Mediated Performances

The very moment you said that we could discuss a song cover, a particular one immediately came to mind because I had actually had a discussion about it’s success days before. The song is I will survive. Originally performed by Gloria Gaynor and then remastered decades later by the band Cake, this song had managed to keep its status as a “hit” in the music industry through two different interpretations.

Originally, this song was so easy to fall in love with in the 70’s. It served both as a great contribution to the disco era, as well as being one of the first really outstanding songs that had been all about a woman calling the shots and declaring her triumphant survival through an unsatisfactory relationship. Not to bring up feminism but I can’t think of a song before this that was ever as poignant in expressing the superiority of a woman and I find it kind of revolutionary. It’s a song that everyone knows and loves unless they’ve been living under a boulder their whole life. I know this song from my mom leaving it on the radio EVERY time it was on when I was younger. She always sang along.

Then all of the sudden, one day in the 90’s this song came on in the car with my mother once again. However, this time it was a man. This time it was with a guitar and trumpets and not flashy disco sounds. It was refreshing. And now, as I have become a pretty avid cake fan, I listen to this on somewhat of a regular basis and the changes that have been made are awesome. In relation to performance, one point I’m trying to highlight is the successful transformation from this revolutionary feminist triumph that is remade successfully by a man. In remaking this, John McCrea (vocalist/songwriter) shows his obvious respect for the song and Gloria Gaynor and makes it his own, adding some changes that simply modernize the song in what is probably the best way. He must have also felt triumphant in a similar situation and could relate well to the original song; so much that he had to do his own interpretation of it and make it his own. Performing a song like this that had already been so well known and well done requires a certain degree of passion in order to make it successful. My favorite of these changes is using the word Fucking instead of stupid in the line about changing the lock. Another great change is simply the guitar solos.