Cover versions that change the meaning of the song

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I don't necessarily mean by changing the lyrics (although that's possible too). Sometimes it's in the arrangement or overall tone. A friend noted that in Rod Stewart's overblown recording of "Downtown Train", you get the feeling that the answer to the central question ("Will I see you tonight on a downtown train?") is probably yes, whereas in Tom Waits' original, you know for sure there's no way he's ever going to see her on that train (or if he does, it'll be from a distance and she'll be pulling out of the station while he's standing on the platform).

Or there's the Raincoats' "Lola," which messes with the song's gender-fucking just by having a woman sing the same words.

― Jesse Fox (Jesse Fox), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 19:47 (twenty-three years ago)

see Tori Amos and Tori Spelling and Sarah Slean

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 19:49 (twenty-three years ago)

The Lords of the New Church's take on "Like a Virgin".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 19:53 (twenty-three years ago)

the flaming lips' cover of 'can't get you out of my head'; totally takes like a throwaway fake pop song maaaaan and makes it OK for dullard schmindie rox0rists to enjoy and understand the REAL DEEP MEANING OF THE LYRICS MAAAAN

fuck off

― gi66y, Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:07 (twenty-three years ago)

any smarmy pop-bunk/punk band doing any crappy 80s tune

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Aztec Camera's cover of Van Halen's "Jump" turns the goofy acting-out party song into a desperate suicide note that ends in apocalypse.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Johnny Cash's version of "I See A Darkness" misses out the background vocal so it starts with an affirmation "Well you're my friend" whereas the original starts "Well you're my friend (that's what you told me anyway)", suggesting immediately that the narrator is (perhaps rightly) paranoid. The song's plea for help becomes hopeful rather than hopeless.

In T.A.T.U.'s how soon is how the 'you' being told to 'shut your mouth' seems more immediate and actual than the generalised world-you of the Smiths song.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I hate to say it, but...actually I don't hate to say it.

I like Kylie's version much more than the Lips' version.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Leonard Cohen's take on the Irving Berlin standard "Always" adds a more contemporary sheen to it.

TMFTML
http://intonation.blogspot.com

― TMFTML (TMFTML), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:21 (twenty-three years ago)

As Horace aludes, take every single track off of Tori's "Strange Little Girls", especially her take on "97 Bonnie and Clyde", which is superior to Eminem's version, and I'll fight anyone who argues.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Speaking of Tori, how about her and Bob Plant's cover of "Down by the Seaside"? The original, a sort of ecological lament, seemed optimistic and hopeful. Ending with the exhortation to "show your love to lady nature / and she will come back again".

But the Bob/Tori update is so slooooww and funereal that it sounds like a post-nuclear war elegy or something.

Also, on the gender-bender tip- Patti Smith's "Gloria".

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

(o-oh! my own mistake and all, but - not having heard the F'Lips cover - i've been under the highly exciting (false) impression that they reworked "can't get IT out of my head", the ELO song! (...if only that were so!))

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not sure that the meaning changed, so much as the true meaning can be better heard in:

Nick Cave doing "In the Ghetto"
Johnny Cash doing U2's "One"

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Weird, I just blogged about Persuaders v. Pretenders "Thin Line Between Love And Hate" except I didn't have anything useful to say about it because I'm not sure what either one was trying to say with the song.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 20:57 (twenty-three years ago)

They were trying to say that the sweetest woman in the world can become the meanest woman in the world if you treat her that way.

― TMFTML (TMFTML), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 21:12 (twenty-three years ago)

In a way, well...

Leonard Cohen's orig. of "Hallelujah" has kind of a giving-up-frustrated kinda feel, whereas Jeff Buckley's version feels like currents of pure life energy incarnate. I'm having trouble putting the difference into words, but you might know what I'm talking about.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 21:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Laibach own this thread!

― phil jones (interstar), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 21:29 (twenty-three years ago)

U2's rather hoary cover of "Night & Day" (on the RED HOT + BLUE compilation) turned a Cole Porter ditty about love into a malevolent paean to obsessive stalking.

Lenny Kravitz's butchering of the Guess Who's "American Woman" seemed to completely miss the point of the original, so that sort've changes the meaning of the song, I guess.

Tori Amos took Slayer's "Raining Blood" and made it about...er...menstruation.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 21:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Pretenders:
I SEE HER IN THE HOSPITAL
BANDAGED FROM FOOT TO HEAD
IN A STATE OF SHOCK
JUST THAT MUCH FROM BEING DEAD
YOU COULDN'T BELIEVE THE GIRL
WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS, HA
YOU DIDN'T THINK THE GIRL HAD THE NERVE
BUT HERE YOU ARE

Persuaders:
Here I am laying in the hospital
Bandaged from feet to head
Ya see I'm in the state of shock
Just that much from being dead
I didn't think my woman could do something like this to me
I didn't think she had the nerve, so here I am
I guess action speaks louder than words

So it's the switch of the genders that gets me, although the Pretenders didn't change the line before that talks about the sweet woman becoming the mean woman. So what are the Pretenders saying? That the woman would attempt suicide? Is it a lesbian reading of the song, perhaps? Is it now more about the pain that you feel when your friend is in an abusive relationship?

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 21:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Can't believe no-one mentioned the different versions of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day". Boy what a fucking turn around.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 21:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Leadbelly's vs. Nirvana's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"

Leadbelly's song seems to focus mostly on the brief "verse" near the end: "My husband was a hard working man / Twenty mile and a half from here / His head was found in a driver wheel / And his body never, never be found"

Nirvana's takes on a completely different meaning, esp. considering his stormy marriage w/Courtney.

― Curtis Stephens, Tuesday, 28 January 2003 21:58 (twenty-three years ago)

TLC's version of Prince's If I Was Your Girlfriend further complicates an already rather tricky song.

One of the best examples, though a bad record, is Paul Young's cover of Marvin Gaye's Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home): braggadoccio from Marvin, sad and lonely from Paul Young. His version is no good, but it's an entirely new reading.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 22:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Nickalicious, I think I know what you're talking about (although I suspect you like Jeff Buckley's version MUCH more than I do; this would only require that you not HATE it).

John Cale's cover of the same song is my favorite; it's very close in spirit to Cohen's own rendition. But when the Shrek soundtrack cuts the song in half by trimming out all the naughty bits, that sure changes the meaning! (Still a beautiful scene in the movie...)

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 22:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Killdozer-"For Ladies Only" owns this thread..

― brg30 (brg30), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 00:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Devo's cover of The Stones' "Satisfaction." Come on.

― A.H. (A.H.), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 01:31 (twenty-three years ago)

A song I've praised on ILM before, the Eels cover of "Damn! Wish I Was Your Lover" changes it from a "lesbian loves straight woman" piece of angst, and instead makes it kind of a rejection of masculinity, the way E screams "I'll even be your mother", the cry of a man who'll do anything to get the girl, even if it means comprimising himself fully.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 01:40 (twenty-three years ago)

"Jambolaya" as performed by The Residents
changes the atmo-&-sphere of ol' Hank's piece considerably
(but then lots of their covers tended to do that with originals)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 01:50 (twenty-three years ago)

"Jambolaya" as performed by The Residents
changes the atmo-&-sphere of ol' Hank's piece considerably
(but then lots of their covers tended to do that with originals)

Thanks, I was just about to bring them up. They *really* own this thread! (I prefer Man's World, though.)

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo (cindigo), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 03:17 (twenty-three years ago)

coil's 'tainted love' as a meditation on AIDS?

― tylero, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 03:55 (twenty-three years ago)

the gipsy kings - hotel california
it sounds like a place where you go to parteee!

― willem (willem), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 08:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Big Yellow Taxi by the Counting Crows: they made it into an Eagles song GOD DANG IT

― nathalie (nathalie), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 08:54 (twenty-three years ago)

i hate the aztec camera vers of JUMP...the Vnhlen vers is pretty explicit, no? Lets me read it. F**kin Roddy Frame, i was impressed before this dumbitdown reading.

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 09:23 (twenty-three years ago)

david twat-faced gray slaughtering 'tainted love'
by *missing out entirely* the final spoken word verse
('we've been involved for quite a while now...')

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 17:06 (twenty-three years ago)

i mean 'say hello wave goodbye'.
there's god judging me for dissing david gray

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 17:07 (twenty-three years ago)

One of my favourite ones was pointed out in a *Voice* review way back when: Frankie Goes to Hollywood doing "Born to Run" ("...and the boys try to look so HARD").

― s woods, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 17:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Said cover of said song is one of my favorite recorded moments ever. I will take it over the Springsteen original from now unto death.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 17:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Howsabout Mudhoney's cover of Spacemen 3's "Revolution"...which somehow manages to change almost all of the words and yet convey its meaning more, er, directly than the original did...

― M Specktor (M Specktor), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 23:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Young Marble Giants: "Go for credit in the straight world - you won't die"
vs.
Hole: "Go for credit in the straight world - you will die"

Of course Courtney is right. Don't forget, kids!

― jot eff pe, Thursday, 30 January 2003 03:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Andrew Antone - "I Can't Help Falling in Love"

― Curtis Stephens, Thursday, 30 January 2003 03:30 (twenty-three years ago)

There's also a good one pointed out in The Aesthetics of Rock: Cilla Black doing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" ("Baby, baby, I'll get down on my knees for you...")

― s woods, Thursday, 30 January 2003 04:03 (twenty-three years ago)

The Raincoat's Lola always seemed like a bit of a parlor trick to me, although I like the Raincoats a lot.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 31 January 2003 00:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanatos's early-90s version of K.C. & The Sunshine Band's "That's The Way (I Like It)" - slows down the sunshiny disco stomper to a lethargic tempo and wraps it in gothic gloom. i suspect, however, that Thanatos had quite a bit of fun doing that.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Sunday, 2 February 2003 20:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Elvis Costello's "What's So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding": the original's a snide sendup of hippie utopianism; here, at the end of Armed Forces, the song means what it says.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 2 February 2003 23:25 (twenty-three years ago)

dismemberment plan - crush
!!!

― Sean@tangmonkey (Sean M), Monday, 3 February 2003 01:19 (twenty-three years ago)

That Sonic Youth "Ca Plane Pour Moi" cover doesn't really change the meaning of the song, but the lyrics Thurston ad-libs are hysterical. "Wham Bam REM Curtis Sliwa bada bada boo! Wanna get a shot of you!"

― Arthur (Arthur), Monday, 3 February 2003 04:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Has anyone heard/mentioned Johnny Cash's new cover of NIN's "Hurt"? I'm not entirely sure it necessarily "changes" the meaning of the song, but his performance certainly lends it a gravity beyond the stylized angst of the original.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 3 February 2003 14:10 (twenty-three years ago)

"I want candy" by bow wow wow, which cahnged the meaning of "candy" from candy to underaged girls.

― fletrejet, Monday, 3 February 2003 15:29 (twenty-three years ago)

No it didn't. The Strangeloves meant girls too ("I love Candy when it's wrapped in a sweater"). Moreover, Bow Wow Wow's version would've been about a guy, not a girl.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Twatty All Saints covering Red Hot Silly Buggers' "Under The Bridge" and removing all references to injecting heroin from it.

Revolting Cocks covering "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" and making it totally sleazy. Changing lyrics like "I'm out of milk & coffee" to "I'm out of KY Jelly". Good stuff. But NOT All Gaynts!

― Guerillas On The Piss, Monday, 3 February 2003 15:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Someone may have mentioned this one, but Maxwell's take on NIN's "Closer" made it less kinky, self-loathing serial killer and more quiet storm loverman.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 3 February 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

>No it didn't. The Strangeloves meant girls too ("I love Candy when
> it's wrapped in a sweater").

Damn, I must have it mixed up with the Simpsons version. Ok then, the Simpsons version changed the meaning from girls to candy.

― fletrejet, Monday, 3 February 2003 17:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Ha! Speaking of...Homer's version of "It Was a Very Good Year" was pretty fab too.

― bobby j, Monday, 3 February 2003 17:33 (twenty-three years ago)

two weeks pass...

The Johnny Cash version of 'Hurt' is so much better than the NIN original it begs the question - why does Trent Reznor still sing his own songs?

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 February 2003 03:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Didn't Rage Against the Machine botch up their cover of Devo's "Freedom of Choice" by forgetting to say "Freedom from choice" at the end?

Also, while the lyrics didn't change, Soft Cell's cover of Hendrix's "Hey Joe" really twists the feeling.

― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 23 February 2003 03:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never known exactly how to read TMC's asexual/totally 4AD cover of "I Am the Cosmos," but I like it cuz it's beautiful.

― Aaron A., Sunday, 23 February 2003 03:48 (twenty-three years ago)

why does Trent Reznor still sing his own songs?

Because he's brilliant. *beats Millar down* It is, however, a fantastic cover version, as is "Personal Jesus."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 February 2003 03:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, while the lyrics didn't change, Soft Cell's cover of Hendrix's "Hey Joe" really twists the feeling.

Actually Hendrix's version of "Hey Joe" was a Leaves cover.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 23 February 2003 04:15 (twenty-three years ago)

See Ned, I don't buy being 'brilliant' as meaning that you shd be allowed to sing yr own tunes. I mean Rodgers & Hammerstein were brilliant, you don't hear them on recordings. Probably for good reason, like maybe they screeched like Billy Corgan or something.

I will allow that your admiration for messrs. Corgan & Reznor is possibly based on an aberration of brain chemistry, however, and let this argument fall, since no satisfactory objective conclusion can possibly be achieved.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 February 2003 05:08 (twenty-three years ago)

An answer worthy of myself in similar squabbles. *bows*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 February 2003 05:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Proof that I no longer feel like a newb - I just shit on Ned's taste without even thinking about it

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 February 2003 06:09 (twenty-three years ago)

NEd do you like "Somebody" by DM? I heard this song yesterday and it was as wretched as the first time I heard it 15 yrs ago. (But on the whole I sympathize with your DM love)

― Aaron A., Sunday, 23 February 2003 06:20 (twenty-three years ago)

The Lords of the New Church's take on "Like a Virgin".

Or for that matter, Bigod 20's version of "Like A Prayer" is pretty great. Changes the meaning -- I dunno. Does such a song even have meaning to begin with?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 February 2003 06:45 (twenty-three years ago)

The Johnny Cash version of 'Hurt' is so much better than the NIN original

I really is, isn't it? I mean, it's amazing. I'm not a Reznor hater, and I think it's fine that he sings his own songs, but it's even more amazing that Cash pulls so much emotion, so much (pardon me) HURT out of that lyric, which is far from one of Reznor's best.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 February 2003 06:48 (twenty-three years ago)

And also, "my empire of dirt" rhymes, whereas "my empire of shit" does not. So even on that fundamental level, it's an improvement.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 February 2003 06:51 (twenty-three years ago)

No, wait... never mind. It was an empire of dirt to begin with. It was a CROWN of shit.

Again with the fact-checking...

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 February 2003 06:53 (twenty-three years ago)

This is maybe an overly rockist response, but the Flying Burrito Brothers' version of "Do Right Woman" changes things pretty considerably. Same sort of gender bending fun as in Raincoats' "Lola," but different. I should probably sleep off the alcohol in my system before I elaborate.

― flightsatdusk (flightsatdusk), Sunday, 23 February 2003 06:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Here's a difference (I'm still on "Hurt") -- When Reznor sings, "The needle tears a hole," it sounds like pointless self-mutilation. When Cash sings it, it reminds me of John Prine's "Sam Stone" ("There's a hole in daddy's arm..."). Old, grizzed, Vietnam vet-style heroin addiction. Something about Cash's sheer age gives the lyric more punch.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 February 2003 07:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I should probably sleep off the alcohol in my system before I elaborate.

Shit, dude. Never stopped any of the rest of us.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 February 2003 07:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I just shit on Ned's taste without even thinking about it

I hope to someday do the same. Unfortunately, I so far almost always agree with Ned.

But a day will come. Oh yesss... It will. (rubs hands together)

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 February 2003 07:08 (twenty-three years ago)

liabach - life is life. now which malitia were they memebers of in last 10 years? :-/

― smudger (smudger), Sunday, 23 February 2003 07:14 (twenty-three years ago)

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