nancy sinatra - these boots are made for walkin'

usually when i talk about a certain song i start with the first time i heard said track, but since this is about "these boots are made for walkin'" i am not.doing that. it's a song that is part of the consciousness of popculture since it was released as it's a really great song. i love it to death and i really don't know many who dislike it, well apart from dave mustaine and jessica simpson. the former did that parody which didn't fly with lee hazlewood (who wrote the song) and the latter did the worst cover of it so she has to hate it...

anyhow the reason i am writing about the song is mainly because of amanda jenssen, who ended her concert with this song and did an immense interpretation. i'm a big fan of jenssen and she's been on a concert tour during the summer as a build up for her upcoming album and for me it can't be released fast enough. i've been listening to her previous record and the first single that came out this spring. i love "dry my soul" and i really don't know why i haven't done an entry on that song.

the strength of "these boots are made for walkin'" is the way it builds with the verses and choruses until the last part where it goes into doubletime. from that intro lick which gets revisited in the transitions between chorus & verses and it verse by verse it becomes that power pop torch song and it's over in less than three minutes. the horns that break out during the last part is slowly teased in during the second verse.

this dynamic was explained in a really good way when i was watching "the mexican" a few years ago and listened to the commentary track. there it was played in the scene when julia roberts goes to las vegas on her own. verbinski, hyman and wood talk about how the doubletime at end of the song made the transition perfectly into the action sequence where the two leroys are after her. basically as the song is one big tension builder, the release has to pay off well and it does.

amandas cover live in gothenburg (youtube)

jenssen & her band's version of the song digs deeper into the rockabilly influence of the song and beefs up the power pop of the song. a boogiewoogie piano, a bluesriffing guitar and really tight drums is carrying the pace for the first part of the song as jensen and the band set the pace at high speeds. jenssen also takes advantage of the live setting and stretches the song and in between the second chorus and third verse, she breaks it down and introduces her band.

they are introduced one by one and all do their tiny solobit and when i saw her play she took it down for her for the final verse but on the clip i linked you to she doesn't. but what happened afterwards was the same, pure musical chaos in the best way as the band just let loose and saying it went into the doubletime bit doesn't do it justice. it was just madness and amanda danced in her own special way and i've never seen anyone have the balls, or vagina to do that kind of dancing on a big stage and pull it off so well.

i love nancy sinatra's original song but amanda jenssen one upped her in my mind.

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