Deep Purple’s “Perfect Stranger’s” was covered by Dream Theater afew years ago. And don’t laugh, but Dokken’s rendition of “From the Beginning” (ELP) is quite good.
It’s a long way to heaven, but only three short steps to hell.
Best: “Hey Joe” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “All Along the Watchtower” – Jimi Hendrix
“Heard It Through the Grapevine” – CCR
“What’s Goin’ On” – Les McCann
“Little Wing” – Stevie Ray Vaughn
“Stolen Moments” – New York Singing Sensations
“Respect” – Aretha Franklin (even Otis admitted she took it away from him)
“House of the Rising Sun” – the Animals
“My Favorite Things” – John Coltrane Quartet
“Angel” – Rod Stewart
Worst:
“City of New Orleans” – Willie Nelson. What he does to this song should be a felony.
Problem is, in the 60’s & 70’s you had a lot of singer-songwriters whose works were often released first or more definitively by someone else:
Examples:
Desperado - Linda Ronstadt vs. The Eagles
Tambourine Man - The Byrds vs. Bob Dylan
Leavin’ on a Jet Plane - Peter Paul & Mary vs. John Denver
Me & Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin & Kris Kristofferson
and too many others to think of.
We could make sure we keep this in GD by endlessly discussing which version was THE version…
Good covers:
Shameless - Garth Brooks covering Billy Joel
I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston covering Dolly Parton (now there’s a visual image for you)
Bad Covers:
Wild World - someone totally forgettable covering Cat Stevens
Total Eclipse of the Heart - ?Nikki French covering Bonnie Tyler
Sue from El Paso
Siamese Attack Puppet - Texas
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
-The three Hendrix covers previously mentioned.
-The covers on Phish’s new box set: “Bold as Love” (Hendrix), “Sabotage” (Beastie Boys), “Cry Baby Cry” (Beatles), “Quinn the Eskimo” (Dylan)
The IQ of a group is equal to the IQ of the dumbest member divided by the number of people in the group.
The Bongos: “Mambo Sun” (T Rex)
Low: “Transmission” (Joy Division)
Monsoon: “Tomorrow Never Knows” (Beatles)
Chapterhouse: “Rain” (Beatles)
Husker Du: “Eight Miles High” (Byrds)
Galaxie 500: “Listen, The Snow Is Falling” (Yoko Ono)
And FTR I’d just like to say I hate tribute albums …
I think they were the first ones to record it, but I’m not sure. I don’t know if they wrote it, though. Hall & Oates covered it in the mid-Eighties, and that version was okay. Well, it wasn’t great, but it didn’t totally suck.
Pearl Jam’s “Last Kiss,” on the other hand…well, that one just blew. It blew yaks. Dead, maggot-infested, stinky yaks.
Changing my sig, because Wally said to, and I really like Wally, and I’ll do anything he says, anytime he says to.
Hey, Cristi, the original of the “Last Kiss” sucked canal water, too.
The Coyote gnaws …
but he does not swallow.
Ugh…ughughughughugh!
I hate that one. I hate that one. I hate that one. Crap, crap, crapcrapcrap!
Just had to say that.
Eschew Obfuscation
Maybe the song being thought of was Unchained Melody by Al Hibbler, covered by the Righteous Bros.
Oh, dear me … I have NEVER heard a cover I didn’t “actually” like. Never. Nnneh-vurr. ALL cover songs are GREAT, even the ones played by the WORST bar bands. I mean it, honest!
My favorites right now?
Face to Face’s “Don’t Change the Earth” (INXS)
The Lee Harvey Oswald Band’s “You Talk Sunshine, I Breathe Fire” (Amboy Dukes) and “Brontosaurus” (Move)
The Neanderthal Spongecake’s “Metal Health” (Quiet Riot)
Peyote: yes indeedy it did. I don’t like car crash songs. Actually, “don’t like” is a bit weak when it comes to how I really feel about car crash songs. But this is GD, not the Pit. I’ll just say that car crash songs don’t just blow yaks–they felch them too.
Believe it or not, though, “Last Kiss” is not my least favorite cover. That dubious honor goes to everyone’s least favorite song, “MacArthur Park.” That song is soooooo bad, it makes me want to have hot monkey sex with every genius who ever even thought about writing a car crash song.
Changing my sig, because Wally said to, and I really like Wally, and I’ll do anything he says, anytime he says to.
Best live cover I’ve ever seen/heard: REM doing “Moon River”.
Worst (tie): Springsteen singing “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” and every single band that has ever come to KC doing “Kansas City”. By the way, they always do the Beatles’ version, which is actually a medley of “Kansas City” and another song called “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey”.
I tend to prefer whichever version I’ve heard first. So there are times when I prefer the cover version to the original.
Covers I like.
“All Along the Watchtower” by Hendrix and U2
“Twist and Shout” by the Beatles
Annie Lennox did an album of covers called Medusa. I like most of the songs on that inluding No More “I Love You’s”
Thin Line Between Love and Hate
and Waiting in Vain
Since nobody’s mentioned it, my favorite cover is The Power Station’s “Bang-a-Gong”, originally by T-rex. They took a goofy little sixties ditty and made it a hard rock classic. Also:
Rob Zombie / “Children of the Grave”
Motley Crue / “Anarchy in the UK”
GnR’s / “Live & Let Die” (I’m sorry, but all post-Beatles McCartney stuff sounds like Britney Spears to me)
And who can forget Sid Vicious’ “My Way”!
Joe Cocker’s cover of the Beatle’s “With a Little Help From My Friends” springs to mind.
I always hate it when bands cover a classic song and then do their damndest to sound just like it. What’s the point in that?
A great example of a band putting their own spin on a song and making it completely different but still cool (like the aforementioned Cocker) was Toad the Wet Sprocket’s slow, acoustic ballad version of “Rock and Roll All Nite” on the “Kiss My Ass” Kiss tribute album.
“You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment.” - Bill Hicks
As far as same era covers go, I left out Blowin’ in the Wind - Peter Paul & Mary vs. Bob Dylan
Good Ones:
Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts (Dylan) by Joan Baez. Who can stand listening to Dylan that long?
Bye Bye Love (Everly Brothers) by Simon & Garfunkel
Bad Ones:
The Times They are a Changin’ (Dylan) by Simon & Garfunkel. Dylan was a great songwriter. He was a good emotional storyteller. A great voice he was not. Why Garfunkel felt he had to imitate Dylan’s voice is beyond me.
Having posted about one I hatehatehatehatehate, I feel I must post a few that I do like.
Joe Cocker’s ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ (Beatles)
Any Bob Dylan song done by any artist other than Dylan.
Guns & Roses’ ‘Live and Let Die’ (Paul McCartney)
Great Big Sea’s version of ‘End of the World’ (REM)
Sheryl Crow’s version of ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ (G&R)
Barenaked Ladies’ ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Time’ (Bruce Coburn)
Eschew Obfuscation
~Harborina
“This is my sandbox. I’m not allowed to go in the deep end. That’s where I saw the leprechauns.”
I, too, like Joe Cocker’s way with a song. “Feelin’ Alright” is another good one.
Others worth noting:
Fine Young Cannibals - Suspicious Minds (Elvis)
The Cramps - Lonesome Town (Ricky Nelson - there might be an earlier version, but Ricky’s was the first one I heard)
The Ramones - Needles and Pins (Sonny and Cher) and Baby, I Love You (The Ronettes first, but it’s been covered several times)
Well, my favorite covers that haven’t been mentioned yet are:
Chiquitata by Sinead O’Connor
To Sir With Love by 10,000 maniacs
Raspberry Beret by Hindu Love Gods
I Shot The Sherrif by Clapton (well, its not as good as Marleys, but its still damn good)
the funniest cover:
Iron Man by the Cardigans
And I’ve gotta say, Tori Amos wins the award for the most bizarre covers. I just heard her and Tool doing Amazing Grace, ugh. But her Smells Like Teen Spirit and Angie were awesome