Lindsay Mac : Use Me

Lindsay Mac is a cellist with a bit of a unique streak.  She wants to be a singer-songwriter and has taken to playing her cello standing up, strapped like a guitar over her shoulder, so she can sing more easily.  That uniqueness comes across in spades in this cover of Bill Withers' classic tune "Use Me".  This is no dainty string quartet.  This is a full-on cello-fueled piece of electrified funk.  Normally, takes on this song turn me off because the original is just so... so... so damn awesome.  "Use Me" is a song that expertly combines both joy and despair, hope and hopelessness, and just plain raw lust, into a simmering cauldron of deep funk.  Lindsay does not forget this.

She manages to keep the power of the slow funk while updating the song with a bit of electronic studio play and, of course, cello.  She's got a real drummer driving the back beat behind her while she tears up the bass lines on her favorite instrument.  That's all accentuated with a little bit of scratching and of course she sings.  It's a little bare, but I think that's it.  There are couple of flourishes here and there, but I think those are primarily overdubbed, electronically-processed cello.

She also does really great trick where somehow her own vocals are scratched.  I'm not sure if she recorded them to vinyl first or if it's a studio trick, but it's damn cool.  Especially effective is the start of the second verse, where she hollers 'My brother!' and the DJ totally breaks it down.  It's ass-kicking-ness of the first power.  It got me thinking that it would be a completely awesome move if, in her live shows, she only played the cello part and really did let a DJ play her vocals off a record.  Even cooler if she somehow managed to switch back and forth between live and recorded vocals.

Anyway, the song is an amazing version of an amazing song.  Extremely well done, and it really does what a cover should do, which is to give you a familiar touchstone while still presenting everything an artist has to offer.  It makes me want to buy the album, which, by the way, is called Small Revolution.

[You can listen to Lindsay Mac's "Use Me" by navigating to the post "Song052" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

---