Crap Covers and Re-mixes

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Tuberski


Sure it's pronounced both ways, but not when it's David Bowie.

David Bowie is pronounce 1 way.

Everybody, but Canadians, apparently, knows who the hell David Bowie is.

ACK!

I believe the Thin White Ziggy Sane Who Sold the World to a Young American Lodger pronounces his nom-de-plume as bo e .

Not (take a) bow e

or worse yet, the Americanised boo e .

I like Lulu's cover versions of 'The Man Who Sold the World' and 'Watch That Man'- she shows just what a soul/blues belter she could have been. Bowie's live version of 'O Superman' with lead vocals by Gail Ann Dorsey was worth a listen.

An excellent compilation of covers is the album 'Songs from the Cold Seas', orchestrated by Hector Zazou, with contributions from Jane Siberry, Suzanne Vega, John Cale, Bjork and Siouxsie Sioux.

I would cheerily recommend the various 'This Mortal Coil' incarnations and albums, for those who might like to hear songs by Alex Chilton, Tim Buckley, et al, done in a kind of 'English Pastoral' meets Portishead in an ambient wonderland with injections of global influence style. Some of the stand outs are versions of 'Song to the Siren', with the soaring voice of the Cocteau Twins' lead singer, 'Another Day' and 'Tarantula'.

In the main though- why do a cover version that's simply a retread of the original? If you're not bringing anything new to the song, the original artist has usually done it better. Whitney Houston's roaring girl version of Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' replaces a delicate love song with the aural equivalent of a sledgehammer- presumably done for the benefit of those people who imagine country to be irredeemable/unlistenable.

[Buck Birdseed]

Depends what you mean by "adding something new". I mean, surely Whitney added the endless really horrible high note?

And occasionally, an excellent cover can completely strip away the idea of the original and bring forth unthought-of undertones, which isn't really addition as such. M. Hederos & M. Helleberg's piano-ballad version of the Stooges' "No Fun", for instance- a brilliant, bleak piece of singer-songwriterish near-country, totally not working in the spirit of the original but capturing a different aspect of the song's essence. For surely it's the songs not the performances that are covered?

Unfortunately, some of the covers I really like basically take the mood and feel of the original, blow them up a lot, and create hyper-versions of the original's feel without adding layers of meaning. The Mighty Vikings' Trad-Calypso instrumental reworking of "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music is... fluff, in the same way the original is mindless happy fluff, but it's just incredibly more energetic, infectuous and fun to listen to. The intelligent minds behind it have focussed not on the meaning, which is pretty straight-forward, but on creating a really lush soundscape of hooks, jazz-improvisations, Henrix-style guitar solos, shouted vocals and a hundred other quick-thinking ideas around it.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Mark Kozelek of The Red House Painters has released several covers of AC/DC songs. In his hands, they emerge as bruised and mournful hymns of quiet defiance- it's one hell of a transformation and they're really quite beautiful.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
Depends what you mean by "adding something new". I mean, surely Whitney added the endless really horrible high note?

And occasionally, an excellent cover can completely strip away the idea of the original and bring forth unthought-of undertones, which isn't really addition as such.

For surely it's the songs not the performances that are covered?

I agree- but when an artist gives a blinding rendition of an original song- e.g., Bowie and 'Heroes', Nina Simone and 'Four Women', Marianne Faithfull and 'Why D'Ya Do It?" there seems little point in other people essaying cover versions, unless they're radically different. They don't erase the memory of the original, and frequently bring nothing new to the table.

Sometimes an ironic approach helps, as in Bryan Ferry's glam/kitsch take on Dylan's somewhat overblown and pompous 'A Hard Rain's' or the Flying Lizards' version of 'Money'.

I also like Grace Jones's dominatrix version of 'Private Life', and Robert Wyatt's soulful rendition of 'Caimanera/Guantanamera' which rescues it from the memory of the too saccharine for my liking 60s folkie version (by the Sandpipers? if memory serves).

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by molly bloom


I agree- but when an artist gives a blinding rendition of an original song- e.g., Bowie and 'Heroes', Nina Simone and 'Four Women', Marianne Faithfull and 'Why D'Ya Do It?" there seems little point in other people essaying cover versions, unless they're radically different. They don't erase the memory of the original, and frequently bring nothing new to the table.

Sometimes an ironic approach helps, as in Bryan Ferry's glam/kitsch take on Dylan's somewhat overblown and pompous 'A Hard Rain's' or the Flying Lizards' version of 'Money'.

I also like Grace Jones's dominatrix version of 'Private Life', and Robert Wyatt's soulful rendition of 'Caimanera/Guantanamera' which rescues it from the memory of the too saccharine for my liking 60s folkie version (by the Sandpipers? if memory serves).

I dunno. As a jazz fan, I guess I'm conditiond to expect,and even want, various interpretations of the same song. They don't even have to be better; neither the Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter" nor the Lemonheads' "Mrs. Robinson" outstrip the Simon & Garfunkel originals, but they were mildly interesting in a "here's-what-we'd-do-with-this-tune" way.

That's what makes the recent versions of "It's Raining Men," "Fame" (both by the same ex-Spice? I can't recall) and the horrible, horrible "Like a Prayer" so awful: their breathtaking lack of innovation and originality.

[Tolls]

"Technically that wasn't a cover."

Fair point, bit like "Girl's Talk" in that respect.

Thanks for mentioning the Flying Lizards, molly...is it true that the lead singer was all but tone deaf? Or was that just some rumour I remember from the dim and distant?