Has anyone picked up a trend in modern popular music? (I know you all know *something* about popluar music, yes, even you rock fanatics) It's the 80s and Covers comeback with force. 1. Britney Spears has decided to murder a third cover song, after the complete disasters that were I LOVE ROCK'N'ROLL and SATISFACTION - she's now slaughtering the perhaps, not so great, My PREROGATIVE. 2. Joss Stone, late 80s voice... booming through every speaker in the street... what's with that? 3. The Vines, The Hives, The White Stripes - the comeback of the vintage rock bands... in suits(!) and not just. 4. Franz Ferdinand - a rip off of The Pulp and Gang Of Four?
she did? when??? that was completly villified by the video Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! the crowd says "BOOOOO". 2. shes got a jiving voice..... thats enough (or it should be). and its good that shes doing something not completly pop.... but i suppose it is now, cause of her (what a complexity!) 3. sorry, all i read were shit, shit, one song army (sorry). seriously, what is so great about them? they are MEDIOCORE (according to me of course Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!) 4. personally, i beleive them to suck.. so ill agree they rip off. of course my experiance of them is minimal. there arent really trends. i really occasionally think that a load of people sit in an office, then get a big bag, put in a load of words, such as: -sex -pop (as well as most genres in there too) -male -female and just keep going, then pick out four and mould a handy passer by into what they want.
The 1980s pop music scene has been appropriately described as a bubblegum revival of 1950s rock and roll. However, few covers amuse me as much as the B-side to Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", which was released in the 1980s. Ten points to anyone who can tell me what that B-side was. Part of it is a proliferation of bands versus a slower proliferation of skills. If you really want to "cover" songs that much, do what The Rheostatics do: "Jesus Was Once A Teenager Too" is an interpolated "Amazing Grace", and "You Are A Treasure" an interpolation of "With A Little Help From My Friends". They're both pretty straight, but they are also their own songs. Or Floater: put "Medicine Woman" beside The Police's "Canary in a Coalmine"--they make no bones about it live, inserting the original into the middle of the performance. The best covers I've heard in the last few years are played live by Floater: Pink Floyd ("Run Like Hell", with TV 6:16), The Church, Bauhaus, and the Doors ("Waiting for the Sun", included on the album Burning Sosobra). And yes, I'd swear I've heard Rob sing "Strawberry Fields". I should take a moment and give a nod to the Canadian band Clumsy Lovers, who cover AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long"; it's one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Cover songs aren't a bad thing; it's problematic, however, if you make them the focus of your output. Between "I Believe in You" and "King of the Fools", at least, Twisted Sister chose to release a cover of "Leader of the Pack" from their album Come Out and Play. The only other song I heard getting any airplay was "Be Crool to Your School", an adaptation of the Beach Boys' classic "Be Cool to Your School". That the next album (Love is for Suckers) would be their last surprised nobody. And, speaking of Twisted Sister, Dee Snider went on to form Widowmaker with Al Pitrelli and a couple other hands from the hard scene at the time. They did at least one song that should have stormed the charts ("The Lonely Ones") but was never released for airplay in favor of an war/antiwar song. Thankfully, however, they did not release for airplay their take of "Evil (Is Going On)", a song that I believe originates with Clapton but also recorded by Monster Magnet and White Lion. Cover songs are great for club acts with devoted fans; we like to share that time with our favorite musicians. Floater and TV 6:16 just shredding "Run Like Hell" at Subzero was a dominating performance, and for the newbies it was useful because there are some--often the dates of Floater fans--who don't know what they're seeing. And giving them a familiar anchor by which to interpret the rest of what they have seen can actually be helpful. My rules for cover songs, though, would assert: • One (1) cover song per album project, or-- • --make your B-sides covers as often as you want, but release the singles as a 45. • Do not release your cover song as a single for chart consideration. • Do not cover a song you don't have credibility for. • Play covers live at small gigs if you think your audience will buy it; cram it in the encore. These rules are too conservative for practical reality, however. I should also note a brilliant 1980s cover of "NSU" (Cream) recorded by the Lime Spiders for their album The Cave Comes Alive! It wasn't enough to save them. I forget the name of the other Lp of theirs I found one day in a secondhand shop, but the difference was striking. In the last ten years, though, I can't think of a whole lot of popular cover songs I've appreciated. They're more a specialty. Concrete Blonde performs "It's a Man's World", and it is, as a vocal exhibition, an amazing take. To the other, they do "Little Wing", also as a vocal exhibition, but the recording severely lacks any real pathos. The guitar is competent but pop-oriented, and thus lacking a dimension; the vocals are strong, but it just ain't the same thing. Britney Spears is, much like Tiffany ("I Think We're Alone Now" and "I Saw Him Standing There"), an example of why candy-pop should be outlawed. In the meantime, I need to remind you all that Smile is out and on the shelves. Do away with the candy pop of old, raise your hearts with a teenage sympony to God and forever banish manufactured bands. Four decades later, Brian Wilson rides to the rescue.
I immediately pulled up my music database to figure out what was on side B of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." It would be tough guessing from the album, but at least I'd have one chance out of thirteen of being right. Unfortunately, after checking all fourteen songs, I realized that "Eclipse" isn't even on it. I've got a much later album, "Free Spirit," from 1995. Pretty good one, though. There have been some very entertaining covers made lately. Meredith Brooks and Queen Latifah collaborated on Melanie Safka's (a.k.a. just plain Melanie) 1960s chestnut, "Lay Down." Brooks does the verses pretty straight, and Latifah interjects a lot of spoken comments as counterpoint, then raps an entire new bridge she composed. The result is oh so 21st Century. Uncle Cracker's cover of Dobie Grey's "Give Me the Beat, Boys," complete with Dobie Grey singing harmony, was nice. I heard a really good cover of one of Peter Gabriel's early solo tunes, and a country version of an Aerosmith hit. There was that reggae version by Big Mountain a few years ago of Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way." Turns out they're a pretty good group, I've picked up two of their albums. Arizona reggae with a lot of Spanish. Powerman 5000 did a totally straight cover of the Cars' "Let the Good Times Roll" in the middle of their wacky space-zombie-metal debut album. Then there's Type O Negative. They have a quirk of putting one cover on almost every one of their really downbeat goth collections. On one it was Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl," turned it into a very neat dirge. On another it was the Beatles' "Day Tripper." But the prize goes to a group called the Ex-Prom Queens, and their album, "A Tribute to Avril Lavigne." It's a complete cover of her entire "Let's Go" debut album, with the songs just in a different sequence. Actually I like it better than the original. (Judging by some of the comments on this thread you're probably all thinking, "That wouldn't be too difficult.") The band rocks much harder than Avril's, and the singer(s?) put a little more dynamics into the vocals. The liner notes give absolutely no clue as to who these people are. For all I know they really are just a very talented garage band who loves Avril. I hope they stay at it, I'd rather listen to them than several better-known performers.
im particularly keen on this australian punk band The Living End, whos done some good covers- slightly punkify cole porter(i get a kick out of you), the beatles(ive just seen a face), U2(sunday bloody sunday), Soft Cell(tainted love), Duran Duran(Girls on Film) very groovy - among others =)
Oh, I forgot to mention the KoRn cover of "Word Up" - - - That was scary. A cover of "Girls on film"??? Baah.... The 80s were so damned cool. Shame I was only born in them.
it was cool, but also a time of unfortunate hair for many Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! and bad TV reception it seems.
madonna - american pie blink 182 seasons in the sun KILL!!!! but yeah, fashions repeat, so does music
Zoology, adultery, and cartography Two that just occurred to me: • "White Rabbit" - covered by a band called Sanctuary on their debut Lp, whose second album far-surpassed their first. • "Mrs. Robinson" - I have little to say about the dispassionate alternative cover put out in the 90s by the Lemonheads; however, the aforementioned Sanctuary was happy to pass along their crown for worst cover to a band called Kik Tracee, who covered the Simon & Garfunkel classic with a pomposity that can only be taken with a sublime smile and the acknowledgment that yes, you actually are hearing someone sneer the song. On Edit: I should also mention one of the best cover songs ever, and one which, while it breaks the rules I laid out above, receives only my admiration: My Bloody Valentine's cover of Wire's "Map Ref 41°, 93°W". There is a story that says Kevin Shields broke an unbreakable board in the studio trying to get the opening effect.
Nothing could beat Jefferson Airplane! Either way, I'll look out for that cover! Mrs Robinson... hm... I've never ever liked that song. Frank Sinatra's cover was interesting. I knew one more cover, but I've just forgotten it. *drat!*
Best cover band ever.......... Phish! If you can, get a copy of them doing Funky Bitch or Boogie on Reggae Woman. Or, for that matter, Also Sprach Zarathustra. Anyway, every band should take advise from Phish in this, like most, areas (in my mind!). Do your covers in concert. If you're recording a cover you better be doing something awsome with it. None of this bullshit Sheryl Crowe and Avril knockin' on heavens door crap. Don't just dub your vocals over the old version. I may not have liked it, but Alien Ant Farm got it right. They did a Jackson song and they did it completely in their own way. Even then though, I don't really see the point of recording the cover. The only real reasons are either supreme arrogance in thinking that you can do that much better than the original that the world needs to hear your version or because you think it can make people buy your album. If you just like the song and want to play it yourself and think you can do something cool with it - do it in concert.
