August 19, 2008
dear clusterflock
Favorite cover.
Update: dear clusterflocks are for anyone who reads the site and wishes to participate.
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- Deron Bauman: It’s a start.
- Joel Bernstein: The first of many things, no doubt.
- Deron Bauman: I’ll pick him up at eight. He may not like the way I smell.
- Michael Smith: Joel’s Dream Date: Phantom Menace; Cat urine cologne; Deron.
- Joel Bernstein: For the record, if you pay to see this, you are no longer my friend.
- Deron Bauman: Meow.
- Joel Bernstein: This must be why I fuck so many cats.
- Michael Smith: Seems to me the experiment almost does itself.
- Casey Cichowicz: No. It is not possible. I can assure you.
- Joel Bernstein: Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes?
- LaurenH: I’m with those who say get that girl out of that household. The father has now very effectively...
- Rick Neece: Holee sh..!
- Rick Neece: Asian calligraphy, ‘cept instead of a brush, hot glass. The image of her controlling the glass and...
- Rick Neece: For the gull-wing, I’m sure it would knock me in the chin every time I opened it.
- Marco: Oh god yes.
Oh, that’s easy. Ben Folds covering Dr. Dre’s Bitches Ain’t Shit.
I’ve become a bit fond of The Polyphonic Spree’s cover of Lithium by Nirvana.
The Cowboy Junkies covering “Sweet Jane.”
Jeff Buckley’s cover of the Smiths’ The Boy With A Thorn In His Side
Andrew Simone, I think I love you. That is a most incredible cover.
I’ll go with Alien Antfarm’s “Smooth Criminal,” if for no other reason than the way it introduced some classic MJ to a new generation with only the slightest changes to the song.
Pete Burns “Rebel Rebel”
Iron and Wine’s cover of The Postal Service’s Such Great Heights.
The first time I heard Folds’ cover, Mike, I almost cried.
The Gourds take on Snoop Doggy Dog’s Gin and Juice or Marah’s excellent go at Springsteen’s Streets of Philadelphia are both well worth the effort.
A toss-up between Emmylou Harris’ version of Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and Bonnie “Prince” Billy doing R. Kelly’s “The World’s Greatest.” Both are pretty much perfect.
Apocalyptica covering Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” Or maybe Screamin’ Jay Hawkins covering “I Love Paris.” Or Talking Heads covering Al Green’s “Take Me to the River.” Or David Byrne covering Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”
I can’t choose. I also just realized how old I am.
Shit. How could I forget John Cale’s cover of “Hallelujah”? That song–with Cale’s voice–lives in my heart.
yep.
Dolly Parton’s Stairway to Heaven, was first that came to mind.
Tiny Tim’s version of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire.” I was 22 before I realized that it wasn’t the original.
I second that R.Kelly Cover by Bonnie Prince Billy and propose Tyler Ramsey covering Cindy Lauper’s “All through the night”, The Postal Service doing “Against all odds”, Arab Strap playing “Why can’t this be love” and “You shook me all night long”, Eels covering “Can’t help falling in love”, Moneybrother singing “I don’t want to talk about it”, Metric covering “Between the bars” and Iron & Wine doing “Such great heights”. And, of course, k.d. lang and “Hallelujah”. That song crawls up on me again and again and again just to make me weep.
Johnny Cash – NIN’s “Hurt”
Saint Etienne’s version of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”.
I’m actually quite fond of Paul Anka’s take on “Smells like teen spirit.”
Some that I’m quite fond of:
Tortoise and Will Oldham’s cover of “Daniel” by Elton John
Arab Strap covering “You Shook Me All Night Long” (thanks for reminding of that, Carolin)
Luka Bloom covering “I Need Love” by LL Cool J
Seu George covering David Bowie’s Life On Mars
Radiohead covering The Smith’s “The Headmaster Ritual”
…and the super sexy cover of
“Nobody Does It Better” by Radiohead
Tracy, yes! I actually prefer Cash’s version to that of Trent Reznor. And that’s saying a lot, since Trent and I are, you know, like that.
I love this question.
Thanks a lot, Mike. How could you do this to me? I’ll never be able to hear Nirvana again without thinking of Paul Anka. Shit, shit, shit.
The Shins’ cover of the Postal Service’s ‘We Will Become Silhouettes’… genius!
AMY, I was just listening to that Tortoise/Oldham cover.
But my darlings, the best cover is “Turn Me On” (Originally by Kevin Lyttle) and covered by Coco Rosie.
Goofball that I am, I was thinking of book jackets and record sleeves!
I agree that Tiny Tim’s “Great Balls of Fire” is fine, but so are both Creedence Clearwater Revival’s and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s versions of “I Put a Spell on You.” Arthur Brown’s is, in fact, downright scary–a definite plus in this case. And what about “Paint It Black” by Eric Burdon and the Animals or Rod Stewart’s “Mama, You Been on My Mind”?
Oh, yeah, and the Sex Pistols do a fine job with the Stooges’ “No Fun.”
Oh, and upon reflection no list would be complete without Gram Parsons version of the Stones’ Wild Horses; Frente’s far lovelier take on Joy Division’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”; Mary Lou Lord’s crack at Thunder Road and I couldn’t possibly ignore Grand Funk Railroad’s rockier interpretation of Some Kind of Wonderful.
Ooh, Kris, you just reminded me of the Gram Parsons-Emmy Lou Harris version of the Everlys’ “Love Hurts”.
Here’s an imaginary cover. I hear it in my mind. Elvis (Presley) doing Bowie’s “TVC-15″.
*I love Emmy-Lou.*
This is bound to be buried in the comments, so I’m highlighting it: Imaginary cover: David Lee Roth’s of Janis Ian’s At Seventeen.
Dar Williams take on Comfortably Numb
Before I read the comments, I thought we were talking about book covers. I’m strangely disappointed, but at least I have all this good music as a distraction.