“Jim Henley”:http://www.highclearing.com/archivesuo/week_2003_11_30.html#004769 has a nice post on his favourite cover-versions; “Atrios”:http://atrios.blogspot.com/2003_12_07_atrios_archive.html#107083856368381294 has just chimed in too. Here’s a few more to add to the mix.
(1) Uncle Tupelo – I Wanna Be Your Dog. The Stooges classic is given a bluegrass work-over. And it rocks. (available on their recent “anthology”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000063CN9/henryfarrell-20).
(2) Cat Power – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. Junks the cock-rock chorus to create a nearly unrecognisable, but extraordinarily compelling slice of loneliness and despair. Trust me – you’ve never really heard the lyrics of the song until you’ve listened to this version. (available on “The Covers Record”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004NHDY/henryfarrell-20″)
(3) The Blue Aeroplanes – The Boy in the Bubble. Takes a rather wuffly Paul Simon afro-beat number, and adds much urgency. On their (now deleted) album, _Beatsongs_ – good luck in finding it. The album also has the song “Cover Me,” which no-one has yet covered, to the best of my knowledge.
Update: Oh, and Outkast’s drum’n’bass take on “My Favourite Things” on “Speakerboxx/The Love Below”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AGWFX/henryfarrell-20
{ 38 comments }
Katherine 12.08.03 at 3:50 am
“Chimes of Freedom Flashing” and “My Back Pages” (but not “Mr. Tambourine Man”) by the Byrds.
There’s a great cover band in a club on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village called Cafe Wha?. In general I am all very much in favor of covers.
chun the unavoidable 12.08.03 at 3:51 am
Leadbelly’s cover of “Gallows Pole” from Led Zeppelin III has always done it for me (though the Zep’s cover of The Mysterians’ “Immigrant Song” on said album does tend to rock America).
The Mekons’ version of the final movement of The Rite of Spring is also terrific.
Brian Weatherson 12.08.03 at 4:09 am
Great covers are all well and good, but I can’t imagine a great cover band. Maybe that’s just because every corner pub in suburban Melbourne has a Friday night covers band – mostly playing third-rate versions of second-rate songs. (Even when there are good musicians in these bands they tend to mail in their performances in cover bands, leaving the real work for bands doing mostly original songs.) So the very concept of a good cover band has been ruined for me forever.
It’s a bit out of date, but there’s a good list of memorable covers here.
Greg 12.08.03 at 5:37 am
Tori Amos’s versions of ‘I don’t like Mondays’, ‘Angie’, and Eminem’s ’97 Bonnie and Clyde are all first rate… possibly better than the originals.
pekka 12.08.03 at 5:38 am
Some worthy cover art:
Bedhead & Macha: “Believe”; Low: “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me”; The Ukrainians: “Batyar” (aka “Bigmouth Strikes Again”); The Wedding Present: “It’s Not Unusual”; Luna: “Sweet Child O’ Mine”; Heavenly (feat. Peter Momtchiloff of OUP!): “Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges” (Serge Gainsbourg); Mark Lanegan: “Creeping Coastline of Lights” (by The Leaving Trains); The Birthday Party: “Loose” (demented!).
Ahem, I also kind of like Travis’ version of “Hotel Calif…” sorry, no, “Baby One More Time”.
ccobb 12.08.03 at 5:40 am
Can’t help it but I love No Doubts cover of Talk Talk’s It’s My Life.
ben wolfson 12.08.03 at 5:50 am
I said this in another thread about covers, I think, but John Cale’s cover of Heartbreak Hotel is really great. (From the description of the Cat Power cover, it sounds like they might be similar–at least the version of the Cale cover on Fragments of a Rainy Season.)
Laibach have done some, well, interesting covers in their time.
Richard Thompson’s cover of “Oops, I Did It Again” is supposedly pretty good. I haven’t heard it, though. French Frith Kaiser Thompson have a pretty good cover of Surfin’ USA.
enthymeme 12.08.03 at 7:06 am
At present Beth Orton’s cover of I Love How You Love Me is on heavy rotation.
DJW 12.08.03 at 8:17 am
Laibach’s Beatles cover album is really not very good, except for the brilliantly creepy rendition of Across the Universe.
Favorite covers: Jonathan Richman does Sister Ray, embedded in the middle of his ode to the Velvets, appropriately titled “Velvet Underground.” You have to see him do this live, with the pitch-perfect imitation of Lou Reed’s singing and facial expressions, to fully appreciate.
They Might Be Giants played I Wanna Be Sedated at a show I saw once. That had a guilty pleasure kind of fun to it.
Jeremy Osner 12.08.03 at 1:28 pm
One of my very favorite songs is a cover, the Stones’ version of “Prodigal Son”.
Jenny 12.08.03 at 2:07 pm
St Etienne’s cover of Neil Young’s ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ is one of the best.
Mike Jones 12.08.03 at 2:15 pm
I’ll second the Frith Kaiser Thompson cover of Surfin’ USA. I’m also quite fond of the Devo punk/ska cover of Satisfaction. John Hiatt and Bonnie Raitt: whichever you want to consider the cover of Thing Called Love is outrageously good. But my pick for best all-time is Hendrix’ All Along the Watchtower.
Merkin 12.08.03 at 2:19 pm
Nirvana’s cover of Bowie’s “Man Who Saved the World”
Sonic Youth’s cover of Madonna’s “Into the Groove”
Mike Watt’s cover of Madonna’s “Burning Up”
Alien Ant Farm’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”
Nick 12.08.03 at 2:33 pm
For their 40th anniversary, the NME put out an album of covers, which had some memorable ones like Vic Reeves doing ‘Vienna’ and the Manic Street Preachers justly famous version of ‘Suicide is Painless’. The greatest one on there, though is the Fatima Mansions’ cover of ‘Everything I Do (I Do It For You)’ which was pretty much just Cathal Coughlin singing over a backing track comprised entirely of samples from porn movies…demented, but great listening.
But for ‘straight’ covers, REM’s version of Cohen’s ‘First We Take Manhattan’ is good – there’s a real sense of looming menace running through it.
due torre 12.08.03 at 2:36 pm
While I think he’s a bit overrated, Pete Yorn’s cover of the Boss’ classic Dancing In the Dark does bring out the desperation in the song… and Courtney Cox would never get on stage to dance for Yorn’s version, which is a recommendation in my book.
hw 12.08.03 at 2:52 pm
How can anyone forget that Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” is a cover?
pathos 12.08.03 at 3:20 pm
Right. The best covers become so associated with the cover artist that people forget that they are covers.
Aretha’s Franklin’s “Respect” (originally Otis Redding) and Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee” (originally Kris Kristopherson) are probably the two songs most likely to be confused as non-covers, and are, of course, two of the best songs ever.
Ted Barlow 12.08.03 at 3:40 pm
My new favorite album is “Ultraglide in Black” by the Dirtbombs. It’s almost entirely covers of 60’s/70’s soul songs by a garage band fronted by a black soul belter a la Otis Redding. The band has two drummers and two bases, and the singer plays guitar. I haven’t felt this kind of instant love in months.
I have a Pixies cover album that I don’t listen to much. However, the Get-Up Kids do an excellent cover of “Alec Eiffel”, and Reel Big Fish do a techno cover of “Gigantic” that’s a lot of fun.
Punk covers of pop songs can be wonderful. There’s a band called Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies that does nothing but covers of pop songs. They do a good job of tweaking the songs so they sound like they’ve always been punk songs. It’s great driving and sing-along music.
Chun: Yeah, all those old blues singers ripped off Led Zeppelin. If I were them, I’d sue.
Doug Turnbull 12.08.03 at 3:55 pm
You could put together several great albums of covers by Ray Charles. My favorite is his cover of the Beatles’ Yesterday, which adds a lot of soul to an already excellent song.
And ignoring for the moment the Jimi and Janis songs above, my vote for best voer of all time would go to Cake’s version of “I will survive.”
Stevie Wonder did a fun upbeat version of “At Last,” the Etta James classic (not sure if she was the original singer, though.) And The Red Hot Chilli Peppers returned the favor with their great cover of his “Higher Ground.”
Harry Tuttle 12.08.03 at 4:02 pm
If you dig that Uncle Tupelo number, check out the Bad Livers doing “Lust For Life”. Other good countrified covers include The Gourds doing “Gin And Juice” and “Jesus And Tequila”, The Unholy Trio doing “Bring Da Noise” and Dwight Yokam doing “Train In Vain”.
Dreadfully missing from all these lists I’ve seen are The Dickies. Their version of the theme to Gigantor rules. Pretty good version of “Sounds of Silence” too.
rea 12.08.03 at 4:16 pm
Janis Joplin, mentioned above, also covered “Summer Time” from Gershwin’s opera “porgy and Bess”–strange overlap between the repetoires of Joplin and Leontyne Price . . .
pchuck 12.08.03 at 4:24 pm
Aztec Camera’s cover of Van Halen’s “Jump”.
harry 12.08.03 at 7:07 pm
I heard Richard Thompson cover ‘Dancing Queen’ on Mike Harding’s show recently. Brilliant.
Also, Tom Jones/The Art of Noise’s cover of ‘Kiss’. Better than the original and better than almost anything else the great man has done.
harry 12.08.03 at 7:11 pm
Oh yes and Martin Carthy’s cover of Gilbert O’ Sullivan’s ‘Nothing Rhym’d’. For that matter, Simon and Garfunkel’s cover of Carthy’s version of ‘Scarborough Fair’ isn’t bad.
Josh 12.08.03 at 8:33 pm
There’s a band called Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies that does nothing but covers of pop songs. They do a good job of tweaking the songs so they sound like they’ve always been punk songs.
I’m particularly fond of their version of “Fire and Rain”, which clocks in at 1 minute 9 seconds.
Katherine mentioned the Byrds’ cover of “Chimes of Freedom”. I’ve never heard that (or the original, for that matter), but Youssou N’Dour did a wonderful cover of it. I also like the Deraillers’ “Raspberry Beret”.
ben wolfson 12.08.03 at 10:55 pm
Some more good ones:
Diamanda Galas’ cover of “My World Is Empty Without You”. Pretty much all of Nick Cave’s album _Kicking Against the Pricks_ is good, though I haven’t heard many of the originals. Current 93 has apparently covered Comus’ “Diana” live; I haven’t heard that but in my imagination it’s a good cover. John Zorn’s album The Big Gundown is very good, if you consider them covers.
And I like the Rolling Stones’ cover of Love in Vain, but few others I know do.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” cover yet?
The Flying Luttenbacher’s cover of Magma’s “De Futura” is pretty damn awesome.
enthymeme 12.08.03 at 11:02 pm
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah†cover yet?
!!!! the minor fall and the major lift.
Affirmed.
Chris Bertram 12.08.03 at 11:39 pm
Robert Wyatt’s cover of “I’m a believer”
Sid Vicious, “My Way”
Hendrix, “All Along the Watchtower”
Clash, “I fought the law”
Nillson, “Without you”
Fritz 12.08.03 at 11:53 pm
Bill Monroe- “Sittin’ on Top of the World”
the Cure- “Do Ya Wanna Touch”
Michael Hedges- “A Love Bizarre”
Elvis Costello- “Ship of Fools”
Devo- “Satisfaction”
the Minutemen- “Dr. Wu”
The Clash- “Police and Thieves”
Flying Burrito Bros.- “The Dark End of the Street”
X- “Soul Kitchen”
pekka 12.09.03 at 12:42 am
Kudos to Ted for bringing up The Dirtbomb’s “Ultraglide In Black” — my faves are “Underdog” (Sly & Family Stone), “Ode To A Black Man” (Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy), and “I’m Qualified To Satisfy You” (Barry White). Their new album, “Dangerous Magical Noise”, isn’t a cover album, but contains a pretty awesome version of Brian Eno’s “King’s Lead Hat” as a bonus. Highly recommended.
timmy 12.09.03 at 2:22 am
U2’s verson of Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ” and
on the Folkways/A vision Shared (lots of great covers on that CD)
Phoebe Snow’s cover of “At Last” (on the “New York Rock & Soul Revue : Live At The Beacon” (1991)) – I can’t wait to hear Stevie Wonder’s version, thanks Doug.)
Aretha Franklin’s “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (did she cover anything that wasn’t great?)
Jools Holland and Paul Weller’s “Will it go round in circles?” and JH + Jamiroquai’s “I’m In The Mood For Love” both on Small World Big Band Vol.1, yet another great album of covers.
I assume we’re leaving out really great “covers” like Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” right?
timmy 12.09.03 at 2:28 am
…And to tie in with the Christmas music thread below, there is “Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration” arranged by Quincy Jones and performed by lots of very talented people. Some of the cuts are a little jarring at first, but they really work once you’ve gotten over the mental whiplash. The Hallelujah chorus is divine as a rousing gospel number.
Teaflax 12.09.03 at 7:57 am
Kevin Gilbert’s “Kashmir”
Jeff Buckley’s “Kashmir on 45”
Hue & Cry’s “Fixing a Hole”
Black Flag’s “Louie Louie”
Celtic Frost doing Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio”
Unicorn Jones’ “Ace of Spades”
Divine Comedy’s “Is There Life on Mars?”
Divine Comedy & Tom Jones doing Portishead’s “All Mine”
Faith No More’s “Easy”
Moog Cookbook’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Devo’s “Satisfaction”
Any cover version that emasculates the macho swagger of most Rock N Roll is fine by me.
Teaflax 12.09.03 at 8:07 am
And how could I forget:
The Dead Kennedys doing “Viva Las Vegas”.
Doug Turnbull 12.09.03 at 7:37 pm
timmy–If you’re looking for it, the Stevie Wonder version of At Last is on his early album “My Cherie Amore.”
duncan 12.10.03 at 1:28 pm
This Mortal Coil – “Song to the Siren”, “You and Your Sister”, “Mr Somewhere”.
The Sundays’ cover of Wild Horses – the best use they ever made of Harriet Wheeler’s gorgeous voice.
If you’re mentioning Jeff Buckley’s cover of Hallelujah, then I’d have to John Cale’s version of it up there as well.
I’d also give a mention to the Walkabouts’ “Satisfied Mind” as my favourite covers album.
Frank San Filippo 12.11.03 at 2:21 am
This cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit rocks my world:
http://www.aprilwinchell.com/multimedia/media/mp3/Spirit%2Emp3
esin 01.23.04 at 4:58 pm
The cover of Killing Moon (Echo&The Bunnymen) by Puressence and the cover of Prettiest Star(David Bowie) by Ian McCulloch
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