Ignored   Obscured Restored

Those of you who have been following the SotW for some time will be familiar with my “Evolution Series.”  That’s where I select a song and trace how different artists have interpreted and recorded it over the years.

In a twist on that concept, the artist known as Joan As Police Woman (Joan Wasser) has recently revisited her own debut album, Real Life (2006), reinterpreting the entire record.  Appropriately enough, she has titled the project Real Life Evolution.

Before emerging as Joan As Police Woman, Wasser was best known as a gifted violinist and as the fiancée of Jeff Buckley. His sudden and tragic death in 1997 left an indelible mark on her life, and the emotional honesty that has characterized her music ever since can be traced, in part, to that devastating loss.

Take a listen to “Save Me” from the original album.

Wasser’s piano-based song captures a sense of emotional desperation as she struggles to salvage a relationship that is “already good as gone.”

In the newly reimagined version, Wasser recruits Iggy Pop to handle the lead vocal.

Pop’s weathered voice, combined with a harsher musical backdrop, changes the song’s emotional tenor.  The desperation remains, but it is now tempered by tension and friction rather than the wounded self-pity that permeated the original recording.

Wasser’s willingness to revisit and reinterpret her early work demonstrates the creative courage of an artist who continues to grow, evolve, and find new meaning in familiar songs.

Enjoy… until next week.