Which is your favourite version of Behind the Mask?

Senor Coconut

Clapton version is complete wank.

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clapton version is great.

is there any question that it's YMO

actually I hadn't heard the Greg Phillinganes version, it's pretty good

Phillinganes. And I love the YMO version.

YMO. Next.

clapton version is great.

Yes. Am I the only one (guess not) that liked his AOR pop period and disliked his "blues purism" of all other periods?

Two good dance versions - Al Usher's remix of Senor Coconut and Orbital's remix of YMO. That riff craves techno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2g4zyk9MnA

I love all three versions, I must say. My vote goes to Clapton's take, because it will undeservingly be the pariah dog of this poll. Some thoughts on the contenders:

- Leaving aside the quality and originality of Sakamoto's composition, it's easy to overlook nowadays how game-changingly sophisticated YMO's production was for 1979. They were working with the Roland MC-8 MicroComposer, which was at the bleeding edge of technology at that point. Indeed, while Hosono & Co. were evidently keen students of Kraftwerk, with Solid State Survivor they overtook their mentors in terms of sheer technique - it makes The Man Machine sound a little creaky by comparison. (Which is not to say that the latter isn't a far superior album, musically speaking.) By the time of the Computer World tour in 1981, Kraftwerk too had acquired an MC-8...
- Phillinganes brings the funk, but loses points for putting the synth melody line so low in the mix.
- Clapton delivers a great vocal performance and a guitar solo that achieves the near-impossible feat of enhancing the arrangement, rather than seeming like a bid for more AOR radio play. (Seriously, is it not a kind of miracle that Eric Clapton not only covered an obscure Japanese technopop song, but actually gave it his all?)

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