Personal dispatch #11

This is a dispatch from Christopher Eastwood. He cut a lazied-up, pared-down, scuffed-up version of "The Way Young Lovers Do." Turns out Christopher—who hails from the same corner of the earth as Van Morrison—recorded his cover in a rather unorthodox manner.

"Well, I'm 30 years old and I was born and raised in the city of Belfast, Van's hometown (as you well know). I've loved music my whole life, and fortunately share with Van a background immersed within a vast collection of records. Ever since uttering my first syllables, I have loved to sing. I have played other instruments throughout the years, such as the piano, the violin, and the recorders, although I had only begun to play the guitar when I recorded this little cover of "The Way Young Lovers Do."

Although I now play a Martin OM-21, this cover was recorded on a beginner Tanglewood (very nice beginner guitar, very good value). It was a very spontaneous cover, in my home study, recorded onto my iPhone voice memos. Easy! Listening back now, it sounds amateurish and rough, but I like how it reflects that sense of utter abandon evoked so beautifully in the original. I always found the song a beautiful oddity amidst the other more emotionally complex songs on this great album, where the innocence and starry-eyed idealism of youthful love shine out for all to see. The structure of the song is more formal than the more meandering stream-of-consciousness tracks on the album, and for some reason I find it less objectionable to do a cover version.