Arbitrary But Fun Friday: Insufferable Music Snobbery Takes the Helm
Hi everyone!
Whoops! I’m from Texas. Let me try that one again.
Howdy, y’all!
It is my great honor and pleasure to be pulling down guest-blogging duty with Lance Mannion while Michael is away. At my blog Pandagon, which I’m sure y’all are aware of, we are big on talking up progressive politics, pro-queer feminist politics, centrist-Democrat bashing, wingnut-mocking, our overblown egos, and we even occasionally discuss what’s in the news. But my true love is Insufferable Music Snobbery, which is why I was chomping at the bit to kick off this guest blogging stint with an Arbitrary but Fun Friday.
Sexier than Neil Young and smarter than Mick Jagger. (From here.)
My choice of a topic isn’t nearly as specific as some of Michael’s can be, but I’m hoping it’s no less fun. And it’s only arbitrary in theory; in practice, I have a specific reason it’s on my mind, which is that I’ve been helping a friend put together a mix CD dedicated to cover songs. So here it is:
What makes a great cover song? I don’t mean just the myriad of good cover songs out there, but the really stand-out cover songs.
In my never-humble opinion, I suggest that while both good and great cover songs should be enjoyable on their own merits, what a great cover song brings to the mix is that it functions as a commentary on the original song. Sometimes the commentary on the original provokes conversation, sometimes just laughter, but mainly it makes you think about the song just beyond simple enjoyment.
So, in the process of putting this mix CD together, my friend and I find ourselves gravitating towards songs that provoke at least the laughter, and hopefully the conversation. When Michael does these Arbitrary but Fun Friday topics, he usually sticks to one example, but I couldn’t limit myself. Here are some of my favorite great cover songs:
“I Heard It Through the Grapevine"--The Slits. This one counts as great because it’s just as listenable as the Marvin Gaye or Gladys Knight version, but it couldn’t be more different. The Slits are amateurish and sloppy, and the Motown versions are polished and mature. It upends the preconception that the quality that makes a performance “good” is ever going to be something as simple as technical skill.
“Superstar"--Sonic Youth. This is my pick for the subcategory of great cover songs where the cover is so good it makes you rethink a song you otherwise would loathe.
“Walking the Cow"--Mike Watt. It’s easier to get people to see the much-ballyhooed genius of Daniel Johnston when they hear Mike Watt cover this song in his strangely heart-breaking fashion.
“Let It Be"--Aretha Franklin. Franklin takes a deplorably maudlin Beatles song and turns it into a stunner, makes the shallow pseudo-philosophical lyrics come off as genuinely moving.
“Lola"--The Raincoats. I’ve yet to meet a person who isn’t amused by this off-kilter song where female vocals take the place of the original’s male narration about picking up a woman in a bar only to find out later that she’s a man. The layers of fucked-up-ness are delightful.
All sorts of cover songs by Devo. Devo are the kings of the great cover song. They’ve got a knack for remaking songs in such a way that it permanently renders the original boring due to a lack of sardonic yet poppy weirdness. Their most famous cover song is ”Satisfaction”, of course, but I’m very fond of their version of ”Ohio” as well.
But I’ll admit, my all-time favorite Devo cover is their version of ”Head Like a Hole” where they take the tediously dark song and manage to rock it the fuck out. I wouldn’t say “Head Like a Hole” provokes a deep reaction, but it does make people say, in so many words, “Reznor got PWNED!” Who can’t get behind that sentiment?
The flip side of this is cover versions that are so bad they actually make people enjoy the original version less. The classic example of this is “I Will Always Love You”, a fine Dolly Parton song that was damn near permanently ruined by Whitney Houston’s cover of it.
Leave your suggestions and/or tell me I’m nuts in comments. If you find this topic as fun/fascinating as I do, I have a couple follow-up links. First of all, check out this blog that’s dedicated to nothing but MP3s of cover songs--Copy, Right? And if you like cover songs and you like airy French female vocals--and who doesn’t?--check out this band Nouvelle Vague. These French producers dug up some singers and got them to sing a bunch of punk and post-punk songs from the early 80s in various lounge-y styles. The kicker is that the singers had never heard the songs and are working off the sheet music. I recommend their covers of “Guns of Brixton” and for laughs, “Too Drunk to Fuck”.
I’m going to have to add the Indigo Girls cover of The Clash’s Clampdown. It adds to the original by incorporating the Indigo Girls’ sort of hippie-folky guitar instead of the hard driving beat of the Clash version, giving it a much more rebellious feel.
On the other hand, my all time favorite cover is Aerosmith doing Come Together. It sounds exactly like the Beatles’ original version, so it doesn’t have that commentary feel to it you talk about, yet somehow it is infintely better, and no one I know has ever figured out why.
Posted by on 05/12 at 07:45 AMMy favorite all-time cover is Joe Cocker doing “A Little Help From My Friends.” That one always blows me away. He took a little Beatles ditty and turned into this amazingly soulful anthem. And the back-up singers! Amazing. Whenever I am practicing my guitar, and trying to work up cover tunes I am always inspired by Joe and his vision.
Oh, and a close second, Eva Cassidy doing “Who Knows Where the Time Goes.” Seems almost perfect.
Posted by on 05/12 at 08:18 AMNot in the fun category - but I think Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” easily meets your criteria - it both added depth to Cash as an artist and to the original Nine Inch Nails version.
I give credit to Devo for successfully covering the Stones - generally hard to do. Melanie’s “Ruby Tuesday” another rare one that worked. (For instance, in my view Bowie’s “..Spend the Night..” failed.)
A separate category is probably appropriate for songs where the cover absolutely seized “ownership” of the song. “Respect” would be the archetypical example.
Finally - another useful web resource is Secondhand Songs.
Posted by on 05/12 at 09:00 AMIn terms of commentary, probably the sharpest approach in a cover is the Minutemen’s version of ‘Ain’t Talking about Love,’ in which they do some kind of high modernist reduction of the Van Halen to its purest (in)essentials. You remember that it’s pretty much all the “hey! hey! hey!”
Or the Negativland cover of ‘Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.’ The sort of commentary, there, that can kneecap the band and pull back the curtain on the monster that is Greg Ginn.
Where does Judas Priest’s “Green Manalishi (w/ the 2-Pronged Crown)” stand in relation to the Fleetwood Mac original? I’m of a mind that this cover is the best Priest song, except that I just realized I like it so much because it’s not weighed down by the Priest tropes: leather, machines, and, uh, leather.
I saw Calvin Johnson and Amelia Fletcher (indie rock stars, natch) do a cover of the Spice Girl’s ‘Wannabee’ at the same time it hit the Top 40. Use of that? Doing things with songs, in that their performance, before we (being the uptight hipsters) quite knew we liked the song, granted us permission to rock it to the Spice Girls. Good thing? Not irreparably bad.
There’s this Stevie Wonder Beatles cover that I love: can’t remember which song it is though. Allergies.
--
Now I’m wondering about covers at all. What elements have to be in place for there to be ‘covers’ rather than ‘continuations,’ ‘versions,’ or ‘revisions’?
Posted by on 05/12 at 09:06 AMOh, BTW,
I give credit to Devo for successfully covering the Stones - generally hard to do.
Cat Power ‘Satisfaction’ is by far the best Stones cover that I know.
Posted by on 05/12 at 09:07 AMRe: Nouvelle Vague.
It isn’t “various loungey styles”—it’s bossa nova. That’s the cute semantic game being played, because “new wave"="nouvelle vague"="bossa nova” in their respective languages. So Nouvelle Vague plays new wave songs in the bossa-nova style.
I saw them at Joe’s Pub and they were great fun.Posted by on 05/12 at 09:16 AMDevo’s cover of ‘Satisfaction’? Worked.
Devo’s cover of ‘Are You Experienced’? Not so much.Tangenting from that ...
The only cover of a Devo original I’ve heard was Soundgarden doing ‘Girl U Want’. Different, but faithful to the spirit of the original. (Although apparently Robert Palmer (?) also covered that one.)
And Jimi gets my nod for the best cover of ‘All Along the Watchtower’.But my personal fave cover would have to be Urge Overkill’s version of ‘Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon’.
Posted by on 05/12 at 09:34 AMThe Feelies’ “Everyone’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey” is an old fave. Points to the Rezillos for bringing back “Ballroom Blitz” on their live album.
For Stones covers, check out “Dead Flowers” by Townes Van Zandt. He actually sounds like he’s “in his basement room with a needle and a spoon and another girl to take his pain away”...thekeez
Posted by Jeff Keezel on 05/12 at 09:38 AMFor me, the best era of covers is during the late 70s and early 80s when young upstarts were needling their elders.
The Dickies—Nights in White Satin. So full of meth, it puts to shame the lazy arena AOR crowd. And a ripper of a guitar solo.
The Cure—Foxy Lady. I think this is my favorite cover of all time. Real quirky and lo-fi. I think this is putting the stamp of the new generation on the old stuff. Reverent and irreverent at the same time. This, I think, is The Cure at their best. Their first album (I have to get all Hi-Fidelity and say their first IMPORT album) is so different from everything else they’ve done.
The Stranglers—Walk on By. Put forward without comment.
Posted by on 05/12 at 09:39 AMDon’t forget “Working in a Coal Mine” by the Devolved Ones. As for Dylan covers, I’ve always been partial to the over-the-top Dixieland cover of “The Mighty Quinn” by The Hollies (?!).
Posted by norbizness on 05/12 at 09:40 AMI have a whole passle of songs in mind. And actually, since most of my bands have been concept cover bands, I have thought about this a LOT. It’s surprsing how many pop songs can pretty much ONLY be done the way they were originally done. Like “Melt with You” by Modern English. You slow that sumbitch down, it turns into droning sludge. You speed it up, it’s unsingable and unlistenable. You have to stay in that midtempo chuka, chuka groove.
I agree that most covers usually hit that sweet spot of laughing first, then maybe paying attention. But the really good ones, you don’t even know what the song is until you’re a ways in. And if you lastest that long, it’s maybe a better version than the original. Or at least as interesting.
Some of the covers I like better than the originals:
“Head Over Heels” (Go Gos)
The Lascivious Biddies. The Biddies are sort of a jazz act, and they do lots of covers (mostly in their live shows). Including “Ask” (Smiths), and “Fire” (Hendrix).“Hit Me, Baby, One More Time”
Fountains of Wayne and Travis both do covers of it. The Travis one is live, and the whole crowd is sucked past the initial ironic laughter to a an ironic sing-along.“Ring of Fire”
This gets covered a lot, but two standouts are by Social Distortion and Wall of Voodoo.Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a cover-only act, and they take their East Bay punk approach through Barry Manilow and James Taylor and Billy Joel and lots of soft rock nightmares.
Oh, and this guy named Tom Waits does a nice cover of Rod Stewarts’s “Downtown Train.” Little scratchy, but nice.
Posted by MoXmas on 05/12 at 09:40 AMA good cover should (a)sound authenticly like the performing artist-- like something they mean rather than something they just like; and (2) provide a worthwhile commentary on the original. Funny, I was thinking about this last night when Liz Phair’s “Mother’s Little Helper” popped up on my iPod’s suffle. Phair’s cover does neither of thos things, and was plainly done because it seemed like a clever idea. Phair’s best work was intended as a commentary on the Stones, so why not have her do a Stones song? The problem is that the Stones’ original irony, and Phair’s ironic sensibility both got washed out somehow. Since the rest of the recording is pretty close to the original, what we are left with is the rather humdrum observation that Phair is not as interesting a singer as Jagger-- and the feeling that you just wasted 3:02 that could have been spent with the Stones.
Rod Stewart, “Heard it Through the Grapevine” is an example of how it can work: classic soul, filtered through a Scottsman’s sensibilty-- you know he heard the song on the radio and loved it, but he doesn’t imitate, he creates-- and puts his own stamp on it.
801 Live-- Brian Eno et al covering “Tomorrow Never Knows” makes the song something new, and captures something interesting about it that you would never notice in the original.
Linda Rondstat, interestingly, can nail it sometimes ("Willin‘“
or completely botch it. ("Tumblin’ Dice” establishes, perhaps, just how dificult it is to cover the Stones. “Alison” is just wrong.)
Is there a better cover than Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower”?
Posted by Bill Altreuter on 05/12 at 09:40 AMat the aggressive end of the continuum, there’s the revolting cocks’ cover of ‘let’s get physical,’ which does things to that song (and to the vocal cords) never dreamt of in olivia newton john’s philosophy. i suppose this kind of cover is typically akin to the motivated parodic ‘signifyin’ gates finds exemplified in coltrane’s ‘my favorite things,’ and while that yields some briliance, i find myself more often (the sublime coltrane excepted) enjoying things more like karl the grouchy describes (johnson and fletcher covering ginger, posh, baby, et al). another favorite of mine is discount’s ep of billy bragg covers (’love, billy’
, especially their version of ‘waiting for the great leap forward.’
my own band (merchant bankers, formerly natalie merchant bankers, formerly the naff) lets its roots show with two covers of which i’m quite fond—a country-acoustic ‘anarchy in the u.k.,’ and an encore blowout ‘it’s not unusual’ (including the brilliantly simple jimmy page guitar break). i’d direct you to a link but we ain’t got one; you gotta come to northampton and catch us live.
Posted by on 05/12 at 09:43 AMAs for Carpenteralia, all the songs on that “If I Were a Carpenter” album are pretty good, but I enjoy Babes in Toyland’s “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Spacecraft,” because it sounds like they lose interest in doing it about halfway through… and don’t forget that Otis Redding did “Satisfaction.”
Posted by norbizness on 05/12 at 09:43 AMCommentary is certainly all over covers, and I definitely think some of the best covers are done out of hatred, actually. Hatred of the original song, even (or especially) as you sing along with them. I always assumed the Devo cover of Satisfaciton is in that vein, because, you know, FUCK the Rolling Stones.
But the best covers are clearly done out of love for a good song, but done in totally different way.
So the best cover of all time is Cake’s “I Will Survive.”
Posted by MoXmas on 05/12 at 09:55 AM(BTW, this whole concept of covers seems purely a phenomenon of recorded pop music. I’m not sure you’d call blues or country songs that have played a thousand times “covers”. Probably you’d call them “standards”. Like the 15,000 versions of “Sweet Home Chicago”, or the 10,000 covers of “I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight”.)
(Previous parenthetical brought to you by the Dept. of Duh.)
Posted by MoXmas on 05/12 at 09:56 AMSharon Jones and the Dap Kings recast “What Have You Done for Me Lately” as a 1971 funk workout, leading you to question whether Janet Jackson really did the original.
Kronos Quartet translates Television’s “Marquee Moon” into different stringed instruments. Very pretty. I mean haunting. Yeah, haunting.
William Shatner’s “Common People” won’t make you giggle like his “Lucy in the Sky”; it’ll give you chills. Enough so that I deleted the original from my iPod and kept his.
Although there’s a recent surplus of isn’t-this-ironic-white-people-covering-that-wacky-bitches-and-hoes-
hip-hop-nudge-nudge-wink-wink, the Gourds’ bluegrass “Gin & Juice” stands on the genius of replacing Snoop’s drawl with a different kind. And it moves where the original burbled.The (English) Beat’s “Tears of a Clown”: Jaunty/Bittersweet!
Posted by on 05/12 at 10:00 AMOh, and I posted a version of this comment over at Amanda’s digs, but one of my favorite covers is Bananarama doing the Sex Pistol’s delightfully nasty “No Feelings.” I have it on some soundtrack album for a movie I’ve neither seen nor heard of—seems to be something of a British teen sex comedy.
Posted by on 05/12 at 10:02 AMI almost forgot. The Cardigans are seriously into covers, since many of their members used to be a heavy metal band. So their first couple of albums have covers of Black Sabbath songs. “Iron Man” and “Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath”.
They also do a good cover of Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys are Back in Town”
Posted by MoXmas on 05/12 at 10:08 AMNo, there is not a better cover than “All Along The Watchtower,” although I also really like the Sonic Youth cover of “Superstar.”
Not to get all blog-whorey, but I made up a playlist last year that consisted of nothing but covers of “Satisfaction,” and examined what sort of satisfaction each artist seemed to lack. It would seem to fit the spirt of this here conversation. Here’s what I wrote about Devo:
“This version is probably the most faithful to the spirit of the original, with a palpable sense of ennui remaining intact, despite the deconstruction of the original’s blues-based structure. However, Devo takes a different strategy for dealing with their dissatisfaction than did the Stones. Devo decides, instead of adopting a recognizably defiant pose in the face of a hostile and oppressive society, to simply try to become difficult to understand.”
Posted by TravisG on 05/12 at 10:13 AMSoft Cell, “Tainted Love”
The Who, “Summertime Blues”
Toots and the Maytals, “(Take Me Home) Country Roads”Posted by Jeremías on 05/12 at 10:17 AMBauhaus have an amazing cover of Brian Eno’s “Third Uncle.” Unfortunately, it’s the first track on the otherwise miserable “The Sky’s Gone Out” - it’s only worth buying if you can find it in a bargain bin, and then only for that one song.
Their cover of “Ziggy Stardust” is pretty good, too.
And Radiohead’s cover of Carol King’s unfairly mocked “Nobody Does It Better” borders on the sublime. That one is bootleg-only, but it’s worth breaking the law for - it reminds me that a) Carol King is way better than I want to admit, and b) When he wants to, Thom Yorke can really, really belt out a note, especially when it’s that sweet spot smack in the middle of his range.
Posted by Mark S. on 05/12 at 10:18 AMI like that Radiohead cover, too, but that’s Carly Simon who does the original. (Don’t be afraid to admit Carol King’s greatness; she wrote a lot of amazing songs for other people, and her own renditions aren’t too shabby.) Justus Köhncke, who records for techno label Kompakt, does a strangely enjoyable, German-language cover of Carly Simon’s “Coming Around Again,” called “Alles Nochmal.”
Along the same lines of that Melanie cover of “Ruby Tuesday” is Brazilian singer Rita Lee’s gusto-fied wah-wah and Hammond version of The Beatles’ “And I Love Her.” Additionally, Scissor Sisters do sick and perverted things to Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” which they recast as the Bee Gees on E.
Posted by TravisG on 05/12 at 10:39 AMPoint of order: is Janis’ Bobby McGee a cover? If not, then Kris Kristofferson creates an interesting sub-category.
The Sid and Nancy the Movie version of My Way worked as a sort of shock therapy for me. Drained of the original formaldehyde packaging, that’s a hell of a song.
I’ve heard of a Glen Campbell cover of Subterranean Homesick Blues out there somewhere, tried to imagine it. I can’t.
captcha: blue. The note?
Posted by black dog barking on 05/12 at 10:53 AMTravisG reminds me of a very different, yet also compelling, take on “Comfortably Numb” by Dar Williams (w/AniDeFranco). Warning for some: no guitar solo - but it is hauntingly beautiful and she has explicitly linked it in commentary to the current state of our collective political souls.
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:02 AMI’ll have to second Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt”; the song works so much better from a bitter old man ("What have I become, my sweetest fried. Everyone I know goes away in the end.") than the almost whiny adolescent woe-is-me screed from Trent Reznor.
Worst cover I’ve heard would have to be Sheryl Crow’s orchestrated and defanged non-anthem “Sweet Child of Mine”.
A question on definition: did Pearl Jam’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” count as a cover when it was performed on stage with Neil Young?
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:06 AMThe best person to cover, in my view, is Bob Dylan, with the aformentioned “All Along the Watchtower” Jimi Hendrix version being the cream of the crop. And it was Manfred Mann, not the Hollies, who did his “The Mighty Quinn” (technically not a cover, for it was the first recording released).
What I am bothered by is the contemporary use of the word “cover” for different versions of a song. Initially, “covering” meant matching the sound of a recording by a black band by a white band, so that it could be marketed to white audiences. It was a disgusting practice and I am sorry that meaning has been lost--because the resonations of “cover” still linger in our popular music.
Of course, there have also been covers of white bands by other white bands, particularly American bands covering British and European originals. The Shadows of Knight covered Them’s “Gloria,” for example. “Der Commissar” by FALCO was put out in an English-language version that varied little from the original by After the Fire.
Somehow, I find it demeaning to the song and artist to call something like the Hendrix “All Along the Watchtower” a cover. He wasn’t stealing from Dylan the way the real cover bands were stealing from other artists.
To me, that makes all the difference in the world.
Posted by Aaron Barlow on 05/12 at 11:23 AMBach: Concerto for Four Harpsichords, BWV 1065 (after Vivaldi, L’estro armonico, # 10 (4 violins)).
Mozart: Fandango, Le nozze de Figaro, III (Finale). (After Gluck, “Don Juan” (Ballet)).
Beethoven: “Diabelli” Variations, var. 22. (After Mozart, “Notte e giorno faticar” (Don Giovanni).
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Be damned to all barbarians!
NL
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:28 AMI’ll agree with Social D.’s “Ring of Fire” and Cake’s “I Will Survive”, and throw in the Lemonheads with “Mrs. Robinson”.
Hmmm.... looks like I like my covers louder and faster…
Cake’s cover of The Guitar Man is pretty good too.
Posted by Marita on 05/12 at 11:30 AMnot to pile it on, but here are a few of my favorites…
1. “head on” by the pixies (after the jesus and mary chain)
2. “take me to the river” by talking heads (after al green)
3. “mama told me not to come” by wolfgang press (after three dog night)
4. “sunday girls” by family fodder (after blondie)
5. “pressure drop” by the clash (after jimmy cliff)Posted by john mark on 05/12 at 11:35 AMWell, back in the day it was nearly all covers of a sort. Hard to top the Isley Brothers’ “cover” of the Cool Notes’ “Twist & Shout”, but I guess there the original was just a first shot, waiting for someone to nail.
It’s interesting when the gender changes - Otis & Aretha’s “Respect”, on several levels Marc Almond doing Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” with the line “Don’t say I can’t go with other boys” which works for Almond but not for Gore.
The Burritos made their name doing country covers of soul songs - “Dark End Of The Street”, “Do Right Woman”.
Hopeton Lewis does an incredibly moving version of “Spirit of New Orleans”.
Carpenters did lots of covers. “Calling Occupants” was originally by “Klaatu”, which is another story.“I’ve always been partial to the over-the-top Dixieland cover of “The Mighty Quinn” by The Hollies (?) “ - Manfred Mann. Dylan quotes them as being his favourite coverers, probably because they got the songs into the charts so regularly.
Posted by dave heasman on 05/12 at 11:36 AMI agree with what the earlier poster said about a great cover coming from the love of a good song, and that Cake’s I Will Survive is an excellent example.
But a great cover can come from hatred of a crappy song, too: viz. the Sex Pistol’s “My Way”. In Sinatra’s mouth it is a mawkish, self-satisfied lie, and the Sex Pistols turn it into something much more honest (as well as making it a whole lot more listenable.)
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:38 AM"“pressure drop” by the clash (after jimmy cliff) “ After Toots & the Maytals
Posted by dave heasman on 05/12 at 11:39 AMI second the nomination of “comfortably numb” by the scissor sisters. As I’ve argued in previous comments, it is far superior to the original.
Flaming Lips’ Bohemian Rhaposdy borders on the obsessive. Don’t know whether it’s good.
Has a good cover ever appeared on a “tribute album”?
CVB’s “Pictures of Matchstick men” ain’t bad.
Back to the books…
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:53 AMaztec camera did a wonderfully narcotized cover of van halen’s “jump” that can still make me laugh just thinking about it.
on the other end of the spectrum, i’ve also looked at radiohead a little differently since listening to brad mehldau cover several of their songs (especially “paranoid android” on “largo")
captcha: “country” --which reminds me that, in contrast to “Hurt”, Cash’s cover of U2’s “One” was a double-whammy: after hearing that (once), I recognized it as a terrible cover of a weak-ass song.
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:59 AMJumping in, here are some of my favorite covers that I don’t see listed above--
“Bigmouth Strikes Again” by Treepeople (The Smiths)
“Nasty” by Killdozer (Janet Jackson)
“Ain’t Talkin About Love” by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (Van Halen)
“Turning Japanese” by Skanking Pickle (I forget)
“You Really Got Me” by Van Halen (The Kinks)
“Have Love Will Travel” by The Black Keys (Richard Berry)
“Big Bottom” by Soundgarden (Spinal Tap)
“Alec Eiffel” by The Get-Up Kids (Pixies)
“I am a Rock” by Me First and the Gimme-Gimmes (Simon and Garfunkel)I like cover songs that are a meta-commentary on the original (e.g. “Hurt” by Johnny Cash), but I also loves me a cover that just has <i>fun.
Posted by on 05/12 at 12:01 PMMy question at the end of #4 still stands, and partially as a counter to Norm L. Versions/appropriations/revisions/continuations don’t count as ‘covers.’ Pure and simple, a cover requires an author function, but clearly that’s insufficient. Continuations of the grail romances are certainly an hommage to the author function of Chretien de Troyes: so where do we go from here?
If we’re doing Bauhaus, their cover of ‘Telegram Sam’ is clearly their best. Commentary? If you want it there.
Best Sonic Youth cover? ‘Touch Me I’m Sick.’
The Nirvana version of Kiss’s ‘Do You Love Me’ is significant is an apres-coup sort of way.
Norm: I once ripped some Beethoven (can’t remember which: it wasn’t too obvious) off as the bass line for a hardcore punk act I was in.
Posted by on 05/12 at 12:02 PM<iThe only cover of a Devo original I’ve heard was Soundgarden doing ‘Girl U Want’.</i>…
Sin 34 did a very punk cover of Devo’s Uncontrollable Urge.
Another fave is Hüsker Du’s cover of 8 Miles High
Posted by on 05/12 at 12:04 PM"Oh, and this guy named Tom Waits does a nice cover of Rod Stewarts’s ‘Downtown Train.’ Little scratchy, but nice.”
Um, no. That is wrong on so many levels: first, Rod Stewart covered Tom Waits (not vice versa). Tom Waits wrote/performed Downtown Train; Rod Stewart butchered it.
Posted by on 05/12 at 12:09 PMI’m with the Johnny Cash fans, though my money is on “Rusty Cage.” It couldn’t be more different--from grungy barbaric yawp to country/western lamentation. But what makes the cover so good is that it preserves a key element of the original: the anger (even if it’s tempered with age in Cash’s case).
Posted by Lance on 05/12 at 12:10 PMI like Joe Cocker’s version of “With a Little Help From My Friends,” but I prefer the original. Cocker is comparatively bombastic where Ringo is sweet, and hey, isn’t that what friendship is all about? Fun Boy Three’s version of “Our Lips are Sealed,” is good, but again, I still prefer the original. One cover I do like is when Marc Almond sings “Where did our Love go?” at the end of “Tainted Love.” That is much more moving than the Supremes’ version. “Tainted Love” is also a cover, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard the original. “Money” is the first song by the Beatles I really like. Bryan Ferry does lots of covers, oddly enough I think “A Hard Rain is Going to Fall” is the best. I’ve enjoyed Dave Marsh’ rock criticism and he says he prefers Aretha Franklin’s version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” to the original. I do not, I think this is his Motown snobbery kicking in. Personally my own conspiracy theory is that Paul Simon tends to be ignored because he is short, quiet, middle-class and Jewish, and rock likes to be sexually aggressie and pretend that it is populist in a George W. Bush/Bryan Adams way. I’ve enjoyed GNR’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” but everyone else thinks that it misses the point (by contrast their “Live and Let Die” is much less interesting. It’s competent, but it adds nothing to Paul McCartney.) Joan Baez’s “The Night they Burned Dixie Down,” is one of my favorites, and so is Marc Almond’s version of “Something has gotten hold of my heart.” I suppose my favorite cover is Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” which does expand on the Prince version rather nicely. But arguably my favorite cover is when the Beatles covered themselves, covering “She Loves You” for the final few seconds of “All You Need is Love.” The effect is remarkable.
Posted by on 05/12 at 12:12 PM#24: The Sid and Nancy the Movie version of My Way worked as a sort of shock therapy for me. Drained of the original formaldehyde packaging, that’s a hell of a song.
Well said. That’s an amazing moment in that movie.
I’m kinda fond of Richard Cheese’s (yes, it’s a stage name) _Lounge Against the Machine_. Covers/parodies a bunch of countercultural classics in Vegas lounge-style, with surprisingly interesting results.
And MoXmas (#11): Waits wrote that song, and it was Stewart who covered it (with syrup).
Posted by on 05/12 at 12:17 PMIf a parody can count as a cover, then I’d say the best version of “With a Little Help From My Friends” is John Belushi’s, but only if you have the video as well as the audio.
Posted by Lance on 05/12 at 12:19 PM” It upends the preconception that the quality that makes a performance “good” is ever going to be something as simple as technical skill.”
This is the same reason I love the Minutemen cover of Steely Dan’s Dr. Wu. And all of their other covers too. And I would hate to leave out Ciccone Youth’s version of Into the Groove(y).
Posted by on 05/12 at 12:31 PMNina Simone’s 1964 cover of ”Pirate Jenny,” which brilliantly turned the song into an anthem of fantasized revenge against white supremacy.
Worse cover of all time? Barbara Streisland’s version of “Send In The Clowss.” In the original version, sung by Glynis Johns, the song was small, authentic and touching. Streisland turned it into a kitchy vocal show-off piece. Blech.
Posted by Ampersand on 05/12 at 12:32 PMAny cover by the Residents, and Money by the Flying Lizards is sublime.
Posted by on 05/12 at 12:41 PMRalph, Lee:
I don’t want to play dueling Male Answer Syndrome, here. But since:
1) Rod Stewart’s cover is one of the most despised covers of all time (yet one of the most successful); and
2) Tom Waits is one of the most covered artists out there;
it might have occurred to you guys that the comment was, in fact, a joke.
Next time, I’ll add a laugh track, for clarity.
Posted by MoXmas on 05/12 at 12:54 PMPartisan, you should go out and track down the original Gloria Jones version of “Tainted Love” at your earliest possible convenience. The Soft Cell version is fantastic, sure, but the original is just ... wow. Instant excitement, maybe? Like, drop everything you’re doing and start jumping around?
I always thought the Pixies would do a terrific job on “Bigmouth Strikes Again.” Give it a listen and see if you can’t imagine Frank Black barking the chorus and Kim Deal cooing those high-pitched “bigmouth” vocals.
Posted by TravisG on 05/12 at 12:55 PMThe original of “I Believe I Can Fly” made me want to smack somebody. But Me First and the Gimme Gimmes open their version with a little ukulele action and then seague into a west-coast punk riff shouting that they do believe they can fly. One comes to understand that line between saccharine soul ballad and the mutterings of an angry meth-head are mighty fine. I love those guys.
Posted by Caro on 05/12 at 01:09 PMHas a good cover ever appeared on a “tribute album”?
General suckiness certainly abounds in that realm. However, I can unreservedly recommend the themed “tribute album” Bleecker Street. To my ear it contains no absolute stinkers and several standouts including: an appropriately in-your-face “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” by Larry Kirwan/Black 47, John Cale/Suzanne Vega on a not-just-another-Cohen-cover of “So Long, Marianne”, and a well-done Marshall Crenshaw rendering of Dylan’s underappreciated “My Back Pages”.
Posted by on 05/12 at 01:12 PMHas a good cover ever appeared on a “tribute album”?
I think A Vision Shared (1988), Folkaways’ tribute to Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, is a pretty good album.
Posted by Jeremías on 05/12 at 01:19 PMfor all-time cover suckiness, no one will ever top joan baez’s pig-ignorant butchery of “the night they drove old dixie down.” unlike robbie robertson, who did his research, she doesn’t know the history, so she “sings” howlers like “till so much cavalry came...” instead of “till stoneman’s cavalry came.” and then there’s her singing. people who love her voice are going to have explain how their angel could puke all over a swell tune like “the night they...”
as for the much less interesting topic of GOOD cover versions, lately i’ve been enjoying the red house painters’ version of “long-distance runaround.”
oh, and anything the indigo girls touch instantly turns to teh suck. just sayin’.
Posted by on 05/12 at 01:38 PMHas a good cover ever appeared on a “tribute album”?
There’re several standouts (and few clinkers) on the Doc Pomus tribute CD, Till The Night Is Gone, including Roseanne Cash’s “I Count The Tears” and Brian Wilson’s “Sweets For My Sweet.” I just plugged the best, Shawn Colvin’s harrowing “Viva Las Vegas,” in a longer post on the question of covers over at Amanda’s home site <http://pandagon.net>.
This two site thing is a little confusing for the hard of thinking among us.
Posted by on 05/12 at 01:41 PMA cover I have a soft spot for is the Shadows of Knight’s “Gloria” (the Van Morrison song, recorded by Them - the Doors version is great, too).
The Rod Stewart video of “Downtrain Train” was out in the days I used to watch videos, and I really liked it.
Speaking of videos (in a way) the Cream 2005 Live at Albert Hall do a great cover of Cream’s “We’re Going Wrong”. When I first got the dvd I was shocked at how bad Jack Bruce looked; then I read that he’d come through cancer and a liver transplant, and I realized he looked great.
Something else from dvds - was anyone else surprised the first time they saw Peter Gabriel as a fat bald man with a white beard? It seems natural, now, but at first it gave me a shiver - Mr. Reaper’s coming after me, too.
Posted by on 05/12 at 01:47 PM"Only Love Can Break Your Heart” as covered by St. Etienne.
Posted by Sadie Baker on 05/12 at 01:49 PMFor my money, few can beat Mudhoney’s cover of “The Rose.”
Posted by on 05/12 at 01:57 PMGood tribute album cover song: Afghan Whigs’ cover of “Lost in the Supermarket” (The Clash).
Posted by Lance on 05/12 at 01:57 PMit might have occurred to you guys that the comment was, in fact, a joke.
Well, now, that indirectly raises the question of whether there has ever been a good cover of someone else’s blog comment. I think Cake’s cover of Chris Clarke’s “Battle of the Hemp Beret” is about as good as it gets in that department.
Posted by on 05/12 at 01:58 PMHas a good cover ever appeared on a “tribute album”?
Even though I’n not really a Disney person per se, I love the album Stay Awake. It’s a collection of covers of songs from Disney’s “classic” animated films. It was put together by Hal Willner, who’s done similar “tributes” to Thelonious Monk and Kurt Weill.
Ya got Tom Waits growling “Heigh Ho [The Dwarfs’ Marching Song]”, Sun Ra and His Arkestra’s loopy take on “Pink Elephants on Parade”, the Replacements stumbling through “Cruella De Ville” ... what’s not to like?Posted by on 05/12 at 02:14 PMfor all-time cover suckiness, no one will ever top joan baez’s pig-ignorant butchery of “the night they drove old dixie down.”
I know I am engaging in scope creep here by gettng into the Muzak area - but you ain’t heard Dixie driven down until you’ve heard this James Last rendition. (mp3 sample on the linked page for your listening horror.)
Posted by on 05/12 at 02:24 PMPersonally, I always get vast entertainment value out of ska versions of film soundtracks, eg: Desmond Dekker’s ‘007’, The Skatalites’ ‘Guns of Navarone’, the Third Man theme by the Granville Williams Orchestra.
I’ll also echo the votes for Scissor Sisters’ cover of ‘Comfortably Numb’, and Soft Cell’s version of ‘Where did our love go’ is indeed a thing of beauty.
Posted by sharon on 05/12 at 02:29 PMAs far as bad covers go ... both Bonnie Raitt and Dave Edmunds, two artists who I otherwise respect, have covered NRBQ’s “Me and the Boys.” Neither cover is particularly terrible, except they both do it in straight 4/4 time, which the original was not. It’s the lurching, hiccupy flow that gives the song its charm, IMO.
(Speaking of Ms. Raitt, I always thought it was a crime that her version of “Thing Called Love”, and not the John Hiatt original, got all the attention. Again, nothing against her, but I feel the lack of attention Hiatt’s received through the years is a terrible shame.)
Posted by on 05/12 at 02:32 PMCry Cry Cry (Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Shindell)is a whole set of amazing covers that make me think differently about the originals, especially their version of REM’s “After the Fall.”
Seu Jorge’s translations of Bowie are a great twist on the cover concept.
Posted by on 05/12 at 02:38 PMI would nominate Richard Thompson’s CD “1000 Years of Popular Music,” on which he accomplishes something I would have thought was impossible: turning a Britney Spears song ("Oops, I Did It Again") into something enjoyable. And, actually, the theme of the song fits very nicely into the themes he’s built his post-Fairport Convention career around.
The Afghan Whigs did a number of very nice covers during their career, especially of Motown (or Motown type) songs. I think Greg Dulli basically said that their intent was to make the music match up with the lyrics, since so many of those songs had upbeat danceable music behind lyrics of loss and despair (e.g. “Come See About Me” and “Band of Gold").
Neko Case does a *beautiful* version of Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain” and of “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” although I wouldn’t really say she’s reinterpreting them. I just love her voice.
Finally I would suggest the Meat Purveyors, for their reinterpretations of a variety of songs into bluegrass, including Ratt’s “Round and Round”, Abba’s “S.O.S,” and the Madonna Trilogy: a medley of “Lucky Star”, “Burning Up”, and “Like a Virgin.”
I guess for me the common theme is that each band finds a lyrical theme that is appropriate, maybe even more appropriate, to a different genre than the one in which it was originally recorded and then puts the song into that new genre.
Posted by on 05/12 at 02:43 PMIn those days before so many mediocre non-musicians could operate multiple track dj machines, “cover” bands were a staple of the entertainment business (weddings/parties/ events), the capacity to have access to live performances of music that is appreciated by select groups of audiences (how bad were those niche cover bands? can you say Rain and not puke). Most bands begin by playing covers, learning their chops as a band, choosing music that the members find particularly suited to their tastes. We used to call these garage bands, and there are some amazingly competent ones still out there; Government Mule is perhaps one of the very best with the broadest possible range and sensibilities.
But this gets to the core of KGM’s question: several commenters referred to the choice as “versions,” rather than covers. Why?? If Amanda’s question was about which original songwriter/artist created a song, or a collection of material, from which others chose to emulate and “cover,” as the best, then we do need to speak of genres of rock. If we are talking about which specific bands played the most respectful passionate version of another’s song, then we need to focus on those single recordings (it seems from comments above, this is the most common thematic element so far). My personal preference is to discuss garage bands (but so what), and thus i mention one (or more) other one, about whom too little attention is paid--- Frank Zappa’s various manifestations and bands. Talk about “Ring of Fire?”
Posted by on 05/12 at 02:46 PMA big shoutout to Girlyman covering “Son of a Preacher Man” in their live performances. Sublimely twisted.
And I’ve always thought Gollum should cover “Ring of Fire.”
Posted by on 05/12 at 02:47 PMNobody’s mentioned Tina Turner’s cover of “Proud Mary”? It’s a good one for the stage show, what with the backup singers and the doo-doo-doo-DOO and the trumpets and all.
I’ve a fondness for Hole’s cover of “Gold Dust Woman,” which rocks out the way a song about a black widow bitch queen should. Also, “When The Levee Breaks” was an old blues song before Led Zeppelin covered it, and while I haven’t heard the original I do think their version is quite good (in that it restrains Robert Plant from that godawful screeching he thinks he needs to do).
On the flip side of that coin, when do you cross the line between “sampling” and “covering”? There’s this really annoying Moby album whose name I can’t remember, I think it’s called “Let’s Raid The Library Of Congress,” and one of the songs is just a Bill Landford joint with a little beat stuck behind it. Feh.
Posted by on 05/12 at 03:04 PMCan I do a “worst cover”?
Now, I may have (mis)spent my childhood on the Jersey Shore (adjacent to Asbury Park) as a little punk rock girl, but that does not mean that I do not have an enormous soft spot for the Boss. Accordingly, the ELO cover of “Blinded by the Light” makes me want to go on a shooting spree.Posted by on 05/12 at 03:07 PMTribute albums almost always suck ass—and inevitably feature Sheryl Crow doing another lame & unwanted AOR version of a once-great song—but there is a bright spot now & then. (And with itunes or a “file sharing” system, you can pluck a few good ones off the stinkpile & move on.)
There are a few awesome covers on an ‘80s tribute album called “Deadicated.”
Jane’s Addiction does some kind of magic with “Ripple,” a song I hated until I heard this otherworldly cover.
Dwight Yoakam kicks nine kinds of ass covering “Truckin’,” and Warren Zevon’s cranky version of “Casey Jones” is great fun. The whole record was a bit of a revelation for me ... who knew there were good songs under the fucking Grateful Dead’s incompetent noodling?
And the “Return Of The Grievous Angel” Gram Parsons CD has a handful of swell versions, with an incredibly trashy Wilco version of “100 years from now” & Chrissie Hynde/Emmylou Harris doing “She” at the top of the list.
Other goodies not mentioned already: the Stones’ “Ain’t too proud to beg,” Johnny Cash’s “One” (u2), the Clash’s “I fought the law” (obvious but still great).
Posted by Ken Layne on 05/12 at 03:07 PMJustus Köhncke, who records for techno label Kompakt, does a strangely enjoyable, German-language cover of Carly Simon’s “Coming Around Again,” called “Alles Nochmal.”
My ex-girlfriend Celine Keller used to be in his band, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard anybody else mention him. When she was with him, she sang a cover of Robert Wyatt’s cover of Chic’s “At Last I Am Free”. (Around the same time, ny own band started covering the song, but neither of us knew about the other version.)
Posted by J Neo Marvin on 05/12 at 03:08 PMOh, wait. That terrible cover was Manfred Mann, wasn’t it?
Posted by on 05/12 at 03:11 PMOh, wait. That terrible cover was Manfred Mann, wasn’t it?
How did they manage to turn “cut loose like a deuce” into “wrapped up like a douche”, anyway?
Posted by J Neo Marvin on 05/12 at 03:16 PMBack in the eighties, The Flying Lizards did techno-pop covers of rockabilly and Motown hits. The cool part was the utter deadpan affectlessness of the female vocalist chanting things like “Goodness. Gracious. Great balls of fire.” or “Money. That’s what I want.”
The Word I Must Enter To Post, which some of you kids call “captcha” or something, is “lack,” as in, ironic lack of affect.
Posted by on 05/12 at 03:20 PMI’m partial to Negativland’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”
And yes, they pay me to say that. Or would, if they had any money.
Posted by Roxanne on 05/12 at 03:27 PMOn another subtopic, there is some distinction, however fuzzy, between “cover” and “standard.” As Karl TGM grouched in #37, “cover” requires an author-function; I think it has to be that the original writer/performer owns a distinct recorded sound.
Ampersand mentioned “Pirate Jenny” at #45. I grew up with Joan Baez’s version from some late ‘50s album. Weill songs are standards, I think; even though they have an author-function in having a songwriter, there isn’t a popular recording of the original “sound.”
The original racist sense of “cover” that Aaron Barlow mentions at #27—I dunno, that’s neither a cover in the current sense nor a standard. Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” _covers_ Big Mama Thornton’s very literally
Posted by on 05/12 at 03:32 PMI’ll mention two covers by the Cowboy Junkies: of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” and of Neil Young’s “Powderfinger.”
Posted by on 05/12 at 03:42 PM"Saran Wrap” covered by the Cowsills. Stunning.
Posted by on 05/12 at 03:52 PMI second Dr. K’s mention of “Sweet Jane” from the Cowboy Junkies. One of my favorite covers.
Posted by on 05/12 at 03:54 PMSybill (#67), at the risk of flaming (and I have to log off now too, so I really am not trying to start an argument), I think all of Led Zeppelin’s versions fall under the definition of “cover” that means “theft.”
Posted by on 05/12 at 03:57 PMre #60: thanks, JP Stormcrow...I think.
word up to whoever mentioned “return of the grievous angel.” it’s what all tribute albums should aspire to. the cowboy junkies’ cover of “ooh las vegas” is viciously good.
Posted by on 05/12 at 04:01 PMThe Clash cover of The Crickets’ “I Fought The Law” for no other reason in that it totally tears it up. Or what about their cover of Toots and The Maytals’ “Pressure Drop?” Another outstanding cover and it captures the passion of the original. In fact, it captures my mood lately to a T. Its a metaphor for what I feel all around me--pressure and a building dread.
“Oh yeah pressure drop a drop on you/I say when it drops, oh you gonna feel it/Know that you were doing wrong.”
When the pressure drops, when the political situation changes for those of Babylon (Bushco), they are going to feel it in a serious way. I can’t wait.
Posted by myrna the minx on 05/12 at 04:26 PMA good cover is one where you imagine the original artist saying, “Damn! Wish I had done it like that.”
Okay, so that excludes Wendy Carlos’ Beethoven covers for A Clockwork Orange.
Can’t add to the excellent list above except Joe Jackson’s kicker-asser version of Peter Green’s “Oh Well.”
BTW, can folk and country covers really be called covers? Traditionally, they’re duplicates. A lot of folk and country tunes that aren’t covers still manage to sound like covers.
Posted by David J Swift on 05/12 at 04:40 PMO.K., the Replacements’ live cover of “I Got You Babe” and their knock-off of “Like A Rolling Pin”, both great drunken fun. . . the latter is available on their official compilation, but the former, I can’t recall, maybe one of their widely circulated boots ("When the Shit Hits the Fans” or “Shit, Shower, Shave” . . . there’s a theme in there somewhere. . .) I think it was recorded from a disastrous show at CBGB’s. . . The Talking Heads cover of the Rev. Al Green’s, “Take Me to the River” . . . . I actually like Nouvelle Vague’s “I Melt With You”. . . . the Sex Pistols cover of “Roadrunner” which is excerpted in “The Filth and the Fury”. . . Bert Parks covering “Maggie’s Farm”
Posted by on 05/12 at 04:43 PMI once heard this band from Liverpool, England that did wicked covers of Chuck Berry, Goffin/King, Burt Bacharach, Arthur Alexander and The Isley Brothers songs. That was years ago, I can’t remember their name for the life of me…
Oh, best current cover bad - The Detroit Cobras, pants down.
Posted by Michaelw on 05/12 at 04:55 PMI/m very fond of a tribute album dedicated to Richard Thompson and called “Beat the Retreat.” There are several great covers on there.
One of the kinds of covers I’m a sucker for is the kind where a girl sings a guy song (or vice versa). One of my favorites is Shawn Colvin’s version of Steve Earle’s song “Someday.”
Posted by on 05/12 at 05:05 PMCatpower’s version of Satisfaction is interesting in a slow dirge like way, but I’ll take Television’s cover as the ultimate deconstruction/cover.
Posted by Michaelw on 05/12 at 05:14 PMSeveral have said it, I’ll chime in: Hendrix’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower” is the greatest cover of all time. I think even Dylan would agree.
That being said, I agree with Ken Layne about “Deadicated.” That album has some really good covers (beyond what Ken mentioned)including The Indigo Girls doing “Uncle John’s Band” and Los Lobos doing “Bertha.”
The Cowboy Junkies’ recent album “21st Century Blues” is all about covers: “License to Kill” (Bob Dylan” and “Isn’t it a Pity” by George Harrison being among the best.
Posted by on 05/12 at 05:19 PMCover songs always seem to reveal the matchlight that lights up a band’s passion. If done right, the cover tune sounds like the first tune the band ever warmed up with or the song that got whomever interested in playing together in the first place. I’ll toss in a few that may have long passed under the radar.
Big Country doing Roxy Music’s ‘Prarie Rose.’
Roxy Music’s version of ‘Jealous Guy,’
‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ by Cafe Jacque,
and Bufalo Springfield’s ‘Bluebird’done by the James Gang.Posted by on 05/12 at 05:45 PMA couple of people mentioned the Pixies, and somebody even mentioned Kim Deal, but somehow nobody made any reference to the Breeders’ cover of “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” which is one of my favorites. It strips the original of its (admittedly ironic) male pomposity and makes the violent metaphor at its core more explicit. Plus it just drives in a really interesting way, largely due to the fact that they were just such a wonderfully bass-heavy band.
In a similar vein, the Dead Kennedys’ version of “Viva Las Vegas” does a good job commenting on the original; the altered lyrics (eg. “got coke up my nose to dry away the snot") paint the narrator of the song in a much more sinister light.
But as far as pure sonics go, I’d say my favorite cover is the Sugarcubes doing the VU’s “Sweet Jane.” Bjork’s vocals make it so exhilarating.
Posted by on 05/12 at 06:04 PMlotsa great stuff here, but I think Hendrix’s “Watchtower” still stands....the Stones’s “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” is a WORST cover in my book....and I gotta say, often overproduced, sure, but Rod Stewart is a far better singer than Tom Waits’ll ever be: too bad he turned down “Sixteen Blue”......finally, the two I have left after reading the thread is Al Green “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?” (fil) and Wang Chung’s “Hot in Here” (file under “English adjectives fail to describe....”
Posted by on 05/12 at 08:13 PMPS--oops: Al Green’s.....file under “sublime”
Posted by on 05/12 at 08:15 PMnick- Tom Waits is a god among men. this is a litmus test in my life, whether or not you “get” Tom Waits.
Arthur- thanks for mentioning The Breeders version of Happiness is a Warm Gun.
Also Yo La Tengo’s Little Honda...I think it gets more to some of those hard days for Wilson.
Saw they were listed here, but seconds or thirds for Cowboy Junkies’ Sweet Jane and The Flying Lizards’ version of Money...that second cover so perfect as the soundtrack for Dubya’s life...holding hands with Bandar Bush...Harken bailed by Bahrain...Yale on Daddy’s dime and reputation...ah, legacies.
Neko Case’s version of Look For Me (I’ll Be Around)… Bobby Darin’s Mack the Knife and Beyond the Sea… Brian Setzer Orchestra version of Sleepwalk. (just in case you wanna go retro)
Etta James on Etta James Rocks the House- Baby What You Want Me To Do. --because she is the thang. She also has a great version of Money on there. The whole cd is fine. Recorded live at The New Era Club in 1963.
Posted by on 05/12 at 08:22 PMOK. All Along the Watchtower has been nominated way too many times without mentioning one unique interpretation of said tune:
XTC (White Music). Done in a way only XTC could, although they totally disown much of their early music. I just love Andy Partridge’s phrasing. It all bears so little resemblance to the original.
As for Tribute Albums:
Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye (tribute to Roky Erickson. Nearly all the songs are great, with the exception of REM’s contribution. Two great takes on the same song (Reverberation (Doubt)) by Jesus & Mary Chain and ZZ Top. Who could ask for more?
Posted by on 05/12 at 08:44 PMEasy (the Lionel Richie tune), by Faith No More. Only Women Bleed by Carmen McRae.
Posted by Randy Paul on 05/12 at 09:47 PMRickie Lee Jones mournful cover of “Walk Away Renee”, which was also covered, somewhat differently by Billie Bragg....Shawn Colvin (sp.) also covered “viva Las Vegas”....
Posted by on 05/12 at 10:41 PM"Everlasting Love” covered by U2.
Posted by on 05/12 at 10:58 PMMy favorite is still Otis Redding singing White Christmas. (And I kinda like at least the first Bing Crosbie recording, if not his 50’s remake.)
My daughter has a CD of Elvis covering awful songs from the early 70’s by people like Bobbie Goldsborough and making them sound almost decent.
By the way, I can’t tell you how old it makes me feel to hear My Back Pages called “underappreciated.”
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:09 PMTool’s cover of The Cure’s whiny Love Song. I only mention it because 311 covered it a little while back and got a bunch of radio play for a very boring version. They 311-reggaed it up, big whoop. Tool, who have their own brand of whininess, I think really satisfies your ‘interesting commentary on the original’ requirement nicely.
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:32 PMHusker Du’s 8 miles high.
Patti Smith’s version of Downtown Train tops Waits and Stewart
Luna’s dopey version of Bonnie & Clyde
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:40 PMMacha & Bedhead do a lovely version of Cher’s “Believe”; they turn up the melancholy and eliminate the bombast and actually turn it into a song worth listening to.
There could be an entire thread devoted to great Yo la Tengo covers, but I’ll cast my vote for “The Whole of the Law.” Spare and beautiful.
Also, I don’t know if they’ve ever put it out on record, but Built to Spill do “Freebird” like it’s meant to be--just blows the doors off wherever they’re playing. It’s great, because all the young alter-natives want to be all ironic about it, but it just absolutely rocks out with cocks out (sorry for the masculo-normativity).
Oh, and yeah, “All Along the Watchtower” is genius, but Talking Heads’ “Take Me to the River” is pretty awesome too.
Posted by on 05/12 at 11:46 PMOK, I know I’m coming late to the party, but three of my favorites were suggested earlier: Radiohead’s version of “Nobody Does It Better” and Travis’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”
But no one, so far, has mentioned Wilco’s cover of Steely Dan’s “Any Major Dude Will Tell You” (on the Me, Myself, and Irene soundtrack). It’s definitely a commentary and it’s an unexpected song/artist pairing, and yet makes a weird kind of sense, too.
And I’ve always liked R.E.M.’s version of “Pale Blue Eyes” (Velvet Underground), available on _Dead Letter Office_.
And how can y’all have overlooked Sabbatum (I think that’s their name), the medieval chant version of Black Sabbath?! (I’m looking at you, Karl.)
Posted by Dr. Virago on 05/13 at 12:43 AMmash ups like riannann’s tainted love (sos), p diddly’s numerous backing tracks, even vanilla ices beautiful thefts are the new covers.
Posted by on 05/13 at 01:23 AMDV: Just got home from a retirement party for a coupla medievalists, but somehow I made it through these comments. But I gotta say: I’ve avoided the medieval covers of Sabbath. I prefer my Sabbath straight (and I’m sorry to say that my Sabbath love tends to stop at Ozzy, which I’m afraid makes me kind of a poser, yeah?).
But DV, I do go with the REM. Is that the one where they screw up all the lyrics more or less deliberately? I like it, much better, say, than the Feelies ‘What Goes On,’ but not so much as Galaxie 500 ‘Here She Comes’ (or for that matter their cover of Joy Division’s ‘Ceremony’
or Modern Lovers’ version of ‘Foggy Notion.’ So far as the often-covered VU go.
Now, #74, I refer you to #4. #86 I refer you to #5. #75, but clearly an author function is not enough, per my Chretien de Troyes example.
Tribute albums: #37, where the Nirvana album comes off a kinda obscure Kiss tribute album. The Shonan Knife album I remember as having a few gems on it.
Various commenters on garage bands: right. Is it fair to call the Sonics a garage band? BTW, there’s a Sonics tribute album that clearly does not suck. I mean, can you imagine Thee Headcoats doing a Sonics cover badly? Of course not.
==
James: thanks for mentioning mashups. Should we mention them in the same breath as David Foster Wallace’s disavowed book on hiphop?
Posted by on 05/13 at 02:26 AMIs it fair to call the Sonics a garage band?
I mean, cover band. And the VU song the G500 cover so well is “Here She Comes Now.”
Sorry!
Captcha: ‘look,’ as in ‘look what you write before you write it.’
Posted by on 05/13 at 02:34 AMCan I put in a bid for Two Nice Girls’ 1989 cover of the Velvets’ “Sweet Jane” and Joan Armatrading’s “Love and Affection” simultaneously and in harmony. Brilliant!
Posted by on 05/13 at 07:58 AMChristina’s cover of Peggy Lee’s “Is that All There Is?” is well worth tracking down, even if you have to buy a turntable.
And shouldn’t there be a special “Pat Boone” award for really bad covers?
Posted by on 05/13 at 08:57 AMJust a quick add to the conversation: If there was a band roadie hall of fame, one of its founding members and honorees would be a guy named Ramrod, who is laying on his death bed this day, terminally ill from cancer. Ramrod was at his best when he would so smoothly provide amps and cables for guest musicians and singers sitting in for various songs at Grateful Dead concerts. And in honor of Ramrod, and this discussion, i nominate the Allman Brothers/Grateful Dead (w/ Peter Green sitting in as well) version of the Donovan song, There is a Mountain, that was recreated on that night at the Fillmore East in 1970. Reprised a few other times when those two bands would come together, prior to Duane’s death, with a final, ripping version played at Watkins Glen in 1973. The Donovan original was stupid, the Allman/Dead brilliant. Thanks Ramrod!
Posted by on 05/13 at 12:45 PMA Love Bizarre and Come Together - Michael Hedges
Hurdy Gurdy Man - The Butthole Surfers
Dear Prudence - Souxsie and the BansheesPosted by on 05/13 at 01:09 PMLet’s see, good covers:
Aztec Camera - Jump (Van Halen) Slowed way down
Trash Can Sinatras - To Sir, with Love
Echo & the Bunnymen - People are Strange (Doors)
“ - Paint it Black (Rolling Stones)
Innocence Mission - Moon River
The Ocean Blue - There is a Light that Never Goes Out
Natalie Merchant - Sally Ann
Beck - Everybody’s gotta learn sometimePosted by esposito on 05/13 at 02:36 PMIf covers sang in a different language count, then I nominate Celia Cruz’s cover of I Will Survive, Yo Vivire.
If not, I want to change the rules.
Posted by on 05/13 at 02:55 PMActually, this entire CD of covers is pretty interesting: Paul Anka doing big band covers of heavy metal tunes.
Posted by Randy Paul on 05/13 at 05:38 PMNew Order “covered” Joy Division’s version of “Ceremony”. . . Caitlin Cary has a wonderful cover of the Continental Drifters’ “I Want to Learn to Waltz With You”. . .
Posted by on 05/13 at 06:04 PMI’m glad Aaron @ #27 mentioned the original use of “cover”, and pointed out that the practice goes relatively unnoticed/unbemoaned. Perhaps because so many of us listeners found our way back to those originals (or didn’t) through initial exposure to the coverers?
Also I have to ask, if someone hasn’t already: when is a song not a cover but a total transformation? And what if you’re in a genre where elements of the song experience are already seen, positively, as particular and separable? As I skim the comments, I keep thinking of DangerMouse’s Grey Album, which was made possible in part by hip hop artists’ practice of releasing a cappella tracks for DJs to remix. If Jay-Z’s verses are completely intact on a song with a new bed of Beatles, is it a cover of Jay-Z?
Posted by on 05/13 at 06:57 PMI like Sinead O’Connor’s recent version of Peter Tosh’s “Downpresser Man.”
It really is a cover—an interpretation which respects the original but remakes it—instead of a theft, which is what a lot of classic reggae songs have endured (who shot the sheriff, again?). My taste for Sinead’s music is limited, so I don’t know about wanting the whole album of Irish reggae (I don’t know how many are covers).
But I like that one.
Posted by on 05/13 at 11:49 PMhands down, my fav (devo aside, and if i had a nickel for every time i wrote those two words together...) cover song(s) has got to be the extended mix of tainted love/where did the love go by soft cell, the first half of which has been mentioned, but the segue between the two songs in the extended version is incredibly mind-blowing, because you never expect the supremes to pop up over the pulsing, slowly building electronic beat after such a wonderful version of gloria jones.
i always wanted to do a radio show called “you can’t judge a song by its cover,” with nothing but cover songs, natch. of course, the best cover songs add a new dimension to the original work; ergo, stuff like common thread, an album of 90’s country & western singers doing the eagles with the exact same arrangements are not even worthy of discussion, so, sorry i brought it up.
also good: livin’ in the usa linda ronstadt
just my imagination the stones
love roller coaster red hot chili peppers
just a giggilo/i ain’t got nobody axel roseand, i only heard it once, and didn’t catch the name of the band (help me out here kids) but i absolutely loved a cover of “and then he kissed me” sung by an all-boy band, played perfectly, if you’ll pardon the pun, straight.
i’m waiting to hear a cover of tubular bells.
Posted by skippy on 05/14 at 12:10 AMsorry kids, just remembered another brilliant devo knock-off band, the flying lizards, did a bang-up job with “money.” hear it if you can find it...haunting, laissez-faire goth-don’t care female singer backed by banjo and loud syn percussions. high-larious!
Posted by skippy on 05/14 at 12:15 AMmy bad! prudence goodwife already mentioned the lizards...sorry!
Posted by skippy on 05/14 at 12:39 AMAretha’s “Pink Cadillac” and Patti Smith’s “Because the Night” both make good on the Boss. Take that Manfred Mann.
Posted by on 05/14 at 12:49 AM118 just mentioned P Smith - - let’s not forget her cover of “Gloria”.
But the resason I stopped by was to point out that while a couple of people have mentioned Richard Thompson, I don’t think anyone has pointed out that the Del McCourey Band’s cover of RT’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” makes it sound like the song is older than the internal combustion engine. In a good way.
Posted by on 05/14 at 01:38 AMThe Hollies (with Graham Nash) did an entire album of Dylan covers; one of the best cuts is “I Shall Be Released.” The import version is still available through Amazon (http://tinyurl.com/l62gd), but unfortunately there’s no listening to the tracks there.
Posted by Linkmeister on 05/14 at 03:30 AMDinosaur Jr. does a version of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”. My guess is that they were sick of hearing a bunch of pretentious wussy made-up “rock” musicians with big hair on the radio and MTV in the guise of “alternative rock” and took it all out on this song. (Personally, I like the first Cure CD, but not their version of “Foxy Lady").
And I don’t know how I could have forgotten the Redd Kross cover of “Sunshine Day,” originally done by the Brady Bunch, on the “Lovedolls Superstar” soundtrack (which also features their - Redd Kross’, not the Brady Bunch’s - song “Beer and Ludes").
Posted by on 05/14 at 10:22 AMAw, shucks, I can play this dumb game too, and even dumber.
How about Pat Boone:
Ain’t That a Shame
I Almost Lost My MInd
Blue Suede ShoesThe nec plus ultra of covers!
NL
Posted by on 05/14 at 10:45 AMNot to sound overly pedantic, but I believe the cover of “Walkin’ the Cow” is in fact all of fIREHOSE (on _Flyin’ the Flannel_ if I recall correctly...), not just Watt, even though he sings and plays most of what’s going on in the recorded version of the song. I know at least Ed is playing *some* guitar in the background over the top of Watt’s heavily plucked bassline.
Posted by on 05/14 at 11:21 AMSkippy-
Apology accepted, thank you for the civility.
Posted by on 05/14 at 12:40 PMJeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
Posted by on 05/14 at 01:20 PMThe only remotely interesting music that I’ve heard from John Mayer is an acoustic cover of “Kid A” (the song, not the entire album). It’s obviously no improvement on the original, but the actual feat of turning that song into a somewhat ho-hum tune is somehow impressive.
Guilty pleasure: The Future Bible Heroes’ cover of The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.” Kind of fun, despite the predictable and somewhat perfunctory gender swapping.
Posted by e. fiction on 05/14 at 01:29 PM<i>Dinosaur Jr. does a version of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”.<i>
Other great Dinosaur Jr. covers:
“Show Me The Way” (Frampton)
“Quicksand” (Bowie)
“Going Blind” (Kiss)
“Lotta Love” (Neil Young)
Posted by on 05/14 at 05:30 PMCover albums varying between great and shite, not mentioned is Annie Lennox’s Medusa with the high light (of many) being Waiting in Vain. Bob must of been proud of that one! Cover or standard who gives a buck when Ry Cooder can resurrect I love you because, the Jim Reeves version being my nemesis and my father’s fav when I was needing to rebel. Thank god Jimi came along with ‘Watchtower’and every body grew their hair just to personally annoy him!
The best covers are of course the ones you don’t ralise are1Posted by on 05/14 at 06:43 PMPrudence, I was guilty of the same transgression as Skippy, but I didn’t even realize it until he apologized for it. And I _did_ read the comments, too. Just couldn’t hold it all in my head.
Sorry.
Posted by on 05/14 at 10:31 PMfor all-time cover suckiness, no one will ever top joan baez’s pig-ignorant butchery of “the night they drove old dixie down.”
sixpence none the richer’s version of “there she goes” and no doubt’s version of ‘it’s my life” both come pretty close
as for the much less interesting topic of GOOD cover versions, lately i’ve been enjoying the red house painters’ version of “long-distance runaround.”
that one’s pretty good, but the other two covers on that album, “all mixed up” and “silly love songs,” are better
Posted by on 05/14 at 11:23 PMI’ve got to agree on the “author-function” criterion, even though it nixes both of Amp’s examples: my father, who predates the singer-songwriter era, cannot grasp the concept of “cover” as it’s used in discussion such as this one. But what to do, then, with “Mama Told Me Not to Come”? Is the “original” 3DN’s or Newman’s performance?
Pandamanda is, I think, right about what makes a great cover song; but the commentary on the original could be no more than, “Hey, this song also works as [x].” Hendrix is exemplary as a success at that kind of reinterpretation, while most covers that fail spectacularly, such as the Holly Cole Trio’s hard-driving version of Patty Larkin’s quiet and tentative “I Told Him My Dog Wouldn’t Run” are unsuccessful attempts to make that point.
Dixie catastrophe notwithstanding, Joan Baez has many good covers. But do any make it into the category of Great? Maybe one of the Steve Earle or Greg Brown pieces from her current repertoire?
Posted by on 05/15 at 03:23 AMI’d like to nominate Eric Clapton for a lifetime Pat Boone bad cover award. If one is going to cover Robert Johnson, one should understand the lyrics. If one is going to interpret reggae, one should do more than repeat the original arrangement with less complex rhythm. Am I just a crank, or is this right?
Posted by on 05/15 at 07:22 AMSloppy for polished, goofy for serious. Fast for slow, slow for fast. Creepy for frothy.
I like covers where you finally hear the lyrics, or hear them so that you understand them for the first time or understand them for the first time in a different way. I am reminded of a grinding version of Scott MacKenzie’s “San Francisco (Wear Flowers)” ten years after the original to which my friend commented “pass the vasoline.” People in motion. People in… motion.
Posted by Bob in Pacifica on 05/15 at 09:48 AMSomeone said, “Blinded By The Light” by ELO as the worst cover. I think that was a later version of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band who did that. Personally, I disliked ELO’s remake of The Move’s “Do Ya” which had great, raw crunch. Granted, Jeff Lynne the composer was in both bands, but the original was better.
I do know that Manfred Mann also covered the Bacharach song “My Little Red Book” at around the same time as Love did. Don’t know who of the two first did it, and it was done by others earlier, but Love’s version was an awesome two minutes. Broke the top forty too, turning what was essentially a show tune into jagged folk rocker with that wild acid-blasting freak soul singer Arthur Lee growling in front of that weird rhythm section.
Posted by Bob in Pacifica on 05/15 at 10:10 AMAnd Bob, you’ve surely heard that Arthur Lee has been kicked out of the Love reunion act? His ‘new’ band decided they could do old Love songs better than the man himself, since the man himself is so threadbare.
So that throws us into a nice deadend of q’s of authenticity.
#122, see #106.
Per Author-Function: where do we stand on works written by some group of studio whizzes who farmed the work out to whatever group they thought would best perform it? Is it possible to ‘cover’ ‘Sugar Sugar’? Which version of ‘All Around the World’ is the original? Little Millet or Little Richard?
BTW, Norm, saw Mozart’s Mass in C-Minor at Carnegie Hall Friday night. I though the cribbed-together Dona Nobis Pacem stunk up the room. You’ve any opinions on this latest version of the work?
Posted by on 05/15 at 01:58 PMKarl, did not hear that. I actually saw them (and the Zombies!!!) at the Great American Music Hall around 18 months ago. Lee wasn’t hitting the high notes as gracefully as back then, but it was a good show. From what I know about Arthur Lee, he’s always been difficult (like in 3 strikes difficult) and so I wouldn’t be surprised he found himself on the curb again.
However, Colin Blunstone can still hit the high notes.
Posted by Bob in Pacifica on 05/15 at 02:27 PM136 comments and no one (according to my “find” command) has mentioned the Peaches cover of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation”
currently my favorite cover. for those not familiar Peaches alternates chanting “I don’t give a f*ck” and “I don’t give a sh*t” over Joan Jett singing “I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation, plus there’s some scratching: to me the cover honors the original, makes it Peaches’s own, and point to the twenty-odd years that have passed--all while proclaiming the powers of minimalism.Posted by on 05/15 at 08:44 PM"Because the night” is by Patti, not Bruce.
And speaking of Patti covers what about her medley of “Pale Blue Eyes” and “Louie Louie.” Not to mention “Real good time together” ("we’re gonns jump & shout & shoot together). Not to mention “My Generation” and “You light up my life”
Posted by on 05/15 at 09:00 PMAnd this thread has inspired me to pull out and listen to Pussy Galore’s cover of Exiles on Main Street. Great? Probably not, but fun.
Posted by on 05/15 at 09:06 PM139 comments, and no one has mentioned DOA’s cover of “War.” Good god, y’all.
Posted by on 05/16 at 12:20 AMArthur Lee has developed leukemia, and various musicians are putting on a series of charity concerts to help pay his medical bills.
Baby Lemonade will be participating in at least
the LA concert.2 awesome shows loom:
NYC June 23 8 PM at Beacon Theatre
LA June 28 8 PM at the Whisky-a-Go-Gosome others are already scheduled in Europe, I think.
NY SHOW ))))))))))))
Robert Plant is on the bill for NYC:8 PM June, 23 2006 at Beacon Theatre
Broadway at 74th, New York, NY 10001site blurb:
“The first of a series of benefit shows being thrown in honor of rock legend Arthur Lee of the seminal group known as Love. This show will feature performances by Robert Plant, Ian Hunter, The Body Snatchers, Flashy Python, Garland Jeffreys, Yo La Tengo, and Ryan Adams to name just some. Other guests will be annouced soon.”((((((((((((((
LA SHOW8 PM June, 28 2006 at The Whiskey A Go-Go
8901 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069“This show will feature performances from former Love members Johnny Echols, Michael Stuart, Robert Rozelle, Melvan Whittington, and the group Baby Lemonade. Other performers include Vince Flaherty and his group The Invinceables. There is also the slight possibility the surviving members of The Doors will be performing.”
See the site at
http://www.love.torbenskott.dk/
and official myspace site
http://www.myspace.com/lovewitharthurlee
for more.
Arthur Lee came from Watts, which rioted just as he was getting his start (he drove back in to check on his mom). So when I hear him sing “and the streets are paved with gold” on “A House is not a Motel,” well....words fail me, my lords.
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on 05/16 at 03:46 AM
http://www.ImageShack.us”Amanda:
I have a similar love for covers, especially nu-metal remakes of Depeche Mode. Right now, I’ve been obsessively listening to Lacuna Coil’s Enjoy the Silence—although for the resident twenty-somethings that remember Gravity Kills, I am also a big fan of their interpretation of Personal Jesus. It appeared on their last (and pathetically horrible) album, Superstarved.
Now, Amanda, I know you mean well, but I am disappointed with your comment on Head Like a Hole. We all love Devo, except when they are covering songs by our favorite artist—and, at the point, we’d prefer they crawl back into those pointy little hats. Trent Reznor is God. Mr. Cash did not discover the beauty in Hurt. He simply changed it into an ode to aging, when the original song is about a young man contemplating suicide. It’s certainly an interesting interpretation, but I certainly don’t think Cash reached the same level of complexity or emotional depth. It’s much more touching (and horrifying) in the hands of Reznor. In the same way, Devo can’t possibly “rock out” more than Nine Inch Nails; they are a bunch of freakin’ nerds.
Kennie Rose
I am late to this thread but just flabbergasted that nobody has mentioned Peter, Paul and Mary’s cover of “Blowin’ in the Wind”—this is to me the classic example of a cover so bad as to diminish the original. It took a long time of deprogramming myself before I was able to listen to Dylan singing this fine song without thinking of PPM.
Prudence Goodwife mentions the Residents. I’d like to vociferously second. I’ve not heard everything, but I’d say the standouts as far as I know are “Teddy Bear” which takes a nice old Elvis tune with (in retrospect) creepy lyrics and turns it into a staggeringly deranged song with overwhelmingly creepy lyrics, simply by singing the thing once more with feeling (think karaoke at Jesus General’s Hannidate Hall of Fame), and “For Elsie” which is a cool tune with a groove unless you took piano lessons, in which case it suddenly makes you expect someone to correct your fingering half-way through.
I thank Amanda for giving me yet another opportunity to flog for the Residents on any given Arbitrary But Fun Friday.
I missed out on the Covers thread while it was current, but it will be fun to make some suggestions anyway. I will do that some other time.
For now I will comment on the fact that Devo did a cover of Neil Young’s Ohio. The founding members of the band were students at Kent State and they were in fact were there when the shootings took place. A strange combination of eras: even as the 60s were ending, the 70s were already beginning…
Not that anyone’s still going to check back here, but . . .
Kennie Rose, you can’t be serious; well, you can, and we’ll allow you your hobbyhorse; to each his own. No accounting for taste. Someone has to be a NiN fan.
I must correct, however, your error regarding Mr. Cash. He doesn’t turn “Hurt” into an “ode to aging.” He turns the “you” of the lyrics into Jesus. Addressed to God, the song has a lot more complexity than it does addressed to a girlfriend the speaker has let down. Both versions are about addiction, but the Cash version is about sin, repentance, and redemption also. Not particularly about age at all. “You can have it all/ My empire of dirt” echoes the Bible; our righteousness is like filthy rags. More complexity.
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