Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery...?
Posted by Graeme Thomson on 19 October 2007 - 11:48am.
Bowie's Black Country Rock popped up on my iTunes this morning. And very welcome it was too. I'd forgotten that right in the middle he goes into a very funny and nigh-on perfect Marc Bolan impersonation. Bowie also does a very good Dylan, although I'm not sure whether there's any recorded evidence of it.
The question is, who else has sneaked an impersonation into one of their songs? It has to be a deliberate nod, not just someone desperately apeing someone else. Michael Stipe doing Presley on Man On The Moon springs immediately to mind - who else?
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Donald Where's Yer Troosers
At the risk of lowering the tone dramatically, Andy Stewart does an alarmingly effective Elvis impersonation in the middle of his classic '45 'Donald, Where's Yer Troosers?' It is an ironic attempt to appeal to the young 'uns who might be put off by his couthy accoridan accompaniment. If I knew how I'd post a link.
The flattest form of sincerity
Paul Simon does Dylan on "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)" from the "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" album.
On Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", after the line "Well I heard Mr Young sung about her", you can just about hear someone singing in a Youngish whine "Southern maaaan..."
At a push you could include "Back in the USSR" as a teasing impersonation of the Beach Boys (and Kraftwerk's "Autobahn", for that matter).
Slightly off-message, but does anybody else listen to El Vez, the Mexican Elvis? His songs contain bits of all kinds of classic rock songs and snatches of impersonation. For example, his version of "It's Now Or Never" alone contains Rod Stewart, REM and the Godfather theme. Very entertaining in small doses.