mixtape maestro (2.0)

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Amy Winehouse “Tears Dry (Original Version)”/ “A Song For You (Leon Russell Cover)” Posted: 01 Dec 2011 11:34 PM PST It’s difficult imagining Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black gem “Tears Dry On Their Own” as ever having existed without that joyful “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” sample, but as revealed by its inclusion on her posthumous collection Lioness: Hidden Treasures, what would eventually become one of the singer’s most fan-favorited releases didn’t initially start off with such a strong Motown connection. Originally composed as more of a vintage-styled jazz-pop ballad, this early incarnation of “Tears” doesn’t reach the same hope-filled anthemic peaks so infectiously grasped in the clever sampling choice and raised tempo of the single version, but minus the upbeat “Mountain” pizzazz as a hooky distraction, it does succeed at being a stronger showcase for Amy’s oft-overlooked songwriting skills here, the arrangement’s measured tone quietly complimenting the lyrics’ somber despair in its narration through the singer’s struggles to come to terms with the end of her tenure as a guy’s “other woman”. “Tears Dry (Original Version)”: Download audio file (Amy-Winehouse-Tears-Dry-Original-Version.mp3) Outranking “Tears” 1.0 as the most highly-anticipated unreleased “premiere” to be unearthed on Treasures though is the set’s final cut, a 2009-recorded demo-level remake of Leon Russell’s oft-covered classic “A Song For You”, also known as the signature tune from late soul great Donny Hathaway. Hathaway’s impassioned take appears to be the inspiration here, and while the unfortunate connection birthed here of two amazing artists being taken from Earth far too soon is enough to get the eyes all soggy without absorbing even a single second of the record, a full-on cry session is damn near a given after actually hearing Winehouse’s strikingly imperfect, mumbled phrasings give life to the estranged lover-directed confessional and, in the track’s chilling final seconds, voice her reasons for why she stanned after some Donny–”He couldn’t contain himself…He had something in him, y’know?”. “A Song For You (Leon Russell Cover)”: Download audio file (Amy-Winehouse-A-Song-For-You-Leon-Russell-Cover.mp3) Lioness: Hidden Treasures arrives, in the U.S., on December 6th. Pre-order here or here.

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