Skeeter Davis covering "Both Sides Now" (1970)

I can see why so many people admired her voice. This performance, the first I have seen or heard by this singer, is unusual. There is a tenuous manner to her stance and phrasing, but that’s actually appealing. I don’t really know anything about Davis, but I admire her cover of “Both Sides Now”. She made me re-appreciate the song itself. It’s a very pretty rendition, actually touching. She manages to experiment with the song, but in very sweet, respectful ways, not “showy” or too performative. I wonder how Mitchell’s viewed this rendition? I once read that she resented Judy Collins’ successful recording of it, but I might be misremembering that.

Thank you for putting this video here, I would not have heard or enjoyed in if you had not, OP.

I've loved this acoustic version for a while now and wish she had released an album version of it The arrangement she did release was too up-tempo.

R2 Absolutely. I’m glad OP linked the acoustic version first.

The disparity makes me wonder how many singers lose stature through their management’s/labels’ packaging and marketing of content. It must be hard to be a singer who is unable to control what content and sound consumers hear first.

I don’t know anything about Davis, or music even, really.

Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Lou Reed, and even Lana Del Rey apparently were/are admirers of hers. I can see why.

I didn't care for the la-la-la bridge, but otherwise nicely done and certainly more heartfelt than Collins' famous rendition. It was countrified a little and I wonder if she sang this on the Glen Campbell Hour tv show.

I need a nap after reading this.Too much tumult and trauma for this hour of the morning.

I also love the BSN cover from OP. It’s too bad nobody like Rick Rubin recorded with her towards the end of her life. A stripped-down acoustic(ish) album would’ve been fantastic.

R6 it’s a roller coaster of tragedy, that’s for sure.

Has anyone read her autobiography?

Am I reading the same wikipedia entry about her? I just read it over and her life does not seem especially dramatic.

One of my specialties in the 80s on my guitar.

R9 maybe not dramatic, but tragic. She came from old Appalachian stock—her uncle killed her grandfather when she was a baby, mom was a depressive drunk who tried to kill herself multiple times (including trying to leap from a building with Skeeter and her brother in her arms). Skeeter, by her own account, had to wrest butcher knives from her mother’s hands, and try to stop her from drinking bleach.

She had professional success as a teenager recording music with her best friend/band mate, Betty Jo, but that came to an end when Betty Jo died in a horrific car accident that Skeeter survived en route back from a radio show (I cannot imagine what kind of guilt that would instill in you). Sh suffered from depression and was suicidal herself for much of her adult life.

Again, not illustrious it scandaled—just kind of sad.

R8 I read some of it on the Internet Archive years ago. I thought it was pretty well-written and insightful. Her childhood was dark. She actually had a pretty big career abroad and toured internationally throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, well past the popularity of “The End of the World”.

She stepped out of line, for a woman, during one Grand Ole Opry performance and was immediately dealt with.

Dismissed. From Grand Ole Opry!

It sounds like Skeeter and Betty Jo were scissor sisters.

Skeeter, as part of her sister act, was able to work with the limitations of her voice. As a single they used a lot of double tracking and chorus to help sustain her off-key, inability-to-hold-a-note tendencies.

She was worth the help. She could express the dumbest, most-honest, most-hurt sentiments in an ingenuous way that was unique.

I have to listen to "Gonna Get Along Without You Now" after "End of the World" to balance things out.

She sure suffered with breast cancer and I was sorry she had such a rough final several years.

Her version of "Both Sides Now" is ok, different from but not necessarily better than Judy Collins. She was a Christ botherer in later age, so I can't get too excited.

I remember hearing her sing Under the Boardwalk on a live radio show and when it got to the French fries part she screamed - “I’m a vegetarian!!!”

During the variety show era, people came on and did covers all the time---that's why I never wanted to hear "Suzanne" (Leonard Cohen song) or "MacArthur Park" ever again. You might even find better versions of Both Sides Now if you go thru Youtubes from other variety shows, also some ridiculous ones, i'm sure---perhaps Merman belted it out once.

Very nice rendition but Judy Collins did the definitive version of Both Sides Now. And yes R8 I have her memoir, good stuff, and it's in my upstairs bookcase.

[quote]She had professional success as a teenager recording music with her best friend/band mate, Betty Jo, but that came to an end when Betty Jo died in a horrific car accident that Skeeter survived en route back from a radio show (I cannot imagine what kind of guilt that would instill in you).

And after the accident, Betty Jack's crazy mother basically held her prisoner (under the guise of helping her recover) and coerced her into restarting the act with Betty Jack's younger sister.

"I'm friends with her mother, Ma Skeeter."

What R16 said. She was a bigoted fundie against our interests so why even bother with her?

The way her voice trails-off at the end of a line is unique and appealing. One of those innate traits one really has no control over.

[quote] Skeeter, by her own account, had to wrest butcher knives from her mother’s hands, and try to stop her from drinking bleach.

Oh, did momma have the Covid?

R22 to be fair, she was a poor Kentucky farm girl who grew up in the '40s—what can you expect? She never said anything hurtful about gays as far as I can tell. She also seemed to have a hippie streak in her and didn't appear to be a hateful or nasty person. Having this us-versus-them mentality toward all religious people is painting with as broad of a stroke as the bible thumpers who paint all gays/lesbians as demon-possessed a child predators. Furthermore, she's been dead for almost two decades. I'm fine with just honoring and enjoying the music she made.

Country sound.

Pop sound.

It’s like a Lesley Gore b-side.

Forgot the link! ^^^

Church sound, later in life.

I hear the Carter Family when I listen to this one.

Is "Both Sides Now" about coming out as a lesbian? The lyrics sure sound like it.

That was a nice rendition, but it's Joni Mitchell's I like best, more than Judy Collins's (although I love Judy's version of "Amazing Grace").

Her voice was extremely emotive and well-suited for sad romance ballads. It's no wonder Lana Del Rey is a fan.

Good lord, if she was married to Ralph Emery - she's suffered enough!

She was also married to NRBQ bassist Joey Spampinato—lucky bitch

In OP's link, she looks like Drew Droege when he's being Chloe Sevigny.

"Good evening, America. I'm Chloe Sevigny.

It's recently come to my attention that I love coo-unt-ry moo-sic..."

[quote]She was also married to NRBQ bassist Joey Spampinato—lucky bitch

Wow, what an odd match. She was almost 17 years older. They recorded an album together too, wonder if it's any good.

We need to start a Go Fund Me for r33 to acquire the Joey Scampinato marionette.

R35, thanks for posting that.

I like the record.

[quote] Is "Both Sides Now" about coming out as a lesbian? The lyrics sure sound like it.

Oh. And I always thought it was about a bossy bottom impatiently demanding to be spit-roasted.

Tracey Ullman covered this one on [italic]You Broke My Heart in Seventeen Places.[/italic]