The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library covers “The Weeping Song” (download and more)

It’s always fun to throw a cover onto your record. In the past, I’ve been involved in covering “First We Take Manhattan,” “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and “Doomsday Devices.”  For The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library‘s _Volume One_, I really wanted something with a little darkness in it to counterbalance what might have otherwise been perceived as a light-hearted album upon cursory listen/examination.

This neat video of “The Weeping Song” featuring the photographs of Michael Massaia popped up recently.

Cover Me had some kind words to say: “With handclaps and gothic orchestration, it’s a must-listen for the next time you too want to dive into the darkness.”


Stereo Subversion also very kindly suggested “The Weeping Song” in the context of the media coverage of the Rapture: “Let’s hope that life goes on as usual on Sunday the 22nd but just in case, here’s another song for your ‘End of the World’ soundtrack.”

From the Green Light Go page:
“I was very concerned that people might listen to the album as a whole and kind of categorize it as innocuous folk without really giving a good listen to some of the lyrics and ideas in the songs,” says Michael J Epstein. “So, I wanted to select a cover of a song that had a little darkness in it.” The song features Epstein and Tanya K. Palit singing their own harmonies in this conversation between father and son. Epstein says of his stylistic choices on the track, “I chose to have Tanya play the father and I played the son, which also toys a little with gender. I also wanted to build up the contrast between her vocals and mine. I wanted the ‘wise’ father to have a beautiful, harmonized voice in contrast to the disconcerting octaved voice of the son. So, we each sang our own two parts to achieve this.” The result, while recognizable, is a nuanced version that will linger in the listener’s ears. “Weeping Song” is available for download now (via GLG).


“This is my favorite duet, and it is performed by two of my favorite singers, Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld. It is also one of the only male-male duets that I can think of. The best part was deciding how to transform this dark father-son conversation into something suitable for the acoustic, and mostly female, Library.” Says Epstein of the cover. “I decided to take on the role of the son and add a sonic element indicating that the son was the sinister harbinger of gloom. In order to achieve this, I had Tanya Palit sing a nice harmony with herself for the father’s parts while I sang a disconcerting octave harmony for the son.”


We’ve also got a couple of posts with the song on Youtube: 1 and 2.