Patti Smith's version of Van Morrison's Gloria transforms the meaning of the original through the use of textual tropes and altered vocal performance that ultimately decenters the "dominant male rock singer" to clear out creative space for herself. In her version, Gloria in excelsis deo, Smith adds a great deal of text to the original lyrics but retains some of Morrison's text without changing the male perspective, deliberately playing up the male sexual undertones. Smith also utilizes a number of subtle vocal inflections to emphasize specific words and phrases and bring out meaning in the text. These vocal performance techniques include qualities such as "raspy," "hard/nasal," "breathy," or "creaky," as well as exaggerated or closed vowel sounds and pitch inflections. An appendix contains the text to Morrison's Gloria and a transcription of Smith's version featuring both traditional staff notation and the author's notation for indicating vocal performance techniques.

Works: Van Morrison and Patti Smith: Gloria in excelsis deo.

Sources: Van Morrison: Gloria.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Sarah Florini