just curious...

Unless we're talking bar band where you don't care who the hell is playing and they're little more than a live jukebox, I want the band to own the thing... otherwise, what's the point?

If you got a distinctive vocalist, that might require no more than having them sing it. But I've heard too many covers that I can barely tell apart from the original, and I just don't see why anyone would do that.

I was just listening to 'Boys of Summer' by The Ataris, and that is what got me thinking about this.

Aside from changing the Dead-head line with Black Flag, it was pretty much performed like the original. It really makes you wonder why bother.

Now, Johnny Cash performing Hurt - THAT'S the way to cover a song!!

Johnny Cash – Look at them Beans

BEST SONG EVER!!!!!

Yeah, different. A great cover can reveal a great song, I think. If the song's strong at its core -- lyric and rhythm and melody -- then it'll lend itself to wildly varying interpretations. "Hurt" is a fine example. Bis's "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side". Devo's "I Can't Get No Satisfaction".

I probably feel differently depending on the circumstances. If a band's gonna go out of their way to record a cover, they better bring something new to the table. (The Wallflowers' "Heroes", I'm lookin at you.) But in a club or bar type setting, you maybe just wanna hear a really smokin cover of "Try a Little Tenderness".

You also maybe just wanna drink beer and eat spicy buffalo wings. I know I do.

Number five.

Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg covering Let's Do It - also an amazing cover

You and Steven have a great point here - bar bands can sometimes be likened to really good karaoke, and should sound a lot like the original.

Still, if I was going to sing karaoke (which there is no way I ever would), I'd much rather do a lounge-lizard interpretation of, say, closer or starfuckers



I'm still not seeing the swearing.

It also occurs to me that Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" would be dead-easy to transform into a swing version. Just take the basic riff and substitute a horn section. Actually a bouncy little tune if you played it different.

I think Britney Spears should get on that right away.

I seem to recall when the Divine Ms Spears was asked about her cover to I love Rock and Roll, she replied that she loved the music of Pat Benatar.

I was surprised to learn that "I Love Rock & Roll" was a cover. The Arrows did it originally. Damn my generation and their lack of originality.

Billy Idol so owned his version of mony mony that I was also surprised that it was a cover.

The same with Kim Carnes and Bettie Davis Eyes.

heh.

I just gotta post it

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/humrATC3yR0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/humrATC3yR0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

I cannot believe that I had 'Boys of Summer' going through my head before I found this thread...

spoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooky!

me sorry me missed thread this one.

I think by and large covers should utterly break the original, taking the song to an entirely new place. That means it'll be a crapshoot; could be pretty damn awful. But I'd much rather hear a band take a risk with a classic song and find something new to hear in it than to just do a by-the-book playback. I can hear that in any half-assed bar in America. Get in there and break that song's back!

Depends really on how it comes out.
I've heard faithful covers that sounded like crap, and I've heard new versions that were fantastic.
One of my favorites being a cover of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" by a group called Firewater (on a CD called "Songs We Should Have Written" which is oddly enough a cover album with some other good stuff!)
http://www.firewater.tv/news.php

I prefer that the band covering the song sound like themselves, not the song they're covering. Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson just wouldn't sound right if he did it like the original, same with Anarchy in the UK by Megadeth(and These Boots as well).

I like covers that are so weird, they're like "What If" versions of the original song.

Like how that Scissor Sisters cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" sounds like a duo between the Bee Gees and Frankie Goes to Hollywood set in the future.

You're all GAY!

.

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/br-D7UneS0E"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/br-D7UneS0E" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Edward,

The Pat-Boone-in-leather thing always freaks me out! I don't know why.

Metallica's cover of Seger's Turn The Page created a haunting rendition of an already perfect song.