Other questionable covers:
The Ataris changing the sticker from the Grateful Dead to Black Flag on their version of the “Boys of Summer”.
Cake throwing in a random “fuck” in their take on “I Will Survive”.
The Dead Kennedys stuck to the original lyrics on their cover of “Viva Las Vegas”, but throw in a line about snorting cocaine at the end.
And the most pathetic, the Osmonds changing “mighty good wine” to “mighty good milk” when covering “Joy to the World”
.
That’s a phrase I never thought I’d ever encounter.
Regards,
A Die-Hard Milk Hater
Well, the problem with that line in “Folsom Prison Blues” is the idea that a murder in Nevada will pop you into a California state prison, so the “They say…” line makes more sense overall.
It’s a niche thing, but David Gerrold has a history of rewriting and “updating” his books with each re-release. Two of his finest shorter works are When HARLIE Was One and The Man Who Folded Himself. At some point, he decided HARLIE was too dated, and did a substantial rewrite that changed generic computer terminals to very specific mid-1970s CRT-tech; it was badly dated within years whereas the original has a generic quality that transcends computing eras. He also added the slippery-wet sex scenes verboten in the late 1960s and obligatory by 1980.
Then I bought a copy of Folded from him in 2007, only to find he’d updated a number of small details like the year of the car and suchlike - pretty pointless and jarring to a former reader.