we're better than you!
all great bands/ artists generate songs that spawn cover versions. It's the natural order of things to say the original was better, but this is not always the case...or is it. Is there any band/ artist that has never been trumped. Of all the classics i cant think of one.
Dylan.... Ferry's “ hard rain” and John Martyns “ don't think twice” outshine Dylan's version
Beatles.... what you gonna choose..Ringo or Joe cocker..asking for help from his friends
The Stones..... Devo's Satisfaction excels Jagger and Gram Parsons Wild Horses
Neil Young I will take St Etienne.. “only love will break your heart” any day of the week.
The Doors Jose F. all the way!
Bowie Both Lulu or Kurt upstaged on the man sold the world.
U2 Johnny Cash “ One” Cassandra Williams “ Love is blindness”
RT Costello's “withered and died”and the Any Trouble version of” Dimming of the day”
Elvis Costello i prefer Dave Edmund's Girls Talk
Bruce Sorry but i prefer the Any Trouble version of Growing Up!
Hendrix Rickie Lee Jones “ up from the skies” Is better.
The only artists who i don't thing have any instance of being topped by a cover version are Tom Waits( although haven't heard the recent Scarlet Johansen album), Roxy Music and surprisingly The Who.( I can not abide Patti Smith in any way shape or form and think her version of My Generation ..as the kids say..sucks)
But this is all opinion and subjective. Points of view, and just a bit fun....but i sure I'm right!!!
- More from simontyler.
- Login or register to post comments
The Who covered....
Tina Turner's version of The Acid Queen
Rod Stewart's version of Pinball Wizard
The Jam's version of So Sad About Us
Weller's version of Circles
All, arguably, better than Rog n Pete's
The best version of Heinz Baked Beans
I was gonna post I Can See For Miles, which is better quality, but this made me laugh more
Uncoverable
Are there some artists who are just uncoverable? Has anyone ever had a stab at The Fall? Can't think of any Fall tribute albums. Is Mark E's blethering just too idiosyncratic and tied to the songs for them to be covered?
Yes..The Fall...
who would..who could, cover anything of Mark E Smith? well the answer is Sonic Youth. Who have covered three Fall Songs!Never heard them ..cant imagine they improve on the original.
fall cover
Aidan "Arab Strap" Moffat and Stuart "Mogwai" Braithwaite covered 'Bill is Dead' very successfully under the name Sick Anchors
Worth tracking down, for lovers of downbeat Scottish mumbling. That's most of us surely?
A very fine version of Baba O Riley...
...is by Those Darn Accordions, but it isn't better than the original.
Tom Waits
See under Holly Cole, she has done whole albums of covers of old gravel mouth.
Innumerable Searching for the Heart of Saturday Nights and, gulp, Ol' 55 by the Eagles (blushes)
Holly Cole is good!
I'm not familiar at all with her.
One of my all time favourite Tom Waits quotes was when someone asked him what he thought of The Eagles covering his Ol' 55. He said the only thing an Eagles record was good for was keeping the dust off the turntable! He later retracted it saying he was just being a smart ass.
Springsteen does a fine cover of Jersey Girl and Screaming Jay Hawkins covers Heartattack and Vine well but I like the originals better.
I have a CD called "Step Right Up" which is an album of Waits covers. On it are such artists as 10,000 Maniacs, Tindersticks, Violent Femmes, Alex Chilton, Dave Alvin, Tim Buckley and others who I can't remember offhand. Good stuff but none better than the originals IMHO.
The inseparable Glimmer twins
I know and love lots of Stones covers, but having thought long and hard I can't come up with even one that I like more than the original. I think it's mainly because nothing goes better with Jagger's words than Keith's guitar. No guitarist evokes and reflects the feel of the lyrics better than Keith Richards.
I think
what Nick says about the Stones applies to the Who as well. No cover by anyone has ever bettered the original. Or even come close.
Maybe
Ruby Tuesday - Melanie
As Tears Go By - Marianne Faithful
Maybe not...
Melanie, yes
Her "Roo-bay Tuesday" was a truly weird - and wonderful - record.
Ok
The aforementioned Wild Horses, which is, to my mind, the original, appearing ahead of the Stones own.
Ruby Tuesday/Dick Gaughan
Far away eyes/Handsome Family
Satisfaction/Cat Power (FABULOUS!!!)
you could, if you were of a mind,
track down the Stones 'Stripped' album from '95; some would say that the version of Wild Horses on that is better than their 1971 take. Not exactly a cover, mind...
oh and by the way...is it heresy to say that i kinda liked the Soup Dragons version of I'm Free. I mean, it's very 'of its time' (1990, i think) but it's not too shoddy at all. They tried to make it their own anyway and i'll give 'em marks for it.
Indeed I did
When it came out. A top notch collection, outstripping most of the originals (and a bloody close call on Like a Rolling Stone, too!)
Stones Covers
Jumpin' Jack Flash - Aretha Franklin
Tumblin' Dice - Linda Ronstadt
Jumpin' Jack Flash - Rodney Crowell
Start Me Up - Toots & The Maytals
Satisfaction - Otis Redding
Honky Tonk Women - Ike & Tina
all very good but I have to agree with the fellas above.
Further Stone coverage
Alex Chilton - 'Jumpin Jack Flash'
Television - 'Satisfaction'
Both very good. But not as good as originals. Don't know of any Stones covers that are either.
Bowie 'an Who Sold The World'- I prefer original to those covers referred to at top. Not sure if I know of any Bowie covers that really are better than his efforts come to think of it.
Further Stone coverage
Alex Chilton - 'Jumpin Jack Flash'
Television - 'Satisfaction'
Both very good. But not as good as originals. Don't know of any Stones covers that are either.
Bowie 'an Who Sold The World'- I prefer original to those covers referred to at top. Not sure if I know of any Bowie covers that really are better than his efforts come to think of it.
Oh!
You Pretty Things - Peter Noone
Not
unless you count 'All the Young Dudes'.
Yes but
isn't the Mott one the original, written for them by Bowie. He also did it later, so his is the cover?
There's also 'China Girl', similarly done by Iggy first wasn't it?
I agree
with the U2/Johnny Cash competition. And with nothing else on that list.
I know.
Which is why I said 'if you count'. Apparently the Hoople wanted 'Drive In Saturday' as a follow up but Bowie said no. Would have been interesting. Still, Ian did all right for himself after that intitial leg-up I reckon.
Mott rejected Drive-In Saturday for All The Young Dudes
That's the way I recall it anyway.
Drive-In Saturday
My favourite Bowie track.......something about it thats so stately.....makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Peter Noone's
version would have been much better had he insisted on including the original line about the earth being 'a bitch'. Can't remember what he substituted it for. Probably something about Henry the Eighth.
The earth is a
Beast. Much better for kiddies.
Also Peter does Right On Mother. But Bowie never released this commercially.
The Who Covered...
The Fleur de Lys' version of Circles is better than The 'Oo's original.
second hand songs
Ive just been on http://www.secondhandsongs.com and no one of any note has ever covered any Roxy Music Songs.Im sure Dave Gahan and simple minds count as no one of note!
Mike McGear
covered 'Sea Breezes' on his rather fine McCartney-produced 'McGear' album of 1974. In my humble op it's the worst song on the set.
Sorry Simon
I disagree on the all of them.
2 in particular
I love the Johnny Cash "One" as well as "Hurt" and "Personal Jesus". But did it top the original? Only in a revisionist way. He topped on "Hurt" and made it the essential version.
I think One on Achtung Baby remains the essential version and Johnny's version is an amazing cover.
The Stones versions of Satisfaction and Wild Horses are definitive.
No contest. IMHO.
But as you say "this is all opinion and subjective".
Entirely subjective
is my view that Bryan Ferry's weedy voice should not be allowed to sing Dylan's masterpiece warning of environmental / nuclear catastrophe BY LAW. IMHO.....
Coconut.
Senor Coconut's version of Smoke On The Water is a great improvement on the original.
can I mention...
The Sisters Of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim?
Typology of Covers
It's a matter of personal opinion of course, but I divide cover versions into a set of categories:
1 Why bother? It's the same as the original: e.g. (imho) Bauhaus's version of Ziggy Stardust
2 Trying too hard to make it sound different, and ruining it: this is a common crime in the jazz world, where they take a good song, alter the phrasing in the lyrics, and put in "doo ba dee doo wop wop" between all the lines. Also often heard in the festive season, where artists desperately try to squeeze a new interpretation of a Christmas song
3 Interesting new angle, neither better nor worse: find clashmaclaver on myspace and hear their country styling of Bananarama's Venus
4 This is how it should be played: A rare phenomenon, but you hear it on Aztec Camera's acoustic version of Van Halen's Jump, and just about everything on Paul Anka's Rock Swings album. These are gold dust.
Any more nominations for category 4?
Mike Flowers Pops
Wonderwall without the wingey whining
yes yes yes
Roddy Frames sublime "jump" exists in a different and better space time continuum from Van Halens. If you ever saw him do it live it was very cool. All very Velvet Underground and then he pulls out a guitar solo which would leave Eddie's jaw on the floor...i mean man, It rawk'd!
as Amy said No ! No! No!... about the Paul Anka Rock swings album. I cannot stand it! dull beyond belief! IMHO.
Going back to my original list, I stand by my assertion that Devo's version of Satisfaction..is a type 4, how that song should sound. I don't believe that Mick cannot get any, whilst Devo however, now that's pent up sexual frustration.
This Wheel's On Fire
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity. Currently showing on BBC iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00crtxz
What, better than this?
I think not.
Thanks for that
I should have no trouble getting to sleep now...!
Bob Dylan
"All Along The Watchtower"-Jimi Hendrix
"Mr Tambourine Man"-The Byrds
What, better than this?
I think not.
Childhood memories
of Jim Reeves still make me flinch (he was my best friend's mum's favourite), though somehow this didn't put me off what the Bass Enforcer dismissively calls 'cowboy music' when he's trying to wind me up. But marvel at the glory of Ry Cooder's version of "He'll Have To Go" . (I don't doubt there's a simpler way of sending you all there, but this is from a man who's only recently discovered - by chance - how to switch off spellcheck*, and has since forgotten again!) *My bugbear. It tells me I've mis-spelt my own name....
Childhood memories
of Jim Reeves still make me flinch (he was my best friend's mum's favourite), though somehow this didn't put me off what the Bass Enforcer dismissively calls 'cowboy music' when he's trying to wind me up. But marvel at the glory of Ry Cooder's version of "He'll Have To Go" . (I don't doubt there's a simpler way of sending you all there, but this is from a man who's only recently discovered - by chance - how to switch off spellcheck*, and has since forgotten again!) *My bugbear. It tells me I've mis-spelt my own name....
My first attempt
at posting a vid on here (or anywhere), and you could hardly call it a resounding success : blog entry appears twice (oops!) and then tells you the clip is no longer available. Well it is (I've just watched it again), but I'm afraid you'll have to do it the hard way by visiting YouTube, typing in Mr C's name and the song title. I did say there'd be a simpler way.... forgive an old man his woefully inadequate level of computer literacy
There is a simpler way
Double clicking on the YouTube screen here (anywhere except on the Play arrow) sends you whizzing to the source page, where it works. In theory.
Well, kinda...
Thank you, Archie, for the tip. I've had a go, and YouTube still says it's unavailable, but type in the details and it's there! A mystery and a wonder all in one. (And well worth persisting with to watch it.)
This may be strange but...
I have always prefered Pete Townshend's acoustic version of "Won't Get Fooled Again" taken from The Secret Policemans Ball. It's got a terrible solo but hearing it like that made me realise what a great song it really is. That's what a cover should do. I do know that Pete wrote it so may not really be a cover but it's so different I think it qualifies.
Is this not a thread waiting to go thru' the needle?
I love revisions and retreads of songs, performed differently by the same artist as with the original. Nearly as much as I love covers. Often, of course, this is the accoustic and unaccompanied version of a a previously band enhanced song, hence the success of the MTV unplugged format, several of which made their way onto stand alone CD release.
No protection (thanks PV) is one of my favourites,in this style, from Live Alone in America, by Graham Parker. (The clip below isn't it, but it is just nice to see. Even, sadly, if it's a bit crap)
Another favourite revision was the slow version of Goodbye Girl that Squeeze offered after they reformed the firdt time, 20 odd years ago. (This isn't it either, but is an accoustic solo Tillbrook "conventional" version. But I had forgotten what a fab performer he was, with this audience mingling so typical of his charm.
Tom Waits
Never heard the original but there's an Australian guy called Derrin Nauendorf who does a version of Get Behind The Mule.
It's just him and an acoustic guitar although the sound he makes is remarkable. Saw him do it first in a small pub in Hereford and was amazed. It was only later after buying his album "New History" that I found out it was a Tom Waits song.
The track is available on itunes for anyone wanting to take a punt.
Tom Waits covered + the Who + more
Nanci Griffith did a good version of "San Diego Serenade" on her Late Night Grand Hotel CD.
Have we all forgotten Elton's "Pinball Wizard"? Although the Who also featured (including an excerpt from "Can't Explain" at the end) so maybe not a cover but a collaboration. I liked it anyway.
The original post mentioned Any Trouble twice so here's a third nomination for "Baby, Now That I've Found You". Excellent.
Easy All Stars covering the whole of "Dark Side of the Moon". Terrific and funny.
Brian Ferry better than anyone singing anything? That's never happened.
Turnng it on its head
Mr Waits does a scare-the-kids cover of Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song) from Snow White on "Stay Awake", a bizarre late 80s album of left-field artists interpreting Uncle Walt.
Superb
Born To Be Wild - Ozzy Osbourne & Miss Piggy
http://www.box.net/shared/static/ckwvmss8w0.mp3
Rubber Duckie - Little Richard
http://www.box.net/shared/static/btx1b3x8g4.mp3
No contest
The Jam "David Watts"...
better than the Kinks original.
Ah, the Kinks
Kirsty McColl's "Days" was better too.
And I like Kate Rusby's "Village Green Preservation Society".
But nobody has ever mtached the original "Waterloo Sunset".
Roxy covers
Tin Machine - If There Is Something. Classic song from Roxy's debut, mangled inexcusably by Bowie's 80s aberration band. Funny thing, I quite it...
Grace Jones - Love Is The Drug. Awful, pointless, speeded-up version, divesting every ounce of sleaze and slinkiness from the original.
Paul - In Every Dream Home A Heartache. Quite a good version by a pretty obscure performer, who called herself Paulthegirl on her next album, for avoidance of confusion.
Waterloo Sunset
hasn't been beat, but Peter Bruntnell gave it a stiff talking to.
Other than that, Aretha Franklin did a brilliant version of "The Weight" and Gram and Emmylou's version of 'Love Hurts' tops all that came before.
my final word on the subject
I was in the car today and someone on radio two played the Bee Gees original Version of " How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"...
Little Wing
Derek & the Doms version miles better than the original but I speak as someone who struggles to maintain the will to live when my friend puts a Jimi CD on.
Thinking about it - and to compound my heresy - I prefer nearly every cover version of Bob Dylan and (prepare the stake) Leonard Cohen songs that I've heard to the originals. I remember enjoying 'I'm Your Fan' (an indie tribute collection of Lennie's songs) many years ago; when I decided to try listening to the man himself - ye gods. Sorry, but I find his delivery the aural equivalent of wading through porridge. Cold, glutinous porridge. Made with water. With no sugar or pools of golden syrup added.
I will now get me asbestos coat.
Porridge
Should never be made with sugar or pools of golden syrup. Salt is sufficient. Water is particularly pleasant on those days of extra special self denial.
Could this be why I prefer my Cohen without adornment.
For the record, and without a pinch of salt, much as I quite like "I'm your fan", as a covers album, it is marred by the general lack of imagination, most of the versions being retreads and reruns with (poor) imitations, by and large, of his vocal presence.
Provocation for provocations sake: The Corrs actually do a very credible version of Little Wing.
Really.
Yes, really.
Told you!
That was a shock, wasn't it!
Steely Dan
I can't think that the Dan have ever been bettered have they? Rickie Lee Jones did a cover of Showbiz Kids and its great, but not as great as the original.
Bruce
And another thing... the cover of Springsteen's "Stolen Car" by Patty Griffin is miles better than the original. Gives it all the ghostly menace lacking from the original. The only decent Boss cover.
The album version does nothing for me
Get the 4CD Tracks box set. There is a version of "Stolen Car" on there that makes the hair on the back of my hand stand up. I don't know how, or why, it's different to the album version, but there is a world of difference in its impact. The Tracks version is full of ghostly spooky feelings and suggestions while the album version is a dull, inert boring song. Remarkable song and is the absolute peek of Springsteen's career in my opinion.
Blinding cover
Blinded By The Night by Manfred Mann's Earth Band perhaps?
The Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody", Tom Jones's "Delilah"
The Bee Gees' version of their own "To Love Somebody" was dull and dreary, Janis Joplin's cover is hugely powerful. In this case, and I'm sure in others, the great skill of the covering artist is to hear the potential in what is otherwise either a weak song or in a seemingly inappropriate style. For an example of the latter, you won't better Sensational Alex Harvey Band's version of "Delilah"
I play that version live in a covers band. There's always one person who remembers the SAHB version, but it's more fun to watch the faces of the people who've never heard it, as they slowly "get it".
Check out Rod Stewarts version of "To Love Somebody"
done with Booker T. & the M.G.'s which I think is the very best version of the song. It's on the Storyteller boxset.
Here I Am Baby (Come and Take Me)
Al Brown's(!) cover is irrefutably better than Al Green's original.
Joe Strummer
His (And Johnny Cash's) version of Redemption song is legendary.
The Slits
"Heard It Through The Grapevine" was a really great, original version - not saying it beats the original though!