Sunday, June 7, 2009

Under the Covers ?

I'm not real sure how this really works, but I have been Tagged by Asylum Seeker to list my pick for best and worst cover songs.

Worst; Wow, where do I begin?
I suppose to be really bad, a cover would have to have taken a decent song and made it bad - at least demonstrably worse. There's a lot of that out there.

A lot of metal bands do covers of shit songs. The song still sounds bad. However, it really didn't change much, other than get a rockin' metal beat.

I suppose, I'm not real fond of Ryan Adams version of a really grand old Stones tune, Brown Sugar.

I am a blues fan, but I don't care for this


I like the Stones a little better.


I'm sure there are much worse covers out there( I purposely stay away from Country covers of great songs, to say they suck is redundant), but this one seems to change a good ole classic.

Now, for improvements, or, atleast, differing versions that I really like :-)

Soooo much out there that I like !

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Jimi's Watchtower. Wow he really outdid himself there. Dylan is good, but Jimi OWNED that song ! In the same vein, Janis Joplin really took "Me and Bobby McGee" to different level.

I like what G&R and Metallica did with their covers. Both bands took good songs and presented them to me in a way that I thought was good.

I like Jordis Unga covering a song covered by Nirvanna


It's a tough call, I like both covers.


And YES, Both are an improvement over Bowie, not that his was bad.


My favorite cover?

None other than Jeff Buckley covering "Halleluja" by Leonard Cohen
I know a lot of people may be saying, "But, mac, you're an atheist! WTF??" Yes I am, but, this aint about god. It's beautiful music, evoking, well, you know ;-)


The song(Buckley's cover) kind of turned me on to Cohen. He is a wonderful songwriter.



Oh yeah, I was supposed to tell four others to do this as well. OK, here goes....the first four people who see this are commanded to compose their own list!

7 comments:

The Maze Monster said...

hahahaha hallelejah!

Anonymous said...

The version of Brown Sugar by Ryan Adams is
just very different than the Stones version (after all why cover a song if you just copy)
and while I like the Stones version, the sensual, sinuous blues version Adams does delights me. He does my favorite cover song,
a version of Oasis Wonderwall that even Noel Gallagher thought was better than their version.
I can't think of what cover song I hate the most at the moment, at least it gives me something to mull over besides work.

Anonymous said...

nice picks! ;-)

Anonymous said...

Mac, I concur. That Ryan Adams cover is awful. It's pretentious and boring.

I had forgotten about Buckley's cover. It was pretty heady the first time I heard him sing it. The lyrics are pretty phenomenal.

Tit for Tat said...

Best cover ever, "While my guitar gently weeps" by Jeff Healey.

mac said...

Wow, John that cover by Jeff Healey is great.

I always liked Jeff. Angel Eyes makes me wish there were angels :-)



Thanks for reminding me :-)

Tit for Tat said...

Glad you liked it Mac. Unfortunately he died recently from the cancer that made him blind. Thankfully his music will live on. The guitar in that remake gives me goosebumps everytime I hear it.

On a side note. Krokus does a pretty good rendition of American Woman from the Guess Who.