Black, Black, Heart: A Retrospective

L'oiseau, l'oiseau chante: A lesson on revision, through a journey of 20 years, examining different versions of the song Black Black Heart by David Usher

With sadly few versions available on Spotify, I proceed down a wormhole of David Usher’s music, in search of the version I once found on Napster/Kazaa

Editing is tough business. It hurts sometimes when someone suggests we make changes to the work we toiled over. But sometimes it can be for the best. I want to take you on a journey of a song loved, lost, then found again, when I was able to track it down on the internet in 2020 lockdown.

Always a music family, pre-children my parents would go out and cut a rug together. My dad was a break-dancer and my mom just prioritized being effortlessly cool: dancing included in her coolness spectrum. They loved media, technology, and anything new, regardless of cost. Entertainment centers were still a thing and updates were plentiful (although, compared to today, technology didn’t march forward quite as fast). That always meant cabinets full of CDs, readily replenished. Music of all genres were a huge part of my childhood, but it was all fairly normcore (maybe avant-garde for Maine — or Upstate New York, or Providence, where my parents were each from — but pretty typical for a big city). Even as a toddler I would watch my mom dub cassette tapes from the radio, before we had that CD money. Napster/Kazaa was kind of like that for the digital age. The music industry may not have liked it, but you can’t fight the future, just look at streaming. But a benefit to the internet for the consumer, i.e., me, was that there were so many endless new, strange things to find.

“Even as a toddler I would watch my mom dub cassette tapes from the radio, before we had that CD money. Napster/Kazaa was kind of like that for the digital age.”

Sure, plenty of the time you would find things you didn’t want to, everything was mislabeled: some of it was adult material, some viruses, much of it was just incorrect artists and titles. But you could still find valuable things, even if you didn’t have a name for them.

That’s what happened with this one song, that was absolutely mislabeled and only like 8 people were seeding. I open it up and press play and was transfixed. It was dark, introspective, melancholic. The orchestral elements of the strings and the operatic sample were warped in their dual softness (singer’s breathy voice) and intensity of the lyrical content. You can bet I immediately ripped it to a cd with other oddities.

Life happened, you forget about the songs you used to loop on repeat, and you find new songs. But one morning during the pandemic, I woke up, and instead of Lilith fair or Disney fodder, I had this old song as an earworm in my head. I hummed it, I made a coffee. I scanned the memory, trying to force my brain to remember the operatic sample it opened with — no luck. I took the dog out. The four bars of the melody looped endlessly, to no avail. We’ve made a number of advances since the days of Napster but resolution of an earworm is still a lengthy process.

“But one morning during the pandemic, I woke up, and instead of Lilith fair or Disney fodder, I had this old song as an earworm in my head.”

Well, after listening to a number of operas for weeks (I’m curious and persistent), I finally found the sample — a real pandemic Eureka! moment. Now I just had to trace it back to music forums to see who may have sampled it from the appropriate time. Luckily, the work of a bunch of other music weirdos “[made] it easier on me” (😎) so I used their tools and listings, and while a fairly popular sample I was able to track it down: David Usher’s Black Black Heart. 🖤

But when I found it on Spotify, there were only two versions and neither were the song I remembered! So let me take you on a reenactment of the tail-end of this musical journey. I had the artist and title, and could dig further to find my unicorn. Persistence aside, I think it’s a perfect illustration of how the power of revision can completely make or break a creative work.

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Morning Orbit
(something ugly this way comes)

Black Black Heart 2.0 (which the Wiki article identifies as a hidden track on the 2001 album Morning Orbit) is labeled as the original version on YouTube. While I’m not positive this is true, it is the absolute furthest from the version I’m on the hunt for, and I took this presumably to mean the original music video version. Honestly, it’s pretty solid for the alt-rock landscape of the time, the intro suits Usher’s voice and breathiness, crooning about intimate subject matter, but as soon as he gets to the chorus it all falls apart — the hard consonants at the end of “black, black” pain me, longing for the covetous vibe of the remix:

Acoustic Version
(search for pleasure, search for pain)

Black Black Heart Acoustic (aka, okay, we’re getting somewhere) — it’s emotive in the way only acoustic guitars can appeal, there’s clarity in Usher’s voice, the emphasis in the chorus seems less unwieldy, but the rhythm he chases in that space doesn’t meld lyrically. But after we’re lulled into a false sense of security, the way the human brain searches for patterns in music, something unexpected happens: Once we’re in the thick of it we hear the angelic trumpeting from a sample on high: The Flower Duet from the opera Lakmé. It feels right, it’s satisfying, but it comes in too late:

CHR Duet
(eating all your kings & queens)

In Black Black Heart CHR Mix (feat. Julie Galios, My Brilliant Beast) you get a taste of the possibility of how subversive the song could become from the rip. The human psyche is hooked by the juxtaposition of mixing classical and alternative rock, and compelled ever by conflict the tug-of-war of a duet between a male and female voice? Sublime combo. But the Natalie Imbruglia, late-90s percussion just is not melding with the vibe (but remember, this is pre-Evanescence, they’re still cooking):

Live Performance Balance
(I begin to lose my grip)

Black Black Heart Live 2002? David Usher is a good vocalist, but sometimes speaking multiple languages can bite you in subtle ways in the pronunciation, and I think that’s the problem with him commandeering the chorus. I’ve included this in the timeline because the bassist springs in to fill out the song, covering the operatic hook. When you listen you can hear Usher supply a harmony here, and it’s nice! But it’s not the one:

2016 French Language Re-issue
(we will blend & borrow)

Seeming to have learned the lesson, in 2016 there was a new version of Black Black Heart en francais feat Marie-Mai. If you watch the live version, aunties fill out the choir for The Flower Duet:

Ancient Strings Version
(all your sex & your diamonds)

Black Black Heart ULTIMATE 2001? MORE STRINGS IS WHAT WAS MISSING. It takes what I think is the vocal tracks from CHR mix (the breathy vocals from Usher, The Flower Duet sample, reverbing like they’re singing in the river from the opera, and Julie Galios takes the mic at the chorus to fully embody this siren-esque archetype that Usher is “unfurl[ing]” his white flag for). The percussion is still extremely simple, but anything more complicated could overtake the song (though I’d love to hear a blast beat or two), but it’s more subdued. This is what I found on the early internet back in high school, and it is the best version of this song, fight me:

I’m kidding, don’t fight me, but I’d love to know more about this version!

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Bonus Tracks
(Russian & Deep House)

Which brings me to my comedic hypothesis that this unnamed perfection came from a Russian DJ — there are countless Russian fans in the comment section of many of these videos. I also found this cover by Ксюха и Михалыч which I know a few friends (read: fans of Тату in HS) will really appreciate:

And for those who stayed with me the entire journey, here is something absurd and of course a little fun, a house remix (2019), which is so unholy it’s probably what brought on the pandemic:

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Where were we? Ah, yes.
(editing & revisions)

So all this is to say, look at what can be accomplished through the power of revision. The editing process is really difficult for authors to undertake. I know it challenges the emotions when someone suggests we make a change, but it really can be for the best. Sometimes you have to try new things to hit upon something great.

I take what I know from the creative process, this willingness to play, and often find myself wishing that some of the books I read would do the same. I know it’s a risk, but sometimes that’s what you need when the TBR gets stagnant and begins to feel formulaic. Now, do I think a book has to be genre-breaking and completely original to be good? Hell no. But there’s nothing wrong with trying something different.

Until next time,

Nico