Cover song issues

Sometimes a cover of a cover is a legitimate thing I think. Claw Hammer covers the entirety of Are We Not Met? We Are Devo (though their version changes the title so it ends in We Are Not Devo) which means they cover Devo covering "Satisfaction." It works though because Devo's cover is so damned different than the original.

In fact I've often thought it would be cool to cover "Satisfaction" but actually be covering the Residents covering the Stones.

Nobody's done "Ole Buttermilk Sky" of late, right? I'm still safe with that one?

(Answer: Because it has relatively few words and few chords and is about an angel who gleefully plots murders. I guess.)

We covered "Thirteen" by Big Star at a show the other night and an acquaintance afterwords praised us for our Elliot Smith cover. :(

Several times we also did a cover of "a UK Top 10 hit from 1982" with the singer from the original band doing vocals.

This is maybe my way of saying that I like the idea of covers that work like "obscure" ones but aren't going back to forgetten standards or rock'n'roll chestnuts or whatever -- just covers of good but non-iconic songs-I-like from the not-too-distant past.

(n/a I accidentally learned to play "1995" on guitar the other day, but you're lucky that I couldn't think of a totally different way to present it and therefore didn't get tempted to start messing around.)

This was also tM3's original plan. Ah well.

A friend of mine has been covering "13" a lot, and even put it out on his last album. He does a very nice version, which I probably like better than the original, since I'm not so into Big Star in general. But I don't know if I know the actual original. I haven't listened to his recorded version.

Anyway I like your version of "Shit City"! You said, "Hey, this song is over the top. You know what it needs? More over-the-top-osity." And that is a beautiful thing.

Nab, I like those too, but I am very interested in standards and rock'n'roll chestnuts, for any number of reasons, mostly because they tap into something that I can't tap into. I cannot write a song like "Ole Buttermilk Sky". And one of the things I'm working on is how I can write such a song and still make it "work" for me.

But the recent songs I like from the etc., those are generally songs that I (given adequate inspiration etc.) more or less could write -- they come from a similar sensibility to mine, they work in the ways my songs work, etc.

A guy I knew covered a song I wrote for the band I was in in college, and it's like the BEST COVER EVER. He didn't know the lyrics so all the verse lyrics are totally different and it's all atonal and freaky. I should YOUSEND the original and the cover, it's amazing.

Haha, this is interesting to me, because our concern is always "Is there enough going on that everyone can have a part?"

That's why I still cover "Ana Ng."

1.) STRAIGHT COVER - "Middle of the Road" by the Pretenders. One of those songs that's basically the same throughout except you get a "quiet part" to jack off on.

2.) THE MEDLEY COVER - Had an original called "Stand Around" that would break into "Sweet Leaf" after the solo, and then would wind around to whatever else we could think of that started in A.

An ilxor later told me that by doing that, we introduced him to his mind. I was flabbergasted by the compliment until I later realized that he was just quoting one of the lyrics. It was still pert nice of him to mention it, though.

and 3.) THE COVER WE DIDN'T KNOW - Well, our guitarist had at least heard "Blue on Black" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, but I had no idea. I think that I was better off.

The song in question was "You're So Square (But I Don't Care)", which Elvis did, and which Queen later covered.

The Hüsker Dü version is transcendent.

I'm tempted.

We've also discovered that "Personal Jesus" sounds awesome of you rearrange it to the drum beat for "Brickhouse".

Covers should be based on the chord changes, time signatures, melody, and lyrics.
other than that, put your own flavor on it, and you can even change those up a bit.