Shove your faithful tribute albums up your ass

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Just heard the Pixies tribute album - mostly faithful covers- a little more distortion , a bit slower etc WHY OH WHY OH WHY BOTHER-only one luminescent piece of gorgeousness ( been reading old Melody Makers too much recently)- Reel Big Fish's version of 'Gigantic' - electronic,pumping chorus,vocoder - oh it's lovely !

I don't want join-the-dots covers,what I wany you to do is relax..take a long hot bath..take a last listen to the original . then fuck it over goodstyle

What is the most awesome,outlandish cover you've ever heard ?

― Geordie ' I've broken legs for less' Racer, Friday, 13 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I remember being wonderfully baffled by the Shroud's cover of "Alice" by Sisters. Just a strings quartet and a tambourine. What's more I heard it in a club... Dancers had no clue what to do, they would just stand about, confused, in awe.

― Simon, Friday, 13 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The most awesome, outlandish cover ever? Man, that's a good question! Let me think here -- something's going to suggest itself to me at 3 am, I'm sure, but for right this second, let's say Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Born to Run." It doesn't really change the song any, to be fair, but hearing Trevor Horn doing a tribute to a tribute of Phil Spector with Holly Johnson being even *more* bombastic than Brooooce is a wonder to behold.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 13 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

We did this a while ago, I seem to remember. I think I responded then by mentioning Flying Saucer Attack's "Sally Free And Easy" (ah, displaced folk) and The Avalanches' "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?". I will again.

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 14 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The Troggs' version of "Good Vibrations". Coltrane's "My Favorite Things". James Last's versions of '70s hard rock songs on the "Non- Stop Dancing" series. The Residents' "3rd Reich'n'Roll".

― duane zarakov, Saturday, 14 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

oh yeah & about the most obvious one ever - "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen. Also : "Black Betty " by Ram Jam, "Yummy Yummy Yummy" by Julie London, "Like A Rolling Stone" by the Soup Greens...

― Duane Zarakov, Sunday, 15 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I always liked the Jane's Addiction version of "Ripple." Seemed to capture something essential about the song while completely applying the band's own viewpoint.

― Mark, Sunday, 15 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Most awesome- Dolly Parton's cover of Kenny Rogers "But You Know I Love You". Sweet and heartfelt.

Most outlandish- I once heard a high school marching band play Bob Dylan's "Mr Tamborine Man". Man was that strange. Horns and drums, Jeez.

― Joseph Wasko, Sunday, 15 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Amy Grant's cover of Big Yellow Taxi.

Chris Rock's cover of Richard Pryor.

Someone said that tribute albums would be cooler if they were all patterned after Alex Chilton by The 'Mats. I'll agree.

― JM, Monday, 16 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Somehow Geordie's assertion that covers should 'fuck over the originals goodstyle' strikes me as a bit of a cliché. I mean, I've never heard it expressed in those terms before (and I hope I never do again), but there seems to be a common and basic assumption that good covers disrespect their originals. I can see a clear logic here, in that covers which merely mimic the originals might seem pointless (though come to think of it, it might not be pointless for the covering band themselves: it might feel like an achievement). But I am still not quite happy with the presupposition that la Geordie articulates - which implies some kind of violence of attitude between one band and another. Still, maybe this is just a matter of tone, really, and the disagreement is not a significant one.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Perhaps think of it as a practical principle, pinefox. (I'm very sorry. I really did not mean for all those p's to line up like that.) I think it's much more difficult for a band to cover a song, remaining true to it in some sense, while improving on the song. Fucking it over goodstyle makes, as a rule of thumb, for at least covers that are more interesting, and potentially a lot more interesting, than by-the-numbers covers, simply because most bands probably aren't going to do a very good job on by-the-numbers covers.

― Josh, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Sure, that's another fair point. But we might still (as suggested earlier) think about the attitude / motivation of the band themselves. They might be playing a bit like the original cos they love the original and idolize the artist that did it. It might or might not make for a good listening experience for everyone else (on which opinion is always likely to vary anyway), but it might feel really significant for the band themselves. That's a kind of 'practical principle' too.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Or sometimes, like Flying Saucer Attack, they might be playing because they hold the original in great esteem and affection but aware that that exact emotion cannot apply today, and attempting to strain poignancy from the contrast between those times and these.

Or sometimes, like Saint Etienne doing Neil Young, they might just feel the original has some good songs but want to remove him from the distancing imagery surrounding him. Actually I didn't know he wrote "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" until 4 years after I first heard their version, but the point holds.

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Ida's cover of Eno's "Golden Hours" is brilliant. And they do neil young, which is more extravagantly wrong, but less super-pretty. Faulkner's cover of "Both Sides Now" is a great power-pop turnaround. I addressed this on In Review.

― Sterling Clover, Sunday, 22 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

four months pass...

"White Riot" - Cracker.

― Nick Bane, Saturday, 25 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

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