|
|
Everybody Run for Cover! - another ten cover songs that you need to hearSep 23 '06 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Music
The Bottom Line taking your favorite songs to a place where you never expected to find them...
It's almost always a bad idea in the worth of theater, but that doesn't stop some directors from heading down that road. Someone, somewhere, is eventually bound to take any given classic play and transpose it to a setting completely different from what was originally intended: Hamlet set in Nazi era Germany. Waiting for Godot located on a nuclear submarine. Death of a Salesman performed by trained cats swimming pool. Tartouffe done by toddlers in a daycare. There's always bound to be a director out there ready to push the creative envelope into over-the-top absurdity territory with disastrous results for the world of theater. Now in the world of music... That's a different story. There are few experiences that compare with the intriguing experience of a good genre-bending cover song. Take a hard rock song and put it in a smooth lounge style and you've got something to make us sit up and listen. Surround a rap song with jam band set dressing and the results are infectiously sweet. Put a giddy pop song in front of a dark, somber, grunge rock backdrop and we find a brand new depth we might never have expected. Even when an envelope-pushing cover song falls a little short of the mark, the results are still awfully entertaining. Everyone has their favorites when it comes to cover songs, but there are always new stars waiting in the wings. Here are ten great covers that may have fallen through the cracks, but are more than worth a listen: We Will Rock You by Linda Ronstadt (originally by Queen) When Linda Ronstadt gets her hands on the classic Queen stadium anthem, it's almost as if she adds a parenthetical "(to sleep)" onto the end of the title. It's not that she makes the song sound boring. Far from it in fact. Ronstadt strips away the foot stomps and vocal bombast, leaving behind only her own soft, soothing vocals billowing with a velvety reverb, turning the song into a lullaby in the process. There's a palpable feeling love and care in the vocals, but there's also a crisp aloofness that gives the song an unforgettably haunting feel. Ronstadt's take on the song is a clear case of less being... well, not exactly more - let's just say that it's vastly different, but still just as compelling. (found on the album Dedicated to the One I Love) What's New Pussycat? by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Fishbone (originally by Tom Jones) If Tom Jones' original What's New Pussycat is a three ring circus blended together with a Vegas lounge act, this re-invention of the song drops that same circus into a raucous Cinco de Mayo block party. The song alternates back and forth between brazen mariachi horn arrangements and razor-sharp backbeat ska riffs, and the lyrics bounce from English to Spanish and back without missing a beat. The cover version jumps around enough to keep the song from fully settling into any single, clearly defined category, but I can still say that while the original is all champagne and martinis, this new version is all tequila shots and bottles of Dos Equis. (found on the album Red Hot + Latin) Instant Karma John Hiatt (originally by John Lennon) John Lennon served up one of his most conventional pop hits with Instant Karma. Those stomping piano rhythms and the bouncy shuffle beat made the song instantly accessible, but that's certainly not the only direction in which one could take the song. In John Hiatt's vision for the song, the shuffle smooth out to a much straighter rhythm and there's a chunky, twangy guitar sound that takes center stage, steeping the music in a down-home country blues tradition. With Hiatt's gruff, whiskey-soaked vocals, the song's sentiment of being beaten down by life but refusing to give in rises all the way up to its most logical conclusion. (found on the soundtrack to My Name Is Earl) Breathe by Open Door (originally by Pink Floyd) Many popular music fans would agree that Pink Floyd have cornered the market on the psychedelic music scene, but their recordings are certainly not the final word on the surreal music scene. When Open Door tackle the song, they wipe out the languidly dreamy guitar, utilizing instead mellow, velvety electric piano licks and overlapping, polyrhythmic percussion lines. Maintaining the pensive, far off vocals and the unrushed tempo, this cover of the song makes the journey from psychedelic rock to acid jazz, recasting the music in an entirely new light without loosing an ounce of it's surreal attraction. (found on the album What's Behind Door #1) What a Fool Believes by Self (originally by The Doobie Brothers) The "yacht rock" movement of the late seventies sought to put the word "smooth" up on a pedestal, and The Doobie Brothers' What a Fool Belives is one of the greatest examples, full of lush, velvety arrangements that blend together to wrap listeners up in warm, cozy blanket. On their cover of the song, though, Self take the song in an opposite direction, creating something sharp, angular, and jagged, but at the same time they manage to preserve the song's infectious pop hooks. The song's rough edges come from an arrangement consisting almost entirely of children's toy instruments - shrill dimestore synthesizes, plinky toy pianos, and miniature drum sets. Self's musical skill turns the amateur instrumentation into a tight, professional track, and the rough edges give the song a newfound energy not present in the original. (found on the album Gizmodgery) Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters by Buckshot LeFonque (originally by Elton John) Jazz and hip hop aren't exactly genres with a lot of common ground. Try to blend the two of them together, and purists on both sides of the divide are liable to look down upon the results as some sort of impure aberration. Maybe that's why Branford Marsalis, working with his musical fusion group Buckshot LeFonque, chose the neutral ground of a song unrelated to either genre to stage his musical experiment on the group's debut album. The complex jazz structures and the hip hop production values shine through without overpowering each other, but Marsalis mixes in several other styles to the sonic collage: an African chorus to open the song, a slap-bass funk quality to the rhythm line, a gospel sense of grandeur in the vocals, and so much more. (found on the album Buckshot Lefonque) The Power of Love by The Early November (originally by Huey Lewis & The News) Remember all the bombast and grandeur that marked pop music back in the mid-eighties? Those who lived through that wall of sound could never imagine an eighties pop anthem divorced from its overwhelming sonic assault. Today's up and coming bands, though, came of age years after songs like The Power of Love had slipped into retro territory, and they don't have the same stylistic loyalties. The Early November are a great example of a radical re-invention of the song. No wall of horns. No electric guitars. No percussion. In the new arrangements, the acoustic guitars eschew heavy chords in favor of simple lines that glide across one note at a time backed up by soft organ and shakers. The vocals are quiet and vulnerable, humbling themselves before the lyrical themes rather than tackling them head on as Huey Lewis did. (found on the album Punk Goes 80's) Love Will Keep Up Together by Jimmy Scott and Flea (originally by Captain and Tenille) Take everything you know about the whitebread kitsch of Daryl Dragon's keyboards and Toni Tenille's adult contemporary crooning that make up the original version. Jazz crooner Jimmy Scott's re-invention turns the song into something completely different and infinitely deeper. The tempo drops down by a few degrees to give the song a much dreamier quality. They keyboards are wiped almost completely away, replaced by light jazz guitar noodlings with complex chord structures. Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea even guests on the bass, navigating the jazz territory expertly with surprising and unexpected rhythms. The song's true charm, though, comes through in Scott's raspy, high pitched vocals that combine the vulnerability of Billie Holliday with the charisma of Sammy Davis, Jr. to give the song far more emotional depth than the Captain and Tenille could ever have hoped for. (found on the compilation Lounge-a-Palooza) Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat by Don Henley (originally from the musical Guys and Dolls) Devotee's of musical theater will know the song best as Nicely Nicely Johnson's big song from Guys and Dolls, but anyone listening to Don Henly's take on the song would be hard pressed to find any ties to the golden age of Broadway. Instead of a full pit orchestra, Henley powers the song with solid guitar arrangements, both in the tropical backbeat rhythm line and in the scorching lead solos. Henley adds an extra edge with his own sharp percussion skills raised up and put on full display, and he fills out the vocals with his signature laid-back cynical snarl, changing the song from a show-stopping production number to a world-weary cautionary tale. (found on the soundtrack to Leap of Faith) We Can Work It Out by Stevie Wonder (originally by The Beatles) There is no such thing as a quintessential Beatles song, but nevertheless, We Can Work It Out, with its acoustic guitar and accordion arrangement and its charmingly smooth vocals stands as a perfect example of British invasion charm. Put that same melody and those same lyrics under Steevie Wonder's guiding influence and the song becomes a funky soul anthem - purely American through and through. Between Wonder's clavinet arrangement, the snare-heavy drum work, the piercing harmonica solo, and the off-kilter rhythm that Wonder uses for the line "we can work it out, we can work it out," this cover of the songs shows us what the Beatles might have sounded like f they had come of age in Detroit during the golden age of Motown. (found on the album Signed, Sealed, and Delivered) Hearing these songs dragged forcibly into such unfamiliar territory may seem a little strange, but the results are always interesting and surprising. Exploring an unconventional setting may be a quick road to disaster when staging a theatrical revival, but as these songs prove, a brand new setting is just the thing to spruce up an old song and make it sound exciting once again. Take a moment and check out these other lists, too: Close Cover Before Striking - the original Cover Me, I'm Goin' In - part II Quit Hogging the Covers - part III Don't Worry, We've Got You Covered - part IV Curled Up Under the Covers - part V Cover Up Before You Head Out - Part VI An Under Cover Investigation - Part VII  |
| Read all comments (6)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
by PacManY2J
![Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast Reviews](http://di2.shopping.com/images/pi/95/a4/8a/2006752046-100x100-0-0.jpg?p=p6.95b2eac9ab5864411d0c&a=2&c=1&l=8071320&t=120604050426&r=2)
![Irony Is a Dead Scene [EP] by The Dillinger Escape Plan Reviews](http://di1.shopping.com/images/pi/6b/71/9f/2005398205-100x100-0-0.jpg?p=p7.a4ad0264be625bd9cace&a=2&c=1&l=8071320&t=120604050428&r=2)
