Georgia Lee
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Coda: āThis world is not my homeā
When you come to the end of Mule Variations, youāve been put through a wringer of love, loss, degradation, paranoia, and tragedy. āCome On Up to the Houseā offers both implicit and explicit absolution, and youāre glad of it. I donāt have too much more to add about it at this point, but feel that any full encounter with āGeorgia Leeā is incomplete without it. It doesnāt answer the big questions, but sorts you out nonetheless.
Appendix: Covers of āGeorgia Leeā
A few cover versions of āGeorgia Leeā manage to be reasonably effective with joined voices and harmonies, but my favorites are still the solo versions. Most covers Iāve found stick fairly closely to Waitsās general arrangement. Iāve put together a short, select Spotify playlist, with performances that I find mostly, if not entirely, successful. Your ear might differ, but if youāre looking for examples of where the refrain migrates away from lament to protest, versions by The Cottars, Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman, and Justin McRoberts might be illustrative, although I should make clear that I removed the most egregious examples of this phenomenon from the playlist, along with other arrangements that didnāt pass muster for one reason or another.
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The most innovative performance and arrangement of the bunch is Minnesota-based Americana artist Dave Olsonās. Olson postpones the refrain until after all the other stanzas are out. He goes into the song and rearranges the furniture to suit him, and it still works rather well. The ethereal overlay of Pieta Brownās harmony vocals to the postponed refrain well suits the theme in the context of Olsonās reworked melody.
Deirdre Scanlan* of Solas provides brilliant and moving performance of the song on Solasās The Edge of Silence album.
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Gospel artist Cynthia Clawson provides what was for me a surprisingly effective performance. In the context of her See Me, God album, I expected the performance to be overborne by canned pieties, and I was rather dubious of a few cinematic pauses. Despite the differences in her vocal qualities and, presumably, the intended religious dimensions of her art, the thematic tones and inflections of the song remain fully available.
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AustriaāsĀ Ernst Molden and ArgentinaāsĀ Roxana Amed have recorded German and Spanish versions of the song. I canāt speak with much confidence about the success of their translations, but the arrangements strike me as worthy. Amedās version is particularly affecting, even through the filter of my high school level Spanish.
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Thanks for reading and listening, and thanks to Shaleane and Pat for their characteristically insightful and helpful comments.
* An earlier version of this post misidentified the lead singer of Solasās version of the song. Our apologies to Ms. Scanlan for the error.