When first I clicked on the stream for this album, I really wasn’t sure about it. In fact, I thought I wasn’t going to like it, much as I had wanted to. But I’ve had it playing almost continuously while I’ve been dealing with mindless stuff – and I’ve come to like it.
Not without reservations of course – there are always reservations – but it’s got under my skin and I’m now properly in the groove, appreciating what Lucinda Williams is doing, delving into this most hallowed of song catalogues and bravely tackling numbers that are rarely, if ever, covered. As is her way.
Take “Yer Blues”, and “I’m So Tired”, two heavy, angst-ridden songs recorded on The White Album and written by John Lennon when The Beatles were in Rishikesh with the Maharishi (or “Sexy Sadie” as Lennon would call him). Indeed, with her rock ‘n’ roll voice she seems admirably suited to these songs – much more so than to “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road”, two softer, gentler songs by Paul McCartney, where her voice is sometimes a little too quavery for comfort.
Recorded at Abbey Road in February and March this year, just ahead of Williams’ tour, Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles has its origins in the Lu’s Jukebox series of themed lockdown performances curated by Williams and streamed for a fee with proceeds going to designated venues. They included rewarding sets of covers by Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones among others and of course they found favour with fans and have now been released on vinyl and CD. A couple of days after the Stones set was recorded in late 2020, Williams suffered a stroke. Valiantly and in public, she has overcome many of the deficits it caused but the guitar remains a work in progress, and she doesn’t play on this album.
The musicians who do a fine job recreating the sound world of The Beatles to which Williams sings are Butch Norton, drums and percussion; David Sutton, bass; Doug Pettibone, electric guitars, pedal steel and backing vocals, Marc Ford, electric and acoustic guitars; and Richard Causon, Hammond B-3. Siobhan M Kennedy, wife of co-producer Ray Kennedy, sings backing vocals.
From A Hard Day’s Night (1964) through to Let It Be (1970), Williams cherry picks a dozen songs that represent diverse aspects of The Beatles’ career, including two of George Harrison’s most enduring numbers, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (The White Album, 1968) and “Something” (Abbey Road, 1969) which work surprisingly well. Ringo Starr’s best loved song, “With A Little Help from My Friends”, takes its cue from Joe Cocker’s celebrated high-energy cover rather than from the Sgt Pepper original and would, I feel, have made a better and stronger closing track than “The Long and Winding Road”. And right now, the sentiment would have been perfect.
