Cover Versions That Mess With The DNA
- Thread starter Loki
- Start date
john eden
male pale and stale
er, what else then, eh?
Revolting Cocks doing Olivia Newton John's "Let's get Physical" for starters.
Snuff doing covers of the shake and vac advert and bran flakes and stuff.
Neubauten covering Nancy Sinatra's "Sand".
The Pet Shop Boys out-pomping U2 on "Where the Streets Have No Name"
Those mad Sex Pistols covers on "Swindle" - by the Black Arabs?
Oh yeah, and Devo - "Satisfaction" - surely the ultimate.
Revolting Cocks doing Olivia Newton John's "Let's get Physical" for starters.
Snuff doing covers of the shake and vac advert and bran flakes and stuff.
Neubauten covering Nancy Sinatra's "Sand".
The Pet Shop Boys out-pomping U2 on "Where the Streets Have No Name"
Those mad Sex Pistols covers on "Swindle" - by the Black Arabs?
Oh yeah, and Devo - "Satisfaction" - surely the ultimate.
Last edited:
john eden said:
do ya think i'm sexy by ministry then .. in the ky jelly bag - really minging .
also on the stones tip -the residents covers album
and also claudine longet-who was the speech impedimented lovely in 'the party' did a cute as a baby button cover of 'lets spend the night together' .
Grievous Angel
Beast of Burden
john eden said:
White nights, yes, but I don't remember any Santa Claus bits.
Hmmm, Andrew Poppy.
Excellent selection of top-notch, pissing-in-the-gene-pool covers there John.
In addition I'd like to suggest NiN's cover of Get Down Make Love (bit of a NiN / Queen axis on this thread!). It's fabulous tech-metal.
I would also suggest One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer, but I can't remember who did it -- one of them was Chakademus, yes?
This far down the thread and no mention yet of St Etienne's Only Love Can Break Your Heart? Complete with new time signature change from Neil Young's 3/4 waltz-time to funky 4/4.
And then there's Big Black's The Model... and along the same lines of course the Jesus And Mary Chain's Surfin' USA... seguing nicely into The Raveonette's Every Day - all predictably radical-but-faithful re-workings.
And then there's Big Black's The Model... and along the same lines of course the Jesus And Mary Chain's Surfin' USA... seguing nicely into The Raveonette's Every Day - all predictably radical-but-faithful re-workings.
3underscore
Well-known member
Xper.xr - especially the ... . . . . . (or something similar) album. Every single song a cover in a kind-of japanese style. Quite magnificent as well!
john eden said:
Yeah...I love that song... when they played it at the Mean Fiddler in the middle of their hyperdelic period (early 90s?) Genesis did a supremely creepy intro... and then pulled the raffle tickets for one of his hyperdelic coats...great gig... they had these weird whirly light things at the front of the stage that kept breaking down Spinal Tap style.... and me and my mate turned up an hour early and accidentally found ourselves in the changing room talking to a big bald tatooed guy who we figured must be Z'ev...never did find out who he was...
hamarplazt
100% No Soul Guaranteed
As mentioned elsewhere, that wasn't Europe but Opus, but they did cover Europes "The Final Countdown" on the album Nato - my choice for the greatest cover album ever.sapstra said:
Tweak Head
Well-known member
Yeah, John Eden beat me to it ... Devo's "Satisfaction" is an awesome cover. Redefined the song & makes you hear the original in a new way. Must try to find it. I remember when it came out - the more "traditional" folks around my way hated it, really hated it. "Mongoloid" too. No-one tried to cover that.
Was listening to Grace Jones' "Private Life" this evening. Another great cover.
Was listening to Grace Jones' "Private Life" this evening. Another great cover.
kingofcars
Well-known member
a few things that spring to mind...
grace jones has a number of good (genetically-modifying) covers...esp. warm leatherette. laibach, too, has loads and loads of covers...(sympathy for the devil, the entirety of 'let it be')...lots of bad covers in the world of industrial/ebm (some good ones, too)...
big black's cover of 'the model' was mentioned. i prefer snakefinger's version - all residents-esque w/ squealy detuned guitars and ultra-tinny drum machine....the opposite of big black's aggro-maximalist slant...
die haut's cover of 'i just dropped in' amplifies the lysergic qualities of the song to schizoid levels...
and two blue oyster cult covers:
lydia lunch and clint ruin covering 'don't fear the reaper'
current 93 covering 'this ain't the summer of love'
grace jones has a number of good (genetically-modifying) covers...esp. warm leatherette. laibach, too, has loads and loads of covers...(sympathy for the devil, the entirety of 'let it be')...lots of bad covers in the world of industrial/ebm (some good ones, too)...
big black's cover of 'the model' was mentioned. i prefer snakefinger's version - all residents-esque w/ squealy detuned guitars and ultra-tinny drum machine....the opposite of big black's aggro-maximalist slant...
die haut's cover of 'i just dropped in' amplifies the lysergic qualities of the song to schizoid levels...
and two blue oyster cult covers:
lydia lunch and clint ruin covering 'don't fear the reaper'
current 93 covering 'this ain't the summer of love'
DEVO 'Satisfaction'
The whole FEEDTIME album COOPER 'S' (the one and ONLY 'grunge' cover album, forget dull Nirvana and dino jr and Sonic Youth covers..)
JANDEK - 'House of the rising sun'!!!
and who could pass on the disco front ARMNAD VAN HELDEN 'beautful widow'???!!!
The whole FEEDTIME album COOPER 'S' (the one and ONLY 'grunge' cover album, forget dull Nirvana and dino jr and Sonic Youth covers..)
JANDEK - 'House of the rising sun'!!!
and who could pass on the disco front ARMNAD VAN HELDEN 'beautful widow'???!!!
Ness Rowlah
Norwegian Wood
Stina Nordenstam's version of "Sailing" (where the inner cover describes
it as the "Rod Stewart song"; in fact Rod's version was a cover of Sutherland Brothers&Quiver's original (uha - I owned an album by them once)).
The first time I heard this I laughed, I thought "she cannot be serious". Now I love it.
There's also these bluegrass versions of punk on that John Peel DJ-set (Fabric Live) -
"Purdy Vacant" among them. Classic.
"Blue Monday" given the acoustic-I-can-hear-the-fingers-touching-the-nylon-strings
treatment by Flunk is one of my favourites.
Steve Hillage's version of "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (Donovan I think).
---
Nouvelle Vague's version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is one of the worst cover version
I have ever heard. Disgusting. Even worse than that stupid model gyrating to "These Boots are Made for Walkin'".
And what's the point of Sparks teaming up with Justin Hawkins?
it as the "Rod Stewart song"; in fact Rod's version was a cover of Sutherland Brothers&Quiver's original (uha - I owned an album by them once)).
The first time I heard this I laughed, I thought "she cannot be serious". Now I love it.
There's also these bluegrass versions of punk on that John Peel DJ-set (Fabric Live) -
"Purdy Vacant" among them. Classic.
"Blue Monday" given the acoustic-I-can-hear-the-fingers-touching-the-nylon-strings
treatment by Flunk is one of my favourites.
Steve Hillage's version of "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (Donovan I think).
---
Nouvelle Vague's version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is one of the worst cover version
I have ever heard. Disgusting. Even worse than that stupid model gyrating to "These Boots are Made for Walkin'".
And what's the point of Sparks teaming up with Justin Hawkins?
Last edited:
The Strokes' "Is this it" covered by Royal City is pretty awesome... turned it into an alt-country ballad (if you like that sort of stuff)..
Anyone heard the Flaming Lips' cover of Kylie's "Can't get you outta my head"? That changed some DNA fo shizzle... for the worse tho.
Anyone heard the Flaming Lips' cover of Kylie's "Can't get you outta my head"? That changed some DNA fo shizzle... for the worse tho.
k-punk
Spectres of Mark
Surprised no-one has mentioned Ferry yet, since he virtually invented the trend for re-interpreting songs like this in rock --- very much NOT a rock thing before --- with a Duchamp theory of found objects --- his 'scandalous' re-arrangement of Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall' is the obvious example, of many ---- (Ferry's all-cover albums influencing Bowie's Pin Ups)
But ultimately perhaps Ferry was ruined by his indulgence in cover versions, as he gradually converged with them, lost his modernist edge and became the very lounge bar e-z listening crooner he earlier part-parodied. Nick Cave another victim of the same syndrome: think of the difference between what he does to Leonard Cohen's Avalanche --- dragging it out of acoustic troubled quietude into a punitive percussion-scape anchored by Barry Adamson's cobra-coiled bass and scarred by Bargeld's ragged part-disassembled guitar --- and the more or less trad versions later on in his career --- pretty soon, his sound is so MOR that it is difficult to tell the covers from his own stuff ---
Magazine - 'Thank you falletin be mice elf agin' - can't decide if that has messed with the DNA or not --- I think the sheer fact of the Devoto vox change it out of all recognition
I know there are a few songs that I thought the covering band had written, and was surprised, even disappointed, to find that they hadn't --- but can't think of any e.g.'s atm
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 (anyone remember Robbie Williams doing a high speed guitar version of 'Back For Good' to prove that he is, like, cool and hard now?) They need to be disabused of the deluded notion that they are radicalizing the original (rather than the reverse)
--- was talking with I.T. the other day about the Goth/EBM tendency to do this sort of thing --- cf Marilyn Manson's 'Sweet Dreams' and 'Tainted Love', Rammstein 'The Model' --- and how misconceived it is --- how much more interesting it was for Johnny Cash to cover 'Personal Jesus' than it would have been for Depeche Mode to cover one of his songs ---
But ultimately perhaps Ferry was ruined by his indulgence in cover versions, as he gradually converged with them, lost his modernist edge and became the very lounge bar e-z listening crooner he earlier part-parodied. Nick Cave another victim of the same syndrome: think of the difference between what he does to Leonard Cohen's Avalanche --- dragging it out of acoustic troubled quietude into a punitive percussion-scape anchored by Barry Adamson's cobra-coiled bass and scarred by Bargeld's ragged part-disassembled guitar --- and the more or less trad versions later on in his career --- pretty soon, his sound is so MOR that it is difficult to tell the covers from his own stuff ---
Magazine - 'Thank you falletin be mice elf agin' - can't decide if that has messed with the DNA or not --- I think the sheer fact of the Devoto vox change it out of all recognition
I know there are a few songs that I thought the covering band had written, and was surprised, even disappointed, to find that they hadn't --- but can't think of any e.g.'s atm
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 (anyone remember Robbie Williams doing a high speed guitar version of 'Back For Good' to prove that he is, like, cool and hard now?) They need to be disabused of the deluded notion that they are radicalizing the original (rather than the reverse)
--- was talking with I.T. the other day about the Goth/EBM tendency to do this sort of thing --- cf Marilyn Manson's 'Sweet Dreams' and 'Tainted Love', Rammstein 'The Model' --- and how misconceived it is --- how much more interesting it was for Johnny Cash to cover 'Personal Jesus' than it would have been for Depeche Mode to cover one of his songs ---