Expansive Covers or The Reverse of Gary Jules' Mad World

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I get the feeling that what Mr. Jules "did" to this song rubs strongly against the grain of some of ILM's aesthetics/preferences. M. Ward (who I like) pulled a similar move on Bowie's "Let's Dance." Red House Painters did it to the Cars on "All Mixed Up."

I've been trying to avoid saying exactly what they did, but I suppose they slow down and magnify the lyrics & emotion of the song, sacrificing the "fun" or the beat or the song's ability to be in two places at once.

So I'm interested in examples when this song covering process is kind of thrown in reverse (compared to the first examples I mentioned). What sparked this is downloading the Pet Shop Boys's cover of "You Were Always on my Mind." Maybe I mean covers that aren't reductive in a way. Like I could say The Light 3000, but that actually seems to do less with the song then the original. Are there such things as expansive covers?

― bnw (bnw), Friday, 5 March 2004 03:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Obliivvvviiiiiioooooooon.

one to go

― Carey (Carey), Friday, 5 March 2004 03:58 (twenty-one years ago)

tugboat "love goes home to paris in the spring"

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 5 March 2004 04:09 (twenty-one years ago)

(Must post again just to deny the "two responses and into oblivion" threat.) I do like some of the "slowed down, emo'd up" covers (surprise, surprise), just curious about ones that go the other way.

― bnw (bnw), Friday, 5 March 2004 04:39 (twenty-one years ago)

The Chap, "What's Love Got to Do with It?"

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Friday, 5 March 2004 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

lush doing vashti's "i'd like to walk around in your mind"

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 5 March 2004 04:45 (twenty-one years ago)

xiu xiu - "fast car"

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 5 March 2004 05:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Elvis Costello to ruddy thread!

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 5 March 2004 09:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd think most of the Fall's covers would qualify for this in some way

― Mr Mime (Andrew Thames), Friday, 5 March 2004 09:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Sting "Little Wing"

― dave q, Friday, 5 March 2004 11:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Isaac Hayes 'By the time I get to Phoenix'
Jimi Hendrix 'Hey Joe'
Kevin Rowland 'Rag Doll'

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Friday, 5 March 2004 11:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Mmmm, I got that promo version *with* thunder road. I could not believe how long Rag Doll was going on for...

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 5 March 2004 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Kevin Rowland has covered 'Thunder Road? Is it good?
I love 'Rag Doll' and 'The Greatest Love of All', the rest of 'My Beauty' not so much.
Another expansive cover. Jim O' Rourke doing Ivor Cutler's 'Women of the World'

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Friday, 5 March 2004 11:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Not being a bruce fan, can't say.

It was going to be on "My Beauty" but Bruce objected (altered lyrics) despite Kevin explaining all, personally, to him. So it was pulled from the release.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 5 March 2004 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Summer Breeze - The Isley Brothers

Turns a weedy hippy-dippy tune into majestic and soaring soul with an orgasmic guitar solo at the end.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 5 March 2004 13:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey Joe - Patti Smith
in the slowed down/emo'd up variety but to the ridiculous extreme that Smith just barely pulls off but when she asks Patti Hearst if she was "gettin' it every night from a black-revolutionary man, or were you really dead?" you know you're playing this disc at the right speed.

― J2Dancer, Friday, 5 March 2004 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

prog to thread, esp. the version of Simon & Garfunkel's "America" by Yes. turns a sweet, man-on-the-Greyhound-bus-and-his-acoustic-guitar number into a full blown operatic aria

― zebedee (zebedee), Friday, 5 March 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

There are tons of examples of this in metal, some of the most obvious being Judas Priest's version of "Diamonds and Rust", Nevermore's "The Sounds of Silence", Anacrusis's "I Love the World" and Skyclad's "Come On Eileen". Oh, and don't forget Keel doing "Because the Night".

Some non-metal examples: Angelique Kidjo's version of Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile", globe doing "Stop! In the Name of Love", Kirsty MacColl doing Billy Bragg's "A New England", and that dance singer with a name that starts with A doing "Smeels Like Teen Spirit". And does Sisters of Mercy's "Gimme Shelter" count?

― ara, Friday, 5 March 2004 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower

― Ben Dot (1977), Friday, 5 March 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

stevie wonder, "we can work it out."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 5 March 2004 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Ben Dot beat to me saying Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower"...an amazing take on the original. (But I still like the original too).

― wallace carothers, Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I once got a lot of mileage out of Scala's version of "Heart of Glass". Much like the original, what was déclassé at the time is brought to the fore - cheesy 4otf stomp, extended outro, cold vocal delivery.

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Saturday, 6 March 2004 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

"It Ain't Me, Babe" Johnny and June Carter Cash

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 23:00 (twenty-one years ago)

great thread idea bnw

Madonna 'Ray Of Light' (technically)

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)

sitting here trying to figure out whether Husker Du's cover of "Eight Miles High" should be considered expansive or reductive.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)

St Etienne 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart'

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Human League - 'You've lost that Loving Feeling'

― Sasha (sgh), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 00:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Tricky -- "Black Steel"?
The Feelies -- "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey"

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Opus III - "It's A Fine Day"
Grace Jones - "Warm Leatherette"

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 11:15 (twenty-one years ago)

four weeks pass...

donna summer - 'macarthur park'

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Joe Cocker "With a Little Help From My Friends"!!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

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