Ten Cover Songs I Love: She Loves the Jerk (#6)

Tweet

After enjoying a day at the doctor's office (only slightly sarcastic there, I did get about $800 worth of proton pump inhibitor medication for free out of it) I'm back and ready to tackle my new computer. But first....another great cover of a great song. This is not a song that was a hit, but it's by one of my favorites....so this might shock you. #6: She Loves the Jerk - Rodney Crowell I love Rodney's version of this song better than the original....by John Hiatt. Yeah, there, I said it. Take my John Hiatt Fan Club card away from me. This is similar to yesterday's song, where one version has anger and the other pain over the situation. Here, though, the roles are reversed: it's Hiatt's original that depicts a man listening with a sympathetic ear as a female friend "has to whisper through her tears" about the abusive alcoholic marriage she's in. Rodney Crowell (the former Mr. Rosanne Cash), who's quite the acclaimed songwriter himself, covered Hiatt's song on Crowell's 1986 album Street Language. (It fits well with another song on the album, "When the Blue Hour Comes" (which Crowell wrote), about a man who "will always be there" for a friend.) In Crowell's take on "She Loves the Jerk," however, he wants to take on the playboy drunk wife-beater for the way he's treating "this precious pearl." As with yesterday's song ("Ever Fallen in Love"), the interpretation presented by the singer can give you two completely different meanings of the same song. She Loves the Jerk Written by John Hiatt Originally recorded by John Hiatt, 1983 Covered by Rodney Crowell, 1986 No good so and so: