Author Topic: "Original" songs that are actually covers  (Read 17344 times)

Martin

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #75 on: 30 May, 2019, 12:11:01 am »
The Lemon Song by Led Zep;

https://youtu.be/Oq83yq2u3_E

they even named it Killing Floor on some pressings

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #76 on: 30 May, 2019, 12:42:58 pm »
The Lemon Song by Led Zep;

https://youtu.be/Oq83yq2u3_E

they even named it Killing Floor on some pressings

Apart from Howlin' Wolf's work, The Lemon Song also borrows lyrically from Robert Johnson's Travelling Riverside Blues, though it's argued that Johnson himself borrowed the "squeeze my lemon, 'til the juice runs down my leg" line from another blues track.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Led_Zeppelin_songs_written_or_inspired_by_others
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

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Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #77 on: 30 May, 2019, 03:34:21 pm »
The Cramps “Goo Goo Muck” was originally written and recorded by Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads in 1962

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #78 on: 06 June, 2019, 09:55:36 am »
Quincy Jones' Ai No Corrida was a cover of Chaz Jankel's.

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #79 on: 22 June, 2019, 12:04:02 am »
Istanbul (not Constantinople); not by TMBG.
simplicity, truth, equality, peace


Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #81 on: 23 June, 2019, 11:35:57 pm »
And I thought Five String Serenade was a Mazzy Star original.

https://youtu.be/FXY7TjW15Q0

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #82 on: 28 November, 2019, 03:58:50 pm »
I've just been into the Hippy Egg ShopTM, where they often play unfamiliar music. On this occasion they were playing a very familiar song, Take Me To The River, but it definitely wasn't Talking Heads. I felt the voice was kind of familiar but couldn't put a name to it. The zoomer at the till said, "Is it a man or a woman singing? I don't know much about soul," and his colleague didn't know either. So I've just searched and it turns out they were playing the original version, from 1974:
https://youtu.be/vGD8aQ2GKr0

In fact Youtube lists 13 non-Talking Heads versions, 5 of which were earlier and one in the same year.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #83 on: 29 November, 2019, 10:11:00 am »
Hound Dog - originally by Big Mama Thornton  :o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frsBq9MCNVg

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #84 on: 29 November, 2019, 11:19:48 am »
One of the very few (but also very important) benefits of being a certain age is to have grown up knowing that Presley's Hound Dog was a cover of Mama Thornton's and (almost twenty years later) hearing Al Green's Take Me To The River.  I've got the latter on a fabulous (real) soul compilation that also includes Irma Franklin's peerless original of Take Another Little Piece of My Heart.  Accept no imitations, even Janis Joplin's!

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #85 on: 29 November, 2019, 05:20:46 pm »
One of the very few (but also very important) benefits of being a certain age is to have grown up knowing that Presley's Hound Dog was a cover of Mama Thornton's and (almost twenty years later) hearing Al Green's Take Me To The River.  I've got the latter on a fabulous (real) soul compilation that also includes Irma Franklin's peerless original of Take Another Little Piece of My Heart.  Accept no imitations, even Janis Joplin's!
What!!! No!!! Cannot be!!!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #86 on: 29 November, 2019, 05:47:32 pm »
Having listened to it and a couple of others by her – yes. Or almost. More polished and musical than Joplin but less passionate. I guess her sister might have been the best shot at putting both into one.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #87 on: 23 November, 2022, 04:41:45 pm »
Excuse the thread revival, but I thought it was worth it, having recently discovered that Getting Nowhere Fast was not by the Wedding Present, but in fact by a Leeds post-punk band called Girls At Our Best, who had completely passed me by before hearing their superb original on 6music...

https://youtu.be/xVmnUZseiv0
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #88 on: 23 November, 2022, 04:51:49 pm »
The original original is a lot better than the second original, IMO. But then I've never really liked the Wedding Present.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #89 on: 23 November, 2022, 05:08:12 pm »
I've never really liked the Wedding Present.

Boo!

I've probably seen them live more than any other band. Love them.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #90 on: 17 December, 2022, 02:43:30 am »
The Clash - I fought the law.  Originally recorded by Bobby Fuller (who?)

Well, the Bobby Fuller Four cover of the Crickets' original may not be as widely played as the Clash's version, but I'm surprised it warrants a "who?".

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #91 on: 17 December, 2022, 02:47:01 am »
One of the very few (but also very important) benefits of being a certain age is to have grown up knowing that Presley's Hound Dog was a cover of Mama Thornton's and (almost twenty years later) hearing Al Green's Take Me To The River.  I've got the latter on a fabulous (real) soul compilation that also includes Irma Franklin's peerless original of Take Another Little Piece of My Heart.  Accept no imitations, even Janis Joplin's!
What!!! No!!! Cannot be!!!

Yeah, it's an Irma Franklin song as far as I'm concerned. And I was born in 1978. That makes me a certain age, of course, but I don't think it means I'm Of A Certain Age.

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #92 on: 17 December, 2022, 02:52:29 am »
Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down - Jonny Cash (original Ray Stevens but written by  Kris Kristofferson)

Quite a few Kris Kristofferson songs were either originally recorded by him or by other people before someone recorded the version that everyone thinks of as the "original" such as:

Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin (original Kris Kristofferson)
For the Good Times - Perry Como (original Bill Nash)
Help Me Make It Through The Night - Sammi Smith (original Kris Kristofferson)

Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down by Johnny Cash can bugger off. It's Kristofferson all the way - I was horrified when I first heard the jaunty, drinking-song Cash version. It's a sad song about being lonely and downbeat - swing and a miss Johnny, swing and a miss.

Me and Bobby McGee though...well, I heard it by Gordon Lightfoot first, so a Lightfoot number it shall always be, to me.

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #93 on: 17 December, 2022, 04:52:23 am »
Yesterday heard so much wine by phoebe bridges on 6 music. Got super excited and a little confused as a not so well known band called smoke fairies who were friends of one of my best mates at uni did the original........or so I thought. Except its originally by Handsome family

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #94 on: 17 December, 2022, 12:55:24 pm »
Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down - Jonny Cash (original Ray Stevens but written by  Kris Kristofferson)

Quite a few Kris Kristofferson songs were either originally recorded by him or by other people before someone recorded the version that everyone thinks of as the "original" such as:

Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin (original Kris Kristofferson)
For the Good Times - Perry Como (original Bill Nash)
Help Me Make It Through The Night - Sammi Smith (original Kris Kristofferson)

Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down by Johnny Cash can bugger off. It's Kristofferson all the way - I was horrified when I first heard the jaunty, drinking-song Cash version. It's a sad song about being lonely and downbeat - swing and a miss Johnny, swing and a miss.
So what do you make of their duet?
https://youtu.be/IRU9i9egr7A
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #95 on: 19 December, 2022, 10:52:14 pm »
I believe Killing Me Softly was not originally Roberta Flack's
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #96 on: 19 December, 2022, 11:09:33 pm »
You are right - It was originally recorded by Lori Liebermann.  Similarly, Flack's "The First Time Ever I saw your Face", written by Ewan McColl, was recorded by many people, notably Gordon Lightfoot before Roberta.  But she certainly knew a good song when she heard it!  Incidentally, Ewan McColl's name is also a sort of cover - He was born Jimmy Miller!

Re: "Original" songs that are actually covers
« Reply #97 on: 19 December, 2022, 11:28:21 pm »
Song to the Siren

Much as I love Liz Fraser, I’ve never really got on with TMC’s version. Then I heard the original... it’s incredible. This live recording gives me goosebumps:

https://youtu.be/vMTEtDBHGY4

There are 2 "original" versions, the one from the Monkees TV programme and a later "wibbly" recording.

It seems all the covers, including This Mortal Coil, are of the wibbly version.

My theory is that the first version is too raw, too haunting, too personal. And of utmost beauty. It's not something for other people to perform, instead they go for the lightweight, impersonal version.