Speaking of ‘Royals’…
Last week a cover version of the blockbuster Lorde tune was released by a musical project called Postmodern Jukebox.
The brain child of mega-talented musician Scott Bradlee, Postmodern Jukebox reimagines modern tunes in older styles — a doo-wop version of a Ke$ha song, say, or a lounge band version of Kanye West. Bradlee usually plays piano on these tracks and brings in an assortment of guest vocalists.
For the ‘Royals’ cover, the band hews closely to the original. The gimmick here, in honor of Halloween, is that the lead vocal is handled by a 7-foot-tall sad clown named Puddles, who happens to have an incredible voice.
I’ll feature a few more Postmodern Jukebox tunes this week — something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile.
I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies
And I’m not proud of my address, in the torn up town
No post code envy
But every song’s like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room
We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams
But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash
We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair
And we’ll never be royals
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your ruler, you can call me Queen Bee
And baby I’ll rule (I’ll rule I’ll rule I’ll rule)
Let me live that fantasy
My friends and I we’ve cracked the code
We count our dollars on the train to the party
And everyone who knows us knows that we’re fine with this
We didn’t come from money
But every song’s like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room
We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams
But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash
We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair
And we’ll never be royals
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your ruler, you can call me Queen Bee
And baby I’ll rule (I’ll rule I’ll rule I’ll rule)
Let me live that fantasy
(Ooh ooh oh)
We’re bigger than we ever dreamed, and I’m in love with being queen
(Ooh ooh oh)
Life is great without a care
We aren’t caught up in your love affair
And we’ll never be royals
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your ruler, you can call me Queen Bee
And baby I’ll rule (I’ll rule I’ll rule I’ll rule)
Let me live that fantasy
Meet Me In Montauk 
I don’t get it. But I am intrigued. Look forward to seeing some of their other covers this week. Meanwhile, that clown does have one hell of a voice.
Well, that was odd.
The question stirring in my mind while playing this was whether I would really like this song if this version was the one released rather than lorde’s. I suspect I wouldn’t, which I think shows the importance of the right voice and right tone/mood in making a song work successfully beyond the songwriter’s creation.