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Covers That Are Better...

Started by Lordofthefiles, July 25, 2019, 01:18:00 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Lordofthefiles

I'm sure the thread has been done before, but... I just saw this and thought it was great as fuck.

Which covers are better than the originals?


I Wanna Dance With Somebody - David Byrne

https://youtu.be/izx8J6U7xzo

DrGreggles

The Doug Anthony All Stars' version of 'Throw Your Arms Around Me':
https://youtu.be/q1fy9HY4gmE

Bennett Brauer

Free Design's cover of 'Light My Fire'. Ace session musicians such as Randy Brecker and Billy Cobham, Bob Mann's subtle guitar lines, and hauntingly lush vocal harmonies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAeki1bv4ns

object-lesson

Why is Randy Newman's beautifully understated and bitter 'God's Song'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0TvfqmWf4M

somehow still not as affecting as Etta James' unrestrained anger? Is because of her biography, her background in gospel singing which made it such an unusual and interesting choice of song to cover?

Questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKfxqWgGRBQ

BlodwynPig

Zeus B Held's Fool on the Hill


PaulTMA

can we close the forum instead?

TheMonk

Quote from: DrGreggles on July 25, 2019, 01:23:16 AM
The Doug Anthony All Stars' version of 'Throw Your Arms Around Me':
https://youtu.be/q1fy9HY4gmE
I've never got this, the original is much better to these ears. So's Crowded House version. But each to their own.

Johnny Cash doing Hurt?
Walk This Way by Run DMC?

sevendaughters


Gregory Torso

Ryoji Ikeda - Back In Black

Dot matrix printer smears hot sexy butter all over squawky krankies tribute act.

The Mountain Goats - Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise

Absolutely soul-shredding, although the original is almost painfully personal to the point of intrusion to listen to, like watching a stanger crying alone, or a heart-broken golden retriver.

Coil - Going Up

How do you turn the theme tune for Are You Being Served into a lake of chanting, wailing ghosts vaping pink orgasmic smog around a fairy castle full of magic tricks

Afghan Whigs - Creep

Fat Greg D dressed up and looking good prowling a school disco in duct-taped sunglasses just leaking delerium and lust.

I would also like to direct your attention to this fucking AMAZING Deerhoof collection of covers on YouTube --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYXnHVnSlY

seriously that Def Leppard cover is tasty


Shit Good Nose

My obligatory mention of Phil Collins' version of Tomorrow Never Knows.  John Giblin on bass and Shankar on violin.  Amazing.

Donny Hathaway's Jealous Guy.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

An obvious nomination, but nearly every Dylan song covered by The Byrds is better than the original.

Cuellar

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on July 25, 2019, 05:04:13 PM
An obvious nomination, but nearly every Dylan song covered by The Byrds is better than the original.

I'm sorry but I don't think I've ever read a more wrong opinion.

You might as well have written 'Joan Baez's cover of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I'm a Dylan fan, but I prefer the Byrds versions of Chimes of Freedom, My Back Pages and what have you. The fact that I heard them before the Dylan originals is probably a significant factor here, as Bawb's versions aren't as melodically polished. They sound like demos, which obviously isn't his fault.

Quote from: Cuellar on July 25, 2019, 05:08:47 PM
You might as well have written 'Joan Baez's cover of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'

I would've written that if I believed it to be true, but I don't.

pigamus

The only Dylan cover I can think of off the top of my head that I prefer to the original is Alan Price's version of To Ramona.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Cuellar on July 25, 2019, 05:08:47 PM
'Joan Baez's cover of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'

Yep, I prefer that one.

Quote from: DrGreggles on July 25, 2019, 05:36:13 PM
Yep, I prefer that one.

Nah, not for me, Clive.

The live version from The Last Waltz is better than The Band's original studio version, mind you.

pigamus

I like it too, but it's not actually a Dylan song, is it?

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: pigamus on July 25, 2019, 05:39:22 PM
I like it too, but it's not actually a Dylan song, is it?

It's not, no, so I don't really understand why it's been brought up in relation to Dylan and The Byrds.

Blancmange's cover of Day before you Came, by Abba. 

DrGreggles

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on July 25, 2019, 06:39:54 PM
Blancmange's cover of Day before you Came, by Abba.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Quote from: DrGreggles on July 25, 2019, 06:41:05 PM
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Oh yes it is.  Lovely deep soulful vocal outclasses the Abba wench's weak vocal on that track.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on July 25, 2019, 06:45:27 PM
Oh yes it is.  Lovely deep soulful vocal outclasses the Abba wench's weak vocal on that track.

You are definitely wrong about this. Unaccountably so.

Also, 'wench'? That's nice.

Sin Agog

Dunno about better, as Jeanette and especially her soothing, breathy folk pop with the band Pic-Nic is lovely, but I do listen to the Czech all-girl gypsy punks Zuby Nehty's cover of Porque Te Vas far more often: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8pOuKK9ixB0

Same with Lizzie Mercier-Descloux's mutant disco cover of Arthur Brown's Fire: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wm1UpmVZGcg (album version's better, but it's cool seeing her made up like one of those black and white people off the original Star Trek)

Lotta O.G. Garage Rockers would cover tracks not more than a few weeks old.  Much prefer the feral vocals on The Electras' take on Action Woman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mFD7vZvCPA

The original Dumb Head's a bit twee and lame compared to Joe Meek and The Sharades' (and an early drum machine's) almost girl group electro dub version of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UGrFr7wAUc

Love the growly resurrected soulsman Nathaniel Mayer's version of Lennon's I Found Out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prJUmn9MBPc).  That dude totally proved that soul and garage created a sexy superior mulatto child in Detroit.

Cuellar

Quote from: DrGreggles on July 25, 2019, 05:36:13 PM
Yep, I prefer that one.

You are completely insane and should section yourself immediately

Cuellar

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on July 25, 2019, 05:23:35 PM
I'm a Dylan fan, but I prefer the Byrds versions of Chimes of Freedom, My Back Pages and what have you. The fact that I heard them before the Dylan originals is probably a significant factor here, as Bawb's versions aren't as melodically polished. They sound like demos, which obviously isn't his fault.

Polished to the point of inanity in The Byrds' hands. All their covers sound exactly the same. Jingle-jangle boring harmonies.

I remember reading a Julie Burchill(?) article that made the same point - yes, Dylan can write a tune, but wouldn't it be nicer if a better singer sang them so they sounded pretty? UNNnnngggghg

alan nagsworth

Soft Cell - Tainted Love

Felix Kubin - Hello

Cake - I Will Survive

And the all time greatest cover song...

The Slits - Heard It Through The Grapevine

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Cuellar on July 25, 2019, 08:50:49 PM
Polished to the point of inanity in The Byrds' hands. All their covers sound exactly the same. Jingle-jangle boring harmonies.

I remember reading a Julie Burchill(?) article that made the same point - yes, Dylan can write a tune, but wouldn't it be nicer if a better singer sang them so they sounded pretty? UNNnnngggghg

Julie Burchill making a career out of saying stupid things has nothing to do with me liking The Byrds. I love Dylan, I just happen to think that the handful of Dylan songs recorded by The Byrds are great (apart from Lay Lady Lady, obviously, their version of that is an abomination).

If you think they're boring, then fair enough. Nothing I can do about that.

Oh, and Van Morrison/Them's version of It's All Over Now, Baby Blue is definitive.

Cuellar

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on July 25, 2019, 09:14:35 PM
Oh, and Van Morrison/Them's version of It's All Over Now, Baby Blue is definitive.

Yeah that's a good un

object-lesson

Devo's Satisfaction is the best cover ever made. Complete reworking into a whole different vibe, clever and witty and exhilarating (the single version of course).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEZCQWs60LI

Very happy to read comment underneath: "Seems devoid of anything rock and roll. Pretty much sucks".