The French slasher flick, High Tension, (one of my favorite guilty pleasures) tips its hand in the opening scene. You see a young woman sitting in what appears to be a hospital room. She is alive. She is healing. But she has been through hell. Her wounds are deep, painful, and raw. She had met evil, and it damn near killed her.
The next scene jumps backward in time to before her injuries. This young woman is the heroine of the film. She is so beautiful; so hopeful; so sympathetic. You come to care about her against your better judgment, knowing full well what awaits her. It’s a dirty trick the filmmakers have played. Each time she hides or runs from the killer, you cheer for her escape and safety. But the first image never leaves the back of your mind. You know she won’t always get away clean. Maybe not this scene, maybe not the next; but she is going to be hurt, and hurt bad.
The same trick is employed to similar devastation by Dar Williams in her cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Highway Patrolman”. Now I love the Boss as much as anyone, and generally have little patience for artists who paint over his masterpieces with new colors (Dear Folk Singers Everywhere; Stop fucking with “The River”. Sincerely, A Concerned Audiophile); but Dar’s cover is exceptional. It destroys the original. Here’s why: In Bruce’s version, the narrator believes his bullshit. The song is the narrator’s explanation for letting his brother run from his crime. In Dar’s version, the narrator knows that he’s wrong; it just hurts too damn much to say it straight. Dar’s song is a confession. Her vocals have a wary resignation and deep hurt front and center. They tell you immediately that the story ends badly; that the narrator is suffering; that his fraternal fidelity leaves him battered and broken. But you don’t want to believe it. You want to believe that Frankie and his brother might one day be “laughing and drinking” and “taking turns dancing with Maria” again. Then you hear that voice…
Turn off the lights and listen to Dar Williams’s ‘Highway Patrolman’ at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KIsjKAHubA
Trust me. It’s fantastic.
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