Cover Versions That Mess With The DNA

L

Loki

Well-known member
k-punk said:
Most irritating trend in covers:
Indie rocking it up ---- most heinous e.g. of this I can think of atm is The Futureheads' student lager roughing up of Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' --- maybe it was Age of Chance who started this idiot trend --- in any case the idea that trampling all over non-rock subtlety with distortion pedals and amps turned up to 11 is the very height of crass cliche ---
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Not sure I agree entirely - I liked the Futurehead version, even if it is analogous to the Chapman brothers Goya defacing and a similarly cheap shot (is it not possible to like shots, even if they are cheap?) - because it reminds us that the words, music etc are not in themselves sacred but are rather tools and elements that have been manipulated rather well.

So Marilyn Manson's Tainted Love can be isolated as an example of the constituent elements being manipulated in such a ridiculous way that is not only fails to make a commentary on the original Northern Soul elements but also on the subsequent cover versions - this is a crime in a whole different league to the playful iconoclasm of The Futureheads...

Agree with you about Nick Cave though; he has become a cover version of himself; a kindly uncle slipping on the baseball mitt for one last pitch... (though again, the pleasure for me has not diminished; this Nick Cave I like for different reasons entirely to the other Nick Caves...)
 
k-punk

k-punk

Spectres of Mark
Loki said:
Not sure I agree entirely - I liked the Futurehead version, even if it is analogous to the Chapman brothers Goya defacing and a similarly cheap shot (is it not possible to like shots, even if they are cheap?) - because it reminds us that the words, music etc are not in themselves sacred but are rather tools and elements that have been manipulated rather well.

So Marilyn Manson's Tainted Love can be isolated as an example of the constituent elements being manipulated in such a ridiculous way that is not only fails to make a commentary on the original Northern Soul elements but also on the subsequent cover versions - this is a crime in a whole different league to the playful iconoclasm of The Futureheads...
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I think where I disagree is on the question of iconoclasm. For me it is the reverse: the Kate Bush original was groundbreaking and avant-garde, the Futureheads cover is meat and potatoes bog standard r and r... Where is the iconoclasm in that? It's like doing a Picasso painting as trad realism...

I think the Chapmans case is different --- partly because of the difference in media --- the 'shock' of the Chapmans' defacing is because the Goya prints are limited edition, non-replaceable physical objects --- whereas anyone can do a thuggish, drunken bellow through a song without it having any effect on the original (except in the mind of course, where the experience of the song is forever tainted by association with the drab daub)..
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
k-punk said:
I think where I disagree is on the question of iconoclasm. For me it is the reverse: the Kate Bush original was groundbreaking and avant-garde, the Futureheads cover is meat and potatoes bog standard r and r... Where is the iconoclasm in that? It's like doing a Picasso painting as trad realism...
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I agree - I think there was probably a time when doing thrashy reworkings of ballads was funny and subversive, but was probably 30 years ago.

Obviously Hendrix's reworking of the star spangled banner is relevant here, in terms of fuzzing and distorting it all up to 11.

I'm trying to think of some punk "desecrations" of existing songs but can only remember "Dear Prudence" atm.
 
C

Canada J Soup

Monkey Man
What about bands that do (for the band) surprisingly straight covers of songs that end up messing the the bands DNA? Two that spring to mind are My Bloody Valentine's version of 'We Have All The Time In The World' and Sonic Youth doing 'Superstar' and keeping it almost feedback-free (unlike pretty much every previous SY cover version). Any others?
 
E

Elan

Blackbird
Nick Cave - Tower of Song - not so much a mess up of the DNA but when he tries to do his Cohen impression and cracks up, I love it!

Also:

Wall of Voodoo - Ring of Fire - completely odd until the vocal comes in and you realize what it is.

And for the hell of it, Sloan covering Stove and Smother by Eric's Trip is great as well - the first funked up, the second speed-metalled (is that a word?)...
 
T

Tweak Head

Well-known member
Didn't some band do a cover of a Simon & Garfunkel song? Mrs Robinson? Poppy, but worked quite well tho not DNA-altering ... sorry can't be more specific, mind is mush at the moment.

Also, I think there's a big difference between a genuine cover version, however out-there (e.g. Devo's "Satisfaction") and a "comedy" version of a song. On the subject of which, does anyone remember something on the Jonathan Ross show oh years ago (like mid-80's) where they did a spoof advert for one of those TV-advertised albums: "Bernard Manning sings The Smiths" - they had him singing bits of Girlfriend in a Coma and This Charming man. Life-changing.
 
E

Elan

Blackbird
The poppy version of Mrs. Robinson is by The Lemonheads and it's pretty good...

Paul Anka has an album out, Rock Swings, which may qualify here too. Rock Swings is all big-band versions of mostly alternative tunes but also True by Spandau Ballet.
 
Grievous Angel

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
john eden said:
I'm trying to think of some punk "desecrations" of existing songs but can only remember "Dear Prudence" atm.
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The Stranglers, Walk on By.

Definitive, and brilliant, a universe of sound...

K: Ferry's A Hard Rain --- TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE. (I only like a few @bob@ songs and Ferry pisses over all of them.)

Agree about Futureheads. Everything they do is shit. Apart from "Has to be indie rock'n'roll for me"-- finally some art in their plodding artifice.

I have a country reggae version of Rainy Night in Georgia which is wonderful.
 
R

Rambler

Awanturnik
Couple of favourites:

V/VM - Lady in Red

Low IQ 01 feat. Yukari Fresh - Anarchy in the UK

And the 'Like a Virgin' sequence in Moulin Rouge literally changes the DNA, changing X chromosomes into Y chromosomes.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
schneider tm's version of 'the light' - there is a light that never goes out - sounds of the ghost in the machine indeed.

psb's version of girls and boys

and my very favourire - blue moon by elvis which sounds like something sung by an alien just eerily beautiful
 
Chef Napalm

Chef Napalm

Lost in the Supermarket
No mention of two of my favs:

Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower"

Pet Shop Boys "Always On My Mind"

Talk about changing the DNA!

Also, Tiga's version of Nelly's "Hot in Herre" changes it from hyper-hetero to hyper-homo.

Of the NIN covers, I prefer Adam Ant's "Physical".
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
I don't particularly like 'em, but the vast majority of LB's 'Pop Artificielle' (another Uwe Schmidt/Atom Heart/Senor Coconut alias) sound verrrrry different from the original tracks.

Whether the underlying meaning/content of the songs themselves (the lyric and mood) is messed with much is another story.

Glad to see Neubauten's version of 'Sand' mentioned upthread. I reckon that's a really good example - in no sense seemed like a novelty number or anything of the sort.
 
D

dsp13

GAMEBWOY
Ciccone Youth (Sonic Youth) doing "Get into the groove" with Thurston's lazy, druggy, vaguely homoerotic vocals is one of my favourite covers and Slayer condensing IRON BUTTERFLY's 15 minute "In a Gadda Da Vida" into 3 minutes is pretty funny
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
'When The Levee Breaks' has come up for fairly obvious reasons in both Nature & Politics... I was actually thinking about it and also 'Black Betty' as potential examples of what I think Loki is talking about.

I guess neither totally re-frames the content of the original, but in particular the two versions of 'Black Betty' are massively different - Ram Jam's 70s hoe-down dance rock number is a far cry from Leadbelly singing away with his hands as the only accompaniment. It's also a fucken travesty that this cover was ever recorded, as far as I'm concerned, but I don't think Loki was stipulating the cover had to be an improvement. ;)
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
+ I reckon 'Black Betty' is a classic example of what K Punk mentioned upthread - being surprised to discover a song you know is a cover.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
Just rememberd Cabaret Voltaire's "No Escape" on the Mix-Up LP (?) which I seem to remember was a cover? Was it perm-rockers Saxon or something? Not heard the original but there is no way it sounds anything like that.
 
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