On the main page, in the Democracy Symposium Weekend Jukebox, we watched Jedward’s cover/mash-up of Under Pressure/Ice Ice Baby (no, I won’t subject you to it). Thinking about one thing led, as it does, to thinking about another and after thinking about Under Pressure’s bassline being appropriated for a silly little trifle like Ice Ice Baby and the sheer amount of offense that people took due to that sample being taken from an arguably important song (indeed, it’s a song that holds its own in arguments over the Greatest Rock Song Of All Time arguments). The offense interested me.
I mean, we talk about covers all the time here and perhaps it’s time to talk about the thing that none of us ever really like to talk about:
Covers that fail (and, I suppose, songs that fail that rely on samples of other songs).
Ironically, most of the bands that kicked off Rock And Roll As We Know It got their start covering songs. Elvis covered Rockabilly, Country, Gospel… the majority of his biggest early hits were hits within subcultures. The Beatles and Rolling Stones got their start covering R&B songs and Led Zeppelin not only covered them, they took arrangement credit for them after calling the songs “traditional” (that said, their version of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” is up there with Stairway). I’m sure that all of us enjoy the interpretations of those songs these bands have given us (and doubly/triply so if these versions are the versions we first encountered).
But the covers that fail! Oh, those are the ones that stay with us. There are so many ways to do it, too! There is the example of the artist whose reach exceeds her grasp (that’s Mandy Moore covering Joan Armatrading), there’s the unambitious note-for-note cover that changes nothing and comes across as technically skilled but, let’s face it, extraneous (Gnarls Barkley covering the Violent Femmes), and, of course, the “holy cow, did I just see that?” *BAD* (Duran Duran covering Public Enemy).
What makes a cover fail?
Heck, what makes a cover succeed?
Most often, a cover fails when it either fails to understand the ‘heart’ of the song (by which I mean, whatever musical or emotional qualities make the original tick/moving); and/or understanding it, but failing to enhance it or bring anything new to it in any way.
An interesting cover is one that locates the ‘heart’ in a place where it may not have originally been noticed. James McNew (the bassist for Yo La Tengo) did an album of Prince covers under the moniker Dump (the album is called ‘That Skinny Motherfisher With The High Voice’ :-). They are lo-fi, bedroom-style covers, about as far from the polished studio funk of Prince as you can get – but what this makes you notice is the emotional heart of the songs, which you may have missed before because your booty was too busy shakin’.
Here’s one:
http://youtu.be/4KB7OIq9pdQ
Crooked Fingers did something similar with another Prince song, I bet you never realized exactly how sad this song actually is:
http://youtu.be/1AYmzvSQ838
Oh, the Pop Life cover is awesome.
Glyph thanks so much for the Crooked Fingers links although you are going to cost me money cause I gotta have that album!
Glad to hear!
Since you liked it, I will go ahead and risk being burned as a heretic with this comment.
As much as I love Cash’s version, I think the Crooked Fingers cover (0ff the same EP) of ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ is maybe the definitive one for me now. Perfect:
http://youtu.be/yFusOXmP86s
Wow! that is really great! Another idea for a thread (though not fully thought out) Song writers like Kristofferson who’s songs are covered by everyone
Whoops, forgot, since ‘Under Pressure’ is under discussion, and I brought up Crooked Fingers covers:
http://youtu.be/xe3jFbnJUY0
Hey Jaybird – this may be TMI, but ‘Under Pressure’ (the original) is one of the few songs that, no matter how many times I have heard it, can still make my manly-man self choke right up. No matter how much I think I am going to hold out this time, when it hits that part around 3:00 when Bowie’s countermelody starts ascending (‘Cos love’s such an old-fashioned word…’), I lose it, every time. It’s a really powerful piece of music – it earns every climax, and the tension btw Mercury’s operatic vox and Bowie’s reserved/dignified ‘answers’ is just exquisitely beautiful.
For a future topic, how about ‘Songs that, despite repeated exposure, can still make a grown-ass man blubber like a little baby’?
Well, there’s Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever”… maybe we can just put “Freddie Mercury Songs” as the starter and work out from there.
Good point. 🙂
The bad cover that has always stuck in my mind is Wilson Philips cover of Elton John’s “Daniel.” They sing the song in perfect meter, without a hint of syncopation, as though they’re trying desperately to stay together on a song they’re singing for the first time ever. It gives this very sad song a robotic, mechanical, quality that strips it of all emotional resonance.
Glyph correctly talks about finding the heart of the song. Wilson Phillips didn’t seem to realize a song could even have a heart. I don’t even like the original that much yet this cover has stuck with me as an egregious musical crime.
Yeah, the whole “technical perfection” that doesn’t grasp any of the messy non-technical part of the song is a good one.
You’ve made me think of Pavarotti’s duet with Lou Reed where they sang “Perfect Day” together.
Miley Cyrus covering Smells Like Teen Spirit.
I don’t know if that should be “reach exceeds her grasp” towering ambition crashing and burning or a Duran Duranesque “We should cover Flavor Flav” incompatibility levels of insanity.
Fred Durst covering Behind Blue Eyes. When you strip out the general musical excellence of The Who, the adolescent self-pity of the lyrics is simply unbearable.
Hey, if it wasn’t for adolescent self-pity, where would pop music be?
I haven’t actually heard this cover, and there is no way in hell I am going to risk it, but it does make me notice something about myself. I have heard lots and lots of bad/inessential covers over the years, yet I am trying to think of some and coming up short ( I can think of plenty of good ones, I went crazy in the last covers thread).
I think my brain must relegate most covers to the ‘inessential/unremarkable’ category more than the outright ‘bad’ category – it’s like I give the covering artist some small credit for making the attempt, thinking, ‘well, if nothing else, at least they have good taste on occasion’.
That does *not* mean I am gonna risk listening to Fred Durst, however. Better safe than sorry.
Unfortunately for me, this song got a lot of radio play when I was in high school.
And with anyone else, you lose the subtext of Daltrey the tough guy acting out the fantasies of Townshend the wannabe tough guy.
Over the weekend I watched a video of… I wanna say… “I Can’t Explain” and the footage is from a live performance (looks like a basement?) when they’re just kids and Townshend and Entwhistle look nervous as hell, Moon is driving it like he stole it, and Daltrey is in control of the room.
The inter-personal dynamics within The Who are endlessly fascinating. Fictionalize them a little bit, and you’d have an amazing novel, or movie, or mini-series.
There. Starting at 0:50. That looks like Super 8 footage.
Very cool. I’m pretty sure this footage also appears in The Kids are Alright.
Madonna covered “American Pie.” Ill-concieved and decidedly sub-optimal execution. I will give her credit for taking a chance with it but she just couldn’t pull off the bittersweet realization that innocence has been lost or the nostalgia for the simpler times of joy or the reach for faith to replace them. Nor do I think the lyrical complexity of Don McLean suits her “hey this feels good!” style.
It’s weird. I could see, maybe, “Like A Prayer” Madonna pulling that off.
I mean, Dolly Parton covered Stairway and she did it Country/Gospel and she… somehow… had her way with the song instead of the other way around.
Yeah, there’s a whole category of “What did you DO to that song???”
(Watch Tori Amos covering “smells like teen spirit”… I think it actually works, and it ain’t nothing like the original. also one of the few songs where Amos is more comprehensible than the original vocalist).
What makes a cover fail?
William Shatner.
My brother was soliciting new bandname suggestions for his band recently, and I suggested ‘William and the Shats’.
He was not as amused as I was.
For cross-genre, O’Reilly covering Radiohead is pretty cool… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9POUKvFRo5Q
I actually like Metallica’s cover of Stone Cold Crazy, but I think that’s the only cover of a Queen song I’ve ever liked. James doesn’t try to sing the song like Freddie, he sings it like James, and it works.
I saw No Doubt back when they were a college band before their first album, which nobody owns and is a lot better than their second one (and they’re both better than Tragic Kingdom). Gwen belted out a great Pat Benatar cover live.
When Plant and Page got together to do the “we’re not really Zepplin but come see us anyway” tour, they had Porl from The Smiths as an extra guitarist. They covered Lullaby at like 1/4 normal speed, with Page and Porl both playing guitar. That was space awesome. I wish I could find a recording of it to share.
As a former Goth and current pedant, I must mention…Porl was Cure, not Smiths. 😉