The Adam obsession continues...

If only it was ME he was singing to and making that sexy face for!!

You know your obsession is worsening when you SHOULD be cleaning your house and getting it ready for the birthday party you're hosting tomorrow, but all you can do is think about writing another blog post about a sexy emo-freak and defending him against all the haters in the world! Haha. In fact, I was up late last night hastily writing down all the comments and comebacks streaking though my head, just so I could write this post today. I've got it bad, people.

Actually, it was a comment made by someone on a gossip blog that got me going on this. The person said (to paraphrase) that Adam's version of Ring of Fire was probably the most under-rated performance of American Idol history. And that got me really thinking, especially of Simon's hateful comment that it was "self-indulgent rubbish".

First of all, listen to Adam's performance again, from start to finish it is PERFECT. Literally perfect, vocal-wise. Zero pitch problems, incredible range, its full of emotion and drama, his movements are understated and yet sinuous; not to mention that his version, with the sitar and Middle-Eastern/Egyptian sounds, is insanely original and unique. You can't argue with the fact that the guy can SING, and he looks incredibly hot while doing it! Haha.

So, with the actual performance considered and put aside, I thought about the whole "self-indulgent" aspect. When you actually think about it, its FAR more self-indulgent for a country singer to cover a pop or rock song (such as Sugarland covering Beyonce's Irreplaceable, or Tim McGraw doing Steve Miller's The Joker, or Kenny Chesney's version of John Mellencamp's Hurts So Good). Its much easier for a country artist to put a country spin on a popular song than it is for a rocker to the same for a country song. How simple to take a rock song, add a little banjo, sing with a slow twang, and bang, there you have it -- a crossover hit. If anything, it could be argued that not only is it self-indulgent, it could be considered to be "selling out", pandering to the general public to try to increase your appeal to a wider range of audience.

For a rocker to take a treasured country song, spin it into their own version, and do it successfully, its like a tribute, a true homage to the genre and the original artist themself. Not only that, but its a huge risk! The rock artist risks alienating its own fan base, risks coming off as a flake ("Why would that person want to cover a country song, for pity sakes!?"), and takes a HUGE risk that the song will piss off multiple generations of country-music lovers. Especially if their version is considered avant-garde and "strange". Now granted, I'm absolutely sure that Adam's version of Ring of Fire DID piss off a lot of country fans, especially the older generations that revere Johnny Cash as the true icon he is. But I think (hopefully) that the younger fans will be able to listen with an open mind and see where Adam was coming from with his true homage to The Man in Black.

That being said, another point I want to make about Adam's performance was that, not only was it a tribute to Johnny's genius, but it was almost like a nod of acknowledgment, from one cross-over artist to another, recognizing the fact that Johnny himself famously covered two already exceptional rock songs, Nine Inch Nail's Hurt and Soundgarden's Rusty Cage. (The fact that Randy compared Adam's version to "if NIN had done a country song" seems to confirm this.) And it can be argued (and is, in many circles) that Johnny's versions were as good, if not better, than the originals. Especially in the case of NIN's Hurt. If you've ever heard Johnny's version and seen the video, you are left haunted and stunned for days afterwards.

I watched a MuchMoreMusic Listed special one time, The Top 20 Cover Songs, and Johnny Cash's version of Hurt was at #1, for both the powerful video showing an aged, ravaged Johnny reflecting on his life, with his wife June Carter Cash in the background worrying (this video was shot just months before both their deaths), and for the song itself, stripped down to bare vocals and a minimum of music. The VJs doing the Listed special said that they actually preferred Johnny's simplistic, incredibly moving version over NIN's. In fact, now that I'm remembering that special, they even had Trent Reznor (lead singer for NIN) on there saying he preferred it as well!

I have a bad feeling that Simon is going to continue to under-rate and disparage Adam's performances, simply because he is too closeminded to appreciate the true genius of his talent. But that's not going to stop me from championing my new hero every week (trust me, you'll be reading more about him). Nor will it stop the dream fantasies of my sexy emo-freak keeping me warm in bed at night. Heh!