December 05, 2003
COVER YOUR EARS
Scanning the radio dial I came across two stations playing different cover songs at the exact same time. The alterna rock station was playing that stale biscuit Fred Durt’s version of The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes” and the alterna pop station had No Doubt’s take on “It’s My Life” from Talk Talk. No Doubt has a huge fondness for 80s music so I don’t have a problem with their cover choice, although the video is ri-di-di-cu-li-culous. I happened to see the making of Fred Durst’s solo album and he explained why he chose that song. He was working on out with his headphones on and the lyrics spoke to him. He looked straight into the camera and spouted, “No one knows what it’s like/to be the bad man/to be the sad man/behind the blue eyes.” The camera moved closer and her looked real earnestly into the lens and said, “Yeah…that’s how I feel.” Thanks, Fred. Watching that made me feel like pushing you off a cliff into a sea of sharks.
Kid Rock? He feels like makin’ love. The old Bad Company classic (the only good song by a truly horrible band—and covered much better by ska-punkers, Goldfinger) of the same name is the lead single on his latest hip-hop redneck jamboree. Run out of idea’s, Bob? Come on, I thought you took hip-hop and mixed it with—oh never mind.
Sheryl Crow, who after releasing “Soak Up the Sun” is making a strong case that she should switch to writing commercial jingles, has a hit with a cover once removed. Rod Stewart did a nauseating version of Cat Steven’s “First Cut is the Deepest” in the 70s and now Sheryl decided it was her turn. No need to pick on her, but doing a cover of a song that’s already been done is pretty dadgum lame.
The Washington Post devoted an entire article in the Style section about WHFS playing the Foo Fighters reinterpreting the titillating tale of “Darlin’ Nikki,” famous from Prince’s epic Purple Rain. I’ve heard it. I thought it might be cool. It blows. Complete waste of time.
A while back, Britney Spears threw down a production driven rendition of “I Love Rock n Roll”—a huge hit by Joan Jett in the early 80s. What makes that funny is that Britney said in an interview that she was glad to have done a Pat Benetar song. Oh Britney! Don’t ever change—you’re the most.
I’m not lobbying against cover songs. I actually love them. When—and this is important— they are done well. Too many that get airplay are not done well. In no particular order here are 10 covers that you might not know about:
"Surfin’ USA” Jesus & Mary Chain (Beach Boys)
“Ohio” The Dandy Warhols (CSN&Y)
“Sweet Child of Mine” Luna (Guns & Roses)
“Every Day is Like Sunday” 10,000 Maniacs (Morrissey)
“Ziggy Stadust” Bauhuas (David Bowie)
“I’ll Be Your Mirror” The Primitives (Velvet Underground)
“How I Could Just Kill a Man” Rage Against the Machine (Cypress Hill)
“Scarlet Begonias” Sublime (Grateful Dead)
“Oliver’s Army” Blur (Elvis Costello)
“Ever Fallen In Love” Fine Young Cannibals (The Buzzcocks)
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» Cover songs from ...the trailing edge.
Cover songs can be fun, which is probably why everyone has been writing about them lately. Three kinds of covers stand out for me: Covers that re-make. Gifted musicians can take a song with a good basic structure and translate... [Read More]
Tracked on December 12, 2003 07:20 AM
Scott, love your music commentary on Eric's site -- a valuable addition. Have to take issue with a couple of comments today. You are basically correct on the "Behind Blue Eyes" cover, but I generally like Limp Bizkit (call it a guilty pleasure).
Must disagree with one point on Bad Company. You are right that they only had one good song -- but Feel Like Making Love wasn't it. I have to vote for "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" -- much better hook and it actually has some rhythm to it. Does Kid Rock become more interesting when you try to forget that Ted Nugent did his schtick so much better?
I hate to tell you this, but for most people, Rod Stewart's "First Cut Is the Deepest" IS quote-the original." I guarantee that if you ask 10 people who did that song originally 8 of them will say Stewart. Listening to Sheryl, you can tell she's covering Rod, not Cat.
Speaking of second covers, Britney is guilty of the same thing you accuse Sheryl of: "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" was a cover of a song by an obscure band called The Arrows.
Finally, you didn't mention it, but the best cover of the year was The Ataris doing Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer." Even though it's about youth and romance, the phrase always makes one think of baseball -- appropos for a sports blog, methinks!
Posted by:
at December 5, 2003 12:32 PM
Just some random comments:
You can always count on a great cover of any number of songs when you go to a Pearl jam concert. Here are some from their regular repertoir: Baba OReily, Leaving Here, The Kids Are Aliright, Timeless Melody, Fortunate Son, Save it for Later, Last Kiss, Can't Help Falling in Love, Crazy Mary, Crown of Thorns, Gimmie Some Truth, Rockin in the Free World, I Am A Patriot, Know Your Rights, Throw your arms around me
Metallica's cover of the Blue Oyster Cult's Astronomy is ten times better than the original. Their cover of Queen's Stone Cold Crazy kicks incredible amounts of ass.
I saw Built to Spill in cocert do three absolutely and insanely amazing covers in one night: Cheap Trick's Dream Police, George Harrison's What is life (complete with live horn section) and Skynyrd's Freebird. The next time I saw them they played a 15 minute Cortez the Killer. Doug Marstch is GOD!
Posted by:
at December 5, 2003 01:34 PM
Wow another built to spill fan. I saw them twice this year and they covered Cortez the Killer and the Clash's White man in Hammersmith Palais. Both excellent, Cortez was at least 15 minutes to close the show. Incredible.
Other covers of note: Nirvana doing The Man who Sold the World and the Sex Pistols doing "My Way"
BTW: How's Bondra looking on the left wing?
Posted by:
at December 5, 2003 05:50 PM
The best recent cover I've heard is David Bowie's remake of The Modern Lovers' "Pablo Picasso" on the _Reality_ album. The Pixies' "Cactus" from the _Heathen_ album was also quite good. Bowie always is good at tweaking other people's work, either in songs he covers or as a producer.
A few mid-nineties covers I like:
Everclear, "American Girl" (Tom Petty). I don't know if this ever made it onto an album, but they used to do a speeded-up punk version at their live shows.
Save Ferris, "Come On Eileen" (Dexy's Midnight Runners). Upbeat ska version of a cheesy eighties classic. (80s songs are fairly easily adapted to ska/punk, e.g. Reel Big Fish's "Hungry Like the Wolf" or Less Than Jake's "867-5309 (Jenny).")
John Cale, "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen). Chill-inducing folk ballad performed live on Cale's _Fragments of a Rainy Season_. Later became popular as the love theme in "Shrek."
Posted by:
at December 6, 2003 03:07 AM
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