Covers: On re-thinking the song

Bryan Ferry's stunning reversal of The Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"

It may take a special set of ears to hear a song, maybe even a classic, in a different way. It’s pretty safe bet that most people who have heard Bob Dylan’s haunting, plaintive guitar on his apocalyptic “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall” wouldn’t think of re-casting the song as an up-tempo pop hit replete with a girl chorus and sound effects (“a clown laughing in the alley.”)

Bryan Ferry's remake of The Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" was stunning

Bryan Ferry did. He had just embarked on what wound up as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career as the lead singer and principal songwriter and visionary for Roxy Music, had that idea, recorded it and did a whole album of cover songs called “These Foolish Things”

“Hard Rain” It was a smash hit in England and a year or two later, his version possibly inspired Dylan himself to change his own arrangement of the song on the Rolling Thunder Revue. Dylan, of course, would never admit that.

While writing his own songs for Roxy Music and later on, his own solo records, Ferry also seemed to have an unusual ability to find different songs within a song we thought we already knew.

One of his finest was a remake of Carole King’s “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.” Originally a hit for the black female singing group The Shirelles in the 1960’s, Ferry changed the role of the singer in the song for a compelling video with the late Anna Nicole Smith. The result was a terrific re-interpretation of the song, the tune’s universal message spun in a completely different direction.

This was always a mind-blowing assignment for my young writers. They may not have heard the song before but as teenagers they certainly could relate to the circumstances. We’d read the lyrics first to make sure they understood the topic.

King’s song, especially written in the late 50’s or early 60’s when abstinence was encouraged/expected/demanded, they immediately understood King’s plea - IF things go the way they seem to be going, WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME afterwards?

So I’d play the video, then throw this at them:

“Imagine being in a hotel room with a voluptuous (and apparently un-drugged) Anna Nicole Smith and not doing anything? This unlikely scenario is what British singer Bryan Ferry reveals in the video for his remake of the Shirelles’ classic “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”

Unlike The Shirelles’ version, which was bright and uptempo, Ferry’s version is dark, slow and haunted, as if he does not dare risk the pleasures of the flesh – and oh, what flesh! – for the pain that’s likely to follow when she dumps him for another guy. Or is it a matter of guilt? Is he wearing a slim wedding band?

Throughout the video, Ferry and Smith never actually touch, though they do brush against each other once in mid-song, passing to either ends of the room. Ferry plays solitaire, they talk on different colored phones, she sprawls – and when I mean sprawl, I mean SPRAWL – on a bed, there’s all sorts of fruit symbols around but there’s no bodily contact, even after Smith puts her ample and shapely bottom on the table where he’s playing solitaire, as if to say, “HEY, DEAL ME IN.”

Ferry’s look at romance from the other end of the spectrum is interesting, moody and wistful. Will he ever find true love? Will she? Who will win the next hand?”

What was fun about this was the video, I think, was working on two levels. One, it made them really observant for any hints, clues, details (black and white phones) which was not exactly close reading but close viewing.

Second, Ferry’s reluctance/caution/indifference/fear seemed to really surprise them. He was really thinking about this whole scene — big-picture-wise — which was also jolting. Anna Nicole Smith is here FOR YOU and you’re, uh, hesitant? You mean, you need to THINK THINGS LIKE THIS THROUGH?

Reading their responses was fun. Imagining what their conversations were like amongst themselves AFTERWARDS, well, that was fun, too.

Here’s Bryan’s version, which appears on the record “Taxi.”

Here’s The Shirelles’ original version: