To me, this song is about impotent rage (against the machine, I guess) and how it all can get to be too much. Cypress Hill’s original take was more of a funny drug song.
Then there’s Smooth Criminal. Michael Jackson’s original sounds to me like a song about a bad lover, Alien Ant Farm’s version-- a guy who actually kills someone.
Completely OT: Does anyone else hear Michael sing “Annie are you Oakley”? Only me, huh?
I definitely heard, “Annie are you Oakley? Are you Oakley, Annie?”
Mine is Faith Hill’s godawful cover of Janis Jopin’s, “Take Another Little Piece of My Heart.” The original is an angst-filled resignation of a lover who knows her heart will never let her escape her relationship, even though the guy’s a right bastard.
Hill’s is enthusiastic and peppy. It makes me want to stab my ears.
Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Cohen’s version is steeped in sarcasm; in Buckley’s version he mostly seems legitimately joyful. I think it’s a mistake.
There was a disco version of Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar” that turns the song from a condemnation of the greedy record business to “Isn’t this great? We’re making a record! We’re going to be big stars!”
Funny how two different people can hear the same song and come away with opposing interpretations. I hear anguish and loneliness in Buckley’s version. I had to listen to the song again to make sure we were talking about the same thing. Still way different from Cohen, though.
My favorite is an intentional change – Big Daddy’s version of Celine Dion’s song “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic turns it into a bouncy, upbeat Elvis Presley song. The first time you hear it, it doesn’t register exactly what song it is.
Of course, changing the style and mood of songs was Big Daddy’s stock in trade. But this one’s such a big change that it’s hilariously wonderful.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ version of “Love Rollercoaster” changes the Ohio Players’ lyrics from “your love is like a roller coaster, baby, I refuse to ride” to “your love is like a roller coaster, baby, I wanna ride”.
Once nice example is in Annie Get Your Gun. Ethel Merman’s version of “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” is an upbeat song about an independent woman who puts men in their plae, but Bernadette Peters sings it more slowly, turning it into a sad reflection on how she drives men away.
Elton John’s Rocketman is mournful, contemplative, almost sad. He likes his job, but he doesn’t like leaving his family and Mars is a scary, lonely place. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are excited- they’re going to fucking Mars!
Decades ago, Tom Robinson, one of the first openly gay rockers, did a cover of Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”
A gay guy singing that song gives the lyrics a whole different meaning. Rikki then seems like an insecure straight guy, or a guy in denial of his sexuality… someone who “kinda scared himself” but who “might have a change of heart” and give gay love a try.
