Song : Cover Versions

Do check out three versions of the 2005 song ‘Fix You’, followed by some reflections on them in terms of how they were performed…

By Coldplay:

By Young@Heart Choir:

By Cantamus Girls Choir:

Coldplay’s version is probably what they had in mind in the first place – since it originated from them. Young@Heart Choir’s version is likely to be (seen and) heard as tired, sombre and poignant, though it is very touching too. It doesn’t sound very ‘young at heart’ though. (Incidentally, the old man who was the lead vocal passed away recently.) The Cantamus Girls Choir’s version is however operatic, but not in an aged or droning way – it is youthful and inspiring. Having heard these alternative versions, it struck me that Coldplay’s version is more of the ‘Middle Path’ – it doesn’t really ‘indulges’ in either sadness or hope. There is more of a sense of emotional balance to it, without being too aloof or passionate.

Then it struck me too, that I’m probably overly reading emotions into how the various singers portray theirs, though they too are interpreting the same lyrics in their own different emotional ways. We read what we want to. We hear what we want to. That’s the aggregate of our shape-shifting and unsubstantial peception at work. This is how our perception colours as much as it taints our world. We don’t see things ‘the way they really are’, as much as ‘the way we are’. Here are some counter-intuitive thoughts on parts of lyrics –

When you try your best but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse

Comments: Trying our best in the moment is already being successful in the moment, despite its results. We just need to improve thereafter for better results. We need to appreciate what we need more than what we want. If there’s any wanting, may we want only our needs. Even so, we should not want them so much that it causes unneeded pain. Paradoxically, we need to let go of wanting rest, if we really want to rest. We are ‘stuck in reverse’ because of attachment to our delusional ‘inverted-thinking’.

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Comments: When we lose something we can’t replace, we can however replace our regrets with gratitude of having had what we did. When we love but end up broken-hearted, it doesn’t mean our love was wasted. What gained was a precious lesson on why we should learn to love more purely – with less desire for reciprocation. That worse and more heartbreaking than having our hearts broken is not knowing how to heal them, is to think that love is useless, that we do not deserve love, even from ourselves for ourselves.

And high up above or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
But if you never try you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth

Comments: The more in love we are, the more we should learn to let it go, because true love does not cling, even while it cherishes, because there will be pain as great as your clinging when death does the beloved apart. If we do not learn to let go of wanting love while loving, we will never know how worthy and true our love really is.

Related Article:
Three versions of the song ‘Flame Trees’
http://moonpointer.com/index1.php?itemid=2532