These kids that are too cool for their own good piss me off so fucking bad. I heard this shitty cover on the radio, and apparently it is getting rather popular. These kids shit on the MJ version, and spout of about how this one rules!! They are exactly the same fucking song AND music!!
I am a hardcore kid at heart. In fact I am in a hard core/metal band on Solid State Records. But, I grew up listening to MJ, MC Hammer, Prince, etc… and I will tell you, I have heard many cover songs, and this one is one of the laziest I have ever heard. The MJ version is a badass tune, even though I dont pound it in my car or anything. But all these guys did was take the song, and play it the exact same way, but with distorted guitars. It sounds exactly the same as MJ version, except now there is a whiny white guy singing it.
I know you are thinking,“Phlip, that is what a cover song is”. Well, that is true if you are covering a tune at your local bar or state fair. If you are not only going to put it on an album that you are going to make money off of, but your going to release the song as your first “big hit”, at least add your own touch to it. Dont make a carbon copy with the guitars at max OD. Even if you dont like them, Limp S***kit at least made Faith sound different than the original.
How anyone can say they like the AAF version, and not the MJ version, is beyond me. Must be some kids who want to be cool by not liking MJ.
If you havent heard it, its Smooth Criminal. I cant find a link to an audio clip, if I do, Ill post it.
I love Michael Jackson. I grew up watching him prance around stages and streetcorners on MTV. But I like AAF’s version better. shrug
Maybe it’s true the kids want to be cool by not liking Michael Jackson. (Don’t know how that works, but okay…) Keep in mind, though, that if they’re young, they might not have heard much of his stuff. He hasn’t had a song out in years. In the meantime, alternative/rock/punk/ska/etc. has come back in a big way. If these kids just turned on their radios a few years ago, they wouldn’t know Michael Jackson from Stevie Wonder. It wouldn’t hurt to cut them a little slack.
Hmm… I will agree that some of them havent heard the MJ version. But that is doesnt give them the right to shit on MJ, while praising his song (I think thats what I wanted to say ?) ). Sure, MJ isnt the greatest man in the world, but his impact on music, even hardcore, is undeniable.
Also, there is nothing wrong with likeing the AAF version better. Just please, dont try to say you like it because it sounds so much better than the MJ version, because it sounds the same, just different instruments. And worse vocals
I really, really wanted to type MJ instead of ‘Michael Jackson’, but my brain refuses to believe those initials can belong to anyone other than Michael Jordan. Bleh.
Um, anyway, I don’t usually care for covers, and ordinarily I’d agree with you about the ‘you shouldn’t do a cover if you’re not going to give it your own touch’ thing. But… I dunno. I guess this one managed to appeal to me anyway.
Found an audio clip at cdnow.com and it does sound pretty bad. Still, as far as 80’s classics go, I was more upset when some boy band covered Take on Me a few years back.
Does this strike anyone else as extraordinarily funny?
I was a teenager when the original came out and it was decent. I’m not a big mj fan but I do like most of his stuff. That’s how you can do it AudreyK mj/MJ.
Saying that the cover sounds exactly the same, as mj version is wrong. I bet if we could play both versions to an unbiased person from any walk of like they would say.
“That first one (mj) was alright it even made my toe tap, but that second one rocks like a motherfucker”.
All covers don’t have to restructure a song ala Mannford man to do the song justice. I like the original Turn the page but my wife like the Metalica version. Matalica does a fairly straightforward cover of the song.
Someone possibly Tesla did a cover of Signs several years ago and I hated it. It followed the format of the original but I didn’t like it because IMO it was taking away from the original.
The cover was very popular to a group of kids that weren’t familiar with the original and for some reason that bugged me.
If you’re a big mj fan and are bothered for reasons like that I can relate, but the cover in question rocks. I can see why some may like it and not the original.
Otherwise it makes as much sense to me as if we substituted Diamonds And Rust for the song in the OP.
Smooth Criminal was a marginal Michael Jackson song, in my opinion. I heard the AAF version last night, and I like it much better. The bass guitar makes a huge difference to me.
I’m 35, by the way. I liked some of Jackson’s stuff when he was popular, but some of it reeks.
Yes that was Tesla. I remember a local musician doing that song in the manner of Tesla and a friend, who is also a musician, joking that he was “doing a cover of a cover.”
Yes, it is wonderful when a group covers a song in a completely new and wonderful way (Van Halen’s “You Really Got Me” and “Pretty Woman” come to mind) but there is something to be said for a straightforward cover. It seems to me that if AAF had covered “Smooth Criminal” and had significantly altered the structure we’d have a thread decrying that.
Hey, maybe this will help resurge Michael Jackson’s stalled career. I have seen MJ’s video for it in MTV2 recently, and it is not as good as some people may remember, though I’d say that it was pretty innovative for the time.
Also, what a strange song this is. Hearing for the first time since it was out by Michael Jackson. It basically just keeps repeating the same thing over and over again (Annie, are you OK
So Annie, are you OK
Are you OK, Annie)
I’m not putting the song down, but it has a very strange structure.
P.S. According to the band, Michael Jackson gave their cover a sequined thumbs-up.
Another non-kid here, I’m 33, and AAF’s version is great! I suppose I should be waxing nostaslgic for the music of my youth, but I didn’t care for anything by MJ much after Thriller. I don’t watch MTV so I’ve never seen either video, I’m judging by the music alone. IF the MJ version were played on the raido, I’d change the station. I crank up the AAF version.
I have no idea who AAF is.
I’ve never heard the song Smooth Criminal.
And isn’t Michael Jackson that moonwalking guy who caught his hair on fire after marrying the Elephant Man’s bones or something?
Alien Ant Farm’s version cracks me up every time. I used to like this song, now I love it.
I have to agree that Smashmouth’s cover of “I’m a believer” is just disturbing. It makes me want to cover my head with a pillow and wait for Armegeddon.
There is a punk band called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes that only do cover songs. Of course, if you’re particularly attached to a song, hearing a punk cover of it may kill you. But, it’s fun to listen to. On their first CD Have a Ball, they cover Danny’s Song, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Me & Julio Down By the Schoolyard, One Tin Soldier, Uptown Girl, I Am A Rock, Sweet Caroline, Seasons in the Sun (that song sucks no matter who does it!), Fire and Rain, The Spy Who Loved Me, Mandy, and ** Rocketman.** The version of “The Spy who Loved Me” is really well done, and the version of “Mandy” kills me every time!
I have heard both versions, and seen both the videos. I like Alien Ant Farm’s version better, does that make me a bad person? I don’t go around spewing crap about how Michael Jackson sucks, because he doesn’t. I don’t particularly like many of his songs, but I like the cover of this one.
I think the video was really well thought out. Lots of references to the original video.
This wasn’t AAF’s first big hit, believe it or not, they have been around for quite a while. Since around 1995, I think.
Also, why should the fact that you dislike their cover of MJ’s song make you want to kill kids? I don’t see how the two are connected.
Anyways, I love the song. I’m going out to buy the CD today. Sorry if you don’t like it, but some of us do, and it doesn’t make us bad people
I don’t understand how they are shitting on it. Michael Jackson is very specific about his copyrights, or at least specific that the money comes to him. So clearly he approved of the song before they released it. I think if he felt he was being shitted on we never would have heard it.
