Posts Tagged ‘Emily Haines’

Sunday, November 18th, 2012

"Expecting To Fly"

Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton cover Buffalo Springfield

Photo By Frank YangFrank YangIdeally, I’d have been able to label this one as “Metric covers Neil Young“, given that both acts are in town this week making sure the Air Canada Centre is still hosting some serious Canadiana even with the NHL locked out, but that wouldn’t be quite correct. Even though Metric as a full band can officially include the Young-penned classic “Expecting To Fly” in their discography, the track I’m posting predates that by a good five years or so when frontwoman Emily Haines was operating as a solo artist and the track was a staple of her live sets, padding out the Knives Don’t Have Your Back material in a sparse, piano-led form.

That’s how Neil Young performed it in the early ’70s, whilst on tour as a solo artist after leaving Buffalo Springfield in the late ’60s, a far cry from the lushly-arranged studio version that appeared on Buffalo Springfield Again and which clearly served as the template for Metric’s version which appeared on their 2011 iTunes Session. You could probably draw a flowchart of some kind denoting the relationships between the various versions. Go ahead. I’ll be over here.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse are at The Air Canada Centre on November 19 in support of their two 2012 releases, Americana and Psychedelic Pill. For a while, it looked like Neil’s next time through town was going to be as part of a reunited Buffalo Springfield, but obviously that didn’t happen. Metric are there on November 24 as part of a cross-country tour on the back of their fifth album, Synthetica.

And oh yeah, Neil turned 67 last week. Happy birthday, Neil. Long may you run.

MP3: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton – “Expecting To Fly” (live at 9:30 Club – January 10, 2006)
Video: Metric – “Expecting To Fly”
Stream: Buffalo Springfield – “Expecting To Fly”
Stream: Neil Young – “Expecting To Fly” (live 1971)

Tags: , , ,