"The Fever"

Garth Brooks - "The Fever" (1995)

This version is almost two minutes shorter than the original.



This was not even one of the top five singles on the Aerosmith album Get a Grip, so I don't know exactly why Garth Brooks decided to get it re-written. Two years after it rose up the charts with Steven Tyler on vocals Brooks gave it a go, with new lyrics to reflect a bull rider's complete devotion to the sport instead of a world weary band's love of women that had replaced their various other vices. So that just about covers the lyrics side of things.

I've got almost nothing nice to say about Brooks voice. I've been listing to a lot more Country music in the last year than I had in the previous decades and one thing I will say is that Country singers tend to have distinct personalities in their voice. This is an almost bland vocal. The bridge has some color, with a little twang and some edge to the vocal, but then we're right back to the bland homogenized sound of any-old-country-singer until the last few lines when he does that high pitched almost squeal thing. All in all, not my favorite song by not my favorite singer.

Musically the song is driven by a rock beat with guitar reminding us that it's an Aerosmith song. The primary sound aside from Brooks vocal is a fiddle. I'm not a fiddle guy, but at least this guy can play. It's not a rehash of any theme we've heard another instrument play, it's something different and as always, I appreciate that.

I had a question featured over on the Novel Publicity site's "Ask the Editor" feature. So from here on out, I'll be using the advice I picked up over there as far as when to italicize, capitalize, bold, and use a slash. It shouldn't be that confusing but I thought I'd warn you that I was breaking with my six month (wow go me!) status quo.