Constantines/Feist: Cocoa and Kenny Rogers
May 6, 2008
Words by Sean Moeller
Illustration by Brendan Kiefer
As the story goes, Feist and the Constantines were snow-shoeing, sledding, ice skating, making snow angels and having snowball fights one afternoon and then decided to knock off early to ingest some steaming pots of cocoa before recording this soft and bothered cover tune - made famous in 1983 by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. Written by the Bee Gees, "Islands In The Stream" is a quintessential nod to the soggy lite FM stylings of Manilows and Bob Denvers, and, well, in a way Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. This could very easily have just been another song that Parton wrote and Whitney Houston went ahead and made more famous. It carries with it the out and out, slobbery two-hearts-meant-to-be-one-and-there’s-no-hell-or-high-water-that-could-keep-them-apart attitude, but somehow proceeds here more in a Carpenters-y way, toning down the blatant old love story and letting it act as a song would directly following an afternoon romp through the snow. This rendition overflows with tenderness and hopefulness that this could be the year for the real thing. We’re proud to have a handful of these limited edition 7-inches featuring an A side and a B side. There are just 1,500 of these in existence and we’ll happily give away all that we have for a small penance. We’re rejuvenating the essay contest once again. Send us a short, 250-word essay about the fictitious or real adventures of Kenny Rogers’ beard and/or new scary face and we’ll choose the cream of the crop to send some vinyl to. Please use the subject line "Feist/Constantines Essay Contest" in the subject, include your name and address. Send entries to: daytrotter@gmail.com. The vinyl is brought to us by our Canadian bros Arts & Crafts.
"Arts & Crafts Records":http://www.arts-crafts.ca
