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In Song, Trying to Convey the Scope of a Tragedy
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Some songs are written with meaning in mind. Others have meaning thrust on them. Still others are chameleonlike, taking on the mood of the room.
On the “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon, which was broadcast live Friday night on multiple television networks, there were some of all three.
Take “Breathless,” by the largely forgettable alternative rock outfit Better Than Ezra, an earnest statement of support from one person to another: “When you feel the world is crashing/ All around your feet/ Come running into my arms.”
As canvases go, it’s a relatively blank one, so by choosing to perform it tonight, the young country star Taylor Swift was able to paint over it whole, refiguring it as an anthem of hope with contemporary relevance.
Her selection may have reflected a more mundane reality: that there’s nothing in Ms. Swift’s catalog with enough gravitas for an event like this. (With a bit of editing, “Change” could have worked, but little else.) But more importantly, it highlighted that, in the right hands, plenty of things can pass for a tribute.
That’s because context can be cleansing. Madonna performed “Like a Prayer” — unsteadily, it should be said — even though its lyrics, about submitting to a higher power, have very little to do with struggle, or tragedy, or uplift. For 20 years, that song has been the symbol of one of the most tumultuous and controversial periods in Madonna’s life. But for five minutes tonight, it was pure, put in service of something bigger than the singer.
Of the artists who chose to perform their own songs as opposed to covers — it was about an even split — Madonna was among the more indulgent. Most opted for a more somber tone, whether it was Alicia Keys on “Prelude to a Kiss” or Coldplay with “A Message.” But those performances only underscored that most artists, even ones as grandiose as Ms. Keys and Coldplay, don’t have songs in their catalogs appropriate for a tragedy of this scale.
Sting performed “Driven to Tears,” with perhaps the most apposite lyrics of the night (“Too many cameras and not enough food,” etc.), though its quick, brusque tempo was out of step with the telethon’s stately tenor.
Christina Aguilera performed a new song, “Lift Me Up,” an ambitious ballad suited to the night’s feeling, and to her huge, endlessly fascinating voice. And while Beyoncé‘s “Halo” didn’t exactly match the night’s purpose, the singer at least had the good sense to weave Haiti into the song’s lyrics in several places during her performance (assisted by Chris Martin of Coldplay on piano).
And credit is due to Jay-Z, Rihanna, Bono and the Edge, who created an original song for the occasion, “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour).” The sound was muddy, and the concept undercooked, but it was an implicit acknowledgment that a situation this dire demanded something more than squeezing meaning out of a pre-existing song that lacks it.
Of the singers who opted for covers, most chose wisely, picking inspirational songs whose power and impact have been polished to a gleam over years and years of playing, passed on from one generation to the next. There was Jennifer Hudson’s stirring, nuanced take on the Beatles‘ “Let It Be,” and Mary J. Blige‘s transcendent, anguished read (backed by the Roots) on the Stephen Foster-written “Hard Times Come Again No More,” 150 years old and still devastating. Bruce Springsteen made “We Shall Overcome” sound like it came from his “Nebraska” album. Shakira’s version of “I’ll Stand by You” was more desperate than the Pretenders‘ original. Even the awkward, not-quite-in-harmony team-up of Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock and Keith Urban on Bill Withers’s “Lean on Me” was affecting.
Not everything jelled. A duet between Dave Matthews and Neil Young on Hank Williams’s “Alone and Forsaken” was awkward. And Justin Timberlake was, uncharacteristically, slightly out of his depth performing “Hallelujah,” the Leonard Cohen standard rendered indelible by Jeff Buckley. (Mr. Timberlake was one of the few to inject self-promotion into the show, duetting with Matt Morris, a relatively unknown artist signed to his label.)
The night’s two performers with Haitian roots, Emeline Michel and Wyclef Jean, both opted to cover reggae songs from the soundtrack to “The Harder They Come.” Ms. Michel performed a wrenching version of Jimmy Cliff‘s “Many Rivers to Cross,” and Mr. Jean abandoned his take on the Melodians’ “Rivers of Babylon” to do a little Creole rapping and to shout out Anderson Cooper, twice. These choices were likely reflective of the fact that Haitian music hasn’t penetrated global popular consciousness to nearly the degree that Jamaican music has, and these artists were content to sacrifice a bit of local pride for maximum impact.
Not surprisingly, the artist who most naturally achieved the night’s feeling was Stevie Wonder, who made a medley out of his own “A Time to Love” and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” He sounded phenomenal, joyous and pained all at once. Of the two, “A Time to Love,” from Mr. Wonder’s 2005 album of the same name, felt apt: “We have time to debate religion/ For passing bills and building prisons/ For building fortunes and passing judgments/ When will there be a time to love?” And coming from Mr. Wonder, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” while unspecific in lyric, felt ineffably of the moment. Together, the two songs sounded like a unified response to a vexing problem.
