Look What They’ve Done to Our Songs
Digital recording was never meant to reproduce sound faithfully. Rather, it was a way to replace bulky tapes and records and to allow recordings to be easily shared and manipulated. Digital only samples, analog recordings capture the entire and continuous sound wave that makes up speech. And music.
Analog is human, digital is not. That extends throughout our digital life. There’s a perfection sought with all things digital, something we humans can’t achieve. We make mistakes. Digital wants to erase them. Every music producer now seeks to deliver a clean, perfect sound that is often beautiful and also quite inhuman.
Melanie almost blows out the microphone is this live performance. That would be cleaned up today in post-processing. Maybe an equalizer to do a little fixing here and there. Digital lends itself to endless and easy editing, putting us further and further away from the truth and our humanity.
Look What They’v Done to My Song, Ma (1971)
Melanie Safka (external link)
Look what they done to my song ma
Look what they done to my song
Well it’s the only thing
That I could do half right
And it’s turning out all wrong ma
Look what they done to my song
Look what they done to my brain ma
Look what they done to my brain
Well they picked it like a chicken bone
And I think I’m half insane ma
Look what they done to my song
I wish I could find a good book to live in
Wish I could find a good book
Well if I could find a real good book
I’d never have to come out and look at
What they done to my song
La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la
Look what they done to my song
But maybe it’ll all be alright ma
Maybe it’ll all be okay
Well if the people are buying tears
I’ll be rich someday ma
Look what they done to my song
Ils ont changé ma chanson, ma
Ils ont changé ma chanson
C’est la seule chose que je peux faire
Et ce n’est pas bon, ma
Ils ont changé ma chanson
Look what they done to my song, ma
Look what they done to my song
Well they tied it up in a plastic bag
And turned it upside down ma
Look what they done to my song
Ils ont change ma chanson, ma
Ils ont change ma chanson
C’est la seule chose que je peux faire
Et ce n’est pas bon, ma
Ils ont change ma chanson
Look what they done to my song ma
Look what they done to my song
It’s the only thing that I could do alright
And they turned it upside down
Oh ma
Look what they done to my song
