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Saturday, February 12, 2005

Cover coverage

Wow.  Amazing suggestions for the covers, folks, especially on the Beatles end.  As for Dylan, I have to admit that I have in fact been haunted by Van Morrison and Them doing “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” all week (which is why I posted that thing in the first place).  Thanks for giving it a nod, Morris and Alex.  Anyone interested in Siouxsie and the Banshees’ version of “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey”?

On the “best cover better than the original” bit, this humble blog refuses to intervene in what should hereafter be referred to as the John Cale-Jeff Buckley Hallelujah Controversy.  But now that I think of it, this category really should have an infinite number of subheadings (thanks, Nick-- very good to see you here, but why you no answer your email?).  Jazz reinterpretations are a thing unto themselves, right?  I mean, Monk doing “All the Things You Are” or Mingus doing “All the Things You Are in C Sharp Minor” are more like Coltrane doing “My Favorite Things” than they are like “All the Things You Are,” if you get my drift.  Also, it seems to me that for no good reason we should distinguish between covers that are almost contemporaneous (Aretha/Otis “Respect” and the “Grapevine” troika cited by Corndog, e.g., or Mr. Costello’s wonderful “Peace, Love, and Understanding") and covers that are more like historical allusions (where the original is ten years old or more).  And thanks so much to everyone for the “worst covers”!  How come no one mentioned Pearl Jam doing “Last Kiss”?  A hideous rendition of a hideous song . . . and there are just so many out there!  Feel free to add more . . . but remember, Chris Clarke has it right: no one can be nominated for “worst cover ever” if they once appeared on Star Trek.  Shatner’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and Nimoy’s “Proud Mary” are far, far beyond “worst covers ever.” How shall I put this?  Ah, I know-- they boldly go where no covers have gone before.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Speaking of mustard-colored science fiction uniforms:  I found out yesterday that like unto the 1981-82 Vancouver Canucks, I have managed to sneak into the finals!  In this case, the Koufax finals for “Best Writing.” Needless to say, this is the coolest thing ever to have happened to this blog (yes, things can happen to blogs, for all you annoying philosophers of mind out there-- they can feel pain, they have a sense of the future, they can recognize themselves in mirrors, and some of them are capable of complex emotional states).  Right now the voting is basically split between Meteor Blades and Digby, with Josh Marshall, James Wolcott, and Billmon in a virtual tie for third, but as you can see, I’m in some serious company over there.  Thanks to everyone who cast a vote my way.  And don’t forget to thank the good people at Wampum for hosting the Koufaxes in the first place!

And Perry Como didn’t really cover “Wooly Bully,” right?  Two Sheds Jackson, you’re putting us on, aren’t you?  Aren’t you?

Posted by Michael on 02/12 at 10:05 AM
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