coldcut - autumn leaves (bare leaves)

the original was a song i believe i saw on mtv back in the day but it had no recollection of it when i heard the beautiful ambient irresistible force remix by mixmaster morris a decade later. after a while i grew infatuated with the song and listened to the original version by coldcut and then heard the nat king cole version which i thought then was the absolute "original".

after a while i did my proper research and found out that it was not and it's originally a french song/poem from 1945 called "les feuilles mortes" and was written by jacques prévert. johnny mercer wrote the english version in 1947 and among the first to record it was jo stafford. the song became a standard that a hundreds have recorded a version of but the most relevant to the coldcut version is nana mouskouri's from 1979.

if i have done my research right this is the version that adds the verse that coldcut also used for their rendition. this verse fleshes out the lyrical concept of the song and it's these parts that i like the most in it's portrail of seasons as parts of the relationship. especially the lines "autumn leaves fall and then swept out of sight, so is the memory of love that we knew"

coldcuts version is held up with janis alexander's magnificent vocal and it's what made me pay attention as it cuts through with all it's emotion. musically the original album version is very typical of coldcut and the early 90's hiphop sounds but the problem i have gotten on recent hearings is that it dates the song as well.

the vocal is timeless and so is approach with the piano and the string arrangement but then comes the drums and while the drums from tom scott's "sneakin' in the back" works, the drums from ike & tina turner's "cussin', cryin' and carryin' on" does not.

well atleast in the raw shape they are in on the album version and i should note that it's weird to hear me complain about the use of good drumbreaks like this but i don't think it fits with the track at hand. in the radio version i believe they are taken out and on the rendition on coldcut's best of compilation, both drum breaks are replaced with some regular drum hits and it works well for the song.

however there is two other versions of the song that stripped it all down. labelled similarly they are called "naked leaves" and "bare leaves" and they are identified with the former having an occasional bassdrum every second bar or so, having a different intro and outro and being longer. "bare leaves" is also available on the album while the "naked leaves" was on singles.

"bare leaves" starts with the piano and janis alexanders voice and when the bridge hits you hear this sweeping violin that hits once. it then slowly brings in a second piano line and rest of the strings that plays when the most famous lyrical part is being sung. as alexander is repeating "autumn leaves, start to fall" it all builds as a crescendo with piano going into an arpeggio as the coda of the song.

this final part just gets to me every time, it's that beautiful.

listen here (youtube)