If you watched the Grammy Awards and saw the segment featuring Eminem, you might have noticed that Rihanna was terrible ‘singing’ Love the Way You Lie. In fact that whole song was pretty lousy, and it only got better when it transitioned into Dr Dre’s section. And even then for me the highlight was the haunting voice of Skylar Grey. She had some feeling reminiscent of Sinead O’Connor tied in with her own haunting and fragile sensibilities.
Since then I was sent a link to a YouTube video of the original demo for the song by Skylar Grey who actually wrote it. What? Doesn’t the track listing simply say ‘Mathers’? Yes – but then Sarah Palin’s book list her as sole author as well, something that has been broadly debunked … she isn’t even primary author! Anyway, on expanded listings the name ‘Hafferman’ shows up, which is Skylar Grey’s real last name.
The thing that struck me was that Grey’s version was just SO much better than Rihanna’s recorded version – they was much more feeling, and a genuine sense of anguish and fragility.
Here is Skylar Grey’s demo of Love the Way You Lie’
