[Punkrockmonday #9] Allison Kraus and Robert Plant - When the Levee Breaks (orig. Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie)

By Monday May 23d, 2011 the Mississippi River is supposed to be at 47 feet in Baton Rouge. But our levees are from 47 to 51 feet. And let it never be said that the Army Corps of Engineers ever overbuilt anything. . .

Independent of the impending possible new floodopalypse, I should note that I don't actually like the canonical earlier Led Zeppelin cover of this song. The lyrics are despairing and haunted, but Zep's delivery goes into a realm of laid back jauntiness bleeding into their very own trademarked brand of adolescent pulchritude. While the combination obviously works great for covering some blues numbers (i.e. Travelling Riverside Blues); it just misfires when the song is explicitly about death. I gather from this excellent new reinterpretation with Allison Kraus that Robert Plant agrees, though I pray it has nothing to do with the next few weeks down here.

1. [Punkrockmonday #1] The White Stripes - Jack the Ripper (orig. Screaming Lord Sutch), Black Math, and the Big Three Killed My Baby]
2. [Punkrockmonday #2] Roy Cook - Saint Paul Cathedral, Minneapolis Capitol Building, Aayla Secura Mosaic, and Firefly Class Spaceship
3. [Punkrockmonday #3] El Général- Rais Le Bled (President, Your Country)
4. [Punkrockmonday #4] Charlie Patton -High Water Everywhere, Part 2
5. [Punkrockmonday #5] Henry Rollins- What Am I Doing Here; Willie Nelson- Me and Paul; Rainbow Connection (orig. Kermit the Frog)
6. [Punkrockmonday #6] Philip Larkin - Church Going
7. [Punkrockmonday #7] David Bowie - Time
8. [Punkrockmonday #8] P.J. Harvey - When Under Ether; White Chalk; Broken Harp