Warren Zevon’s cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”
Dylan’s original was a folk singer’s take on an event in someone else’s life. Zevon’s was a cry against the dying of the light, being that he was suffering from terminal cancer.
Even worse in that context: the Cantina song from Star Wars.
“Happiness is a Warm Gun” is a slightly silly song about sex. Tori Amos made it an absurd anti-gun tirade.
Her album of covers, Strange Little Girls also interprets 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love” as an obsessed stalker song (but it is good), and Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” as being about a gold-digger (but it is awful).
Paul Anka’s “My Way” (itself an altered take on Comme D’Habitude) became Frank Sinatra’s signature song. Sid Vicious turned it into a song much more fitting to “his way” - though both do have a similar ‘in your face, world!’ attitude. I suppose every singer can do this their own way (cf. Elvis), but Sid’s is the most unusual.
For a bizarrely peppy version of the French song, check out this one by Pecombo. I can’t help but like it (maybe it’s the cute women singing it).
Dire Straits “Romeo & Juliet” is a sweet and romantic song about young love (with the world’s cheesiest video). The Indigo Girls version is a powerful anthem with gay liberation overtones.
I always thought it was a gay song about an older guy trying to pick up a younger guy. I’ve never heard the Robinson version.
My contribution is Springsteen’s Blinded By The Light, covered by Manfred Mann. The original is a Jersey coming of age story told by street teenagers. The cover is about a druggie scoring. I heard the cover a few years before the original. I like both.
The Afghan Whigs used to perform all kinds of crazy covers at their live shows. My favorite that I’ve come across is their cover of “If I Only Had a Heart” from the Wizard of Oz. Greg Dulli made that charming, innocent song into the remorseless confession of a snake-eyed psychopath. Here’s a link to a live performance (the sound’s not that great, but you can get the idea.) You can hear some of their other covers in the related video menu.
Is Donald Fagen gay? I’d never heard anything to that effect, and Steely Dan had loads of songs about women. So, I’d always assumed Rikki was a girl. I’m ready to be corrected.
But when a gay guy sings “You tell yourself you’re not my kind,” it has a VERY different meaning than when a straight guy sings it to a girl.
When I first heard Vanessa Paradis do the Velvet Underground’s Waiting For The Man, I thought it was a travesty turning a hipster song about scoring drugs into a breezy, flirty love song. Now I think it’s a pretty cool interpretation. (It’s also more fun to listen to than millions of awful ‘serious’ VU covers).
I came in to mention this one.
Sung by Trent Reznor, it’s a teenager whining. Sung by Johnny Cash, it’s a man regretting.
“Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns and Roses is about a girlfriend.
“Sweet Child of Mine” by Sheryl Crow is about…a child. At least, it seems to be. I don’t think she had a kid when she covered it, but the way it’s sung makes it seem like it’s really about a kid.
I was going to mention that one. I have many covers of the song. Faith Hill’s is criminal.
This is probably too subtle a thing to qualify for the OP, but I collect different versions of “'Round Midnight,” but I only have two that actually sound like it’s midnight, and they’re both by Thelonious Monk.
When the Pernice Brothers recorded “All I Know” for their first album, it was a bit of an overdone song about how awful break ups are. Honestly, one of the throwaways in Overcome by Happiness.
But then some band decided a few years later to redo the song by ditching the overwrought strings and piano, adding in vocal harmonies and acoustic guitars, and voila! An almost happy “cheer up, we’ve all been there mate” tune with a fine ear for words (“How her voice can fill a room like singing/The crooked moon upon her face”).
Unfortunately, I’m not sure this one counts…that “other band” was also, er, the Pernice Brothers.
“Tainted Love” - the Soft Cell version was a perky breakup song.
The Coil version sounded like a funeral dirge, and the accompanying video put a whole new spin on the words “tainted love”. The video depicted a guy on his deathbed, presumably from AIDS (“this tainted love you give me”) being claimed by a member of Soft Cell making a cameo as Death. One of the absolute creepiest videos I’ve ever seen.
Yes, I know Soft Cell’s version was also a cover, but I’ve never heard the original
Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing” was a mellow song about a band that wanted to play the music they liked. The band Detholz! covered it and gave it real menace.
I never listened closely to the lyrics of Rikki, but the Dan play with many points of view in their songs ISTM: orientations, races, genders. So even if the singer is a straight man doesnt mean that the “speaker” of the song is (for that particular band, that is.)
Compare:
Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man - a groovy love song full of nostalgia
vs
Collide - Son of a Preacher Man - creepy industrial darkwave cover that taps into Lewis Carroll’s most bizarre nightmares
or…
CCR - I Put a Spell on You - not the original artist, but arguably the best known – creepy and trippy, psychedelic rock
vs
Natacha Atlas - I Put a Spell on You - sensual and seductive, electronic middle-eastern trip hop
Whoa.
My Bayou Country was destroyed long ago in a fire, but who wrote IPASOY ?
Would you believe a blues singer named Screamin’ Jay Hawkins around 1956?
I dunno…Despite being a CCR fan, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard their version before…every time I’ve ever heard it (played for the sake of playing music, or used in a movie, commercial, or TV show), it’s been the original Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version.
I don’t know whether it’s been mentioned, but there’s an automobile ad where a female group sings David Bowies [ISpace Oddity]* (“Ground Control to Major Tom”)
I remember that back in the 1970’s when Space Oddity came out, there had been any number of deaths in space, so, even though the outcome of Major Tom’s mission was unexplained, there was a fatalistic element to the whole song.
And yet the vehicle sung about is considered a good thing.
Love, Phil