"Godspeed" is the quietest, tenderest moment on Frank Ocean's 2016 masterpiece, Blonde. A fun fact about the track is that James Blake is a co-writer on it. In December, Blake embarked on a mini solo piano tour, which consisted of two shows in New York and two in Los Angeles. Following these performances, videos surfaced online of the British singer-songwriter-producer playing intimate renditions of "Godspeed" for enraptured crowds.
For those who couldn't it make it to these shows and were not satisfied with the sound quality of concertgoers' footage, Blake just shared a snippet of him playing the Blonde ballad and it's beautiful. "New decades resolution was to spend more time at my instrument than at a laptop," Blake wrote in his video post. "So here’s a cover I play of a song I helped write - Godspeed by Frank Ocean. I think I messed up a lyric near the beginning but hey, none of these are gonna be perfect."
In an interview with Variety, Blake explained the inspiration behind his short string of piano shows: "I love playing the piano and haven’t done [solo shows] in a long time. Right now, I’m … in England we use the term “bricking it” — it means sh—ing yourself [with fear] — about the show tomorrow. Maybe it’s best to temper [the audience’s] expectations, send out a caveat tweet. Anyway, I do one or two solo songs during my [standard] live show, like [Joni Mitchell’s] “A Case of You” or “Vincent” by Don McLean, and I always crave more."
