a song a week: #7
Everyday's Torture (Cover) - Jackie Cornell aka Jacky Cornell (1971)
This song had to make an appearance at some point. I believe I found this on the compilation '(Joost den Draaijer presenteert) The Golden Years Of Dutch Pop Music - The Seventies Part 1 (Hits & Tips 1970-1971),' released in 2016, available on Spotify. Sidenote: Joost den Draaijer is the pseudonym of Willem van Kooten, legendary radio DJ and record producer, now 83 years old.
I can't remember anymore if I listened to the whole compilation, either way, on Disc 2 there it is: this song by Jackie Cornell. It's stuck with me for years now. For those of you that are familiar with late 60s - early 70s Dutch pop music, you might have noticed this is originally a song by famous The Hague band Golden Earring (1969). The Golden Earring version is also quite good, with a guitar solo at about 2 minutes in that I wish had been included in Cornell's version. (Another sidenote: Cornell also appears to be from The Hague.)
What Cornell's version really has going for it is an incredibly powerful and expressive voice - he really sounds like a man at the end of his wits, driven crazy by a doomed romance. I almost wish the song was slower, or perhaps the instrumentals took more of a backseat - this guy is singing his heart out and the string section has the audacity to compete with him! Jacky's tortured bluesy sound feels very James Brown inspired. I can listen to it dozens of times and not get tired. So why isn't he more famous? Seems like I'm not the only one wondering that.
I found a post about the song and Jacky's music career on the blog Ondergewardeerde Liedjes (Under-appreciated Songs). The post was made in 2018, it's in Dutch but Google Translate does a good job of translating it into English. These days Jackie Cornell, real name Jacques Eckhardt, runs a respected oyster bar in Toronto with his wife Phebe. There's a lovely article about it in the Toronto Star (from 2021). If I'm ever in Toronto I'll have to visit, and if Jacques happens to read this: much love from The Hague, thank you for sharing your voice with us.
I'm a man, know my destiny But it seems, love is dead for me I'm hung up on a woman's resolution There's nothing left but a dream, an illusion I'm a man, know my destiny But it seems, love is dead for me Free me, free me
See also: this helpful page about his discography on Nldiscografie.nl.