Covers: Songs That Shouldn't Work

Here's a link to a great post at Cover Me where we answered the question "What cover song shouldn't work as well as it does?" The list is pretty great, and has an amazing number of 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die songs and artists, including:

Yes covering Simon and Garfunkle's "America"
Mariachi el Bronx covering "I Would Die 4 U" off Prince's Purple Rain
Dolly Parton covering Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," featured on How the West was Won
Sam Cooke covering Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind"
Richard Thompson covering Britney Spears's "Oops, I Did it Again"
Miley Cyrus covering Outkast's "Hey Ya"
and Bill Cosby covering the Beatles's title track from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

 

COVER: Iggy Pop and Ginger Baker Rock the Black Keys

1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die artists Iggy Pop and Ginger Baker, the drummer for Blind Faith and Cream, recently turned the tables by covering a much younger band, The Black Keys. The track, "Lonely Boy," is off the Keys' 2011 El Camino and is for a tribute album to the band called Black on Blues, due out in July. The song isn't revelatory, but it does rock, and it features Pop's famous whining. The album also contains a track featuring Dave Davies of 1KRBYD artist The Kinks, as well as some other famous and not-so-famous (outside of the blues) acts. Watch the video below, grab the track at Cover Me, then preorder the album.

Stream Iggy Pop's 1000 Recordings entry here.
Stream Cream's entry here and Blind Faith here.

Related entries:

• There Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues
• NEWS: Iggy Pop Named Ambassador of Record Store Day
• B.B. King - Live at the Regal

COVER: Sonos Do A Capella Version of Jackson 5's "I Want You Back"

Caffeinated. Boppy. Groovy. Uplifting. All words to describe what has to be the best song ever to feature an 11-year old lead singer (no offense to Willow Smith), "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5. Tom Moon saw fit to include this gem on his 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die as a standalone song, praising the pop genius of it.

Then along comes LA-based a capella sextet Sonos. Gone is the caffeine, bop, uplift, and all that's left is the groove. Chris Harrison's booming bass (electrically produced via an effects pedal) holds down the wicked bassline, and Ben McLain's beatboxing keeps the whole thing moving. I heard this back in '09 because my brother was a childhood friend of Paul Peglar's (who has since left the band to pursue his acting career) Due to the appearance of this song on NPR back in the winter of '09 the group's debut album ended up on iTunes top album sales for a while. The band also appeared on NBC's "The Sing Off" (where they performed this song and actually got some flak from judges Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men and Ben Folds for changing the original too much).

While I think it rocks, check out their version below and decide for yourself. Refresh yourself on the sound of the original here, and then go buy Sonos' album (featuring covers of 1000 Recordings entries by Bjork ("Joga") and Rufus Wainwright ("Oh What a World")). They are working on a new one featuring their original material.

COVER: The Beatles' "If I Fell" Covered All Trippy by Greta Link

Anyone who knows all about the Beatles seems to think that everyone else knows all about the Beatles. By that I mean that if you are "into music" then folks assume you know every Beatles song ever done. I mentioned before that I hadn't heard the White Album until I started reading the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, and although I had heard a lot of the songs off A Hard Day's Night, watching the movie was something of a revelation for me. Most of the songs off that album have that old, happy sounding Beatles sound you're familiar with if you listened to the "oldies" station as a kid, but then some have this heaviness to them that are surprising. "If I Fell" is one that I remember specifically being amazed by, thinking "I can't believe I've never heard this."

So when I saw a Cover Me lede for Greta Link's version of the song I jumped at it. I think the song (and Link's video) speak for themselves, so check it out below and then click through to my Cover Me post to download the link (or go buy it for what you think it's worth at Link's Bandcamp page).

Check out more from Greta at her website.
Read Moon's entry here.

COVER: Counting Crows Rock Out on Gram Parsons

I am actually still alive, despite my two week absence from the blog. I'll cover some of the reasons for the delay in my next feature post, which I am working on, but in the interim, I wanted to drop a cover on here and mention that my "Stream Recordings" list just hit 500 albums linked (halfway for all you non-math types).

Counting Crows (my favorite band) released a new album of covers this week. Part of me was disappointed that it was a covers album because they hadn't released a studio album since 2008, but I still couldn't help but be excited. Lead singer Adam Duritz and his band sure know how to do a great cover. Based on their tracklist and the songs they have been playing live forever, the band loves to listen to music. In fact, in the liner notes, Duritz says "As much as I love our band, and I DO love our band, we were just one of a thousand bands, in one city among a thousand cities, and a lot of those bands were great or amazing in one way or another... I've never stopped being a fan." Really, one of their best skills is song selection, and they picked one of the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die on the tracklist for this one.

"Return of the Grievous Angel" by Gram Parsons is one I discovered through Moon's book, and I can't claim that it really left much of an impression. I am way more into Parsons' work with the Byrds than his solo stuff. The Crows version was much more memorable to me, as they pick up the pace and get pretty rowdy on this one. The great lyrics are highlighted by the immediacy of the arrangement, the live energy of the band, and a couple kickass solos (one mandolin and one guitar).

Listen to the song here, then buy the whole album here.
Buy Gram Parson's GP/Grievous Angel here.

COVER: Mike's 1000 Cover the Recordings

Last week the 1000 Recordings Podcast guys hooked the ultimate interview: the book's author Tom Moon. Before you read any further, I recommend you go check it out, and at least listen to the opening, where Moon talks about how he compiled the book.

After listening to his criteria (imagining that he is trying to introduce the world of music to a very receptive teenager rather than "The Best" or "The Most Influential") I have had to reevaluate my own "Mike's 1000" choices. I think I would still include the ones I have, but I think Moon's list has become even more subjective than it already was. It's hard to argue against playing any particular entry for someone when you are just trying to expose them to music (although, in some ways this has helped me think of more entries that I feel are missing).

Regardless of where my "Mike's 1000" list will go in the future, the three acts I've picked so far, Sun Kil Moon,  Iron & Wine, and Sublime, have all covered a recording that appears on the list. SKM and I&W, in particular, may be more well known for their covers than they are as originators. All three of these covers are fine tributes, and in the case of Iron & Wine, possibly better than the original. Check out the covers below, and then compare them to the originals at the bottom of the page.

Sublime - "Rivers of Babylon" (The Melodians cover, filed under Jimmy Cliff' in the book)
Sun Kil Moon - "Send in the Clowns" (written by Stephen Sondheim, sung by Glynis Johns in the book)
Iron & Wine - "Waitin' for a Superman" (The Flaming Lips cover)

The originals:

COVER: "Thirteen" by Big Star

The guys over at the 1000 Recordings Podcast talked this week about Big Star's 1000 Recordings entry #1 Record/Radio City. Tony and Mitch were discussing that they had heard of the band, but not heard them before they read the book. I was in the same boat, but I had heard at least two covers of their song "Thirteen." Counting Crows, who have professed their love for Big Star multiple times over the years, and are covering "The Ballad of El Goodo" on their upcoming covers album, and sadcore pioneer Elliott Smith (another 1000 Recordings artist) both have excellent covers of this nostalgia-fueled song about being a teen. 

Although I hadn't heard the original until I started reading the book, I already loved the song. 

I am a nostalgia kinda guy; I spend a lot of time looking back and reminiscing. Music is a gateway for me to do that. There used to be an ad for Axe Body Spray that said "smell is the strongest sense tied to memory," but for me music is equally powerful. When I hear a song that is dear to me, I am transported to a time in my life when that song mattered to me; I can feel the emotions, remember the tiny details, really be there. The lyrics of "Thirteen," so bare and heartfelt, do that to me, too. I can remember being overzealous in any number of romantic pursuits as a young teenager, where every event was the most life-changing, positive or negative, thing that had ever happened to a human. 

Listen to the original, Crows' and Smith's versions below, and tell me what song takes you back to those awkward and vulnerable teenage years.

Stream #1 Record/Radio City here.
Stream XO by Elliott Smith here.

COVER: "Honky Tonk Women" Covered in Five Different Styles

Check out this mother lode of covers of "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones. It's included in 1000 Recordings in the Stones' Singles Collection: The London Years. A cover already shows up in the book by way of Waylon Jennings on Honky Tonk Heroes, which was my first introduction to Waylon. I had to head to Google right afterwards to find out if he had actually written and played it first, because his version sounded so rootsy and I thought he predated the Stones.

Cover Me just posted a "Five Good Covers" series on the song, with five free downloads. I think four are worth your time (Peltz's cover is interesting, for sure, but not one I think I would revisit). Of those four, two of the artists are also 1000 Recordings artists: Earl Scruggs and The Pogues. Go check it out, and hear the book entries of these artists below:

Rolling Stones, Singles Collection: The London Years
Waylon Jennings, Honky Tonk Heroes
Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, Foggy Mountain Jamboree
The Pogues, If I Should Fall from Grace with God

COVER: Etta James "I'd Rather Go Blind" by Portugal. The Man

Portugal. The Man recorded this last summer, but with the recent passing of 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die artist Etta James, this song is getting renewed attention. Stream and download below. Via Cover Me

Hear and download the song here.

Stream the Etta James entry, Tell Mama

COVER: fiN Cover Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime"

UK quartet fiN rock out a version of the Talking Heads "Once in a Lifetime"

Download the MP3 and learn more about fiN here.

Via Cover Me

Stream the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die entry, Talking Heads Remain in Light

COVER: Steely Dan "Aja" Cover Album by The Darcys

Toronto quartet The Darcys  just released a keyboard-heavy version of 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die entry Aja by Steely Dan. Download it free from their website.

Via CoverMe

Hear the original album and 1000 Recordings entry here.

COVER: Pink Floyd's "Breathe" (plus 2Pac)

L.A. electropop duo Capital Cities cover Pink Floyd's "Breathe," and mix in another 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die artist, 2Pac (although not from a 1000 Recordings entry).

Read about it and download the free cover here.

Via CoverMe

Hear Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon here.
Hear 2Pac's All Eyez on Me here.