At Last I Am Free: Choose Your Version: Liz Fraser, Robert Wyatt or Chic?

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I like Wyatt's version (and have never heard Liz Fraser's), but Chic's is such a masterful production: the strings and vocals sound like they were on Qualudes.

Wyatt

Nice to hear Chic's live version, but the studio version is the real deal...

Refuse to ever choose between Wyatt and Chic.

Having said that, Wyatt sounds undefuckingniable on here as per usual.

Yeah, I wanted to put the original studio Chic version here, but I don't think You Tube has that. Of course you're welcome to prove my drunk befuddled ass wrong.

Also, Eugenecist Levy is a great screen name, Noodle!

;-)

You rock, man. You rock.

I like every version of this song equally, including these two

Cassiber (Heiner Goebbels / Alfred Harth / Chris Cutler). Studio version here: http://www.discogs.com/Cassiber-The-Beauty-And-The-Beast/release/310883

Otomo Yoshihide & Ground-zero, the last track of their album-length remix of Cassiber's live concert in Japan: http://www.japanimprov.com/indies/offnote/cassibertokyo.html

guys, the Chic version pwns the rest of these. i mean, really really pwns them.

have to admit that's probably the case

Robert Wyatt's cover of this sparked off all the other cover versions of this track, almost annexing it for the post-RIO crowd. I grew up with all the cover versions thinking it seemed like an esoteric or arbitrary choice to cover but when I finally heard the original version, yeah it's no wonder it spawned nearly an entire album worth of covers

concert closer: http://www.discogs.com/Heiner-Goebbels-Alfred-23-Harth-Live-Victoriaville/release/1255693

i admit that i do like the Wyatt version, but nothing compares to Rodgers & Edwards and those ladies.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Actually in the end, I chose Wyatt myself!

I can hardly see in front of me!

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4145249

NR: Now when we wrote that, we were a rock and roll band who called ourselves The Boyz. A really hard, hard punk band. And I wrote that because I had literally just dropped acid. And I’d written that song years ago in 1969 or 1970 when I was just a young guy starting out playing. And I’d dropped acid and the cops had just beat up my friend. So we were going to try and help him and each time I took a step, the buildings took a step too! And I was walking for ages and I could never get out of Central Park. And so finally, I got to the edge of Central Park and I was like… “Phew – at last I am free!”

aw bimble i was all like who the hell did this poll but it makes sense it was him <3

Yeah, good old Bimbs. Surprising just how close Robert Wyatt version sticks to the original but then the song's tailor made for him, even the chords are sort of Robert Wyattish.

don't know if i've heard Wyatt's version but yeah i can recreate it in my head

wyatt's is magical, approaches chic's

fraser's at last I am tweeeeeee can fuck off tbrr

i like Liz Fraser fine but no way she's above 3rd in this race

Never saw this poll - love this song so much, so much weariness in Wyatt's voice. He really is one of the greats.

xp I like her too! it's just that in this particular instance her cover of wyatt's cover is a waste of everybody's time

i do not understand any of you fuckers, wyatt's cover is nothing to the original

what is this thin voice

how is it beloved

idk it's fucking bonkers that chic didn't win this but wyatt is great and so is his cover

and his voice

get one rock bottom, xposts

heh yeah I dunno how much I'd like the cover without having heard his other work

i can understand, kinda, not getting Wyatt. and i wdn't necessarily vote for him here. but his voice is fucking awesome.

Just heard "Shipbuilding" this morning for the first time in twenty.

Yeah.

Guy can sing his (rock) bottom off. Have been listening to that Michael Mantler album, "The Hapless Child", which is kind of hard work, but Wyatt's singing on it is out-bloody-rageously good.

https://ellenarkbro.bandcamp.com/track/at-last-i-am-free-live

I am surprised 36 year-old me so definitively chose Wyatt. Even he loved the Chic version unconditionally.