Good band/crap cover

Have a few of these, actually: The otherwise brilliant Massive Attack pointlessly cover the Doors' "Light My Fire" to no discernably listenable effect. The once-fabulous Stranglers had no real reason to hand in a workaday reading of Question Mark & the Mysterians' "96 Tears," but did anyway. Echo & the Bunnymen's rendition of the Doors' "People are Strange" was an excercise in yawnsome xeroxing. Iggy Pop's disinterested stroll through "Louie Louie" on AMERICAN CAESER served no one particularly well. I never really saw the point nor humor in Bauhaus' nearly identical take on Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust." By this point, U2 should have learned *NEVER* to cover *ANY* band, as they almost always fuck it up. I've never understood why the Violent Femmes bothered to cover Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" on their otherwise quite inspired (yet universally ignored) album, WHY DO BIRDS SING. And while I applauded Primal Scream's attempt at covering Motorhead's ....ummm.."Motorhead" on VANISHING POINT, it was ultimatley a departure to nowhere.

"Just Like Heaven" done by Dinosaur Jr. Crap song, but somehow J's whiny voice makes the candy-ass lyrics seem entirely palatable. Loveable, even.

"Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon" by Urge Overkill. Never liked the original. Wretched even. Laughed out loud when I got the Stull EP. Nash Kato never topped his ultra-suave self after this one. Love their version.

"Walking the Cow" by fIREHOSE. Ok, so I only heard the original Daniel Johnston version once, and it was after I knew the cover version, but I think I preferred Watt and Co's.

"Satisfaction" by DEVO. Ok, so the original is like one of the greatest rock n' roll songs/riffs ever, but the DEVO version is just fucking brilliant. Especially considering the fact that it was like 1973 when it was conceived.

"We're an American Band" by Yo La Tengo. Ha! Its not even the same song! Joke's on us. But here's hoping that this tune takes the place of the terrible Grand Funk one in everyone's hearts and minds. Funny though, I saw them cover the actual GFR song once in concert before I CAN HEAR THE HEART... came out.

upo until now i had never heard anyone claim 'just like heaven' had been improved by j mascis, interesting.

I've never heard a successful cover of "Just Like Heaven".

"All Cats Are Grey", however, was done very successfully by a band called Faith and Disease. No, it wasn't better than the original, but it came very close.

U2's cover of Unchained Melody... which gives me the willies. But then I've always been hot and cold on U2 anyway, and the original song, if placed in a Classic Or Dud? context, would be listed as 'classic' without qualm or discussion, so this whole post really don't count.

swans version of "love will tear us apart": m.gira rewrites the melody in a pointlessly irritating way - like he misses out just one note. Actually *I* always thought the original was a weak Orchestral Manoeuvres-type song sanctified only by, well, you know...

didn't the fall do "a day in the life" on an NME charity record of covers of every track off Sgt Pepper? which as an LP was perhaps not as good as might have been, but when you heard the massed Christians and Billy Braggs and Wet Wet Wets in revamp mode, you realised how not-bad-after-all the beatles were even when way drugged up and conceptually over-confident.

I have a sham 69 compilation on which they redo ATV's 'Action Time Vision', but against the odds it's quite good

I think some people aren't reading the question properly.

This is like the singer not the song argument. many a poor song can be made into a great record. I would cite the Pet Shop Boy's version of 'Where the streets have no name' as a prime example of this.

I think Dinosaur Jr improved 'Just like heaven' too, Tim.

[reads question properly for the first time]

oops, ooh, er, what I meant to mention wuz:

1. sinead o'c's stupendous version of "don't cry for me argentina"

2. joan jett's "little drummer boy"

3. the sonic youth version of that song from neil young's heroically terrible synth-pop LP _trans_ (sy's version is recorded on _The Bridge_ compilation), whose name currently escapes me. I went and bought _trans_ on the strength of it.

God yes, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina"

But I'd say that's a great song anyhow - as in, the latent greatness of the song was apparent behind the stagey versions.

Actually thats another good question - latent greatness in songs. Cale's "I Keep A Close Watch" for example is clearly an astonishing song but none of the actual 3 available versions fully satisfy - I kind of want one which somehow combines the starkness of the New Society one with the fullness of the Slow Dazzle one (and no horns)

Similarly, I've always wanted a version of 'Reel Around The Fountain' that's somewhere between the fullness of the first LP version and the starkness of the Peel session version on 'Hatful of Hollow'. And I've kind of found it in the David Jensen version, so I should shut up.

I think 'Reel Around The Fountain' is the most romantic song ever written, by the way. In the broader sense of 'romantic'.

Which leads on to a third question... how many pop songs are there that you could actually describe as being perfect? Songs where not a single second is wasted, where you can't think of any way to improve them? I would nominate Air's "All I Need". But what do I know?

This is turning into an Only Connect of unanswered supplementary questions. Which leads us on to my next question (not to be answered). What's the greatest unanswered question in pop?

"Why?"

By Carly Simon, preferably.

Another I just remembered:

"All ALong the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix. Bob Dylan said that he was embarrassed when he heard the Hendirx version and wished that Hendrix's would go down in history as the definitive version of that song. I would have to agree. Not that the original isn't good, but it was mightily surpassed by Jimi's psych guitar howl. However, the U2 version was just junk.

As much as I love them, XTC's version of "All Along the Watchtower" (on their debut album, WHITE MUSIC) was krap as well.

Agreed. Ick!! Maybe that was why XTC gave up doing covers for the rest of their career. I can't think of any other covers that they put on albums, or otherwise, can you? Although they pretty much sated whatever cover fetish was in them with the Dukes of Stratosphear records. That's better than covers - homages.

Anyway, another:

"100,000 Fireflies" by Superchunk. I love the Magnetic Fields and lots of MF fans think this is one of their best songs but I could never stand it. Can't stand the vocal "earnestness" (I much favor Stephin's vocal stlyings) and tonewise, its incredibly shrill. I'm sure Mac and Co. think that their cover sucks but I think its tons better than the original.

superchunk have excellent taste in cover songs they destroyed 'night of chill blue' but did a nice job on 'lying in state' by the verlaines.

this has nothing to do with the question posed. duncan sheik actually did a rather nice version of 'reel around the fountain' as unlikely as that seems.

U2 did a couple of covers for B-sides around the time of Rattle & Hum (maybe after.) "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" and "Sattelite Of Love." These may not count for this question, as I like both tunes in their original version. But I feel like I heard something new in U2's take, something that stuck with me.

I've heard a couple cover versions of Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" that've made me kinda warm to the song. The Crash Test Dummies do it in concert, and it's a fairly straight version, though hearing it sung in a low bass voice is strangely satisfying. Travis does an acoustic version in concert, too. The version by Fountains of Wayne, though, I think is the best. It's slowed down and played irony-free, and it really works. It's shown me there's much more going on there than you might think. I mean, "I must confess my loneliness is killing me" isn't exactly a teenybopper sentiment.