The fact that Kenny Rogers is still alive after decades of gobbling down buckets of deep-fried chicken is frightening enough. For the love of Og, please tell me that he’s not going to wedge himself into a NASCAR vehicle for a sequel to Six Pack!
Stranger
Only the title of the album remains in my mind, next to a lead-shielded nightmare containment area with a sign that reads, “Keep Out.”
The title of the album was “Golden Throats.” Now, please forgive me while I back slowly away, lest I disturb those demons.
Make way for the Once And Future, All-Time, All Of The Time, World Champion of Wrong Song. Worthy contestants all, but Madonna’s chintzy, twee, soulless, heartnumb rude gesture in the direction of American Pie eats them alive.
Then there’s Orgy’s version of Blue Monday. I liked it at first, back when I was getting into New Order and didn’t like their version of Blue Monday much. Then, the more I got to like the NO version, the more I got to dislike the Orgy version. I think it’s really dumb now.
I have on my computer a cover of Losing My Religion by a metal band whose name I can’t remember (something like tapeworm or earthworm), and I liked to laugh at it because they changed one part to “I thought that I head you crying/ I thought that I heard you scream/ I think I thought I saw you DIE!!!” . I looked them up on Amazon and a lot of people say they’re a really good metal band, so now I’m thinking it may have intentionally been a joke.
I have heard a version of ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ in … Chinese. Whether Mandarin or Cantonese I am unsure, but I’m afraid to check.
It could kill kittens.
I came across a made-in-Taiwan CD at a library used book sale. Mantra of Joy uses the beloved traditional Tara mantra from Tibetan Buddhism, om tare tuttare ture svaha, transliterated into Chinese characters so that it became on da lieh du da lieh du lieh so ha – and set to Taiwanese pop music. Some parts of it sounded pretty nice; some (for example, the sound of Tibetan monks throat-chanting the mantra to a hip-hop beat) approached dangerously close to parody or even exploitation, in my perhaps uninformed opinion.
Is it my imagination or do I really remember this? Streisand when she made her live “comeback” did the song and introduced it with an explanation that although it is now commonly done as an upbeat number, the lyrics are sarcastic.
I thought Ray Charles’ version of the Beatle’s Yesterday was pretty unmitigated cheese. Not that he did a poor version, just that with him being able to put a lot more emotion in his voice than the Beatles could; what was a dramatic song became melodramatic.
I would also nominate anything (that I’ve heard at least) from Rage Against the Machine. They sound like a bad jazz band trying to play metal and it just doesn’t work (for me.) The Japanese band, downy, on the other hand does as good a mix of the two flavors as one could ever hope for (in my opinion.)
[hijack]oh my og, you know what this is?!? I learned this 2 decades ago and this is the first time I’ve seen the transliteration. I love the Tibetan buddhist chanting, and I’m going back to a really cool tibetan monastary for the first time in literally 20 years in about two weeks (Zhongdian aka Shangrila aka gyalthang). This taiwanese CD has got to be just awful though [/hijack]
You should probably avoid Dub Side of the Moon. I actually quite like it for the novelty value, but I’m very much a latecomer to Pink Floyd fandom and don’t have the sort of emotional investment you talk about.
[Freaks and Geeks]The Name of the song is Baba O’Reilly[/Freaks and Geeks]
I’m not trying to be an asshole. Just… y’know… any opportunity for Freaks and Geeks
You mean it could masturbate? 
Seriously, given that the lyrics were in a foreign language, I’m wondering how you could tell these versions were covering Coolio. “Gangsta’s Paradise” is, after all, a cover of the Stevie Wonder song “Pastime Paradise.” Coolio changed some of the words, including (obviously) the title, but it’s the same song.
It surprises me that so many people think Coolio wrote it, since I recall the Stevie Wonder song being a hit that I would think more folks would remember. But maybe it didn’t get as much radio play as I thought; it’s possible that my parents just played “Songs in the Key of Life” a lot at home.
Then again, Coolio has not exactly advertised the fact that it was a cover; he seems quite content to take full credit for it.
[geek squared]It’s actually spelled Baba O’Riley.[/geek squared]
Hey, you started it. 
Thank you, explore like dora, and thetruewheel.
I stand corrected!
Man, I hate getting corrected on music trivia things. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s a doozy.
As I walk through the 'hood of the shadow of Smurf
I smurf a look at my boys and realize we never had a birth
Cause I’ve been smurfing and smurfing so long that –
Even Gargamel thinks that my mind is gone!
But I ain’t never crossed a smurf that didn’t deserve it!
Me be treated like a smurf? You know that’s un-smurfed of !
You better smurf how you smurfing and where you smurfing,
Or you and your smurphies might be lined in smurf.
I really hate to trip, but I gotta lope.
As they croak I see myself in the pistol smoke – Fool!
I’m the kinda "S "the little smurflings wanna be like
On my knees in the night,
Sayin’ prayers in the candlelight.
(Refrain)
Been smurfing most their lives
Living in a Smurf-filled Paradise
Been smurfing most their lives
Living in a Smurf-filled Paradise
We keep smurfing most our lives
Living in a Smurf-filled Paraside
We keep smurfing most our lives
Living in a Smurf-filled Paraside
Look at the situation, smurfs got me facin’.
I can’t live a woodsy life, I was raised by the strife.
So I gotta be down with the blue team…
Too much mushroom eating trippin’ got me chasin dreams.
I’m an educated Brainy with gold on my mind
Got my hat in my hand and a gleam in my eye
I’m a smurfed out gangsta, set-trippin banger
And my Papa is down, so don’t arouse our anger-- Fool!
Smurf ain’t nuthin but a heartbeat away
I’m livin life do-or-die ah, what can I say?
I’m two hundred twenty-three now, but will I live to see two hundred twenty-fo’?
The way thangs is goin’, I don’t know
Tell me whYYyyYyy are we – so bli-iiiii-iiind to see
That the ones we smurf – are you and me?
(Refrain)
Smurfette and the money, Hefty and the power
Vanity and Greedy, Clockwork by the hour
Every smurf’s runnin, but half of them ain’t lookin
It’s goin on in the stewpot, but I dont smurf what’s cookin
They say I got ta smurf, but nobody’s here to teach me
If they cant undersmurf it, how can they reach me?
I smurf they can’t! I smurf they won’t!
I smurf they frontin-- that’s why my immortal life is outta luck – Fool!
(Refrain)
Tell me whYYyyYyy are we – so bli-iiiii-iiind to see
That the ones we smurf – are you and me?
(Outro-- followed Azrael the cat’s purr.)
Um, couldn’t resist. Sorry for the hijack. Carry on.
I just bought an excellent CD called Misfits Meet the Nutley Brass.
It’s all instrumental elevator music versionf of classic Misfits songs.
Leonard Nimoy sings If I had a Hammer
Cowboy Junkies cover Neil Young’s Powderfinger
The Rolling Stones halftime show of Superbowl XL.
Sounds like my own personal version of Hell.