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Reposting photos of my CD compilation featuring 13 different performances of this great song. FIrst attempt to post here failed.
For cover/back/CD label:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44555304@N08/
Photos taken from this YouTube video, which is a film of her singing “2 Kool” on September 25, 2009, at Greensboro, NC:
Sent LW courtesy copies of my “2 Kool” CD and this is what she had to say:
Thank you so much for the “2 Kool 2 Be Forgotten” CD’s!
What a great idea! Really appreciate it!
Happy New Year!
Peace,
Lucinda WilliamsNice touch that made it all worthwhile.
22-version “2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten” project nearing completion.
Cover art may be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44555304@N08/
if we could just change the title of the song to “2 kool 2 be 2×2-gotten” the 22-version project would be just about perfect.
i’m not supposed to say stuff like that but it seems a consensus (well, at least among robert and me) that the live track from the providence ’99 show is the crowing jewel of this compilation.
just received the cd. great work, man. i was glad to hear the versions that tom tracy sent to robert.
@punchdrunklove wrote:
just received the cd. great work, man. i was glad to hear the versions that tom tracy sent to robert.
I was more than happy to contribute to the effort! 😀
And, what an effort it was, KJR! I received my copy this past weekend, and I was blown away by the quality & beauty of the artwork on the inserts – even the CDs themselves. Better than many commercial CDs! Congratulations, and thanks for sending me a copy!
Tom
Guilherme and Tom:
Glad you guys got the CDs and are enjoying them. I should have worked out the levels better on Disc 2, but what the hell.
Thank you for your inputs!!!! Who knows, if we come across more versions, maybe there will be a Round 3.
All the best,
Bob
Go here for a brief lesson on how to play the guitar parts to “2 Kool.” Scroll down until you find it.
http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/student%20resources.htm
@punchdrunklove wrote:
if we could just change the title of the song to “2 kool 2 be 2×2-gotten” the 22-version project would be just about perfect.
i’m not supposed to say stuff like that but it seems a consensus (well, at least among robert and me) that the live track from the providence ’99 show is the crowing jewel of this compilation.
After listening to all these versions ad infinitum, I think I have to agree that Providence ’99 is perhaps the best of the best. Lovely floating guitar part, fine balance, good pacing. And the song was still relatively fresh.
agreed, that one tops everything, the hey hey-finale is joyful. but the ’95 version is pretty terrific as well; not only because it’s old-timey, almost ancient, but especially because of the way she introduces the book and tells the title of the song during her performance, not before. i love that, the guitar soaring over her words.
and i have a question about the lyrics of this live version:
“??? (cf. rosedale), mississippi, freedom village (cf. magic city) juke joint”
i keep hearing marseille. is that right?
Lots of great discussions on this song in this thread and also the Junebugs vs. Hurricaines thread.
I did a little more research on the song and found this quote from Radio Paradise.
QUOTE”
Posted: Apr 03, 2006 – 12:09
pixelgato wrote: Decent track, shame about the title.It’s something that kids used to write in each other’s school yearbooks at the end of the school year.
2 Cool
2 Be
4 Gotten
Written as a math equation – that’s her reference point anyway.
End QUOTE”
“
There are 4 or 5 pages of discussion/interpretations for us to ponder.
http://www.radioparadise.com/content.php?name=Music&file=songinfo&song_id=2009&start=0
KOOL
lwji once read somewhere (i think on last.fm) that “only prince could get away with a song title like that” (or something like this).
it was nice to discover in the other thread that photo from the juke joint book that clears the matter up (http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_911_144158_birney-imes.jpg). i’ve always defended those numbers, but since i’ve seen the picture they don’t need any defenses – it is what it is. the junebug vs. hurricane thing doesn’t matter anymore (i mean, if there’s some hidden meanings behind junebug and hurricane). the only solid thing is that photograph, the red wall. i love this song even more after that – because of all its randomness, a collection of images that features significant insight over lucinda’s creative process.
since i’ve never seen the book, i wonder if the last part of the song (the girl and her boyfriend on a lake charles bridge) is in any way hinted at the book, or if it’s “pure” lucinda. can anyone help with this?
@punchdrunklove wrote:
since i’ve never seen the book, i wonder if the last part of the song (the girl and her boyfriend on a lake charles bridge) is in any way hinted at the book, or if it’s “pure” lucinda. can anyone help with this?I have the book, PDL – here is a link to descriptions of the images that I found in it that apparently influenced Lu. I didn’t see any shot that tied into Lake Charles or a bridge. Since the photos in the book are from juke joints in Mississippi and Lake Charles is over in SW Louisiana, I would speculate this imagery is from Lu’s personal experiences…
Tom
Since the photos in the book are from juke joints in Mississippi and Lake Charles is over in SW Louisiana, I would speculate this imagery is from Lu’s personal experiences…
oh, i overlooked that fact (i should open an atlas at a map of u.s., i keep underestimating the extent – and the exact location – of lucinda’s “cartography”).
but the question remains unanswered: where this image comes from? it basically divides the song in two halves, the first like a straight, descriptive narrative, the latter a disjointed vignette, a bit out of place (mississippi / lake charles). the girl and her boyfriend on a lake charles bridge… who are them? i’m satisfied with the fact that i’ll never know for sure (or that “lu’s personal experiences” is a sensible answer in every way possible) – and i’m not this annoying and obsessively interested in those kinds of stuff, but 2 kool has such a richly detailed first half and we got ourselves this photograph hinting (just hinting) to all of its most mysterious sections – junebug vs. hurricane, why the numbers on the title et al. – that, likewise, i think i feel compelled to look for some picture for the other half. part of the last section’s appeal, to my mind, is those dialogues, lucinda is not merely a narrator to a (supposedely) external event, she incorporated what happened to her “catalogue” and is able to reproduce every word they say. her narration in the first part is, to my mind, even more “dramatized” than in the second (despite the fact that the latter is in first-person), since she seems to use the books to construct images and then, well, who knows – and this gives a creepy quality to the song. there’s so much more at stake than just a did-he-jump/did-she-jump-along thing. deep down, i think it might be something she saw someday (an eye-witness account?), hence my curiosity for a (non-existent!) photo/record of it. oh well, i’ll stop.
yeah, i know it’s a fruitless quest, but i don’t mind.
***
btw, robert and tom, i got our 23rd version (buffalo, ny / april 18, 07).
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