Thursday, October 30, 2008

Baby I Love Your Way: Annie Lennox - "Don't Let It Bring You Down"




Annie Lennox covered Neil Young's 1970 tune "Don't Let It Bring You Down" for her 1995 cover songs album, "Medusa" (which also produced the very fine "No More I Love You's"...a song once featured prominently on an episode of the rightfully-mourned defunct 90's TV show "The Sopranos"). This being all well and good, what really pops into my mind every time I think of this version of the song is Kevin Spacey getting ready to (unknowingly) deflower Mena Suvari in the 1999 film "American Beauty.

This cover meshed so well with and lifted what could have been a very creepy and depressing scene up to a sensual and emotionally moving place. In short, it's hot. It has what all the Neil Young covers I've talked all about so far share: a demonstration of the sexiness that was formerly somewhat latent in the song.

Here is Annie Lennox's "Don't Let It Bring You Down" coupled with an American Beauty slideshow. I wanted to post the actual clip from the film but am having trouble finding a good one, so this will have to do:



And Neil Young playing the original live in 1971:

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