You've been ....gayageum struck! *string plucking intensifies*
December 23, 2018 6:55 AM Subscribe
It's Sunday, it has been yet another stressful week (because let's face it, it's still 2018 for a few more weeks) so you deserve to treat yourself to Luna Lee's gayageum cover of AC/DC's Thunderstruck
The gayageum is a "traditional Korean zither-like string instrument with 12 strings" in case you were curious.
More gayageum covers available at Luna Lee's Youtube channel ; I like her version of Toploader's Dancing in the Moonlight
(Gayageum & Luna Lee previously.)
Thunderstruck covers have featured on MeFi before of course: Steve'n'Seagulls hillbillified cover (previously) and 2CELLOS (Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser)'s classicallified one (previously.)
The gayageum is a "traditional Korean zither-like string instrument with 12 strings" in case you were curious.
More gayageum covers available at Luna Lee's Youtube channel ; I like her version of Toploader's Dancing in the Moonlight
(Gayageum & Luna Lee previously.)
Thunderstruck covers have featured on MeFi before of course: Steve'n'Seagulls hillbillified cover (previously) and 2CELLOS (Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser)'s classicallified one (previously.)
In 2018 it's roughly half a lifetime.
posted by MartinWisse at 7:25 AM on December 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by MartinWisse at 7:25 AM on December 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
Thanks for this post. I didn't know anything about the gagayeum before. The twanginess gives it so much personality! I thought her cover of Royals was a really good fit.
posted by trig at 7:32 AM on December 23, 2018
posted by trig at 7:32 AM on December 23, 2018
I watched this one and a few others and her "guitar solos" are incredible
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:16 AM on December 23, 2018
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:16 AM on December 23, 2018
Her rendition of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child is still at the top of my list of best YouTube music performances. Partly because it sounds great, and partly because she is so into it that it's like watching the platonic ideal of a flow state.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:59 AM on December 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:59 AM on December 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
That was delightful!
posted by Going To Maine at 10:05 AM on December 23, 2018
posted by Going To Maine at 10:05 AM on December 23, 2018
You would think I would be tired of unconventional interpretations of Thunderstruck.
You would be wrong.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:17 AM on December 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
You would be wrong.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:17 AM on December 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
I like that Malcom wrote a song that he could put on a little ice floe and launch it out into the world. The then the world could do whatever devious, disgusting things it wanted to that song in the name of pop consumerism. And then AC/DC and their beautiful catalog could remain unscathed by such heathens and philistines.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:03 AM on December 23, 2018
posted by humboldt32 at 11:03 AM on December 23, 2018
I just went down a Luna Lee rabbit hole and now I have a Patreon account. She is amazing. Her cover of Hallelujah is perhaps the best I’ve heard. I wasn’t able to find a video with live percussion but there are pictures so I think those videos must exist. I’m going to do much more exploring when I have time.
Thanks for the post!
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:06 AM on December 23, 2018
Thanks for the post!
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:06 AM on December 23, 2018
This is excellent. Love it. Not quite as much as when I saw Hell’s Belles perform Thunderstruck and Adrienne shredded a permanent spot way deep into my heart. But it’s pretty fuckin’ great.
Thanks for the post, will Patreon this
posted by armoir from antproof case at 11:53 AM on December 23, 2018
Thanks for the post, will Patreon this
posted by armoir from antproof case at 11:53 AM on December 23, 2018
Delightful! Also her version of Blur's "Song 2" because I love how she interprets the "woo-hoo!"
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 12:58 PM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 12:58 PM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
I like her Nirvana covers.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:06 PM on December 23, 2018
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:06 PM on December 23, 2018
That was enjoyable and that instrument has incredible tone. Thanks!
Wish the "vocals" and "lead guitar" had popped out of the mix more but that's a smallish thing.
posted by orange ball at 1:10 PM on December 23, 2018
Wish the "vocals" and "lead guitar" had popped out of the mix more but that's a smallish thing.
posted by orange ball at 1:10 PM on December 23, 2018
I wish my musical abilities allowed me to play this effortlessly...
Paint It Black is pretty appropriate sounding as well...
posted by Windopaene at 1:30 PM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Paint It Black is pretty appropriate sounding as well...
posted by Windopaene at 1:30 PM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've been supporting Luna Lee via Patreon for something like a year now. Neat to see her appear here. I think my favorite is her cover of Something by the Beatles, one of the rare tracks where she adds her own vocal accompaniment. Her version of Sultans of Swing also kicks ass.
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 2:52 PM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 2:52 PM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
yeah like hot pastrami I’ve been a Luna patreon for a while now and have been following her since her seminal Voodoo Child. Glad her exposure continues to grow.
posted by forforf at 4:46 PM on December 23, 2018
posted by forforf at 4:46 PM on December 23, 2018
Loving how an Asian is appropriating Western culture.
That's not what this is, though.
If this was being appropriated, Luna Lee would be presenting this as "an Australian folk song I found", maybe with a title card featuring a vaguely Koori looking dude in an akubra and ugg boots, while Australian people pointing out this is like, a seminal example of Australian pub rock would be tutted down as not getting it and to stop being so sensitive and boring. They're be comments on the lines of how innovative and original she is to cover such an tired old tune with such a popular instrument, and how she was doing a huge service in bringing Australian Folk Music to a wider audience while Aussie kids in Acca Dacca tshirts cop abuse for being white trash for listening to such daggy old shit, and their parents would be scolded for not exposing their children to any other music besides Australian Folk Music and no-one would even acknowledge that songs like Dirty Deeds or Back in Black exist at all.
Thunderstruck would then get mangled, and the fucking ripping intro would get mashed into something else, blander, and less challenging, and it would be called like, I don't know Storm Tune or whatever, and AC/DC would go the way of Mamma Thorton and Muddy Waters, people known only to folks who care enough about the music on its own merits to go digging into where it came from. Aussies who would play Thunderstruck on traditional instruments like a drum kit and electrified guitar would be considered doing a cover, not the other way around, and it would be largely reviled as being camp at best or tacky at worst.
Then few decades out you'd have American artists doing heartfelt, fully attributed covers of lesser known hits like Whole Lotta Rosie, pointing out the erasure, and there'd be a revival of Australian pub rock, and no-one would pay much attention to the Ausssies pointing out that we never stopped playing that in the south, you can find genuine pub rock in a lot of places in Australia, though if we're really unlucky we'd have shittonnes of tourists rolling up to like, The Sportsmans, Kalgoolie, dressed in a rashie, akubra and uggboots who then get abusive when the local band plays original rock rather than just doing Storm Tunes.
This is a great example of cultural appreciation. It's correctly attributed and respectfully arranged, the links to where it came from are not severed and she's not claiming to have "discovered" AC/DC. As an Australian I'm pretty comfortable with how my rich heritage is being portrayed here.
TL:DR: Yeah, nah, mate.
posted by Jilder at 7:37 PM on December 23, 2018 [11 favorites]
That's not what this is, though.
If this was being appropriated, Luna Lee would be presenting this as "an Australian folk song I found", maybe with a title card featuring a vaguely Koori looking dude in an akubra and ugg boots, while Australian people pointing out this is like, a seminal example of Australian pub rock would be tutted down as not getting it and to stop being so sensitive and boring. They're be comments on the lines of how innovative and original she is to cover such an tired old tune with such a popular instrument, and how she was doing a huge service in bringing Australian Folk Music to a wider audience while Aussie kids in Acca Dacca tshirts cop abuse for being white trash for listening to such daggy old shit, and their parents would be scolded for not exposing their children to any other music besides Australian Folk Music and no-one would even acknowledge that songs like Dirty Deeds or Back in Black exist at all.
Thunderstruck would then get mangled, and the fucking ripping intro would get mashed into something else, blander, and less challenging, and it would be called like, I don't know Storm Tune or whatever, and AC/DC would go the way of Mamma Thorton and Muddy Waters, people known only to folks who care enough about the music on its own merits to go digging into where it came from. Aussies who would play Thunderstruck on traditional instruments like a drum kit and electrified guitar would be considered doing a cover, not the other way around, and it would be largely reviled as being camp at best or tacky at worst.
Then few decades out you'd have American artists doing heartfelt, fully attributed covers of lesser known hits like Whole Lotta Rosie, pointing out the erasure, and there'd be a revival of Australian pub rock, and no-one would pay much attention to the Ausssies pointing out that we never stopped playing that in the south, you can find genuine pub rock in a lot of places in Australia, though if we're really unlucky we'd have shittonnes of tourists rolling up to like, The Sportsmans, Kalgoolie, dressed in a rashie, akubra and uggboots who then get abusive when the local band plays original rock rather than just doing Storm Tunes.
This is a great example of cultural appreciation. It's correctly attributed and respectfully arranged, the links to where it came from are not severed and she's not claiming to have "discovered" AC/DC. As an Australian I'm pretty comfortable with how my rich heritage is being portrayed here.
TL:DR: Yeah, nah, mate.
posted by Jilder at 7:37 PM on December 23, 2018 [11 favorites]
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posted by Pendragon at 7:15 AM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]