Midweek Makeover: Way Down Edition

When you walk through the garden
you gotta watch your back
well I beg your pardon
walk the straight and narrow track
if you walk with Jesus
he’s gonna save your soul
you gotta keep the devil
way down in the hole

As these pages have noted before, I was a huge fan of the television series The Wire while it was on.  Its music was among the many wonderful things about the show.  For Midweek Makeover, we’re going to start with The Wire’s theme song – Way Down in the Hole.  The original is by Tom Waits.  This is him performing it live and, well, being Tom Waits:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw2MjRcVO4g[/youtube]

But it’s not Waits’ version that kicked the series off.  The cover by the Blind Boys of Alabama is what originally opened the show:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzIuUW9VUr0[/youtube]

For the second season, though, they brought Waits in.  This is how that translated into the show:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipaV4k2n__I[/youtube]

Worked very well, I think.  The artist changed each season, and future versions went to the Neville Brothers and Steve Earle (who also ended up acting on the show, and doing a damn good job of it).  I thought that the end of the series would also bring an end to covers of Way Down in the Hole.  And then just the other day, I stumbled on this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87HHQmIQ8U8[/youtube]

That’s M.I.A. and Baltimore’s Blaqstarr.  I think it does perfect justice to the spirit of Waits’ original work.