Did you know Patti Smith’s “Because the Night” — arguably one of her most accessible pieces — actually began as a Bruce Springsteen song that he wrote and rejected? The A.V. Club, in their column “Hear This,” has this week set its focus on songs written by men that women interpreted better. Check it out for more on how Patti Smith vitalized, morphed and rewrote Springsteen’s sloppy seconds and made “Because the Night” one of the most memorable rock ballads of the 70s.
Another bellowing voice who may have caught (and depending on your tastes, annoyed) your attention is that of Merrill Garbus’ tUnE-yArDs. Her song “Wait for a Minute,” released last year, is an excellent introduction into the artist’s work, as she here taps into a rarely-used mellifluousness in her voice, while hinting at its bombastic power. The song has a new video, directed by someone (or something?) named SNEAL, which you can watch here.
Also mining the past for forgotten facts about culturally iconic material, The Atlantic has published a piece reminding people that Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale was actually adapted to the screen in the late 80s, noting that the film has been “disremembered” to the point where copies are over $100 on Amazon — despite having been adapted by Harold Pinter and having starred Natasha Richardson, Faye Dunaway, and Robert Duvall.
And in a similar vein — that of forgotten factoids — yesterday, as Flavorwire’s Jason Bailey wrote, was the 25th anniversary of Pretty Woman — the film that could have been called 3,000 and could have depicted Vivian as a junkie. It also could have, if she had she brought a little more “twinkle” to the revised role, starred Jennifer Jason Leigh. Here, EW reflects on the audition process with the actress-who-is-not-Julia-Roberts, and here, Richard Gere and the actress-who-is-Julia-Roberts explain how a post-it saved the film.