Song of the Day: Emmylou Harris – You Never Can Tell (C’est La Vie)
- Emmylou and one very lucky dog
Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” is probably best known for providing the soundtrack to the iconic dance scene in Pulp Fiction. Over thirty years after it was first written the infectious groove would propel Uma Thurman to international stardom and all she had to do was display the simmering sexuality of a plastic lawn flamingo. Meanwhile, a bloated John Travolta played his part in Tarantino’s game of cheap allusions, parlaying the corrosive irony of the era into a career resurgence. It’s quite an accomplishment for a tune that Berry wrote while in prison for having sex with a 14 year-old Apache girl who he had transported (in today’s parlance, trafficked) across state lines to work as a “hat check girl” at his St. Louis music emporium “Berry’s Club Bandstand.”
Covered by the likes of Jerry Garcia, John Prine and Bruce Springsteen, it is, however, the great Emmylou Harris who provides the most rousing and indelible version of this song. Here she is from around 1978:
As if Emmylou could possibly be any more incredible than she already is, an interview on NPR recently revealed that she runs a dog rescue in the backyard of her Nashville home. If there is a greater calling in the world that helping out dogs in need, I have not heard of it. Hopefully, they’re taking notice in Sweden. If there is any sense of justice in the world, Emmylou will be adding a Nobel Peace Prize to her mantle in 2011. Check out info on Emmylou’s dog rescue here.
Meanwhile, Ronnie Lane covered the tune in 1974. Ronnie in many ways is a UK version of Gram Parsons, who of course, was the first to record Emmylou …
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