Randy Jackson's hidden clue
Who says American Idol isn’t deep? The number one item on Google Search at this moment is “Ring of Fire Jeff Buckley”. As a big fan of Jeff Buckley and Johnny Cash, I was intrigued.
Some faceless person on American Idol who will undoubtedly be the next Taylor Hicks (ie, talentless winner, winner, chicken dinner) did a version of Ring of Fire. According to Wikipedia, the song was written by the great Merle Kilgore and made popular by Johnny Cash.
Here’s a 23-year old Cash singing the song. Brilliant.
Jeff Buckley was a brilliant singer/songwriter who drowned while swimming at the age of 31. Here’s my favorite JB song. (UPDATE: I had posted a video of Buckley’s performance of Hallejuah, but Buckley’s estate is pulling the video from distribution because they don’t want anything to do with American Idol. It taints the tremendous reputation of this brilliant artist to be associated with AI. Can’t blame them…. In an effort to stay one step ahead, here’s a live performance of another great Buckley song from Lupo’s in Rhode Island in 1995).
After talentless, no-name guy sings Ring of Fire tonight on AI, Randy Jackson perpetrates the greatest magic trick of all-time. He tells us, the Dumbed Americans that this is Jeff Buckley’s version. Brilliant.
Jeff Buckley never sang the song. Ever. There are no recordings or video of such a performance. But you knew that, right? Randy Jackson isn’t the only person in America who didn’t see Walk The Line, right? He knew that Johnny Cash made the song famous and recorded a subtle, melancholy version near his death. Sure. This was just a shout out to his dog Jeff Buckley, so that everyone would rush to ITunes, put off buying the latest David Cook masterpiece and buy the entire Jeff Buckley catalog. Brilliant.
Next week, Simon will suggest that Danny Hokey is channeling Howard Devoto’s performance of Shot By Both Sides, while singing Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean”.
Who said this show was contributing to TDOA?
Popularity: 1% [?]
While I admit Randy made a mistake it’s kinda like the kettle calling the pot black isn’t it. Cause Danny’s name is Gorky not Corky, but then I tend to think that might be a slight dig at someone we both know. But just for the record I want to say that perhaps you are not being all together fair to AI, I feel it is persons that are very brave going on there (I always wanted to be a singer) trying out for their dream. And I do not ever in 8 seasons remember anyone saying that the contestants were pros, yes they will make mistakes (alot of them cause their not pro’s) and look nervous, scared, be off key, forget some words even, but they are human and I have to admire them for trying. While I agree that alot are there for their 5 min. of fame, and I strongly disagree with voting for cute,obnixous,etc. is stupid, I watch it, I vote weekly, and I enjoy it.
Gorky, Corky, Dorky, Taylor, Ruben, Clay….it’s all the same. But, yes you did detect sarcasm. Unlike Randy, I wouldn’t go on my blog (let alone national television) and make an error in a persons’ name. But thanks for reading!