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Neil Young cover
The best track of some pretty good Springsteen covers
Quite partial to a Frank Turner cover. Basically just like normal only on an acoustic guitar, and depressing. I mean, a lot of people miss that Thunder Road is a sad story- 2 kids with no future just desperately jumping and hoping it works out, and then the Promise tells you just how badly it went. But because it's Springsteen people hear an uplifting story about getting up and making a new life.
But Frank's version? Yeah you know it's going to end badly. Dancing Queen becomes a crushing account of the shortness of youth. You Are My Sunshine or Build Me Up Buttercup become suicide notes. I mean, Modern Leper ffs! "Here we have a song about mental health issues by my friend who has killed himself. LET'S MAKE IT EVEN SADDER"
John kongos …. Original “ step on “ before the mancunian scallys took it
I do like a cover. I find the volume and variety of the musical output of us clever apes absolutely astonishing. Somehow having different people do the same things accentuates the difference in approach and styles. I guess it's a bit like a Whip-off comp on a dirt jump, or a "best method" comp 0in snowboarding meet.
I do like a comedy take too - the Senor Coconut album TJ posted is a favourite, a bit of a chuckle as well as being very well done. I think their version of Sade's Smooth Operator is my favourite through. ( @tjagain - if you like a left-field cover - look up Rondellus. Black Sabbath, sung in Latin, played on medieval instruments)
Surprised no-one's mentioned Richard Cheese. Las Vegas lounge singer style. Stupid and brilliant, some utterly inappropriately jaunty covers. Sunny Side of the Moon Pink Floyd refraction image upturned in a martini glass. NSFW *at all*.
I love this. Beautiful and haunting. Faithful to the original and still a very different take.
Richard Cheese is brilliant
ha! took too long to type mine!
Do live versions count?
Springsteen's done a few, my favorite is Free Nelson Mandela which he opened his first tour of South Africa with. Great for several reasons; Steve Van Zandt was heavily involved in the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980's, and it's good to watch the (largely white) crowd sing along.
This cover of Doom metal band Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats is just hauntingly brilliant! What a voice!
I think Dinosaur Jr deserve full credit for aiming high and hitting the mark with this one.
You'd think anyone but Hope Sandoval singing this would be a disappointment, but...
Just played the Breeders first album, their Beatles cover is pretty decent. Drum sound on it is superb
I liked Dave Grohls Hanukkah sessions on YouTube
Radiohead - Nobody Does It Better
That Radiohead tune is v good, and I don'[t even really like them.
🙂
I love all the Lil Roy covers of Nirvana...
Listened to this this morning and I thought of this thread. A great artist doing a great cover of a great song
Nice to see The Staves posted up, saw them last week in Bristol, lacking one sister, who’s bringing up her new baby, so it must be a bit odd for the other two missing one part of their harmonies.
Not heard the J Mascis cover of Fade Into You before, it’s really rather lovely. Just downloaded it.
I can't believe thst this hasn't surfaced yet!
I like covers that do the original slightly differently, so much that it sounds like a completely different genre.
I love this version of Elton John, transforms it into such a joyful song.
Angelique Kidjo does a great cover of all of Talking Heads Remain in Light album. Some excellent music on it .
Little Dragon doing Kelis’ ‘Millionaire’. Yukimi Nagano can do no wrong, I’m convinced.
Kinfeworld/Mike Vennart/Spratleys Japs doing Cardiac’s ‘Dirty Boy’ live. I believe Tim Smith was there to witnessed it’s beauty. RIP.
No vid unfortunately but Yaeji does the best cover of the classic Passion Fruit.
Another Springsteen cover as relevant as ever.
A Bowie cover by Nirvana and also by Claire Martin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5tcHL8M94E
More a re-imagining than a cover:
Landon Tewers covering Billie Eilish. Always sends shivers down my spine. Landon is a great singer. And if you are into slightly heavier stuff, his band 'The Plot In You' do some absolute belters.
Heroes by Motorhead is a personal fave.
Also just about anything by Postmodern Jukebox, especially All About The Bass and Mmmmbop.
Schneider Tm's cover of The Smith's There Is A Light That Never Goes Out is a lovely little thing:
The Main Squeeze tick the boxes..
Schneider Tm’s cover of The Smith’s There Is A Light That Never Goes Out is a lovely little thing:
I remember hunting this out after hearing it on Coldcut Solid Steel (I think) years ago.
This cover always makes my hairs stand up too...
Millionaire cover reminded me about a remix. Yes I know but it's pretty good like...
As Miley Cyrus seemed to be a bit of a theme on previous pages:
Love a bit of Ska coverage:
And a throwback Thursday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQyd1wN-qew
Also, of course:
<insert Hayseed Dixie video here>
Hop to 1.25 and just leave it playing for some of the best cover versions in music history.
Also one of the best live bands I've seen.
I like it when throwaway pop songs are given new meaning. This one especially made me realise the original lyrics are much more meaningful than I realised:
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley Cover) - Ray Lamontagne
Someone mentioned a bit of Ska?
It reminded me of this which I instantly loved when we saw them perform it in Glasgow last year
And there's nothing wrong with a bit of Clutch either 🙂
That Radiohead "Nobody Does It Better" cover is fantastic, it suits Thom Yorke's voice better than most Radiohead songs do.
Early Beatles did a few good covers
I was going to go for pomplamoose, but been done. So two versions of the same time:
I wouldn’t call ‘Crazy’ a throwaway pop song, it’s a terrific piece of music with a great singer, but the words do beg a proper listen. I was thrilled when Shawn Colvin covered it, she’s done many covers over the years, subscribing to the notion that a great song is a great song, no matter who wrote it, and covering other peoples songs often introduces them to new audiences, like her cover of Talking Heads ‘This Must Be The Place’, which I didn’t recognise when I heard her version.
I wouldn’t call ‘Crazy’ a throwaway pop song, it’s a terrific piece of music with a great singer, but the words do beg a proper listen.
Yes, you're right, but I take it a lot more seriously now than I did when it was on every 2 hours on the radio.
I wouldn’t call ‘Crazy’ a throwaway pop song
I found it bland and forgettable but infuriatingly ubiquitous at the same time. Just not my cup of tea I suppose. I file it in the same mental drawer as anything involving Pharrell Williams - too slick and formulaic.
Eels covering Raspberry Beret or the White Stripes covering Jolene
I'll remember how to embed videos again soon....
A couple of awesome Stones covers...