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There's a Cover-Up Going On Here - 10 more cover song make-oversMay 31 '07 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Just like all your old classmates whom you haven't seen in years...
My tenth college reunion is coming up in a few weeks. The idea that I have been finished with college for almost a third of my entire life has left me feeling a little surprised and humbled. It's also gotten me thinking, though... I'm excited to visit with the close friends that I had back when I was attending the university, but I'm already in touch (on and off, at least) with most of them. It'll be more interesting to see the people that I knew better as passing acquaintances than as close friends. It'll be a jump of a full decade since I've been in touch with them, and I'm sure I'll be surprised and amazed at the way many of them have changed. Who's gotten married? Who's lost a lot of weight, and who's let themselves go overboard, or gone bald? Who will be towing children in hand? Which free-spirited individualists will have settled down and sold out to the establishment, and which young republicans have thrown it all away to become latter day beatniks? Yep, the most intriguing part of the reunion will be seeing all of the people I casually knew in an entirely new light. I feel the same way when it comes to cover songs. Sure, I have my favorite songs that I listen to over and over, but those songs aren't always all that exciting to hear when they're re-created as covers. Instead, I'm much more interested to hear the songs I'm casually acquainted with re-created in an entirely new style. Which vapid pop track will be given a dangerous new edge when recreated as a biting rock anthem? Which soft, sensitive folk tune will blare out at us with a loud, electric instrumentation? Which hardcore rap tunes will get a kinder, gentler, more melodic makeover? It's these changes that help us to find a whole new appreciation for the songs that normally drift in and out of our consciousness without grabbing hold of us for the long haul. And so, here are ten songs that you're casually acquainted with, in all likelihood, re-envisioned in a whole new way, ready to surprise you at our own musical reunion: I Feel Pretty by Little Richard (originally from West Side Story) He's flamboyant, he's extravagant, he's over-the-top, and yes, he is indeed pretty. I doubt that there are any other men in show business who could pull off the song successfully while wearing a straight face, but the song feels tailor-made for Richard. We still get the rollicking three quarter time rhythm, but Richard shifts the song to a honky-tonk piano and horn arrangement to create an infectious carnival atmosphere. With all of his vocal growls and flashy falsetto flourishes, there's no doubt that this is Little Richard's handiwork. It's like Leonard Berenstain and Stephen Sondheim wrote the line "such a pretty face, such a pretty smile, such a pretty me, baby - Woooo!" knowing that Richard would make it his own one day. (found on the album The Songs of West Side Story) Close to You by Iain Ballamy (originally by The Carpenters) The original may be the epitome of safe, predictable cheesy pop rock. Oh, hell, there's no "may" about it. Give a listen to the version of the song arranged by Iain Ballamy, though, and all of a sudden there are brand new levels of sinister and creepy that you never expected to find hidden in the song. Ticking clocks and odd electronic effects fill out the background, but the real eeriness comes from the hushed, dreamlike vocals layered atop one another over and over until they come within a hair's breadth of clashing dissonance. The whole effect takes a very straightforward declaration of love and turns it into something that borders on obsessive madness, with an atmosphere of stalking thrown in for good measure. (found on the soundtrack to the film Mirrormask) Young Lust by Lester Wright and the Wrongs (originally by Pink Floyd) There's a sexy swagger in the drum beat and a countrified twang in the rock guitar riff. As soon as the song starts, images of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger riffing through Honky-Tonk Woman come to mind. If it weren't for the thick southern American accent that the vocals wallow in, listeners might easily mistake this for an early demo off of Let It Bleed. Listen close, though, and it's undeniably Pink Floyd. As memorable as the original version off of The Wall was, the blues rock backdrop of sex and booze seems an even more natural setting for the tune. (found on the album Rebuild the Wall) Song 2 by The New Standards (originally by Blur) What would music have sounded like if the alternative rockers back in the nineties had more of a sense of irreverent kitsch? Perhaps they'd have realized how much fun can hide underneath a vibraphone and toy piano arrangement, just like The New Standards discovered when they made their cover of Song 2. And I know some people out there might have a little trouble envisioning the original - you might remember it better under the incorrect title of Woo Hoo. Something about the mixture of jazzy vibes and playfully plunky toy piano fits perfectly with that primal yell of "woo hoo!." Who would have guessed that the grungy aggression of the original could make such a fine transition to something goofy and even a little bit silly. (found on the album The New Standards) Once in a Lifetime by Jacqui Naylor (originally by the Talking Heads) There are certain musical riffs that take on an iconic life of their own. In the world of jazz, one of the most instantly recognizable is that three note/four note bass riff that opens up Birdland. The first time you hear Ms. Naylor's take on this Talking Heads classic, it might be easy to assume that she's yet another jazz singer doing an unnecessary cover of Birdland, since her backing band lifts not only the bass riff, but pretty much the entire musical arrangement. When Naylor's vocals join in, though, and start up with those "and you may find yourself..." lyrics, the result is a most improbable musical juxtaposition that makes us hear both Once in a Lifetime and Birdland in a way that no one could have expected. (found on the album East West) Bring the Noise by Unholy Trinity (originally by Public Enemy) It's hard for anyone in today's mainstream music audience to look back to the roots rock of the fifties and hear that old-timey mixture of R&B, rock 'n roll, and country as something dangerous. Hokey, maybe, but not dangerous. Those who lives through the era, though can tell you just how much of a threat those proto-rockers represented to conservative America. Maybe that's why taking an iconic track from Public Enemy, one of the earliest rap superstars and musical threats to conservative America in the eighties, and re-inventing it as if it were one of those early evolutionary steps towards modern rock feels somehow right. Twangy guitar riffs, country drawl in the vocals, half-note beats on the bass guitar, echoes of Dixie in the guitar solos, an echoey reverb drenched over everything - it's not what Chuck D had in mind, but it's certainly interesting to hear. (found on the album Down to the Promised Land) Graceland by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (originally by Paul Simon) I was eleven when Paul Simon released Graceland, and I can still remember the cultural phenomenon that it turned into - a hallmark of organic folksy rock mixed with world beat rhythms that stood up against the cold, mechanical, synthetic pop that dominated the charts. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's version of the song, then, would seem to be the complete antithesis of what the original version stood for. The song is driven by a programmed drum loop, and the melodic line, if it we can call it such, consists of hypnotically droning synthesizer. The vocals are filtered and processed until they sound like they've been recorded through a shorted-out telephone lines. As a testament to Simon's songwriting, though, despite all of the cover version's dehumanizing elements, the emotional heart shines through to create a most intriguing alternative to the original. (found on the Graceland EP) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Greg Laswell (originally by Cyndi Lauper) When a female artist taken an archetypically male anthem dripping with machismo and record and makes her own cover version, the end results are some of the sexiest recordings out there. The reverse couldn't be further from the truth. Most men who tackle female power anthems usually turn the tunes into some sort of sardonic joke. Greg Laswell, though, is the exception that proves the rule. In Laswell's hands, Cyndi Lauper's new wave hit get stripped of all its brash synthesizer energy, leaving behind only a simplistic, soulful piano accompaniment played at about half the speed of the original. Laswell's vocals exude melancholy sensitive guy empathy without ever dipping down into wimpy territory. This new version may lack the energetic fun of Lauper's, but it more than makes up for any loss with a serious emotional impact that far surpasses the original. (found on the EP Girls Just Wanna Have Fun) Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sin (popularized by Frank Sinatra) Forget for a moment that Frank Sinatra is probably one of the artists that your grandparents were listening to when they fell in love. Back in the day, Sinatra was plenty dangerous, not someone you want to mess around with. He was as much a threat to the establishment two and three generations ago as bands like The Ramones were during the proto-punk days of the seventies. That must be why Frank Sin's rock cover of Fly Me to the Moon - filled with splashy cymbals and crunchy guitar riffs all laid out over straight quarter note rhythms that speed forward with a racecar's intensity – seems to be an oddly appropriate guise for the song. Sin and his band have abandoned the mellow smoothness that Sinatra brought to his recordings, but the still cling tight to the Chairman of the Board's bold attitude. (found on the album Gods and Broads) This Land Is Your Land by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (originally by Woodie Guthrie) Back when Woodie Guthrie wrote This Land Is Your Land, the folk sound define what "American" music was all about. Since then, countless musical style's have had their moment in the spotlight as the defining American sound – rockabilly, hip hop, jazz, pop, and soul, to name just a few. No song captures the spirit of America quite like This Land, so it's no big surprise that the tune translates well each new uniquely American style that comes along. In Sharon Jones' case, it happens to be old-school soul music. With its honking saxophones, its sharp trumpet flourishes, its thumping bass lines, and its tinkling piano fills, the band captures the spirit of a downtown neighborhood block party on a hot, sweaty summer night with sweat dripping down the back of everyone's neck and the barbecue grill fired up late into the morning. Truly, this land is Sharon Jones' just as much as it is Woodie Guthrie's. And of course, it's made for you and me, too. (found on the album Rewind! 4) My oh my how these songs have changed over the years. In most cases, they're changes we never would have expected, but they're changes that help us appreciate the originals so much more. I just hope I'll find some old classmates who've changed in such interesting ways when I'm at my college reunion. 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 Everybody Run for Cover! - Part VIII  |
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