Monday, February 14, 2005

Cover Me In the past, I've pretty much hated cover songs.  Well, at least bad cover songs, which describes many of the ones I've come across.  Few things tick me off more than to hear a song I love butchered by some teeny-bopper band who can't come up with their own hit. Most recent example I can think of is the Scissors Sisters version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."  Heard it in the car sometime last year on my way to Frankfurt and immediately fell in hate with it.  I know that lots of other folks seemed to like their version since it did well on the charts, but I was horrified.  Occasionally, though, I'll hear a cover song without knowing it is a cover song and go through life thinking so-and-so wrote something great and not knowing until years later who originally put the song out.  Like "Hazy Shade of Winter" by The Bangles.  I never knew until recently it was a Simon and Garfunkel song.  Or "I Fought The Law" by The Clash.  They didn't write that, either.  And did you know that the "Mad World" song that I linked to a few months back was originally done by Tears for Fears?  Me neither. "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell?  Gloria Jones did it first. "Respect" by Aretha Franklin?  She re-wrote an Otis Redding ditty. "My Way" by Sid Vicious?  Actually I knew he didn't write that (and you better damn well, too). Though I'm not alone in this ignorance.  I have a game everyday where I'll play a song as my students walk into class, and if they can be the first to guess who is performing the song, they get a piece of candy.  Very popular game, though I make it tough on them sometimes by playing the original version of a song that was redone.  Last week I stumped them with Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly."  They all swore I was an idiot and that it was The Fugees and not someone named Flack they'd never heard of. But you know, I still feel there's a huge hold in my musical knowledge, and I feel it's time to educate myself in the world of cover songs.  Luckily, there's an easy way for me to do so. Coverville is a three-times-a-week podcast, put out by a guy named Brian, who plays and explains interesting cover songs by sometimes very obscure artists.  I've listened to a few of his broadcasts on the way to work this past week and think the show is great.  The latest episode has a cover of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" that almost had me driving off the road when I recognized it.  The cover of "Midnight Train to Georgia" wasn't bad, either.  Through the magic of the internet, you can hear it, too, within minutes.  Just go to the site and download any of the episodes for free and listen to them right on your computer or on an mp3 player.  Highly recommended. And oh, please don't buy any more Pink Floyd covers.  Don't encourage these people. 6:00:46 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.