Author Topic: Cover versions that are better than the original  (Read 28581 times)

LEE

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #25 on: 19 December, 2008, 12:56:01 pm »
William Shatner/Joe Jackson - Common People.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SRPa0GhxGUs&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/SRPa0GhxGUs&rel=1</a>

I love this cover because it made me listen to the lyrics properly for the first time.

Also, Bob Dylan songs are always better covered by someone else imo (I just can't stand his dreadful nasal monotones and "police-car-siren" harmonica playing).

Back on subjet
"Hurt" (Nine Inch Nails) by Johnny Cash is simply remarkable and made even more remarkable when you watch it in the kowledge that he knew he didn't have long left.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SmVAWKfJ4Go&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/SmVAWKfJ4Go&rel=1</a>

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #26 on: 19 December, 2008, 01:23:55 pm »
Calling Occupants - Carpenters (original by Klaatu)

Soft Cell - Tainted Love (Gloria Jones)

Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man (Dylan)

My Way - Sid Vicious (Paul Anka)

Mr Bojangles - Nina Simone (Jerry Jeff Walker)

Hazy Shade of Winter - Bangles (Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel)

Gus

  • Loosing weight stone by stone
    • We will return
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #27 on: 19 December, 2008, 01:50:12 pm »


Back on subjet
"Hurt" (Nine Inch Nails) by Johnny Cash is simply remarkable and made even more remarkable when you watch it in the kowledge that he knew he didn't have long left.

Hurt

+1


Really Ancien

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #28 on: 19 December, 2008, 03:04:50 pm »
Summer Breeze,
The Isley Brothers.

That's so definitive I didn't even realise it was a cover!



People are dimly aware that it was a folk-rock close harmony song and often ascribe it to Crosby Stills and Nash, Actually Seals and Crofts.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/yDpwaj213tI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/yDpwaj213tI&rel=1</a>
It's interesting how much slower the Isley's take it.

Damon.

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
    • Audaxing
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #29 on: 19 December, 2008, 03:14:04 pm »
With all the hoo ha about laughing lens' marvellous "Hallelujah" being the xmas #1 my favourite version is probably  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/P_NpxTWbovE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/P_NpxTWbovE&rel=1</a>


Chris N

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #30 on: 19 December, 2008, 03:43:55 pm »
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5VPXlalP2YU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/5VPXlalP2YU&rel=1</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/10C68Gzd5GM&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/10C68Gzd5GM&rel=1</a>

House of the Rising Sun - my favourite version is by Frigid Pink
The Be Good Tanyas version in very good.

Really Ancien

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #31 on: 19 December, 2008, 05:02:14 pm »
One Isley Brothers song that is just too slow is 'Work to do', 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/noVoYX5QJqU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/noVoYX5QJqU&rel=1</a>
which is better at the higher tempo that the Average White Band take it.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4w8wEuqhf_8&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/4w8wEuqhf_8&rel=1</a>


Damon.

LEE

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #32 on: 19 December, 2008, 05:08:35 pm »
Calling Occupants - Carpenters (original by Klaatu)

The Klaatu version must have been fkin shite

Really Ancien

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #33 on: 19 December, 2008, 06:13:06 pm »
Queen don't often get covered, but this,
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/1YE_j0xIsJA&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/1YE_j0xIsJA&rel=1</a>
is better than 'One Vision'

Damon.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #34 on: 19 December, 2008, 06:15:36 pm »
Johnny Cash's version of "One" by U2.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Jakob

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #35 on: 19 December, 2008, 08:01:03 pm »
Johnny Cash : Hurt
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SmVAWKfJ4Go&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/SmVAWKfJ4Go&rel=1</a>

Really Ancien

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #36 on: 19 December, 2008, 09:43:43 pm »
The cover versions I have used in videos.
Stairway to Heaven, Frank Zappa.
Across the Universe, Laibach
Hurt, Johnny Cash.
I used the first two in my DVD of LEL 2005
The Johnny Cash version of Hurt was used in the video of the Bryan Chapman in 2007, after Many Rivers to Cross
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AuZiRgPYKl4&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/AuZiRgPYKl4&rel=1</a>

Damon.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #37 on: 19 December, 2008, 11:23:13 pm »
Queen don't often get covered, but this,
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/1YE_j0xIsJA&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/1YE_j0xIsJA&rel=1</a>
is better than 'One Vision'

Damon.

One Vision was always a bit dodgy, but done by neo-fascists?
Getting there...

Martin

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #38 on: 19 December, 2008, 11:32:51 pm »
Always on my mind- Pet Shop Boys
Take on the world - Human League
Where did Our love go? - Soft Cell

nothing by the Communards

border-rider

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #39 on: 19 December, 2008, 11:39:26 pm »
Oooh the Pet Shop Boys.

The cover of U2's Where the Streets Have No Name, that so irritated the saintly Bono  :)

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #40 on: 19 December, 2008, 11:45:45 pm »
An unusual cover, in that it included the original artist, but Marc Almond & Gene Pitney's Something Got A Hold Of My Heart is enchanting
Getting there...

Tourist Tony

  • Supermassive mobile flesh-toned black hole
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #41 on: 20 December, 2008, 01:59:33 am »
Zappa's cover of "Tied to the Whipping Post" is awesome. It's on a video, "Does Humo(u)r Belong in Music?"

And an odd one: Loreena McKennitt doing what she describes as a Tom Waits version of Greensleeves.....

And Ten Years After, with Alvin Lee, de-Bowdlerising "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl"

Martin Simpson's "Masters of War"


What does get up my nose is when I hear a covers band say something like "We'd like to do a Guns'n'Roses track...." when it's by Dylan.

PaulF

  • "World's Scariest Barman"
  • It's only impossible if you stop to think about it
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #42 on: 20 December, 2008, 12:21:53 pm »

What does get up my nose is when I hear a covers band say something like "We'd like to do a Guns'n'Roses track...." when it's by Dylan.

Isn't that surely better than doing a Guns 'n' Roses track ???

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #43 on: 20 December, 2008, 12:27:50 pm »
Marc Almond's version of Aznavour's "What makes a man a man..."

Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #44 on: 20 December, 2008, 12:39:24 pm »
Manic Street Preachers - Suicide is Painless
Manic Street Preachers - Charles Windsor

There's no point in in doing a cover version unless it is played as if you wrote the song yourself - Manics are good at this IMO.

Really Ancien

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #45 on: 20 December, 2008, 12:42:08 pm »
Queen don't often get covered, but this,
YouTube - Laibach - geburt einer nation
is better than 'One Vision'

Damon.

One Vision was always a bit dodgy, but done by neo-fascists?

I like a cover version which explores the meaning inherent in a song. The Laibach cover conflates the fascistic verbal imagery of 'One Vision' with elements of 'Triumph of the Will', much as Queen used elements of Fritz Lang's Metropolis in
YouTube - Queen - Radio Ga-Ga [HQ]
which also had fascistic overtones. Laibach always excite controversy, as the context they grew out of is forgotten. This is a typical analysis.

Quote
Laibach's venture into some of the language of western pop culture, mixed with the eastern totalitarian references, in many ways mirrors Irwin's retro-principle, except that it is much more accessible and powerful than Irwin's paintings and western pop music always had a very strong identity with freedom and individuality (on the surface at least), and this a strong opposition to totalitarian systems. Thus the Laibach (and NSK) paradox: seemingly totalitarian messages through a seemingly anti-totalitarian medium. So which is subverted, the message, or the medium? On first look it seems that the medium, pop/rock music, is subverted. The tradition is taken by Laibach and turned against itself, or at least what it claimed to be. The Beatles, Queen and the Rolling Stones, icons of the rebellious, free youth of the West, twisted into sinister songs of repression with blurred socialist/fascist undertones but obvious militaristic intent.

NSK

Damon.


LEE

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #46 on: 20 December, 2008, 02:26:56 pm »
Johnny Cash : Hurt
YouTube - Johnny Cash Hurt

Worth mentioning again in case people had forgotten about it since I posted that same day.

 8)

Rogerzilla went with 'One' by JC already so I'll add "Your Own Personal Jesus".

Actually I think Mary J Blige does a brilliant cover of "One".

Paul Anka's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is bordering on genius it's so left field.  Sort of terrible and sort of great.  I find myself clicking my fingers in an "Old Blue Eyes" swingy sort of way.

"Load up on guns and bring your friends.."


tonycollinet

  • No Longer a western province of NĂºmenor
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #47 on: 20 December, 2008, 03:01:28 pm »
One

YouTube - Mary.J.Blige.(feat.U2).ONE

Does this qualify as a cover? Since it features the original artist?

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #48 on: 20 December, 2008, 03:24:57 pm »
'I fought the law' The Clash.
My top tune of all time!

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #49 on: 20 December, 2008, 10:34:52 pm »
Just in case no-one knows what these sound like, can I recommend the excellent and almost certainly illegal creation b3ta music search?
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.