All the cool kids are discussing cover songs, and Jim Henley has links. Not to mention a list of his own. I'm late to the party, as usual, but I plead overstretch-- we had dinner guests Saturday, followed by frantic paper-writing Sunday, and I spent today fuming over being stuck in a courtroom suffering through the most aggressively stupid voir dire process ever. I thought that there could be no other system that could rival the BCS for sheer stupidity, but I was wrong.
But that's a rant for another day. In an vague attempt to cool off before I have to go back for another day of trial by ordeal, here are some scattered thoughts on cover songs.
It's sort of a broad topic, actually, and there are lots of different subcategories. There are covers that most people don't know are covers-- Kate once accused Tom Waits of covering Rod Stewart, even though Waits is the guy who wrote "Downtown Train" in the first place. I was surprised to learn (via a perfectly cromulent post on the subject that "Tomorrow, Wendy" was a cover (I've never heard the original), and there are probably a great many people out there who think that Elvis Costello wrote "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding."
Of course, that sort of shades into the category of songs that the covering artist has made their own. The quintessential example is probably "All Along the Watchtower," which is a perfectly serviceable Dylan song that got raised to a whole new level by Jimi Hendrix (I wish I could explain what it is about that intro that's so amazingly creepy...). Prince put "Nothing Compares 2 U" on his Greatest Hits collection, but the version everybody remembers is by Sinead O'Connor, before she went all goofy (of course, to be fair to the Intermittently Named One, I heard a version of the Joan Osbourne chestnut "One of Us" that he did that by all rights ought to displace the original). I've heard the original version of "Hallelujah," and it didn't make any real impression, while the Jeff Buckley version blew me away.
A fair number of cover songs seem to exist only for the sheer weirdness and warped humor of it. I'm rather fond of the Meat Puppets version of "A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)," and "Just Like Heaven" really needed the heavy-metal guitar break on the chorus that Dinosaur Jr. added, but I can't really pretend that they're not silly. The same is probably true of Greg Dulli's lounge-singer treatment of "If I Only Had a Heart," and a lot of the bluegrass-metal songs cited by Jim and others as well. I thought that Metallica, of all bands, had an entry for this category, but it turns out to be a note-perfect cover of some other band's arrangement of "Whisky in the Jar."
Article comments
1 - Nick Douglas
Best cover ever: Ben Folds Five doing Burt Bacharach's "Raindrops keep fallin' on my head." The album liner notes called it "anarchic."
2 - Chris
My favorite cover song is not techinally a cover song: U2's Temple Bar Remix of "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses." It sounds like U2 doing a cover of a bar band version of a U2 song.
3 - Chris
My favorite cover song is not really a cover song: U2's Temple Bar Remix of "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses." It sounds like U2 doing a cover of a bar band version of a U2 song.
4 - mikeholihan
My favorite is hopelessly obscure now, but 80's Athens, Georgia instrumental band Love Tractor did a version of the Kraftwerk song "Neon Lights" that is revelatory. Instead of tech-worship, they did it with six and 12-string guitars, in an almost raga-rock strum, with the vocals even more fragile than Kraftwerk's lilting over the top. Stunning in its surprise and very beautiful.
5 - David Mazzotta
Most annoying cover: Manfred Mann's Blinded By The Light.
A wonderfully transcendent early Springsteen song turned into a formulaic radio hit about feminine hygiene products.
6 - Dan
I like Crystal Blue Persuasion and Little Wing, done by Concrete Blonde, and Mrs. Robinson by the Lemonheads to name a few.
7 - jadester
i have a "punk" cover of Tainted Love, i don't know the artist, but it's a damn cool cover. The NOFX versions of the Cheers theme and Stand By Me are probably my faves tho.
Then there's Less Than Jake's cover of the Happy days Theme,
Ten Foot Pole's version of Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog
the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra's cover of the Sesame Street theme (Ok that doesn't really count as there's hardly any words. But it's really funky)
a couple of covers of eighties tunes that i think are more well-known than their originals are:
Video Killed The Radio Star by Presidents Of The USA
and
On A Rope by Rocket From The Crypt
(i'm afraid i don't know the original artists)
there's also Pump It Up by The Wildhearts, altho unfortunately i don't think that's so well known a cover.
8 - Barry Stoller
Worst cover ever (bar none): Barbra Streisand's version of John Lennon's 'Mother' where she 'belts out' the primal scream section.
9 - Eric Olsen
My God, the very thought of it causes intestinal blockage.
10 - Eric Olsen
Hey, we did a big thing on cover tunes on Ross hte Bloviator's site last August. I just went to look for it but the comments to the post are closed - maybe Ross can dig them up.
11 - David
The immortal Dickies will always hold a place in my heart for their perfect pop-punk covers of Paranoid, Sound of Silence, and, of course, the Gigantor theme.
12 - Tim Hall
You can't mention The Dickies without mentioning their version of "Knights in White Satin"
Going the other way, Albertos Y Trios Paranoias' (if I've spelled their name right) barbershop quartet version of "Anarchy in the UK".
Aztec Camera's laid back version of Van Halen's "Jump".
I can't remember who it was that did the kazoo version of "Whole Lotta Love".
13 - Dude
Would jazz players covering well-known standards count? If so, covers by Ella, Lady Day, Louie, Nina, etc. are always beyond heavenly.
But Art Tatum's run-through of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's "Tiger Rag" is the greatest 2-minute sound ever recorded. Ever.
14 - Jason Fitch
I don’t know how many people who read this site are Phish fans, but I do and I am. One of my favorite things about Phish are the cover songs they perform live. Some of the songs are fairly regular parts of their ever-changing set lists (Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman,” Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times.”) Some have only been played once and will probably never return (Pavement’s “Gold Soundz,” Elton John’s “Amoreena.”) Phish has even managed to cover entire albums (usually on Halloween " a musical “costume”) such as The Beatles’ White Album, The Who’s “Quadrophenia,” The Talking Heads’ “Remain In Light,” The Velvet Underground’s “Loaded” and Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon.” Some of the artists that they’ve covered won’t come as any surprise to the casual Phish listener (The Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, Little Feat) while the same casual listener may be surprised to learn that they have covered such disparate artists as The Beastie Boys, XTC, Smashing Pumpkins, AC-DC, Boston, The Edgar Winter Group, Duke Ellington, Areosmith, David Bowie, Ween and Frank Zappa.
15 - porgie
"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" was originally part of a double A-side single (at least on Radar) with Rockpile doing Costello's "Girls Talk". And speaking of Rockpile, their sole lp (as Rockpile, not as Edmunds or Lowe's backing band) came with a four Everly Brothers song EP, so I guess they were covering the Bryants (writers of most early E.B. hits).
- glt
16 - porgie
David wrote:
"The immortal Dickies will always hold a place in my heart for their perfect pop-punk covers of Paranoid, Sound of Silence, and, of course, the Gigantor theme."
Gigantor is a knockout, but their version if "Knights In White Satin" 45 with the infamous KKK picture cover beats all.
Amazingly the Dickies are still out there performing...
17 - David
I forgot the Dickies also did "Eve of Destruction." I haven't heard their "Knights of White Satin".
18 - BRICKLAYER
LOVE:
JFA-Charlie Brown Theme
Johnny Cash " I see a darkness and Hung my Head
Social Distortion-Ring of Fire
Goo Goo Dolls w/Lance Diamond-I could never take the place of your man and Down on the Corner
Mighty Mighty Bosstones-Police Beat
Too Much Joy-Seasons in the Sun (but not Billy Bragg's "A New England"-sadly, they do nothing for this GREAT song)
Presidents of the USA-Devil in a Sleeping Bag
New Bomb Turks-Mr. Suit
Metallica-Last Caress/Green Hell
Living Colour-Talkin’ bout a revolution
Rage Against the Machine-Ghost of Tom Joad
Lemonheads-Luka
Melvins-Going Blind
Crash Test Dummies-Androgynous and Peter Pumpkinhead
Cake-I will Survive and Sad Songs and Waltzes
Jello Biafra-Still is still moving to me
HATE:
Limp Bizkit-Behind Blue Eyes
Sheryl Crow-Sweet child o mine
Any cover song Lenny Kravitz does
Any cover song Kid Rock does
Whatever crap band that did the New Order cover a couple years ago-though the original rules baby, rules!
19 - jadester
you do realise American Woman was a cover? but Lenny's version is damn good
20 - Chad Orzel
Yes, I know that "American Woman" was a cover (a not particularly inspired one, at that). I was just referring to his gift for making original material sound like he lifted it from some obscure 60's band.
21 - Kevin Schulz
original cover that sounds original: "Twist and Shout" Beatles...enough said there
22 - ken
the best? jimi hendrix's version of bob dylan's 'all along the watchtower' is easily my fave cover.