Chase Holfelder was a fairly recent discovery for me and when I was looking around for Les Mis covers and saw that he'd done this one, I was immediately intrigued. If you're not familiar with Chase, I did a video spotlight on him last month that you can read here. But he does a series on his YouTube channel where he takes songs that were originally done in a major key and puts them into a minor key. It's so interesting to hear how different this can make a song sound. Chase takes it one step farther and changes up the instrumentation. I think it's probably safe to say that you've never heard "I Dreamed a Dream" like this before!
Check it out.
My first thought about this cover is that it's one that Les Mis purists might not appreciate. People can get very picky and protective of their favorite musicals and don't like when people try something different. Now I can see myself as being a bit of a Les Mis snob, but I love how different this is. Especially considering that "I Dreamed a Dream" is one of those songs that's been covered a lot. For good reason. It's one of my favorites songs from the show and I know that I'm definitely not alone in feeling that way. As much as I love the original, I always appreciate when people can put their own spin on it. Especially in the case of "I Dreamed a Dream" which has become so iconic.
My next thought about this was that it's odd to think that "I Dreamed a Dream" is actually in a major key to begin with. It's such a sad and heartbreaking song and I was so curious about what switching it to a minor key would do to it. While I watched Chase's introduction, I too was wondering if it would end up sounding even more melancholy. And you know what? I don't think it did. It's still very haunting and there's a creepiness to it that's not found in the original. But what's most interesting to me is that the sadness has been replaced by a kind of angry determination. It becomes a song about someone reflecting on how horribly they've been treated and working up the courage to do something about it. It got me thinking about how different Fantine's story might have been if she'd sought revenge on the man who broke her heart. Although in this version, it's a woman who broke his heart, but you get what I'm saying. It almost sounds like a song that a villain might sing and if you've seen Les Mis, Fantine is definitely not what you'd consider a villain.
Now I'm trying to imagine what Les Mis would be like if all the songs that were currently in major keys were switched to a minor key instead. If this is any indication, it'd become a lot angrier and darker. You know what song I'm suddenly the most curious about? "Master of the House". As it is, it's sung by an innkeeper who is constantly looking for ways to trick his customers into paying more money. I feel like it could easily be turned into something out a horror movie. The line "Jesus, won't I skin you to the bone" would be a heck of a lot more sinister, I think.
This is my favorite thing about Chase's major to minor series. It gets me thinking in a way that most songs I listen to do not. Granted, this takes me down some creepy paths sometimes. Don't believe me? Go ahead and check out the link to my spotlight on Chase that I posted in the introduction.
If you enjoyed this and are interested in seeing what else Chase has to offer, here's where you can keep up with him:
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