First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who helped with my “halloween songs” thread a while back.
Right now, though, I’m in a more intellectual mood. I’ve decided to put together a playlist of songs whose very existence are a demonstration of irony. Put simply, songs that (while the content is unchanged) are preented in such a way as to make the authors of the songs spin in their graves, or tremble with rage. Confused, hurt looks are also acceptable. Parodies designed specifically to spite a particular song are to be avoided, if possible. They have to stand as good music on their own merit.
Perhaps I should just name a couple songs along these lines: Richard Cheese - Down with the Sickness
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe (techno remix)
Anything from Pat Boone’s “In a Metal Mood”. Priceless! What was that GNR cover that Sheryl Crow did? Wait, I really don’t want to remember any of that. Fear Factory actually did pretty well with their version of Cars by Gary Neuman (sp?).
I was going to mention a couple of Tori covers, this one and her cover of Eminem’s '97 Bonnie and Clyde. The subject matter is creepy enough when he does the song, but her version gives me chills.
If you did, I apologize. My life has been busy lately and I haven’t had time to watch the forums as intently as I usually do.
If it’s not too much trouble, though, mind posting a link to that thread? I’d normally find it myself, but I’m not a member and I have a moral disagreement with the subscription policy (the fee is for the community, not the content, and I’d rather not be part in setting that precedent).
Devo: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” I think this pissed off a lot of old-school rockers when it came out in the late '70s.
Cake: “I Will Survive” (actually, anything sung by Cake frontman John McCrea has an air of “irony” to it, thanks to his voice.)
Violent Femmes: almost anything they ever did, due in large part to the voice of Gordon Gano.
Frank Zappa must have dozens of covers that are either ironic or just angry at the source material for being so insipid.
Many ska bands do covers of '80s pop, rock, and metal songs, and TV sitcom themes. Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish are especially well-known for wacky covers. The Less Than Jake compilation album “Goodbye Blue and White” is full of them.
Also, the swing band New Morty Show covers Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” Poison’s “Unskinny Bop,” and a medley of Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell” on their Mortyfied! album.
Tenacious D and The Darkness are two bands that have fun with the conventions of heavy metal and what I call “cock rock,” complete with on-stage posturing and posing, big hair, unflattering tight jumpsuits, and cliched music videos. The songs are good, but they’re obviously either huge fans of the ROCK, having a great time making fun of the inherent silliness of that kind of music, or most likely, both.
Uh, Trent Reznor liked Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt”. He’s been quoted as saying he cried upon seeing the video, and they weren’t tears of rage. Cash did a straightforward cover of the song in his own style, and while that style is different from NIN’s the song is not thematically inconsistent with Cash’s other work or his public persona. It’s an unusual cover, but not an ironic one.
Although not intentionally ironic, I think the Britney Spears covers of “Satisfaction” and “I Love Rock and Roll” fit your description. I have never been less convinced that someone loved rock and roll than I was when I heard Spears cover Joan Jett’s cover of the Arrows song.
Oh oh oh, there is this band who chainsaw their way through Rod Stewart’s Do You Think I’m Sexy? Fits the category perfectly. But I can’t remember the name of the band. And I even have the CD single of it somewhere. It had a see-through CD cover with a glob of substance made to look like sperm. Classic of the genre. Someone will come along with the bandname shortly.
Argh, how could I have forgotten that? One of the funniest, most fun, most ironic covers of all time, complete with a hilarious video. Eazy E must truly have rolled in his grave when that came out. What ever happened to Dynamite Hack after that one hit?
