Codine

The subject of today's post is a song written by folk artist Buffy Ste. Marie, a Canadian of Cree descent. Ste. Marie's story is somewhat typical of early-60s folk artists - despite her being largely unknown by the public, several of her songs were covered by a number of more famous artists. Perennial MP3some favorite Donovan (The Foppish Pansy himself) scored a hit with Ste. Marie's song "Universal Soldier," for example. Later, Joe Cocker and Jeniffer Warnes had a hit with another of her tracks, "Up Where We Belong." Needless to say, Buffy Ste. Marie had chops. She also has led quite an interesting life that has involved everything from Cree powwows to Bahá'í conferences to codeine addiction (about which she wrote today's song in question).

I initially heard "Codine" through an old friend of mine who introduced me to a version of the song from Distortions (1967) by The Litter. He called it "the best version of 'Codine' ever" - an assertion I was keen to believe, as I had never actually heard the song. My friend's status as a folk enthusiast hammered the point home ever further - if he preferred this version to the Ste. Marie version, I reasoned, it must be great. He put on the track, and I sat back. Four minutes and 32 seconds later, I was convinced - I may not have heard the other versions of the track, but this was the finest version of "Codine" in existence. In my mind, The Litter's strung-out take could have no rival.

Today, several years later, I set out to test my theory. I rounded up every version of "Codine" I could find for an overall assessment. I had already heard the version of the song by The Charlatans on the Nuggets comp, and was not very impressed - the band's uptempo waltz version did not seem very fitting for a song about opiate addiction. Gram Parsons' solo acoustic version from Another Side of This Life: The Lost Recordings of Gram Parsons, 1965-1966 was quite good (as is most of Parsons' recorded output), though it was ultimately damned by its sparseness. Parsons was a master at his craft - but a lone man with a guitar cannot compete with the intensity of the Litter's version. Donovan's version suffered a similar fate as Parsons'. Though Donovan's take is actually surprisingly good - perhaps even better than Parsons' version - it is completely unadorned. Next on the list was the Quicksilver Messenger Service. I was expecting the band to give the Litter a run for their money, but they did nothing of the sort. While their version was the most intense of the bunch (particularly from a vocal standpoint), it could not unseat the Litter from their "Codine" throne. Finally, I reached a 1969 version by Wizards from Kansas (whose work I had never heard before), which turned out to be the surprise of the group. Their version, driven by a wah guitar and some fantastic harmonies, was very good - still not good enough to compete with the Litter, but good enough that I was inspired to seek out the rest of the band's self-titled album.

At the end of my "Codine" survey, I realized that while the Litter was still at the top of the heap, all of the versions had their own merits - none were unpleasant. This was the mark of a truly great song, I figured - despite radical changes in arrangement, the track always held its own. My friend was correct - the Litter's version was indeed the best - but the credit here belonged to Buffy Ste. Marie for writing such a phenomenal song to begin with. Finally, it was time to appreciate Ste. Marie's own version:

Where it all started.

Today's post is the Litter's version of the song. And for those of you keeping track, I've also posted my ranking of "Codine" covers*:

1. The Litter
2. Wizards from Kansas
3. Donovan
4. Quicksilver Messenger Service
5. Gram Parsons
6. The Charlatans
   

* There are many conspicuously absent versions that I have not yet heard, including one by Janis Joplin and another by the Leaves. I still doubt they are superior to the Litter's rendition.

Codine