The whole “cover songs that are better than the original songs” argument is one that I could probably have every other week and never get sick of it… mostly because, let’s face it, it’s a matter of taste argument and, on top of that, the songs that get covered are the songs that the covering band finds *SOMETHING* in. Any given cover song is one of the few opportunities we have to hear a song the way someone else hears it.
And that’s just awesome.
The one that has been going through my head is Springsteen’s Atlantic City off of his Nebraska
What’s notable (for me anyway) about this particular cover (by The Band
Anyway, here’s both of them.
So… what are you listening to?
I like these posts. They are a twisted form of education for me.
I was just listening to Carrie Underwood’s Good Girl. It was ironic.
From what I have seen, anyone who has ever done a Yardbirds tune did it way better than the Yardbirds.
But the most notable example is “Shapes of Things.”
Nazareth did it better than the Yardbirds. Then Gary Moore did it better than Nazareth.
It keeps getting better.
Gary Moore? You kids say the darnest things.
Janis owns “Me and Bobby McGee”.
I always wonder how the original artist feels, especially if the cover is better than the original.
if you’re an awesome lyricist/composer, you ought to take a bow. if you just nicked off someone else who wrote it, and you sucked? then it’s rather annoying, i wager.
I think that how you feel about someone else doing your song would depend on the quality of the copy and how much you receive in royalties.
One of my favorites is Johnny cash’s cover of NIN’s Hurt. Of course I see the man in Black as one of the original Goth’s. his version is more poignant and moving to me given the time of his life and June’s that it was made. That said love the original version as well when I am in a more angry mode.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go&w=420&h=315%5D
oops forgot to embed NIN version
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjwgYvzQWS4&w=420&h=315%5D
If you can find it, Sarah McLachlan covered Unchained Melody, a capella. Without the grand orchestral backgrounds and vocal harmonies you’re used to from the Righteous Brothers version, the song becomes downright frightening. It edges out Rebekah del Rio’s a capella Spanish-language cover of Crying in David Lynch’s movie Mulholland Falls for hauntingness and focusing on the pain and loneliness inherent in unresolved love, although it’s a close call.
Adding instrumentation can add to the song, too. Eric Clapton has re-done many Robert Johnson songs, very frequently with the support of a full blues band in contrast to Johnson’s spare, soulful voice and guitar recordings. Most notable among them are Ramblin’ On My Mind and Have You Ever Loved A Woman, which I think Clapton made his own. The definitive version of these, as far as I’m concerned, was the concert medly of both songs Clapton did at the Budokan Theatre first released on the double-live album “Just One Night” in 1979. Clapton both finds the same sort of pain Johnson was tapping into and relates it to pain from his own life, and works it out in a powerful ablution of emotion and guitar virtuosity.
Your mentioning Clapton brings to mind that one of my favorite really stripped down covers is the cover of Capton’s Layla by… Clapton.
As far as Atlantic City goes, I like Hank Williams III’s version of it. YMMV.
A shout out for the BoDeans cover as well.
The iconic example of this, I think, is what Aretha did to Otis Redding’s RESPECT.
The least time MD did a covers post, I went home and made a Very Different Covers playlist. I suspect I will be doing the same tonight.
And because the ultimate matter of taste is Bob Dylan, it is common but not universally recognized that every cover of Dylan is better than Dylan. (that, and the man was indisputably a kickin songwriter)