‘Foreverly’ finds Billie Joe Armstrong, frontman of Green Day, teaming up with Norah Jones for a re-tread of the Everly Brothers’ ‘Songs Our Daddy Taught Us’. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Honestly.
Green Day’s bratty streak has long been buried in a shallow grave, perhaps alongside Blink 182’s joke book, and the men who brought us ‘Dookie’ have grown up. In recent years Armstrong has conquered Broadway, collaborated with U2 and become a little obsessed with the Everly boys.
The Everlys’ album is, as its title suggests, a collection of songs passed down to them from their father. As such, the vast majority are oft-covered standards, but Armstrong and Jones, by meddling just a little, have managed to create versions that just about stand alone.
They have dropped in some added instrumentation - subtle percussion, a harmonica on The Roving Gambler, some clean electric on Long Time Gone - and their harmonies are less precise than the Everlys’, offering more of each individual vocalist. Recorded in double-quick time, just nine days, this is as stripped back as it gets for two of the more recognisable names in modern music.
Jones’ involvement may have begun as something of a marriage of convenience - the duo first met while singing with Stevie Wonder and his band - but proves to be the record’s saving grace. Her smooth tones could have been laboratory crafted for this sort of thing and she successfully injects a layer of meaning and sensuality, lending a new air to I'm Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail.
‘Foreverly’ falls down on something almost imperceptible. It just doesn’t feel like ‘Songs Our Daddy Taught Us’ feels. When Don and Phil tell you that they’ll be a long time gone, you get it. As their version of Down In The Willow Garden unfolds, an air of malice permeates their sharp harmonies - it’s a murder ballad and beneath the simple, sparkling melodies, it’s mournful and dangerous.
Armstrong and Jones have done a pretty good job of interpreting a record that, upon release in 1958, was every bit as left field as their own decision to cover it. But, fundamentally, they don’t quite make ‘em like they used to.
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