The first time ever I liked Celine

A propos nothing in particular, I spent a few minutes yesterday on YouTube listening to covers of Ewan MacColl's brilliant love song "The first time ever I saw your face." And had two related revelations. The first is that it is possible for me to listen to Celine Dion without coming out in a rash provoked by insincerity, sentimentality, and saccharine in equal profusion: with this song she almost appears genuine, and there can be no doubt about the beauty of her voice. The other revelation—the corollary of this, if you will—is that Celine is less to be condemned for her talent than for her poor judgment in generally singing really atrocious, emetic songs. Viz. Or maybe it shows that even Celine cannot screw up a work of genius...

For all that, Johnny Cash still comes out on top... (I've still to make up my mind about Peter, Paul and Mary, and Roberta Flack)

Comments

Fred said…

[Warning: heavily over-parenthesized comment ahead]

Evidently I'm combing through your blog(s) this evening, avoiding the umpteen bits of "real work" that need tending to before sun-up...

This post (specifically: "[...] possible for me to listen to Celine Dion without coming out in a rash [...]) evoked an amusing memory:

At some point during Fall term 1997 (how on Earth is it possible that this was 15 years ago) during the opening minutes of LIN555 (Course Name: Linguistic Theory and Language Acquisition, Grade: KF [ouch...but still you saw fit to write me a letter, for which I'll be eternally grateful]) you walked in and said (something very near to):

"I was just in the café on the corner when I was overcome by a sort of creeping malaise, which then gave way to actual anger. At first I couldn't figure out what was wrong, but then I realized that Kenny G was playing on the sound system."

[cue polite laughter]

I'm happy to see that you're doing interesting things and have a lovely fmaily, by the way.

Cheers.

p.s. Your Captchas are horrendously difficult. How would our AI fare on Turing Tests if we gave them a "give me a different sentence please" option?

November 15, 2012 4:00 pm

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Devenish

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