The subject reads like something that bored kids fooling with an old-fashioned 4-speed turntable and some 45s might do.
Somebody just took a 45RPM single of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and slowed it down to 33-and-1/3RPM. Sounds like a simple and silly-assed gimmick at first, yeah.
But damned if it doesn’t sound pretty damned fine. I love how her voice goes all throaty and smoky while the instrumental just turns into a sort of folkie dirge.
It’s still not there.
It’s not too new, it’s been around for a few years. And it’s just playing a 45 at 33, so it’s probably decades old.
I do love it, though.
Yeah, I know I heard it a year or two ago as well. Miley Cyrus does a really good version too. Of course, it helps that it’s good song in the first place.
You have neither lived, loved nor lost until you’ve wrapped yourself around a fifth of Jim Beam and wept to the Chipmunks singing Willie Nelson in slow motion. It makes me wish it was 1996 again so I could listen to this with a virgin broken heart and Doc Martens under my bed. Well done, Slo-Mo Alvin, well done.
I heard the “slowed-down Dolly Parton” thing in college, so that would have been 35 or so years ago. And, at that time, the DJ pointed out that if you play a Parton 45 at 33, she sounds more than a little like Bruce Springsteen. :eek:
Here’s the reverse: Bruce’s “I’m On Fire,” sped up from 33 to 45. https://news.avclub.com/if-you-speed-up-bruce-springsteen-s-i-m-on-fire-it-so-1798268065
That’s definitely the Pet Shop Boys mix they’ve emulated.
Dr. Demento once played a version with only the Chipmunks segments slowed down, created by Jim Ratts of Englewood, CO.
Of course, now with Audacity you could just pitch-shift the Chipmunks segments and keep the tempo.
That’s really funny, and it sounds exactly like Parton. At some point, around the time of The River, Bruce started sounding country on some of his songs. I bet Born to Run era Springsteen sped up wouldn’t sound like Dolly.
Jolene slowed down, though, sounds more like Tracy Chapman than Sprinsteen.
This kind of thing is actually pretty popular, culminating in Vaporwave. I haven’t gone that far, but I did treat a bunch of songs a year ago or so for my Vaporboard project; the titles are meant to clue people in on what to expect.
Who’s Low Fist Is This Fast Anyway? by Prong
The Slow & Low Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades by Timbuk 3
Fly Slow & Low Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band
You Really Got Me Slow by Van Halen
Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck Slow by Prong
Phastnomenon by LL Cool J
The Fast Low Joker by Steve Miller Band
I Want Your (Hands On Me) Deep & Slow by Sinead O’Connor
I Wanna Be Your Slow & Low Dog by The Stooges
I Wanna Be Your Deep Dash Dog by The Stooges
Lightning Thunder Kiss '65 by White Zombie
Messed Up Marquee Moon by Television
Twisted Twist of Cain by Danzig
Deep Forcefield Half Lifts Over Neon City by Daikaiju
Slow Showdown In Shinjuku by Daikaiju
I wrote to Daikaiju; they wrote back. I sent them their 2 songs and they said they loved them and I could post them. I also did 2 treatments of Die Antwoord’s Baby’s On Fire but they got blocked by YouTube’s algorithms. I’d really love to get in touch with them; I think they’d be amused & interested.
ETA: FTR I loved Jolene and the Chipmunk song! Aces both!
I think it has a Tracy Chapman vibe also. Especially if Tracy was singing from beyond the grave.
As an April Fool’s day joke one year back in the late 70s/early 80s when Fleetwood Mac was hugely popular, the local rock radio station announced they had an exclusive sneak preview of the new Fleetwood Mac single. Then they played the album cut of Bob Welch’s “Imaginary Lover” at 45 rpm. It really did sound a lot like Fleetwood Mac!
Slowed down, I can really hear a lot of nuance and little vocal things in Dolly’s singing that I never heard before. And it’s been there all the time.
It really makes it bluesy and quite the downer of a song.
To me, her voice doesn’t just sound lower, it has a creepy quality. Like the auditory version of uncanny valley. Maybe I’m just imagining it because I’m familiar with the original version but I feel like I’d find something “off” about it even if I didn’t know it was altered.
It is also fun to use YouTube’s speed setting to make the lower pitched voice sing it at full speed.
It sounds pretty good, but Dolly sounds like a man, baby. Kind of makes it wierd.
This reminds me of The Osmonds - Crazy Horses slowed from 45RPM to 33RPM. Not a terrible song to begin with, but slowing it down turns it into a groovy stoner rock.