Cat Power - Cat Power and the Perfect Wedding Day

  by Andrew Hare

published: 9 / 11 / 2006

intro

After attending his cousin's wedding this summer, new Pennyblackmusic writer Andrew Hare imagines dancing at his own wedding with his new wife to Cat Power's 'I Found a Reason'

While I don’t usually pride myself on possessing a personality of a 13 year old girl, I must admit I’ve fallen victim to pedomorphic ideals about my own wedding. Instead of lazily dreaming up possible beaus or what my wedding party will wear, I think, however, about the most important aspect of the wedding. The music. This summer I attended my cousin’s wedding. It reminded me more of a Village People appreciation society meeting, or good argument against procreation in general. The ceremony itself was cheesy but bearable, accented by an a cappella four part harmony of a Luther Vandross song. It was the reception however, that reminded me of how terrible music at a wedding party can serve as a portentous omen of things to come for the new couple. This is why when and if the big day comes for me, I need to make sure the music is taken care of. I couldn't care less about the dinner, cake, or decorations. If the DJ insists on pumping out ‘Who Let the Dogs Out,’ there might be a funeral accompanying the wedding if you get my drift. Actually it’s really only one song I need to be played at my wedding, Cat Power’s version of the Velvet Underground’s ‘I Found a Reason.’ The first time I heard it I imagined gracefully dancing across the ballroom floor, as Chan Marshall’s haunting ethereal voice wafts over delicate minimalist plunks of the piano keys. The song itself is deceptively simple. She reworked the Velvet’s original version by scraping about 90% of the song, choosing to focus on two lyrical phrases ‘I do believe,’ and ‘What comes is better than what came before.’ She loosely takes the bridge melody out of the first and uses it as the backbone for the piano accompaniment. She in turn ends up writing a completely new song, which is almost unrecognizable from the original. It’s also a vast improvement over the Velvets' version, which is a monumental task for any singer who attempts to improve upon one of the greatest rock acts ever. The original achieves a curiously ambigious mood, due to possessing equal parts tongue-in-cheek lavishness (Lou Reed’s spoken interlude), with ostensible sentimentality (the 50’s style harmonies). The result leaves the listener confused at what the band is trying to prove, and perhaps even alienated by this weak track on the otherwise splendid 'Loaded'. Meanwhile, Cat Power’s version is simply mesmerizing on a level that transcends music towards something closer to pure communication. Clocking in at only 2 minutes, the song leaves me breathless at the end, a feeling that someone has just successfully attempted to quantify unbridled love. Kind of like that feeling you get when you completely give yourself away to another. I don’t know, maybe I’m really just a 13 year old girl in a 22 year old male body after all. Now for the second song I need to play at my wedding…

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