Loving and dying

But ‘Yesterday’ sent me to ‘Here, There And Everywhere’, and specifically to Emmylou Harris’s sublime cover on her 1975 album Elite Hotel. She and her producer Brian Aherne dared to add the middle instrumental section, which for me is where the song starts to fly. Years ago I told a Beatles-crazed friend of mine that I preferred the Emmylou version to the original. We were on a train, and for a moment I thought he was going to throw me out of the window. But the Beatles’ version is dead to me, and Emmylou’s is still vibrantly healthy, 34 years after its release. This ability to bring alive a dead song is a rare and beautiful thing, and female country singers have recently made a habit of it. Alison Krauss did a gorgeous take on The Foundations’ ‘Baby, Now That I’ve Found You’ a few years ago, and on her lovely cajun-influenced duet album with Ann Savoy (Adieu False Heart), Linda Ronstadt did the same to ‘Walk Away Renée’. In both cases the song was stripped back and its pop energy surgically removed, allowing something more interesting and substantial to emerge. And for the past fortnight I have been listening non-stop to Shelby Lynne’s wonderfully sultry album of Dusty Springfield songs, Just A Little Lovin’. Mostly sung with just guitar, piano and rhythm section, ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’, ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ and ‘I Only Want To Be With You’ finally breathe again. Could someone do something similar with those early Beatles songs? Would anyone dare try?