Original vs. Cover

  • Thread starter Thread starter philbagg
  • Start date Start date
LIke: No more I love yous - The lover speaks
Hate: No more I love yous - Annie Lennox
 
commanda said:
Zoot's 1970 heavy-metal rendition of Eleanor Rigby. Don't know if it's ever been heard outside of Australia.
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I second that, it was aweful, truly aweful. Oh and whoever mentioned Joe Cocker nice one :D he grew up round the corner from me

The best covers are ones where the artist takes a song that was well written but (in some people's opinion) sold itself short, and then improves it. You mentioned Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah and Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower

I'd also add...

Jonny Cash - Hurt
Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares To You
Kanye West - Stronger
Limp Bizkit - Mission Impossible theme
Wet Wet Wet - Love Is All Around
Guns N Roses - Knocking Of Heavens Door (no arguaments, its alri-ai-ai-ai-ai-ght)

As great covers, and the following as abismal-they-should-be-publicly-hanged covers...

Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
Atomic Kitten - The Tide Is High
anything Flo Rida has released
 
I like:
Feelin' Groovy by Jim's Big Ego (org. S&G)
Come On Eileen by Save Ferris (org. Dexy's Midnight Legwarmers)
In Between Days by Ben Folds (org. Cure)
Stairway to Heaven by Zappa and the Mothers (org. Led Zep)

I HATE:
Redemption Song by Stevie Wonder (org. Marley)
which amazes me because I love that song, love marley, love stevie, but that cover makes me want to puke. Here it is, so you can share my nausea.
 
I don't mind covers as long as the artist respects the original version. All too often I hear vocalists stomping all over good meoldies in order to "personalise" a song. Yecch! But then again, a new vocal approach can do wonders for a song: the vocal difference bewteen Harry Nilson's cover of Badfinger's "Without You", for example.

I don't think that a cover needs to eclipse the original, but it should at least be on equal terms. Whenever I pick up a tribute album I invariably wish that I was listening to the real thing. As a random example, the Burning London tribute to The Clash contains only one cover that that I would consider to be of any real value - The Afghan Whigs version of "Lost in the Supermarket". (Incidentally, I didn't link to that page solely because I reviewed that album, it's just a convenient example).
 
Where'd ya sleep last night was pretty well done by nirvana
 
I like covers that are close to the original, as well as ones that are seriously improved by being different.

Close to original:
Band On The Run by Foo Fighters (orig McCartney & Wings)
Good Vibrations by Todd Rundgren [this one is note-perfect] (orig Beach Boys)
Dream On by Pat Monahan (orig Aerosmith)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Jeff Healey (orig Beatles)
Mustang Sally by Buddy Guy [w/scorching Jeff Beck solo] (orig Wilson Pickett)

Different from original:
Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann (orig Bruce Sprinsteen, yuck)
This Flight Tonight by Nazareth (orig Joni Mitchell - you'd never know it was the same song!)
Mr Tambourine Man by The Byrds (orig Dylan)
Woodstock by Matthews Southern Comfort (orig Joni Mitchell)
Roll Over Beethoven by ELO (orig Chuck Berry)
 
 
dintymoore said:
I would only do country-type, jazz metal polkas, like this:
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philbagg said:
Those guys gotta be whacked outta their heads!
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I went to see Sun Ra's solar arkestra back in '83. It was an experience to be sure. Sun Ra was a seriously avant garde pianist with this huge band of singers, horn players, bassists, percussionists, xylophonists, drummers.....He loosely came under the banner of 'jazz' coz of the improvisationary factor and reckoned he'd been to Saturn !
I remember the gig coz it was 3 hours long, it pulled you through every state possible and ranged from sweet plinky plonky bits to massive cauldrons of noise. With the universe in between. Sometimes, they seemed louder than ACDC. It was intense, however you felt about it. The gig ended almost an hour after midnight and I had to walk four miles to where I was staying as the buses and trains had stopped and it was before the days of nightbuses. I remember this song they did called "Nuclear war" which still has me laughing with it's refrain of "First comes the heat - then comes the BLAST !!". Though a member of the band enquired of my mate and I whether or not we had 'drurrrrgs' to ply them with during the break, this crowd weren't out of it coz of drug use ! Sun Ra and many of his cohorts seemed to really believe they were not of this earth.
I don't think too many bands are going to do a cover version of any of Sun Ra's stuff !
 
Van Halens cover of "You Really Got Me" is definately one of the better covers I heard.

Ray Davies of the Kinks said he liked the Van Halen version better and that the Kinks version was a prop airplane and the Van Halen version was a fighter jet
 
Strat1958 said:
I like covers that are close to the original, as well as ones that are seriously improved by being different.


Different from original:
Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann (orig Bruce Sprinsteen, yuck)

Mr Tambourine Man by The Byrds (orig Dylan)

Roll Over Beethoven by ELO (orig Chuck Berry)
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I first heard the Manfred Mann's Earth band version back in '76 when I was 13 and I loved it then. It's still one of my faves and one of their greatest ever, through all the incarnations of Mann's bands. It's so beautiful and not as well timed as it seems coz alot of tape splicing took place. Actually, it's probably one of the tracks that hastened the onset of digital editing {:D} in a backhand, subliminal way. I used to work with a guy that was a Springsteen obsessive and when he played Springsteen's original to me, I thought it was rubbish. But it couldn't've been that bad, Mann and his cohorts obviously saw some potential in it ! :cool:

The first version of "Mr Tambourine man" I heard was the Byrds one. Absolutely love it, it's gorgeous in every way. About five years later, I heard Melanie's version. Never thought I could like another version, but hers is superlative and pushes the Byrds veeeeery close. Then some 11 years after first hearing the Byrds version, I heard the original by Dylan. Sheeeeeesh kebab ! What a knockout ! It's the best of the three. It's one of the few songs I can think of that has three versions that I'd happilly take to a desert island.

As a complete surprize, I like both Chuck Berry and the Beatles' versions of "Roll over Beethoven". But there's a version that drives both into the ground, and then some ! It's by a group I've long referred to as 'The Fakes'. Over here in England, in the 70s there were tons of these crummy compilation albums of popular songs but not by the original artists, not even cover versions by 'name' artists. These were put together by faceless unknown session musicians and singers and put out cheaply. There was this "50 great rock'n'roll hits" and I do like the versions on it; they are, I guess, an insult to the originals but I think some of them are great. I don't know whose version "Roll over Beethoven" is based on but it ain't Berry's or the Beatles' and it's so over the top and bombastic. It's fantastic.
 
Cover WINS!

Original:
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Cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRmYfVCH2UA - they disabled embedding, cause they're assholes :mad:

BTW, when did Alanis Morissette get hot? :confused:
 
Not exactly a full cover, but the cover definitely wins :D

Original:
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