Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 08:12:11 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Covers That Are Better...

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

Previous topic - Next topic

non capisco

Grace Jones' version of 'Private Life' pisses on The Pretenders' original. Even Chrissie Hynde concedes.

I narrowly prefer Pet Shop Boys' 'Always On My Mind' to Elvis Presley's original, though I think both are pretty wonderful. The PSP version squeaks it because it has that keening guitar tone wailing up to the stratosphere towards the end. You can read it either as the bitter emotional dam hinted at in Neil's resigned delivery finally breaking or a celestial force taking his useless self-recrimination from him and hurling it away into the ether. Either works depending on your mood. It's alchemy whichever way you slice it.

Teenage Fanclub's version of Yo La Tengo's 'I Heard You Looking' is probably better. Both are gorgeous wallows you don't want to end but Teenage Fanclub's one goes on for about five minutes longer. Teenage Fanclub's version of The Bevis Frond's 'He'd Be A Diamond' is also the definitive version of that fucking excellent song.

I'm sure I'll be able to think of more of these.

EDIT BOG OFF NAGS.


non capisco

Yeah, you know, the Beastie Boys cover of 'Always In My Mind' by Elvis Costello. You know what I'm talking about.

TheMonk

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on July 25, 2019, 01:47:37 PM
My obligatory mention of Phil Collins' version of Tomorrow Never Knows.  John Giblin on bass and Shankar on violin.  Amazing.
His cover of The Times They Are A-Changing is the worst thing he ever did and ruled a line under him ever doing any interesting music again.

Bazooka

There aren't any, that's the point.

Mr Banlon

Apache - Incredible Bongo Band

My Favourite Things - John Coltrane

famethrowa

AAAAaaaaactually I think you'll find Elvis's version was not the original *puffs pipe*

John Lennon's version of Stand by Me is by far the best one.

Johnny Textface

Shitty quality but I love this take on "I love L.A.". Should record it.
https://youtu.be/IWwHAmInees

Custard

Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower. Dylan's is obviously good, but Hendrix makes it magical

Sinead's Nothing Compares 2 U

Dunno if this counts really, but Marc Almond doing a version of Say Hello, Wave Goodbye with Jools Holland is superior to the Soft Cell version. It's incredible



Natnar

Cyndi Lauper - When You Were Mine

Sin Agog

Lil Stevie Wonder's We Can Work It Out kicks in a way La Beatles' version never did.

Poobum

A cover of a Coldplay song being better than the original is quite low hanging fruit I know, like dangleberries hanging from a Dachshund's bum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUtg1GOA2gc

And this, just find original audibly boring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTQcJx7xqAc

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: TheMonk on July 26, 2019, 04:25:45 AM
His cover of The Times They Are A-Changing is the worst thing he ever did and ruled a line under him ever doing any interesting music again.

You can take that drop-off point back even further to the previous album, Both Sides.  ...But Seriously was his last half decent album (and the last time he had a properly decent band with him in the studio), and that only scrapes through on the strength of just two songs (Colours and Satruday Night and Sunday Morning).  But Dance Into the Light and Testify are absolute gash by anyone's standards - I actually binned my copy of DITL (because Fopp was selling it for £3 brand new, so there wasn't any point trying to sell it second hand) after only one listen, and avoided Testify for years until it came free with a newspaper (can't remember which one).  Didn't even get through the whole thing before binning that too.

I've not heard anything from Going Back (his album of covers), but I understand it's fairly average.  Which makes it better than DITL and Testify, so take that for what you will.


Fabian Thomsett

Quote from: non capisco on July 25, 2019, 10:58:28 PM
Grace Jones' version of 'Private Life' pisses on The Pretenders' original. Even Chrissie Hynde concedes.

Good call. Hynde wrote a great song but The Pretenders sound so awkward doing reggae.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on July 26, 2019, 06:10:28 AM
John Lennon's version of Stand by Me is by far the best one.

No it blummen well isn't. I really dislike Lennon's version, his voice is so grating. Lennon was a great rock and roll screamer, but Stand By Me is not a song that demands to be rock and roll screamed. The Ben E. King original is still, despite its ubiquity, a truly beautiful, moving piece of music.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Sin Agog on July 26, 2019, 01:05:38 PM
Lil Stevie Wonder's We Can Work It Out kicks in a way La Beatles' version never did.

This is true.

The Damned's version of Eloise, by whoever did that originally.

TheMonk

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on July 26, 2019, 04:06:34 PM
You can take that drop-off point back even further to the previous album, Both Sides.  ...But Seriously was his last half decent album (and the last time he had a properly decent band with him in the studio), and that only scrapes through on the strength of just two songs (Colours and Satruday Night and Sunday Morning).  But Dance Into the Light and Testify are absolute gash by anyone's standards - I actually binned my copy of DITL (because Fopp was selling it for £3 brand new, so there wasn't any point trying to sell it second hand) after only one listen, and avoided Testify for years until it came free with a newspaper (can't remember which one).  Didn't even get through the whole thing before binning that too.

I've not heard anything from Going Back (his album of covers), but I understand it's fairly average.  Which makes it better than DITL and Testify, so take that for what you will.
Yes, if you ranked his albums best to worst they'd just be in order of release. Testify in particular is an uninspired steaming turd of an album.

object-lesson

I was going to post The Flying Lizards' Money, then remembered that it's not 'better' than the original at all, more a very amusing neo-dadaist joke, like Summertime Blues, so just different.

Barrett Strong is a whole lot better than the Beatles as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeVx1C73o8k

Lizards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-P2qL3qkzk


Rizla

Original versions of songs I didn't realise were covers until fairly recently - "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aLNwOxPsjg
"Hanging On The Telephone" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emy5mA8Ixtc
"No Regrets" (Walker Brothers) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKU0S5K5aYE
"Bette Davis Eyes" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAQsOJbs-yo


Tony Tony Tony

The Disturbed doing The Sound of Silence even has loads of reaction vids on you tube showing folks hearing it for the first time.

The cover itself is spine tingling https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4

Just remembered.  There was a cover of Sandie Shaw's Always Something There to Remind Me that got lots of airplay in June 1983, but didn't quite crack the charts.  I can't understand why, as the version, by Naked Eyes, was, and is, an awesome version-way better than the original, as far as I'm concerned.

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

Jockice

I remember reading a review of the Mo-Dettes version of Paint It Black in Record Mirror which said it was better than the original. Now I liked The Mo-Dettes (and actually bought the single) and think the Rolling Stones are overrated but that is utter bollocks.

Hear for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq2zNhhL-l0

Cuellar

Quote from: Tony Tony Tony on July 27, 2019, 04:10:47 PM
The Disturbed doing The Sound of Silence even has loads of reaction vids on you tube showing folks hearing it for the first time.

The cover itself is spine tingling https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4

Here's my reaction vid:



I think I'm going to stop coming into this thread, I'm obviously not in sync with it.

Jockice

Quote from: non capisco on July 25, 2019, 10:58:28 PM
Grace Jones' version of 'Private Life' pisses on The Pretenders' original. Even Chrissie Hynde concedes.

Dunno about being better, but this is a lovely version of Brass In Pocket by Suede.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glf5u5-Gi6U

Quote from: Rizla on July 27, 2019, 03:17:01 PM
Original versions of songs I didn't realise were covers until fairly recently.....
"No Regrets" (Walker Brothers) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKU0S5K5aYE

Thanks for reminding me of Midge Ure's incredible version of that.  The original was pretty good, but Ure's was out of this world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=249&v=4NdRLYi862Y

bgmnts

It will always be Money by the Flying Lizards.