Favorite Cover Song

[yabanci]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Cake did a couple nice remakes on Fashion Nugget. I like their downbeat version of I Will Survive, and really like their rendition of Willie Nelson's Sad Songs and Waltzes.

good one. Cake's "I Will Survive" is brilliant.

[MrBug708]

Originally posted by yabanci
good one. Cake's "I Will Survive" is brilliant.

Worst......Cover.....Ever

[Groundhog]

Originally posted by MrBug708
Worst......Cover.....Ever

*shrug* obviously it aint going to please everyone. From a bass player's point of view, I love just about everything Cake does.

Their cover of 'Perhaps, Perhaps' tops it IMO.

[MrBug708]

Fair enough, I'm partial to the cover song by NFG to the Goonies song.

[yabanci]

At first I was afraid, I was petrified. I kept thinking I could never live without you by my side. But then I spent so many nights just thinking how you've done me wrong. I grew strong. I learned how to get along. And so you're back from outer space. I just walked in to find you here without that look upon your face. I should have changed my fuckin lock, I would have made you leave your key if I had had know for just one second you'd be back to bother me. Well now go, walk out the door. Just turn around now, you're not welcome anymore. Weren't you the one who tried to break me with desire? Did you think I'd crumple? Did you think I'd lay down and die? Oh not I, I will survive, yeah. As Long as I know how to love, I know I'll be alive. I've got all my life to live. I've got all my love to give. I will survive, I will survive. Yeah, yeah

that's funny stuff, man. It takes balls to cover that song.

[MrBug708]

Keanu and the boys sing it much, much better

[Ksyrup]

For worst cover, I sadly must throw out a song that hadn't been covered yet when this thread was first going around - Back In Black by Living Colour.

I still can't believe they (a) did this song, (b) put it on their reunion album, and (c) released it as the first single. This was the band that, to me, defined black rock originality, and on their comeback album, they are reduced to releasing an awful version of a heavy metal white boy classic (that's been beaten into the ground). I just have to ask - was it worth being thrown in with Orgy and Alien Ant Farm just to do a song called Back In Black? You're black and you're back, I get it. Save it for the tour and leave it off the album.

Did I mention it's a horrible version? I did? Well, I said it again.

Worst part is that it's thrown in at track 6. Either put it at the beginning or stick it at the end. But don't ruin the continuity of the album - you've got track 4, a disconcerting song about jumping out of the WTC on 9/11; track 5, a song about the Iraq war; Back In Black; then track 7, a song about ghetto life.

WTF?!

[CamEdwards]

i saw this album in Best Buy over the weekend. How is it overall? And are all four original members back? In looking at the back cover, I really couldn't tell about one of them.

[Ksyrup]

I'm only half-way through and I like it, BUT:

1. I've heard that the second half is filled with a bunch of wierd crap and the songs aren't really songs, just monotonous house music. But I can't say that for myself...yet.

2. It's got a strange sound. The guitar is heavy, but the bass and drums are muted on some tracks and they've thrown in a heavy dose of sampling and synth effects. In terms of their other albums, it definitely picks up where Stain left off. It's heavy, angry, and depressing. Back In Black is probably the "lightest" (in terms of feel, not music) song on the album, but even that song sounds edgy, for a cover.

It's not the original guys - it's 3 of the 4 - but it is the same 4 guys who made Stain. The only difference is Doug Wimbish replaced Muzz Skillings, who never came back after Time's Up.

I just looked this album up on allmusic.com. They gave it a 4 star rating:

Living Colour's appetite was always voracious. It attacked rock, funk, and jazz textures with a tenacious, blind energy, and opened wide to accommodate lyrically outsized social and political issues. But while the band had an incredible capacity for honing its humongous sound and vision into searing (or grooving) anthems, its lyrical kvetching sometimes seemed self-righteous, and the constant, radical aesthetic shifts could be jarring. And yet, Living Colour's stagnation after 1995's Stain was strange. They had always been so hungry, so exploratory — three albums didn't seem like sufficient nourishment. As it turns out, the quartet wasn't finished. A round of 2000s reunion gigs has led to CollideØscope, a barbed and literate work that tears anew into Living Colour's signature sound, but is also flawed by a few of those old shortcomings. Vivid and Time's Up's flashes of cynical humor ("Glamour Boys," "Elvis Is Dead") were largely gone by Stain, replaced with a claustrophobic weariness typified even in song titles — "Go Away," "Mind Your Own Business." CollideØscope further emphasizes that shift. Here, Corey Glover's lyrics grapple with media, herd mentality, and the loss of faith. But it's the specter of 9/11 that really casts a pall, since he sees much of the mind control and climate of complacency in the U.S. as ramifications of that tragedy. Vernon Reid accompanies this sociopolitical soul-searching with guitar work that's serrated, dirty, and consistently amazing. "Song Without Sin" and especially "A ? of When" nod again to Bad Brains; the latter's staccato lyrical fatalism unfolds hardcore style over Reid's assaulting riff. As they do throughout, Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish prove to be a formidable rhythm section, expertly exerting varying levels of pressure on the mid-level mess of guitar and sound bed cacophony. In a classic Living Colour move, one of the album's most alluring songs is also its most disturbing. Detailing the World Trade Center's destruction from one wrenching point of view, Glover's voice follows "Flying"'s light, soaring funk with a detachment that's arresting. "I jumped out the window to get to the parking lot," Glover sings. "Never in my life have I felt a heat so hot/I had to get out." When things get this heavy, a little levity would be nice — not to ignore what happened (or what is happening), but to alleviate the immediacy of CollideØscope's single-mindedness. This dour heart is at once the album's greatest strength and biggest weakness. Living Colour proves it hasn't lost a step by rocking out of the box with such visceral anger and scenery-chewing musical adventurism (check out the drum'n'bass/dub hybrid "In Your Name" or instrumental coda "Nova"; a mid-album run through AC/DC's "Back in Black" also rocks energetically and without agenda). There's no doubt CollideØscope is a welcome return for a group that never should have left. But the quartet's blistered, gray-sky worldview makes listeners forget the flutter of "Solace of You" or the sighing soul update "Broken Hearts," and the permeating darkness obscures the mixture of hope and anger that makes its music so thrilling.

[Butter]

My favorite cover right now is Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer doing Bob Marley's "Redemption Song". It's on Johnny Cash's box set. I don't know if it was intended to be intentionally tear-jerking, but it's very very good.

[Pyser]

then you also have to mention johnny cash's cover of Hurt.

also, best video ever.

[Fritz]

I listen to a lot of cover music, I think the best may be Everclear's version of American Girl (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers).

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by Fritz
wow, hard to pick.

Today I will say American Girl by Everclear.

Good to know your selection hasn't changed in the past 9 months

(yes, someone needs to be slapped for digging up such an old thread. Fooled me at first.)

edit: TLK, please report to the Principal's office.

[stevew]

Gold Dust Woman by Hole
Landslide by Smashing Pumpkins
Just Like Heaven by Dinosaur Jr.

[Leonidas]

Stevie Ray Vaugh - Voodoo Chile'
Camper Van Beethoven - Stairway to Heaven and Pictures of Matchstick Men
The Cult - Born to be Wild
The Clash - I Fought the Law
Tool - No Quarter
Jeff Healy Band - Baby Blue Jean Blues

[Leonidas]

And I forgot, Johnny Cash - Personal Jesus

[Draft Dodger]

lots of great ones mentioned...a few to add.

Stanley Jordan - Stairway to Heaven
Jimi Hendrix - Come On, Part 1
Led Zeppelin - Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You.

haven't heard the Living Colour Back in Black cover, but it wouldn't even be the worst AC/DC cover - that, of course, would go to Celine Dion doing You Shook Me. and Living Colour do have a nice cover out of Should I Stay or Should I Go.

(and thanks for the heads up on the 99 red balloons song - I just dl'd it; pretty cool).

[Killebrew]

A quick list off the top of my head...
Beatles - Boys & Roll Over Beethoven
The Jam - Back In My Arms Again
Arrested Development - Everyday People
Me First & The Gimme Gimme's - Take It On The Run
Kelly Osborne - Papa Don't Preach (I know, I know, but fuck it, this cover kicks ass)
Vagrants - Respect
Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe
The Ataris - Boys Of Summer
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
Small Faces - You've Really Got A Hold On Me
Rolling Stones - Bye, Bye, Johnnie & Carol
Love - My Little Red Book
The Wondermints - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Reel Big Fish - Take on Me
The Who - Heatwave
The Sonics - Do You Love Me

[Draft Dodger]

well, in the process of (allegedly) downloading the new Living Colour song. I have to say, I really dig the Back in Black cover, especially the vocals. To each his own, I guess. I do agree it should have been the first or last song, and it doesn't really seem to fit well with the other songs.

the rest of the album I'm going to need to listen to a few more times - definitely sounds more "Stainish" than "Vibeish", which is too bad. I really miss the more funk-influence stuff.

[Wasabiak]

The song is "Rusty Cage", but i don't know who did it first, Soundgarden, or Johnny Cash. Either way, i like them both.

[Ksyrup]

Soundgarden, off of Badmotorfinger.

[korme]

Dashboard - Jamie (Weezer)

[Pumpy Tudors]

Jeez, I haven't even heard of 70% of the songs mentioned, and some of the titles I DO recognize, I don't even know the band that originally did them. I guess I'm not cool enough for this thread. I'll go back to my usual MO, defending showboaters and trying to get some love for the UNO Privateers.

[korme]

Pumpy, go spout off some more commercial history.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally posted by Shorty3281
Pumpy, go spout off some more commercial history.

That sounds like a great idea, although I'll save it for later. Speaking of commercials, however...

I love the Chunky Soup commercial in which Donovan McNabb is about to play on the PS2 against his dinner host. My absolute favorite part is when Donovan emphatically slaps his hand against his knee and proclaims, "I am McNABB!" I now do the exact same thing intermittently at home, and it scares my fiancee to death.

I bet she hears me in her nightmares. "I am McNABB!"

[korme]

The Dan Band - Total Eclipse of the Heart

For those not in the know, this is the band that plays at the wedding in Old School and adds some f-bombs.. hehe..

[yabanci]

Nelly's cover of "Movin' On Up," The Jeffersons theme song.... you know, fish don't fry in the kitchen, beans don't burn on the grill.....

[Abe Sargent]

I love The Endparty's remake of U2's New Year's Day.


-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

I have about ten seperate Depeche Mode cover albums where bands cover Depeche Mode songs. Of those , the best are:

Rammstein "Stripped"
Locust "Master and Servant"
Interfaith "Get the Balance Right"


-Anxiety

[TLK]

The song of the moment is: "D'yer Mak'er" as performed by Sheryl Crow.... is this bad?

[Ksyrup]

I've never liked Sheryl Crow. And now that she's apparently decided to give up even attempting to write songs or perform new material, I like her even less. I haven't even heard this one, but if it's as bad as her GnR cover, I hope I never do.

Covers are a cool thing, when done right. I just hate it when artists either start their career with a cover, attempt to prolong a career with one, or otherwise release one in the attempt to make a hit so that people will buy an album full of otherwise mediocre originals. Throwing a cover on a soundtrack, or doing an entire album of covers to pay homage to your roots, or even burying a cover on an album at the end as a one-off, I can handle. The rest...blech.

[Draft Dodger]

by far, my cover song of the moment is Spiderbait's "Black Betty". a kick ass version of a song I've always felt was pretty lame.

[Breeze]

Straight to Hell - Phil Cody (especially live when he uses the old round mic.)