Harvest of Feb 16

Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
This was her first single, released when she was 19. I liked the words Wikipedia used to describe her songs: eclectic music, idiosyncratic lyrics.

Delicate - Damien Rice (live at the BBC)

Electronic Wandering

Angel - Massive Attack

Thoughts - Evyatar Banay
I couldn't find it streaming anywhere. It's from the album "Trip Song" ("Shir Tiyul"). Evyatar Banay came off as part weird part indifferent to me at first. I had to listen to each of his first two albums several times over to get how unique he is. I don't think this album was taken seriously when it came out, but I love it better than all his more earthy stuff.

Scatterheart - Bjork

It's Janis Joplin... It's Led Zeppelin... No, it's Asaf Avidan!

Her Lies - Asaf Avidan & the Mojos

Lyrics:

I said, "baby, I love you, now what can I do,
I'll probably love you till the day I die."
She said, "well, pretty honey, if that's true then give me both them pretty eyes."

I said, "baby, you can have them - you can have my eyes."
See I was thinking if she took them I won't see her lies.
But my baby, I can taste her lies.

Bizarre

Gopher Mambo - Yma Sumac

First time I saw it in Ohad Naharin's "Anaphase" for the Bat Sheva Dance Company when I was twelve - performed (lip-synced) by an apparition by the name of Ebony Williams: half Indian and half African, standing on stilts, made up like a drag queen, in a thong framing a marvelous muscular behind. The second time, in the Cirque du Soleil's Quedam (on DVD). You can find the CDC act on YouTube, but it pales in comparison to the Naharin act, at least as I experienced it.

Yma Sumac (who recently passed away) was a Peruvian diva whose voice spanned 5 octaves. I've been searching for this song for years! Finally contacted somebody from Bat Sheva dance company who happily gave me the above info.

Credits!

Thanks to my duck friend for sending me Shuv Hi Kan ("She's Here Again") - Yoni Rechter/Ali Mohar (lyrics)
By the end of the day I got half my classmates singing it to themselves.

Many "Pieces of My Heart"

I've been obsessed with the Janis Joplin song for days now. Tuesday night I looked for to cover versions on YouTube. Found a few really good ones, lots of ho hum ones, and a good deal of presumptuous or downright blasphemous stuff.
A Britney Spears wannabe trying to do the virgin/whore voice while flicking her hair and pouting at the camera.
An 11-year old rocking it out on TV with absolutely no libido.
A heavy metal band whining and stretching out the tempo and succeeding in turning it into just another annoying heavy metal song.
A country version, well performed and well meant by a talented girl, but much like comparing a daisy to a rose.
A speeded-up version ("caffein") that was just silly but why DO that to a song of this caliber?
The original version by Erma Franklin (Aretha's sister), sort of anticlimactic.
Countless American Idol (or some such show) versions, all equally professional and boring.
I found both the most annoying and some of the best versions were by those who tried to imitate Janis Joplin down to the last throaty interjection. Annoying if they just weren't good enough singers, good if they felt at home truly throwing the reins to the wind. Pink did a pretty good job.

Found a satisfying genre crossover to R&B, from Jamaica - Shaggy feat. Marsha.

And I found some that I loved:

Beverly Knight - She manages to give it the "sweet longing" flavor of R&B/Soul singers without stubbing the edge.

Melissa Etheridge - Really the same style as Janis Joplin, but she is the rare one that manages to make it her own.

I wanna be...

Piece of my Heart - Janis Joplin

And how could I forget,
Layla - Eric Clapton
I know I posted it twice before but the old link is broken and it's one of the most touching love songs I know.