Broken windows and empty hallways

November 12, 2011 4:12 PM

Leonard Nimoy covers Randy Newman's I Think It's Gonna Rain Today
posted by boygeorge (30 comments total)

Leonard Nimoy is pretty awesome and I do genuinely enjoy his photography, but I'm not so keen on his music, despite his rather pleasant voice.

I've always been partial to Nina Simone's cover
posted by smirkette at 4:24 PM on November 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

smirkette, you're absolutely right. Nina's version (like many of her covers) is masterful and stunning.
posted by boygeorge at 4:31 PM on November 12, 2011

Audra McDonald does a great cover too.

The only link I can find is on Myspace, whatever that is.
posted by roger ackroyd at 4:36 PM on November 12, 2011

Joe Cocker's version is good, too.
posted by jonmc at 4:37 PM on November 12, 2011

Wow, never heard Nimoy sing before and it totally does not sound like what I imagined it would. Probably because his Spock character is so overwhelming a presence so as to have made it impossible for my imagination to make the leap to "Spock sings." He;s got a pretty good voice, but I dunno... is it just me or does he seem to be off key sometimes?

Of course, seeing the artwork on the cover of the album that cobntains this song just made my brain go "Wow, whats mathowie doing there?" so perhaps my brain needs to take stock of what its doing when processing information.

This is indeed a great cover of a great song. Thanks for sharing it boygeorge.
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:51 PM on November 12, 2011

Katie Melua also does a great version of this going.
posted by hippybear at 4:52 PM on November 12, 2011

...impossible for my imagination to make the leap to "Spock sings."

oh oh oh oh....bitter dregs
posted by DU at 5:05 PM on November 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

impossible for my imagination to make the leap to "Spock sings."

Effigy2000 - here you go...
posted by cromagnon at 5:13 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Who the fuck decided it was a good idea to give Randy Newman control of my tear ducts?

Intelligent Designer my ass.

(Never heard this song before. Thanks, boygeorge. I assume you didn't post this due to Metafilter's ban on selfposts.)
posted by IAmBroom at 5:45 PM on November 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

impossible for my imagination to make the leap to "Spock sings."

There was actually an episode in which Spock did sing!

I think it was the same one with the first televised interracial kiss (Uhura and Kirk)... superpowered psychics who, uh, somehow came from ancient Greece or something like that were forcing the crew to do various things, one of which was the aforementioned kiss, but another of which was Spock singing a ballad to Uhura and Chapel.

Ah, here it is!
posted by Flunkie at 6:25 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

IAmBroom: Good lord. I had no idea that existed!
posted by boygeorge at 6:28 PM on November 12, 2011

Eh, it's no Bilbo.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:31 PM on November 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Here's a handful of amazing Etta James covers: You Can Leave Your Hat On, Sail Away, God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)
posted by Guy Smiley at 6:35 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

He also accompanied Uhura in a song about himself, and jammed out with space hippies!

Scotty didn't approve of jamming out with space hippies, but Spock is, as he says, not Herbert.
posted by Flunkie at 6:38 PM on November 12, 2011

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
posted by a non e mouse at 6:46 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

My mom had the Judy Collins version when I was a kind and I hadn't thought of the song in umpty jillion years. Really nice to revisit it -- the Nina Simone & Dusty Springfield versions are both great.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:50 PM on November 12, 2011

Are all the versions of "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today" awesome because it's a perfect song nobody can do badly, or because only awesome performers dare to do it?

consider that a challenge, MusicFilterers, to find an actual bad version...
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:14 PM on November 12, 2011

It seems this song has been covered around a million times.

But no one over at MeFi Music has stepped up to the plate and covered it. Yet.

Yes, I'm issuing a challenge and/or request.
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:33 PM on November 12, 2011

I don't think Nimoy gets enough credit for how much he can sound like Johnny Cash (not in this song as much)
posted by Betty_effn_White at 7:44 PM on November 12, 2011

Nimoy's a little flat, yes, but it's heartfelt. Thumbs up for slightly inept earnestness.

But Nina Simone: oh, man. Always, always quality from that woman. Here's her cover of Dylan's Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues.
posted by maudlin at 7:49 PM on November 12, 2011

Speaking of Nina's Dylan covers, here's her version of The Ballad of Hollis Brown . It's quite a nail-biter.
posted by boygeorge at 8:00 PM on November 12, 2011

Putting Nimoy's voice aside, that's just a terrible arrangement of the song. The harmonica sounds like a phaser bank.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 8:11 PM on November 12, 2011

Eh, it's no Bilbo.

"They just like to eat and be left alone" has become one of our self-deprecating go-to taglines.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:17 PM on November 12, 2011

Here's Shatner interviewing Nimoy on Shatner's Raw Nerve, and he reveals many things about his past that he hadn't talked about elsewhere, and is worth a watch. Quite an interesting fellow.
posted by chambers at 8:29 PM on November 12, 2011

My mom was a big Joe Cocker fan when I was a kid, so his version will always be definitive for me (can't seem to find the version she used to play - the only one I can find is all discofied). But damn, that Nina Simone version is amazing. And I had no idea it was a Randy Newman song!
posted by lunasol at 8:56 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Suffering severe delusions of adequacy, Mr. Spock groped melodies as effortlessly as someone trying to pick up dimes with a catcher's mitt."

I totally respect Nimoy as an artist and human being, but... I have remarkably little desire to listen to him singing. I'm sorry. Love the photography, though!
posted by LastOfHisKind at 10:07 PM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Shatner would do it better. Probably.
posted by Decani at 3:36 AM on November 13, 2011

I own this album. Bought it at a vintage record store in California about 1985. I think almost all the pictures from my childhood were thrown out when my Mom died, the medal I got for being named to the NCAA Western Region All-Star fencing team is gone, but I know that this album is in a box the rafters in our garage.
posted by planetkyoto at 5:02 AM on November 13, 2011

The bridge in this song has always been a bit jarring to me. Newman's string arrangement in this section reminds me of a bit of Copland dropped into the middle of this song. It leaves the original key and abruptly returns at the verse, which makes it tricky to transpose on the fly. Check out David Gray's version to hear the unusual harmonic progression on the piano.
posted by horsewithnoname at 6:41 AM on November 13, 2011

I've always been partial to Nina Simone's cover

That's not really fair, if you compare other people to Nina Simone they might as well not bother trying. I
posted by fruit sandwich at 1:41 PM on November 13, 2011