by her brother-in-law Booker T. Jones; Van Morrisons "Crazy Love" Otis Redding's "The Happy Song" Neil Young's "I Believe in You" two excellent Donna Weiss songs, "That Man is My Weakness" and "Mud Island" and a beautiful cover of the Eagles' "Seven Bridges Road". Rita's voice has never been stronger, and she sounds great covering the many varied styles she does here. An excellent debut album that showed a lot of promise ... She should have kept rockin'.


(2)re: Martha Reeves-- The surprising opening is a very successful cover of Van Morrison's "Wild Night," with a funky, driving beat that will have you out of your seat and bopping. Next is a gorgeous ballad, the heart wrenching "You've Got Me for Company," which is one of the finest portraits of consuming love I've ever heard.

Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar" gets an interesting make-over, with a driving wall-of-sound brass accompaniment and Martha's punchy "woo-woo-woo's" that hammer the "you do me wrong" aspect of the song.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I had both of those albums and sang songs from both in bands I was in back in the '70's. Covered Martha's version of Wild Night and Rita's version of Ain't That Peculiar, as well as Born Under a Bad Sign, Second Story Window, and You and Me, We Had It All. Loved that album!

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