Michael Bérubé - American Airspace

American Street day

I have a brief notice over on the Street today about the recent firing of University of Colorado environmental studies professor Adrienne Anderson. Just a citation of a couple of area news items, really-- it’s not like I’ve done any independent investigative reporting on this one. I cite, you decide!

But I also want to call your attention to the massive progressive blog index that Kevin Hayden has put together, state by state, now with an exhaustive and searchable “topics index” and reference section as well. If you can, please drop a few bucks in the tip jar as a gesture of thanks for all of Kevin’s hard work on this.

See you all next week with more capsule movie reviews and fourth declension neuter nouns! Until then, we’re taking suggestions for Best Cover of a Beatles Song, Best Cover of a Dylan Song, and Best Cover (Any Song) that’s Actually Better than the Original.

Posted by on 02/10 at 01:03 PM

Best Cover (Any Song) that’s Actually Better than the Original.

“Hurt,” Johnny Cash.

Posted by Chris Clarke on 02/10 at 02:51 PM
Dylan: I don’t mean to be trite here, but Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower” and Springsteen’s “Chimes of Freedom” are pretty unbeatable in my mind.

Posted by Joe Drymala on 02/10 at 02:56 PM
Oops. Almost forgot:

Best Cover of a Beatles Song,

“Let It Be,” Shang Shang Typhoon.

Posted by Chris Clarke on 02/10 at 02:56 PM
Hendrix, ‘All Along the Watchtower’.
Aretha covering ‘Respect’.
Both owned the songs, and their times.

Posted by on 02/10 at 03:06 PM
cover better than original: jeff buckley’s version of leonard cohen’s ‘hallelujah.’

Posted by on 02/10 at 03:07 PM
Beatles cover: Aretha “Let it Be” and Rita Lee “And I Love Him”
Dylan Cover: Hendrix “All Along the Watchtower” and Caetano Veloso “Jokerman”
Better than Original Cover: Aretha “Bridge over Troubled Water” and The Beatles “Twist and Shout” and lets not forget The Clash “I fought the Law” and Wilson Pickett, “Sugar, Sugar”

Posted by on 02/10 at 03:31 PM
Don Byron’s version of “Blackbird”
Chris already picked Cash’s version of “Hurt,” so let me take Willie Nelson’s version of Townes van Zandt’s “Poncho and Lefty”
Jerry Jeff Walker does a mean “One Too Many Mornings.” (Really there should be a law against asking for favorite Dylan covers.)

Posted by on 02/10 at 03:32 PM
The Damned - Help! The Fearsome Foursome blow the doors of the Fab Four.

Runner Up: The Feelies - Everybody’s Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey)

Chocolate Watchband - It’s all over now baby blue

The Bangles - Going Down to Liverpool
Pretenders - Stop our Sobbing
Go Gos - Our lips are Sealed
All better than the originals.

Posted by on 02/10 at 03:38 PM
If you don’t like (as I do) the voice only version, a good bet would be the Tom’s Diner remix of Suzanne Vega.

Posted by Ryan on 02/10 at 03:48 PM
cover better than the original… a lot of the ones listed are really good. what about led zeppelin’s “dazed and confused” over jake holmes’? (does it count as a cover if they just stole the song?) or “when the levee breaks?” (i think it was memphis minnie who wrote that one).

Posted by on 02/10 at 03:53 PM
Cover of a Dylan song: Girl of the North Country, by Peter Ostroushko

Posted by on 02/10 at 03:58 PM
Best Cover of a Dylan Song: Tim Carroll, “She Belongs to Me”, Concrete Blonde, “Simple Twist of Fate”

Best Cover of a Beatles Song: Marc Ribot/Rootless Cosmopolitans, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

Best Cover That’s Better Than the Original: Richard Thompson, “Oops I Did It Again” )if the criteria include degree of improvement, I don’t see how this one can lose!)

What about best Stones cover? Beatles, Dylan—no Stones. It’s like Larry and Curly but no Moe.

Posted by Dustin on 02/10 at 04:00 PM
Best Beatles cover: Aimee Mann & Michael Penn’s version of Two of Us.

Posted by on 02/10 at 04:22 PM
The best Beatle covers are of their minor songs, e.g., The James Gang’s version of “Rain” or Crosby Stlls & Nash’s version of “Bluebird” (on their box CD set); I even like the Carpenters’ version of “Ticket to Ride” because it completely changes the tone of the song despite the bathos of their arrangement. The Beatles’ covers of others’ songs generally were pretty awful--their version of “Twist and Shout” is an insult to the Isleys.

Good Dylan covers are pretty numerous. OTOH, I like the rawness of his version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” , compared to the overprocessed version by the Byrds. And no one can touch his “Lay, Lady, Lay” or “Positively Fourth Street”.

John Coltrane’s “Favorite Things” is in a class by itself esp. because you don’t have to listen to the insipid lyrics.

I would call “Stop Your Sobbing” a draw between the Kinks and the Pretenders. OTOH, the Pretenders version of “It’s a Thin Line Between Love & Hate” is much better than the original which was angood example cliched 70s soul.

Posted by on 02/10 at 04:47 PM
Brian Ferry covers “Like a Hurricane.” Pretty fine.

Posted by on 02/10 at 05:09 PM
Oops. Forgot SRV’s “Voodoo Chile.” Better than Hendrix. Apostasy? Yes. But, better than Hedrix.

Posted by on 02/10 at 05:15 PM
Best Dylan cover: Johnny Cash’s cover of “Wanted Man” is a favorite, as is Tim O’Brien’s (not the novelist) cover of “Maggie’s Farm”

Best Beatles cover: Cornershop’s cover of “Norwegian Wood” and Nick Cave’s version of “Here Comes the Sun” with William Shatner’s overly campy “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” a close third

Best cover ever: a three-way tie among Steely Dan’s “Doctor Wu” by the Minutemen, Mozart’s Sonata #3 by Scatterbrain, and Odyssey’s “If You’re Looking for a Way Out” by the Tindersticks

Posted by on 02/10 at 05:17 PM
Best Cover (Any Song) that’s Actually Better than the Original: “Mad World” 2001.

that HAS to be the Gary Jules’ & Michael Andrews’ cover of the Tears for Fears’ song “Mad World” (1983) which appears on the soundtrack of the 2001 film Donnie Darko.

apparently, even the Tears for Fears guys like the cover so much, that they want to cover the COVER of their own song, as part of a compilation, using the changes to instrumentation, speed, etc. that were done for the film. hearing them back-to-back, the cover is clearly the winner.

if you have never heard this version--go now! find it! listen…

-L.

Posted by Librarian on 02/10 at 05:24 PM
In the “sheer camp” division, a best cover contender would have to be Bryan Ferry’s version of “It’s My Party (and I’ll Cry If I Want To)”. He doesn’t even try to change the gender perspective of the lyrics.

A more serious nominee for best cover: Roberta Flack’s haunting version of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”.

Posted by on 02/10 at 05:42 PM
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66 did a great cover of “With A Little Help From My Friends” shortly after the song was first released over a quarter century ago {ouch}.

Apologies to Jeff Buckley fans but the ABSOLUTE BEST version of “Hallelujah” is John Cale’s version on the “I’m Your Fan” Cohen tribute album.

Rod Stewart’s has to be the best cover of “Reason To Believe,” which was folkie Tim Hardin’s original. Hardin’s version was great too. Give it a listen if you can.

How about Rick Nelson’s version of “Love Minus Zero=No Limit” for the best Dylan cover. The song itself is one of the most underappreciated of all time, but I guess you could say that about a hundred or so of Dylan’s lesser known tunes.

Posted by on 02/10 at 06:03 PM
Perry Como’s “Wooly Bully.” First rate.

Posted by on 02/10 at 06:11 PM
k. Best Beatles cover goes narrowly to Fiona Apple’s “Across the Universe,” just edging Cocker’s “With a Little Help From My Friends”

Best Dylan cover-- quite a few, but my personal favortie isn’t really a cover at all. It’s a title co-option-- Radiohead’s “Subterranean Homesick Alien”

Best Cover Ever? This one gets categories.

Best ‘cover making a bad song good’-- M. Ward’s cover of Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”

Best cover of a Canadian Buddhist Monk-- Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah”

Most Awesome-- Marvin Gaye’s “Heard It Through the Grapevine”

Best non-punk cover of a punk song-- Ted Leo’s cover of The Jam’s “Ghosts”

Best Jazz cover-- Coltrane, “My Favorite Things” (the later incarnations, mostly)

okay, thats all, i swear.

Posted by on 02/10 at 06:34 PM
Best cover of any song: hurt by johnny cash or Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley or Pearl jam doing Sitting on the dock on the bay.

While technically a paul McCartney song, the Guns Roses version of live and let die is great.

Posted by harold on 02/10 at 06:36 PM
best hendrix cover: tuck & patti’s “castles made of sand/little wing”

Posted by mistah charley on 02/10 at 07:14 PM
Best Beatles cover: Aretha, “Eleanor Rigby”

Best Dylan cover: PJ Harvey, “Highway 61”

Cover better than original: Milton Nascimento, “Norwegian Wood”

Posted by on 02/10 at 08:23 PM
Beatles covers:

Fed Banana Combo, “Yesterday” (pure dopy punk aggression stomps on Hallmark)
801 Live, “Tomorrow Never Knows” (AKA, Art Rock Ten Years After)
Marshall Crenshaw “I’m Only Sleeping” (Ok, he did it in concert, but he killed it)

Dylan cover:

Johnny Cash, “It Ain’t Me Babe” (just for the great delay before the ultimate “babe” in each chorus)

Cover Better than Original:
My vote is for Cale’s “Hallelujah” over Buckley’s

And how about Cale’s “Pablo Picasso”?

Steve Earle’s “Time Has Come Today” (Abbie Hoffman outweighs Sheryl’s crowing)

pretty much every tune Yo La Tengo covers (see “Fakebook” plus their version of “Dreaming” and “Somebody’s Baby")

Best Recent Cover:
Futureheads, “Hounds of Love” (it sounds faster, but times within seconds of the Kate Bush original)

Posted by George on 02/10 at 08:37 PM
Another cover: The Allman Brothers’ ‘One Way Out’
The Beatles cover of ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ is great.

Posted by on 02/10 at 08:37 PM
Best Dylan cover:

Jason and the Nashville Scorchers: Absolutely Sweet Marie

Posted by on 02/10 at 08:56 PM
Peter Paul and Mary - Too Much of Nothing (Dylan)
Runner-up - Manfred Mann - Quinn the Eskimo (Dylan)

I Wanna be your man - Rolling stones cover of the Beatles

Posted by on 02/10 at 09:08 PM
Beatles cover:
Elliott Smith- “Because”.
Dylan cover:
Ani Di Franco- “Most of the Time”.
cover that’s better than the original:
I’m with everyone else who’s brought up Jeff Buckley’s version “Hallelujah”.
The Beach Boys cover of “Sloop John B” (I like the Kingston Trio just fine, but the Beach Boys made the song a lot more interesting)
the Ben Folds Five cover of “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” is really good,too ... they managed to take out all of the schmaltizness that was in the orignal arrangment and turn it into something that was actually somewhat honest and relatable.
I’m also rather fond of Cake’s cover of “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”, and a version of “Angry Inch” (from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch) by Sleater-Kinney and Fred Schneider (from the B-52’s) that’s manages to be incredibly goofy and intense simultaneously.

On a related subject, what’s the worst cover ever? My one of my (possibly former) friends sat me down and played me a cover of “Surfin’ USA” by Blind Guardian, an progressive fantasy metal band. It HURT.

Posted by on 02/10 at 09:20 PM
Dylan covers: “Wheel’s on Fire” and “I Shall Be Released” from this wonderful album, Hollies Sing Dylan. I’ve got it on vinyl.

Posted by Linkmeister on 02/10 at 09:50 PM
Tito Puente’s rendition of Take Five is fun. I also like Roxy Music’s Like a Hurricane and Warren Zevon’s Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.

Al Green’s How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is better than the original.

Posted by on 02/10 at 09:51 PM
Oh, two more covers that cut the originals....

John Wesley Harding’s “Like a Prayer”

Miles Davis’s “Time After Time”

Posted by George on 02/10 at 10:07 PM
how’s about worst cover by a member of bob dylan’s family (doubles as worst cover ever) “Heroes” by whatever Jakob’s stupid band is called (i refuse to google it)

Best Cover which manages to reference 3 generations of leftiness: Rage Against the Machine covering Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” (may also be one of the best Zeppelin rip-offs ever)

Best cover that you haven’t heard but should have:
Squirrelbait’s cover of PHil Ochs’ seminal “Tape from California”

And best cover of one brilliant obscure band covering another that at least references one of the bands that started this thread: The Fall covering Captain Beefheart’s “Beatle Bones N’ Smokin’ Stone"--includes gratuitous “strawberry Fields” riff rip-off--fucking genius!

Posted by Robert Green on 02/10 at 10:24 PM
Best cover that’s better than the original:

The Sundays, “Wild Horses"--I like the Stones, but The Sundays’ version is really something.

Posted by on 02/10 at 10:58 PM
Cover Better than the Original: Ben Harper’s “Sexual Healing.” Marvin Gaye is cool and all, but day-amn! Or maybe The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” over The Isley Brothers.

Best Beatles Cover: Jimi Hendrix’s legendary cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” played live the day after the album was released.

Best Dylan Cover: Well, Jimi Hendrix’s “Like a Rolling Stone” ain’t bad. There’s some smokin’ guitar work going on there.

Posted by Paul on 02/10 at 11:02 PM
Close second for best cover, better than the original:

Camper Van Beethoven, “Pictures of Matchstick Men” (originally by Status Quo)

Posted by on 02/10 at 11:04 PM
Best Dylan cover: “I’ll Keep it With Mine”, Fairport Convention

Posted by on 02/10 at 11:56 PM
Damn, and I imagined I was gonna be the first one to mention Bryan Ferry. Tough crowd. I vote his “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” as the second best Dylan cover, after Jimi.

Beatles: Wes Montgomery, “A Day in the Life”

Best cover, better than original (tie):
Bowie, “It Ain’t Easy”
Dave Edmunds, “I Hear You Knockin’”

Best Stones cover: Devo, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

Worst cover, all time: Celine Dion’s note-for-note reproduction of Cyndie Lauper’s “I Drove All Night”

Posted by on 02/11 at 12:09 AM
The Bobs: “You Can’t Do That” or “Helter Skelter”
Holly Cole: “I’ve Just Seen a Face”

Pete Seeger: “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”
Cassandra Wilson: “Shelter from the Storm”
Fairport Convention: Pretty much every early Dylan cover. “I’ll Keep It with Mine” might outdo “If You Gotta Go”, “Percy’s Song”, and “Million Dollar Bash”, but not by much.

Covers better than the original: Chava Alberstein on Sonny Bono’s “Little Man.” Mo Tucker on “Waiting for the Man.” Kim and Reggie Harris on Phil Ochs’ “What’s That I Hear?” and “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be.”

Nobody sings Leonard Cohen (or Townes Van Zandt) better than the originals, but Cale’s “Hallelujah” still trumps LC’s on accounta he loses the Vegas production values.

Posted by on 02/11 at 12:48 AM
For acover that’s better than the original, I’ll give you a bank shot that sinks two balls at once: Little Roger & The Goosebumps singing “Stairway to Heaven,” substituting the lyrics to the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song. Better than either original.

Here’s another one: Yo La Tengo doing “Here Comes My Baby,” which is better than the Cat Stevens original OR the Tremeloes hit version. And I’ll reverse the flow on the Dylan - his cover of “Moon River” is far better than the Mancini original (available on live bootleg)>

Joe Cocker doing “With a Little Help From My Friends” for the Beatles cover, and Randy Travis turning “Nowhere Man” into a great country song.

Good challenges. What else ya got, Michael?

Posted by RJ Eskow on 02/11 at 12:59 AM
Beatles cover: The Breeders, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun”

Dylan cover: P.J. Harvey, “Highway 61”

Best cover: Devo, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

Best cover album: Dump (the bassist from Yo La Tengo) doing the songs of Prince on *That Skinny Motherfucker With the High Voice*

Although, for sheer volume and strangeness, John Zorn’s Tzadik label has a “Great Jewish Composers” series, featuring covers albums of Burt Bacharach, Serge Gainsbourg, and Marc Bolan. Mike Patton doing “Ford Mustang,” or Joey Baron’s solo-drums version of “Alfie,” or Arto Lindsey’s “Children of the Revolution” all collectively kick ass.

Posted by on 02/11 at 01:25 AM
Best Cover of a Beatles Song:
Ticket to ride, by Cathy Berberian

Best Cover (Any Song) that’s Actually Better than the Original:
Stairway to Heaven, by Frank Zappa. (It’s the horn-arrangement of the original guitar solo that does it.)

Posted by on 02/11 at 04:13 AM
Best Dylan cover: “Wheels on Fire” - Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger

Best Beatles cover: “A Little Help from my Friends” - Joe Cocker

Best better cover: either of the above, or else “Morning Dew” - Grateful Dead

Posted by on 02/11 at 08:58 AM
I’ll bet’cha most of those above who have listed Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah as the best Cover of Cohen’s original has never heard John Cale’s version.

And if it counts, Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes do a great cover duet style of “Joan of Arc,” the female voice adding a new dimension--GREAT COVER!!!

Posted by on 02/11 at 10:21 AM
I know this is probably sacrilegious, but I prefer U2’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower” (from Rattle and Hum) to Hendrix’s, which, his cry of the title line aside, always seems a bit lumbering to me. The U2 version is more uptempo and urgent, and came right at the time that Bono was peaking as a screamer.

Worst Cover - that lady who scored a hit 2-3 years back with “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” I hate it not for its badness, but for the principle: 1-hit wonder that scores with someone else’s song. That’s just lazy.

Posted by on 02/11 at 11:12 AM
Best cover better than the original: Annie Lennox’s take on Neil Young’s “Don’t Let It Bring You Down.”

Posted by on 02/11 at 11:33 AM
The Beatles cover of ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ is great.

So, for that matter, is the Flying Lizards’.

Some personal fave covers off the top of my head (whether they “improve” on the original or not):
The Cowboy Junkies: “Sweet Jane”
This Mortal Coil: “Song to the Siren”
REM: “Crazy” (original by Pylon)
Elvis Costello: “(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love & Understanding”
Kirsty MacColl: “A New England”
Bronski Beat: “I Feel Love”
The Clash: “Brand New Cadillac”
kd lang: Jane Siberry’s “The Valley” (kd’s latest is all covers, & includes yet another great cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah")

As for a cover that most definitely does improve on the original: “Can’t Get Used to Losing You” by The (English) Beat.

Posted by on 02/11 at 11:38 AM
Can’t believe The Feelies’ Beatles cover came up about 30 posts before Joe Cocker’s. (I prefer the Woodstock performance of “Little Help...")

Anybody heard N’Dea Davenport’s cover of Bob’s “One More Cup of Coffee”? I’ve grown to prefer it over the original.

And how about Malcolm McLaren’s cover of “She’s Not There” which he calls “About Her”...very nice - totally new yet maintains that soothing, narcotic Zombies vibe...thekeez

Posted by Jeff Keezel on 02/11 at 11:53 AM
A lot of great Dylan covers mentioned, but one I love that I don’t think anyone has brought up is Van Morrison’s cover of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (Beck sampled this on “Jackass” on his Odelay album)

One that almost fits the Beatles cover category and definitely fits in the better than original version category is the Red House Painters cover of “Silly Love Songs”.

Posted by on 02/11 at 11:57 AM
Covers:

Self covering The Doobie Brothers’ “What A Fool Believes” entirely on toy instruments.

It’s not better than the original, but Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt and Emmylou Harris do a pretty remarkable version of “After The Gold Rush.”

Posted by Joe Drymala on 02/11 at 12:24 PM
Best Cover (Any Song) that’s Actually Better than the Original: John Hammond covering Tom Waites on the album “Wicked Grin”. His singing brings out the depth of the writing that Waites somehow slicks over. Or that his voice is too off-putting to put across. Or something- anyway, I never liked the originals as much as these covers. And Waites produced it, so it’s extra good weirdness.

Posted by Liv Pooleside on 02/11 at 12:35 PM
Help, I can’t stop…

Mott the Hoople’s “Laugh at Me” (how can a Sonny Bono cover not be better than Sonny Bono?)

Magnetic Fields’ “If I Were a Rich Man” (is that CD called Knitting Factory on the Roof?)

K. McCarty’s “Walking the Cow” (although pretty much all her Daniel Johnston covers are better b/c her record was probably produced for $2,000 instead of $20)

Posted by George on 02/11 at 01:06 PM
Aretha Franklin: I Say a Little Prayer, RESPECT, Natural Woman

Stevie Wonder: We Can Work It Out

Posted by julia on 02/11 at 01:10 PM
Best Beatles cover - “I Will” by Tony Furtado with Alison Kraus. Turns a pretty song into crystalline beauty.

Honorable Mention - “Got to Get You Into My Life”
by Earth Wind & Fire from the otherwise execrable Sgt. Pepper movie

Best Dylan cover - got to agree with Jame on the “Absolutely Sweet Marie” by Jason and the Scorchers, although for sheer goofy joy, it’s hard to beat “Quinn the Eskimo (the Mighty Quinn)” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. I’m also partial to Bill Shatner’s transcendent “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

Best Cover Ever - I love the way Lyle Lovett’s version of “Stand By Your Man” changes everything and yet is remarkably faithful to the original.

But a special awatd has to go to “Heard it Through the Grapevine.” Three versions (Marvin, Creedence, Gladys Knight), all different, all great.

Gratuitous Two Worst Covers Ever - “Solsbury Hill” by Erasure and “Knock on Wood” by Amii Stewart.

Posted by corndog on 02/11 at 01:11 PM
Is it too late for me to add the Jane’s Addiction cover of “Ripple”? The voting instructions weren’t clear on the one man/ one post thing.

And in the category of Covers of Songs Which Can’t Be Topped But Nonetheless Make a Spirited Attempt: Webb Wilder’s cover of Big Joe Turner’s “Baby Please Don’t Go”, where Webb meets Big Joe in the bridge:

“I said didn’t Howlin’ Wolf
Do ‘Highway 49?’ “
Big Joe said, “Huh!
He triiiiiiied.”

Posted by on 02/11 at 01:33 PM
So am I correct in assuming an apparently unwritten rule that no one can be nominated for “worst cover ever” if they once appeared on Star Trek?

Posted by Chris Clarke on 02/11 at 01:34 PM
God, Big Joe Williams. I’m disqualified.

Posted by on 02/11 at 01:46 PM
Best covers better than the originals:

1. Schneider TM vs. Kpt. Michi. Gan, “The Light” (Smiths cover, on Rough Trade Records’ electronic music history compilation)
2. The Mike Flowers Pops, “Wonderwall” (Oasis cover on grandma’s giant living room organ)
3. St. Etienne, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” (Sarah Cracknell’s voice actually breaks your heart—and you can shake your ass to this version)
4. Quixotic, “Lord of This World” (Black Sabbath cover)
5. The Cardigans, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” (another Sabbath cover—I think it takes a gorgeous female voice to bring out the fact that Ozzy and crue wrote some soulful songs)
6. The Gourds, “Gin & Juice” (hillbilly remake of Dr. Dre classic—with banjos and mandolins)

And George—Yes, it’s called *Knitting On The Roof*, an avant-pop and jazz collection of songs from *Fiddler* on Knitting Factory Recs.

Posted by on 02/11 at 02:33 PM
Beatle-wise, can we count Bowie’s “Across the Universe”? (John Lennon playing guitar might be grounds for disqualification.)

For Dylan, I heard a killer gospel version of “Gotta Serve Somebody,” but I never found out who sang that.

Count me in on the Jeff Buckley.

Aztec Camera’s cover of Van Halen’s “Jump” is also a fantastic reinvention. Roddy is kind of an acoustic hero, but he manages to out-electric Eddie while also making it seem like that song might actually be about something.

And once again we need a new category for things like Springsteen’s “Jersey Girl.” Technically, it’s a cover of Tom Waits’ song, but Waits was channeling Springsteen—right down to the sha la las.

Posted by Fred on 02/11 at 02:45 PM
Jennifer Warnes and Leonard Cohen were mentioned together up-page. Her cover album of Cohen’s songs—Famous Blue Raincoat—is one of the best albums of covers. It’s also one that is often cited as an audiophile’s dream for its production quality.

Posted by on 02/11 at 02:54 PM
i nominate the newishly released Trojan Records Beatles Cover Box Set.

also Catpower’s cover of Moby Grape’s Naked If I Want To is a favorite.

Posted by on 02/11 at 04:01 PM
Best cover that’s better than the original:
“Like a Prayer”—John Wesley Harding

Best cover of a Beatles song:
“All You Need is Love”—Echo & the Bunnymen

Best cover of a Dylan song:
My own rendition of “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” (sadly unavailable to the general public)

Posted by The Continental Op on 02/11 at 04:04 PM
Best Beatles cover: “Got to Get You into My Life,” Earth, Wind, & Fire--oh yeah

Best Dylan cover: “All Along the Watchtower,” Jimi Hendrix, hands down (but confessing a not-so-secret sappy love of Van Morrison with “Tupelo Honey")

and Best Cover Better: R.E.M. with Roger Miller’s “King of the Road"--the sound of fun

Posted by on 02/11 at 04:43 PM
Best Dylan cover: Blowin’ in the Wind - Peter, Paul & Mary

Best Stones Cover: “Wild Horses” - Flying Burrito Brothers (I haven’t heard the Sundays version)

Posted by mistah charley on 02/11 at 06:37 PM
Springsteen’s live version of “War” is pretty awesome. It on his live 75-85 and also on the video anthology.

It just kicks ass, that’s all.

Posted by on 02/11 at 06:39 PM
Joan Osborne can out cover anything and everyone. See her Early Recordings.

Posted by on 02/11 at 09:50 PM
Special Themed Answers:

Best Beatles cover:
Paul Westerberg—“Nowhere Man”
Best Dylan cover:
Paul Westerberg—“Positively 4th Street”
Best Cover that’s better than the original:
The Replacements—“Last Train to Clarksville (I’m In Trouble)”

Honorable Mentions:
Dylan Covers:
“Maggie’s Farm”—The Specials
“On a Night Like This”—Los Lobos
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”—Van Morrison and Them make Dylan’s most devastating song very pretty.

Beatles Covers:
“Everybody’s Got a Ticket to Ride Except For Me and My Monkey”—Beatallica

Covers:
“Sin City”—Beck & Emmylou Harris do a bang-up job on Gram Parsons’ best song, and the Mekons make it sort of an apocalyptic sing-along.

“Let’s Dance”—The Ramones do the mother of all ironic punk covers, and no one has surpassed them.

Worst Cover Ever, That, Through It’s Badness, Somehow Surpasses the Original, Which Was Mawkish And Annoying:
Bob Dylan—“The Boxer”
On his notoriously awful album “Self Portrait,” Dylan duets with himself, singing one part in his old-fashioned “Freewheelin’” voice and the other in his slick “Nashville Skyline” voice, and makes Paul Simon, who never liked him, sound ridiculous for writing such a trite song to begin with.

Posted by Alex on 02/11 at 11:01 PM
Worst cover ever:
Britney Spears doing ‘Satisfaction.’ Incomparable. The ‘Battlefield Earth’ award.

Joan Baez did a record of Dylan covers called ‘Any Day Now’ that was great, a long time ago.

Posted by on 02/11 at 11:50 PM
I can personally attest to the fact that I’ve seen that Joan Baez album in Michael’s house. Nick and I had the courage to listen to it once, and it’s quite painful. These days I shudder when I chance upon it in a record store.

As for best cover that improves on the original, I would like to suggest Cibo Matto’s reworking of “The Candy Man.” Any band that could have rendered such disgusting tripe listenable deserves some credit.

Posted by Arthur on 02/12 at 04:47 AM
Best cover-better-than-the-original: Cat Power, “Satisfaction.” She strips out the chorus and central riff, and what remains is stark, beautiful, heartbreaking.

For the record, I’ve never heard John Cale’s version of “Hallelujah,” but I can’t stand Jeff Buckley’s. His delivery is too breathy.

Posted by on 02/12 at 12:43 PM
Joan Jett, “Love Hurts”

Best cover ever!

Posted by on 02/12 at 03:09 PM
Hadn’t thought of this until now. I’ve heard one of my favorite Beatles songs, “Strawberry Fields Forever,” covered beautfully not once but twice: by Cyndi Lauper and Michael Penn. The first in a John Lennon TV tribute, the second in a studio appearance on WFUV. I don’t know if either one’s been committed to CD...anybody?

Posted by on 02/12 at 09:27 PM
Ohmigod...it just occurred to me that no one’s mentioned Sid Vicious’ version of “My Way” at all...neither as best nor worst cover. That’s kind of weird.

Posted by on 02/12 at 09:30 PM
The best cover of a Van Morrison song with a quote from the Beatles in it: The Waterboys’ version of “Sweet Thing” includes a brief quotation of “Blackbird.” I love their “Sweet Thing,” but am not prepared to say it’s better than the original; and the “Blackbird” quote hardly qualifies as a cover. But I will go out on a limb and say the Waterboys do the best cover of a song that includes both Van Morrison and the Beatles. And I might even call their “Sweet Thing” the best cover of a song that’s still not better than the original. Because we can make up our own categories, right?

An Austin, TX string band that goes by the name of the Meat Purveyors does great covers. One of their albums has astounding covers of both “Round and Round”, the Ratt song, and the ABBA classic, “S.O.S.”. I think the former may be better than the original, though of course it’s highly unlikely with the latter.

Posted by on 02/12 at 10:12 PM
I must agree that the best cover of a Beatles song is Happiness is a Warm Gun by the Breeders. Although Rufus Wainwright singing Across the Universe is very satisfying as well.

Best cover of a Dylan song is a tough call but I personally prefer the very recent version of Youre Gonna Make me Lonesome When You Go by Madeleine Peyroux. Hendrix and others mentioned above are classics but having heard them so many times they do not feel fresh anymore.

Best Covers ever that improve the original

Cassandra Wilson’s cover of Time After Time (on her Miles Davis tribute album) and Holly Cole’s version of Tango Til They’re Sore (on her Tom Waits cover album)

Posted by Brenna on 02/13 at 01:56 AM
Covers better than original:

Miles Davis - Michael Jackson’s Human Nature
Talking Heads- Take me to the River (Al Green?)
Tuck and Patti - Time After Time.
Bonnie Raitt - Prine’s Angel from Montgomery
Arlo Guthrie- City of New Orleans (Steve Goodman)
Gary Jules - Mad World (definitely!)

Posted by Chris Moore on 02/13 at 05:51 AM
Worst cover ever: Joan Baez’ version of ‘No Woman No Cry’.

Probably not best cover ever, but still pretty great: Dick Dale’s version of ‘Ring of Fire’.

Best cover album: Richard Thompson’s ‘1000 Years of Popular Music’. “"The idea for this project came from Playboy Magazine - I was asked to submit a list, in late 1999, of the ten greatest songs of the Millenium. Hah! I thought, hypocrites - they don’t mean millennium, they mean twenty years - I’ll call their bluff and do a real thousand-year selection.” Includes all sorts of things from Provencal to Gilbert and Sullivan ("trying to render an Arthur Sullivan orchestration with acoustic guitar and snare drum is pretty desperate stuff") to my candidate for most improbable cover that doesn’t suck: Richard Thompson’s version of ‘Oops, I Did It Again’.

Posted by hilzoy on 02/13 at 08:09 PM
Interesting covers--not necessarily better, but . . . Joan Osborne--"Axis: Bold as Love” (Hendrix); also like her cover of “What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted”
Emmylou Harris--"Goodbye" (Steve Earle)

Obscure Dylan song, covered superbly by Jerry Lee Lewis--"Rita Mae”. Petty’s version of Dylan’s “License to Kill”.
I prefer the Byrds’ “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” to Dylan’s version, but not by a wide margin.

Emmylou’s version of “Icy Blue Heart” is better than Hiatt’s, and I like her version of “Pancho and Lefty” better than Townes’ or Willie’s--much more haunting, in my estimation.

Best Cover Album?--probably Merle Haggard’s cover of all Jimmie Rodgers’ songs on “Same Train, Different Time”

Best cover of a Neil Young song--"Down to the Wire” by Kathi McDonald, from the “Insane Asylum” album, which also includes a good cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Somethin’ Else”

The Stones’ live version of “Little Queenie” is better than Chuck Berry’s.

Favorite version of “Over the Rainbow"--probably a tie between Jerry Lee Lewis and Izzy (the Hawaiian whose name I won’t try to spell)

Posted by on 02/14 at 04:31 AM
Oh yes, and a special mention for Two Nice Girls double cover of the Velvets’ Sweet Jane and Joan Armatrading’s Love and Affection sung in counterpoint. Truly brilliant.

Posted by on 02/14 at 08:21 AM
I agree with quite a few of the posts, especially Cibo Matto’s take on The Candy Man, Devo’s Satisfaction and Richard Thompson’s Oops, I Did It Again. But there are 3 others I can think of off the top of my head that are noteworthy. First isn’t really a cover since he is in the band, but Adrian Belew does a great acoustic guitar version of King Crimson’s Dinosaur. Next is Geoffrey Oryema’s version the Talking Heads song Listening Wind.

And, finally, we have the coup de grace of covers. A song which I can never figure out if I’m laughing more “with” it or “at” it - but rest I assured I’m laughing my ass off each time I hear it: Vanilla Fudge’s absolutely ridiculous, over-the-top cover of You Keep Me Hangin’ On.

Thanks MB - fun idea!

Posted by on 02/14 at 05:36 PM
Best Beatles remake: “Two of Us” Aimee Mann & Michael Penn

Best Dylan remake: “All Along the Watchtower” Jimi Hendrix.

Best remake better than the original: “Always on my Mind” Pet Shop Boys (sorry, Willie Nelson).

Posted by Maven on 02/17 at 04:41 PM
Can’t agree with Maven:

Vanilla Fudge - Beatles: great cover of “Ticket To Ride.”

And any band that can cover Diana Ross/Supreme’s “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” without disappearing into oblivion deserves at least an honorable mention - and some days I think it’s awesome! (oh, wait, they did disappear...)

Posted by on 02/19 at 12:16 AM
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Posted by Veterans Day 2014 on 10/28 at 01:22 AM

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