Footloose by Doveman
Someone told us that Paramount had remade the film Footloose so we thought it was time to re-release this poignant remake of the soundtrack by Doveman (aka Thomas Bartlett). We all know what motivated the new version of the film, namely money. Here are some thoughts from Thomas's friend Gabriel on what motivated the Doveman cover version:
When I was very young, my half-sister Jenny died tragically. She was a teenager, and it was the 80's. She left behind a wardrobe of brightly colored clothes, rainbow stickers, life-size paintings, doodles on lined paper, and hundreds of tapes. These constitute most of my memories of her. It's sad for me to look at these things, and usually I don't. But a couple of summers ago I found a tape of hers with a startling cover photograph - this was Footloose. I couldn't stop listening: it was a portrait of 80's love, desire, pain, freedom, and frenzy; of being a teenager in a time of change. By listening, I could step into Jenny's shoes, see things from her vantage point. I could be emancipated by rock and roll and walkmen, just as she had been. We could listen together.
I asked my friend Thomas to cover the album, which, sheltered as he is, he had never heard before. I was clear that I wanted to him to cover the whole album - the point wasn't to rework any one song, but to re-imagine the picture they made together. With a new Footloose we could reply to the past, tell our own story about being young. This is what he made.
-Gabriel Greenberg
(Gabriel Greenberg, a childhood friend of Thomas's, has illustrated the covers of two Doveman albums and is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UCLA.)
Tracklist
| 1. | Footloose | 4:55 |
| 2. | Let's Hear It For The Boy | 3:30 |
| 3. | Almost Paradise | 5:16 |
| 4. | Holding Out For A Hero | 5:07 |
| 5. | Dancing In The Sheets | 4:18 |
| 6. | I'm Free (Heaven Helps The Man) | 3:45 |
| 7. | Somebody's Eyes | 4:25 |
| 8. | The Girl Gets Around | 4:09 |
| 9. | Never | 4:25 |
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
Doveman is Thomas Bartlett and a select group of collaborators (most often, the band includes banjo player Sam Amidon, drummer Dougie Bowne, guitarist and conjurer Shahzad Ismaily, and trumpeter Peter Ecklund). Together Doveman -- the Dovemen? -- make lovely, interesting, heart-rending sounds, like a broken wing flapping and starting to take flight.