Topic: Cover Songs: Better than the Original? | |
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Cover Songs: Better than the Original?
Evidently, music producers strongly encourage full-length recordings to include at least one cover, as covers apparently have a strong "sell" factor. Few covers, however, manage to achieve "better than the original" status. I propose five categories, in descending order of quality (followed by my own examples): 1. Better 2. Interesting, but not Great 3. Could/Should Have Been Good 4. Sounds the Same/Pointless 5. Butchery/Hall of Shame Examples: 1. Coal -- of Motorhead's "Ace of Spades": the jazzy Canadian rockabilly band’s cover of the early thrash “classic,” complete with brush drums and a sweet-voiced female singer; more enjoyable for the wide cross-genre leap -- Cowboy Junkies -- of Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane": another sweet-voiced female single from another subdued Canadian band brings something new to a familiar track 2. Red Hot Chili Peppers -- of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground": funky synth track becomes a funky hard rock track -- O*** -- of New Order's "Blue Monday": the original is so good, apparently a bad cover is hard to pull off -- Johnny Cash -- of Nine Inch Nails's "Hurt": people love this cover, somewhat understandably -- but mostly in an honorific sense (i.e., out of respect for the Man in Black) -- Faith No More -- of the Commodores’s "Easy": amusing cross-genre track, perhaps best appreciated as a tongue-in-cheek exercise 3. Guns n’ Roses -- of Bob Dylan’s "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" -- sounds like a good idea, but the execution left something to be desired; pales to the original; George Harrison mocked it for getting one of the three chords in the song wrong 4. Guns n' Roses -- of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die": nothing new here -- Guns n' Roses -- pretty much all of "The Spaghetti Incident?" 5. Rod Stewart -- of Tom Waits's "Downtown Train" -- musically lame, changes the lyrics from a self-effacing love song into a narcissistic love song; an all-around travesty -- Ministry -- of Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay": a poor choice even for an album cut, except perhaps for comedic value -- Guns n' Roses -- of the Rolling Stones's "Sympathy for the Devil" -- if you've heard it, you know |
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Best cover ever is the Jimi Hendrix version of "All Along The Watchtower." Santana's version of "Black Magic Woman" isn't bad either, but not quite as good as the original.
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Best cover ever is the Jimi Hendrix version of "All Along The Watchtower." Definitely first one that came to mind. ![]() |
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Best cover ever is the Jimi Hendrix version of "All Along The Watchtower." Definitely first one that came to mind. ![]() Dylan has freely acknowledged that the song cannot be done any better than Hendrix's version. |
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Hurt
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I think Neil Young did a great live version of "All Along the Watchtower". He killed it.
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Heart doing stairway to heaven
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World Of Confusion--Disturbed
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"Sound of Silence"- Disturbed (Originally done by Simon and Garfunkel)
"Hurt"- Johnny Cash (Originally done by NIN) |
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A guy named Leo Moracchioli has a YouTube channel with lots of videos of him doing metal covers of pop songs...I think most all of them are better than the originals.
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Have a listen to Frank Zappa's cover of Stairway to Heaven.
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And maybe even- Franks cover of Ravel's Bolero.
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Will give them a listen. Thanks I like FZ
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Best covers ?
> "Twist and Shout" The Beatles > "Halleujah" Jeff Buckley > "Voodoo Child" Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton > "Why Cant We Live Together" Steve Winwood >" Sweet Jane" Cowboy Junkies and many more |
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How about, Joe Bonamassa covering ZZ Top's, just got paid today,and he leads nicely into a touch of Zeppelin,I think we may have heard it somewhere before.
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