Entertainment For Lively Minds
Playing covers? Use your imagination, Noel!
Posted by Keith Aitken on 22 October 2008 - 5:20pm.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7683665.stm
In a stunning left-field turn, Oasis have decided to feature a Stones cover ("We Love You") as part of their Electric Proms set. With a 50-piece gospel choir. Now, at least it's not another mauling of a Beatles tune (their cover of "I Am the Walrus" being a prime example), but surely they could have put the boat out a little more in their choice of song?
Got me thinking about other cover version cliches which are getting tiresome;
* Any indie band playing "I Wanna Be Your Dog" as an encore
* Any band playing "ironic" cover versions of pop tunes
Any more?
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The 'Sis
Isn't everything they play a cover?
Oasis
I'd pay top $s to see them cover anything by Blur.
My Generation
Oasis played "My Generation" for years too, they're not very left field with their covers but that's to be expected. There's about five good songs on their new album, the rest is pants.
They could try a rendition of...
... John Cale's 4'33" for starters.
John Cale...
...covered John Cage's 4'33" did he?
Only in typo land...
I'm tired and emotional - but not in a Kerry Katona kind of way.
I don't know, I try and make a humorous comment, and my typing skills (or rather lack of) let me down.
With such a lack of imagination
it wouldn't surprise me if they started off with Rockin All Over The World and finished with Hi Ho Silver Lining. Imagine as the encore :(
Naaaaaaah...
Noel's on record as saying he doesn't rate Imagine.
they used do a cover of
hey hey my my a while back too. it's not bad. Let's be honest, the original was fairly meat and two veg and so is their version. I say this as a meat and two veg kind of man m'self
Ironic covers
are only ironic if played for other than love and/respect of the song. Sometimes it has to be masked as ironic, to protect from the wrath of the easily confused. I would say Noel* hasn't an ironic bone in his body. My posting of Careless Whisper elsewhere is by individuals (and mentions another) who knows a good song when he hears. Likewise the many versions of Hey ya that are available.However, and despite his justification to the contrary, RTs Ooops is knowingly ironic in an unironic way
*That ain't, BTW, either a compliment or a justification for his acid reflux of a career.
P.S. On the subject of RT and covers, is there anywhere a version available of Sugar Bee, his band encore during much of the 90s, a song so annoyingly infectious that it simultaneously appalls and enthralls. God help me, I even sought out the Willy and the Poor Boys version as consolation, from the excellent Bill Wyman "charity" record for Plonk Lane.
PSB's version of
Where the Streets Have no Name is a classic..
Hits the irony button BUT Chris Lowe said he adored it as the bass line reminded him of a 303 sequencer
Is this the Sugar Bee in question?
Yes, yes, yes
Gadzooks, what a cracking version. Understand now why it was a natch for RT, what with John Kirkpatrick being his then melodeon staple.
And what a band name, artists I have somehow missed so far!
I remmeber hearing that Oasis covered "Heroes" by Bowie for
a charity album. Their version as based on the edited singles version and not the more ambigious album version.
I read this in the Brit Pop book The Last Party by John Harris.
G. L. O. R. I......
My old band used to cover I Wanna Be Your Dog, never as an encore though...we were never asked. My excuse is that I was 16 and presumed I had personally discovered the Stooges. It later came as a shock that I wasn't the only person to have heard of the Velvet Underground either. Even more when I heard that covering Gloria was a cliche. At least we never did Louis Louis.
Re: Ironic covers. I would recommend to anyone the cover of Money for Nothing by Royal Trux or Sebadoh doing Run to You by Brian Adams.
In what way
are they ironic?
fair enough
...just responding to the original question. As far as I know both bands were doing the covers out of an honest appreciation for Dire Straights and Mr. Adams. Although I doubt it in the Sebadoh case.
The Royal Trux version is an out an out rocker, even though it sounds as if the drummer is playing a different song altogether.
Always had a soft spot
for the Fatima Mansions versions of Everything I Do and Shiny Happy People.
Not sure 'ironic' would be the word for them, more like wilfully offensive.
I can't be doing with ironic covers anymore either...
well, not since seeing Sisters of Mercy nail Abba's "Gimme Gimme Gimme a Man After Midnight" - nothing else comes close!
I notice in Oasis' new single they include the lyric "A Magical Mystery" - maybe they do have a sense of humour/irony after all.
Good call for those Fatimas!
Thoroughly under rated, totally brilliant, Everything I do especially. It's not a cover but look up Bertie's Brochures, a fabulous song.
What I like to hear are successful bands covering stuff by poverty stricken but pretty obscure acts. Franz Ferdinand did this for the Fire Engines when they covered "Get Up and Use Me" for a single.
Under rated and brilliant indeed
Hadn't heard them for a decade or more, since tape machine and record player died, but recently bought the reissue of Viva Dead Ponies with a best of disk tacked on. Occasionally dated sounding it must be said, but brilliant songs. Sadly neither of these covers are included.
Surely the best-known case of...
...a (relatively) poverty-stricken act being significantly and unexpectedly bunced-up by a cover version would be Nick Lowe and the cover of 'What's So Funny...' that appeared in the film The Bodyguard.
Legend has it that, out of the blue one morning, a very large and comfortably appointed cheque landed with a no doubt heavy thud on his doormat. Legend also has it that said cheque had *many* zeros on it.
I suspect Basher chewed down a celebratory sherbert that evening
Knowing Basher's erstwhile love of refreshment
I'd be surprised if he hadn't poured a large one well before the postie finished his shift.
And probably before the postie arrived too....
One of the reasons, perchance, for his penury. I accept he was dry for a while, but, hopefully to a less overt extent than R. Wood, began again. Seems now to be controlled, if appearances can be relied on, as I have no insider knowledge.