TDOS Tropical Island IPOD Cover Draft - Round 20

[William Blake]

The Lemonheads - Mrs. Robinson [1992]

Original version: Simon & Garfunkel [1968]

Trashy, punked-up rendition of the classic tune, originally released as a single to promote the video release of The Graduate. It's a landmark song for Lemonheads' career, as it signaled their exit from the underground and their entrance into 90s alternative stardom.

 

[funkykingston]

I was never into New Wave, although I grew up during that era and my brother was heavily into it, but i've always liked the songs that were covered from that era. So for my next pick I select:
Bizarre Love Triangle - Frente!

Wow, I figured that one was safe for a few more rounds.

 

[63royals]

The Lemonheads - Mrs. Robinson [1992]

Original version: Simon & Garfunkel [1968]

Trashy, punked-up rendition of the classic tune, originally released as a single to promote the video release of The Graduate. It's a landmark song for Lemonheads' career, as it signaled their exit from the underground and their entrance into 90s alternative stardom.

Great song, and the album (It's a Shame About Ray) is great too.

 

[macadocious]

Since I will be lonely on my Island, I would like to take some solace that an ex girlfriend of mine is lonely as well.

If You Think You're Lonely Now - K-Ci Hailey - 1994

Original - Bobby Womack - 1982

If you have never heard either version of this song (Personally I like K-Ci's version better), it is the biggest F!^& You! break up song ever, and it's wonderfully mean.

 

[Padrino]

things are getting heavy on my island...

The Atlas Moth - Black Trees (Hooray for Earth cover) [2012]:

"Black Trees," by synth-loving art rockers Hooray for Earth, is among my favorite songs of the last few years. its monolithic drums and reliance on atmospheric heft were ripe for a sludge metal cover, and the Atlas Moth succeeded in delivering a wickedly sinister interpretation of the song while retaining much of its initial spirit. its a marriage of rather unusual proportions, but this cover is endlessly listenable if you enjoy a bit of devil in your post-punk...

Hooray for Earth - Black Trees (2011):

 

[funkykingston]

Here's an interesting one if only because not only does the cover change the style of the song fairly radically, but changes the title as well.

In the late 60's football player turned singer/songwriter Jim Weatherly called his actor friend (and member of the same flag football league) Lee Majors who wasn't home. Instead his new girlfriend Farrah Fawcett answered the phone, said that Lee wasn't there and that she herself was packing for a midnight plane to Houston. That line planted the seed for a song so Weatherly hung up the phone and in 45 minutes had the words and music to a plaintive country ballad about two people in love, one of whom is headed back home.

So in 1971 Weatherly included the track on an album whose aim was to give his songs more exposure so that other artists might want to record them. And it worked. Gladys Knight was from Atlanta and loved the song, making just a few changes including the title and eventually releasing the track on the Gladys Knight and the Pips album "Imagination" as "Midnight Train to Georgia".

Gladys Knight and the Pips
"Midnight Train to Georgia"
1973

And the original

Jim Weatherly
Midnight Plane to Houston
1971

 

[funkykingston]

Here's a tricky one. I have lots of higher profile songs and I have a couple songs that are favorites that I think we'll be around for several more rounds. In fact, possibly my favorite of that list wouldn't even be drafted by anyone else at all. Still, having seen a few unexpected songs leave the board way before I thought they would, I'm taking a song I love.

In 2007 Feist recorded the song "Limit to Your Love". It incorporates a lot of what I really like about her music, the soft, supple vocals, the deft songwriting, the classic arranging, crisp and balanced production - just a great song in my opinion. And not one that I thought was really fodder for a cover song to be honest. Here's the original.

Feist"Limit to Your Love"
2007

But then again, the person who decided to cover it isn't exactly a conventional act. James Blake is often categorized as "post-dubstep" a label that doesn't really have any meaning. But other than the blanket term "electronica" I'm not sure there is a label for what Blake does. Fragile, crumbling electronic drum beats, soulful vocals, often looped, chopped, pitch shifted or otherwise manipulated, lonesome and simple piano lines with occasional stabs of oscillating sub bass or other found items from dub step, house etc. I'm guessing a number of people won't like this song at all. And I get that. It may especially not be your thing if listening with good headphones or a stereo system with a quality subwoofer. But I simply love it.

James Blake
"Limit to Your Love"
2010

 

[Padrino]

Here's a tricky one. I have lots of higher profile songs and I have a couple songs that are favorites that I think we'll be around for several more rounds. In fact, possibly my favorite of that list wouldn't even be drafted by anyone else at all. Still, having seen a few unexpected songs leave the board way before I thought they would, I'm taking a song I love.

In 2007 Feist recorded the song "Limit to Your Love". It incorporates a lot of what I really like about her music, the soft, supple vocals, the deft songwriting, the classic arranging, crisp and balanced production - just a great song in my opinion. And not one that I thought was really fodder for a cover song to be honest. Here's the original.

Feist"Limit to Your Love"
2007

But then again, the person who decided to cover it isn't exactly a conventional act. James Blake is often categorized as "post-dubstep" a label that doesn't really have any meaning. But other than the blanket term "electronica" I'm not sure there is a label for what Blake does. Fragile, crumbling electronic drum beats, soulful vocals, often looped, chopped, pitch shifted or otherwise manipulated, lonesome and simple piano lines with occasional stabs of oscillating sub bass or other found items from dub step, house etc. I'm guessing a number of people won't like this song at all. And I get that. It may especially not be your thing if listening with good headphones or a stereo system with a quality subwoofer. But I simply love it.

James Blake
"Limit to Your Love"
2010

fantastic pick. it wasn't on my list, but it should have been.

 

[Padrino]

The Flaming Lips (feat. Star Death and White Dwarfs, Henry Rollins, & Peaches) - Speak to Me/Breathe (Pink Floyd cover) [2009]:

so... here we have this era's most lauded psychedelic rockers covering the previous era's most lauded psychedelic rockers. it's not exactly earth-shattering stuff. in fact, it felt like a rather obvious gimmick when the Flaming Lips teamed up with lead singer Wayne Coyne's nephew's band Star Death and White Dwarfs to record a song-for-song cover of Pink Floyd's beyond-seminal album The Dark Side of the Moon. but beyond the "what's the point?" factor of this exercise in hero worship, the Flaming Lips still managed to turn in a really fantastic, souped-up rendition of the album's opening cut, featuring none other than former-Black-Flag-frontman-turned-spoken-word-artist Henry Rollins on monologue duty, and electroclash musician Peaches handling the song's maniacal screams with aplomb. i love how the Flaming Lips managed to take a rather hazy dirge and turn it into a groove-centric, propulsive nightmare...

Pink Floyd - Speak to Me/Breathe (1973):

 

[macadocious]

If anyone is at work, these songs are extremely NSFW

Ben Folds 5 - B!@#$es ain't S@#$ - 1995 - It actually reached 71 on the top Billboard top 100.

Original Song - Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and DAt Nigga Daz - from the Chronic Album 1992.

The best part of this cover is they do not change a single word. It just works so well in the way they do it.

NOTE: In keeping with past draft protocols AND the family-friendly rule for the board, the embedded versions of this song have been deleted. - VF21

 

[63royals]

...
Gladys Knight and the Pips
"Midnight Train to Georgia"
1973

Reminds me of a really funny TV moment. Richard Pryor had a show in the late 70's and he had "And the Pips" as the musical guest. They did their part of Midnight Train to Georgia without Gladys Knight being there and it was really hilarious.

 

[William Blake]

The Raincoats - Lola [1979]

Original version: The Kinks [1970]

I love the ramshackle, almost amateurish, feel of the Raincoats version. On top of that, it's sung by a woman, which is a double down on ambiguity.

 

[Bricklayer]

I'm very impressed -- the slow end of the snake kicked some snakey ass this time through.

Now if we can just convince Entity to quit ignoring that foul-mouthed cretin Dime Dropper this thing should start flowing freely.

 

[Chubbs]

The Raincoats - Lola [1979]

Original version: The Kinks [1970]

I love the ramshackle, almost amateurish, feel of the Raincoats version. On top of that, it's sung by a woman, which is a double down on ambiguity.

I really appreciate when bands don't feel the need to change all the gender pronouns. That really bugs me for some reason.

 

[dukeswh]

Picking a cover song that was originally performed by a legendary band is risky but I have always loved this song more than the original. I feel that the song fits perfectly with Steven Tyler's voice that if you have not heard the original or if you were living in a cave all your life and don't know The Beatles, you would think that they wrote this song.

For my 6th of the IPOD Cover Draft, I select:

Come Together - Aerosmith

And the classic Beatles version

Album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Soundtrack)
Released: 1978
Original Artist: Abbey Road
Original Released Date: 1969

 

[63royals]

Grateful Dead -- Not Fade Away (1981)

The Grateful Dead, over the course of their 30-year career, played hundreds of songs, including, needless to say, lots of covers. One of their favorites was Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. According to http://www.setlist.fm/stats/grateful-dead-bd6ad4a.html, they played it 657 times. The song provided a great structure for them to improvise on top of. When they played it on March 18, 1981 in Essen, West Germany, they were joined by Pete Townshend of the Who. Pete provides some chunky rhythm guitar, and Jerry Garcia was in fine form:

The only problem with the video is that it's cut off at 10:00; the song actually lasted 11:10. If you want to listen to the song in its entirety, the show is available at the Grateful Dead Internet Archive, which has a (free) recording of just about every concert they ever performed. It's #10 in the set list here:

https://archive.org/details/gd1981-03-28.sbd.unknown.1343.sbeok.shnf

Here's Buddy Holly doing this much-covered song:

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Picking a cover song that was originally performed by a legendary band is risky but I have always loved this song more than the original. I feel that the song fits perfectly with Steven Tyler's voice that if you have not heard the original or if you were living in a cave all your life and don't know The Beatles, you would think that they wrote this song.

Come Together - Aerosmith

I have real mixed feelings about this song. Obviously it's a great song and Aerosmith nails it, and for that it deserves some credit.

At the same time, whenever Come Together comes up on the radio or on my shuffle, I basically can't tell which version it is until the vocal comes on. I mean, they're different in that the Beatles have the bass mixed a bit quieter on the intro...but that's about it.

If you take a song that nobody knows by some obscure band and cover it straight and bring it to prominence, that's one thing. If you take a very well-known song from the best-known band in the world and you play it exactly the same down to identical percussion and sound effects...why? They needed to do something with the song to make it "Aerosmith" but I just don't think they bothered.

The Aerosmith version is a great song, I just don't know if it's a great cover.

 

[dukeswh]

I have real mixed feelings about this song. Obviously it's a great song and Aerosmith nails it, and for that it deserves some credit.

At the same time, whenever Come Together comes up on the radio or on my shuffle, I basically can't tell which version it is until the vocal comes on. I mean, they're different in that the Beatles have the bass mixed a bit quieter on the intro...but that's about it.

If you take a song that nobody knows by some obscure band and cover it straight and bring it to prominence, that's one thing. If you take a very well-known song from the best-known band in the world and you play it exactly the same down to identical percussion and sound effects...why? They needed to do something with the song to make it "Aerosmith" but I just don't think they bothered.

The Aerosmith version is a great song, I just don't know if it's a great cover.

Well, I disagree, because I feel that they did make it their own by making it heavier and grittier. I can see your point regarding how they play it exactly the same as the original, but I think that was part of the appeal for me. Had there been a major change in the arrangement, it wouldn't have sound right, at least imo.

 

[NoBonus]

Another cover song I need to have:

The Clash - Police and Thieves (Originally by Junior Murvin)

One of my all time favorite The Clash songs... so great...

The album version (this is what I am drafting)

A live version for fun:

 

[funkykingston]

I have real mixed feelings about this song. Obviously it's a great song and Aerosmith nails it, and for that it deserves some credit.

At the same time, whenever Come Together comes up on the radio or on my shuffle, I basically can't tell which version it is until the vocal comes on. I mean, they're different in that the Beatles have the bass mixed a bit quieter on the intro...but that's about it.

Just to nitpick, the bass in the Beatles version is actually mixed significantly LOUDER than in the Aerosmith version. The reason the bass jumps out a bit more in the cover is that Sir Paul always played with flat wounds and a mute giving that hugely thumpy tone with big bass, less mids and a quicker decay. Tom Hamilton is clearly playing a bass with round wound strings giving the extra midrange which cuts through the mix more.

That and everything is mixed with greater clarity. You can hear it particularly with the drums especially the kick and those iconic tom rolls during the bridge/verse and my understanding is that on the original Ringo wrapped towels around his snare and toms and one around the kick pedal. The guitar is also mixed higher with greater clarity than Lennon's original dark chugging chords presumably from his Rickenbacker vs Joe Perry with his Les Paul. And of course Perry added a true guitar solo in the outro vs Harrison's simple accent licks.

If you take a song that nobody knows by some obscure band and cover it straight and bring it to prominence, that's one thing. If you take a very well-known song from the best-known band in the world and you play it exactly the same down to identical percussion and sound effects...why? They needed to do something with the song to make it "Aerosmith" but I just don't think they bothered.

The Aerosmith version is a great song, I just don't know if it's a great cover.

I can understand that viewpoint and this cover wasn't really on my list because it is so similar (and I am a big Beatles fan) but to be fair to Aerosmith this was a cover made for the "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" movie (which features none of the Beatles and is comically bad) and was produced by George Martin so it can be easy to see why they played it straight. Hard to take a ton of liberties when it isn't your project and the guy largely responsible for the Beatles' sound is presumably sitting in the control booth.

 

[funkykingston]

Another cover song I need to have:

The Clash - Police and Thieves (Originally by Junior Murvin)

One of my all time favorite The Clash songs... so great...

The album version (this is what I am drafting)

A live version for fun:

I figured that one would go before my turn came around again. Nice pick.

 

[Entity]

Careless whisper -- Seether original George Michael

 

[Capt. Factorial]

can understand that viewpoint and this cover wasn't really on my list because it is so similar (and I am a big Beatles fan) but to be fair to Aerosmith this was a cover made for the "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" movie (which features none of the Beatles and is comically bad) and was produced by George Martin so it can be easy to see why they played it straight. Hard to take a ton of liberties when it isn't your project and the guy largely responsible for the Beatles' sound is presumably sitting in the control booth.

I did not know that.

 

[funkykingston]

I did not know that.

I am a fountain of useless knowledge. Especially when it comes to music.

 

[Dime Dropper]

This is a pretty famous cover as far as I know, so I'm a bit surprised it's still available. Not complaining though.

Knocking On Heaven's Door - Eric Clapton (Rich and Poor - 1989)
Original by Bob Dylan (Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid - 1973)

I prefer this to the original. Clapton effortlessly introduced a reggae feel to the song and it just works. There's other famous covers of this out there, but I'm not a fan.

Next up, Capt. Factorial!

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Whenever anybody asks me what my favorite Led Zeppelin song is, I usually respond with this one. Of course, it's not a Led Zeppelin song, it's a cover (as opposed to a song they...borrowed...)

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - Led Zeppelin (1969, off Led Zeppelin)

Original written by Anne Bredon, first recorded by Joan Baez on Joan Baez In Concert Part I (1962)

There's apparently a bit of an interesting history surrounding this song. It came out of the folk movement in Berkeley. The original artist (Bredon) played it on a live radio show where Janet Smith, another folk singer picked up on it, moved to Oberlin college in Ohio and played it at a show that Baez attended. Baez picked it up from there and gave no songwriting attribution, so when Led Zeppelin originally recorded it, they listed it as "traditional". The Baez attribution was fixed within a few years but amazingly the Zeppelin version survived over a decade and who knows how many million copies into the 1980s with apparently nobody realizing that the songwriting attribution was incorrect until Smith happened to hear her son play the Zeppelin version. Different worlds!

To be frank, Baez's original version is awful. It's everything that is terrible about folk music. I won't embed it, but here's a link that you can click on, if you dare! (Don't click on this link! Don't do it!!) I mean, it's amazing that Zeppelin found a great song hidden in there, because it's hidden really, really deep.

 

[Chubbs]

Whenever anybody asks me what my favorite Led Zeppelin song is, I usually respond with this one. Of course, it's not a Led Zeppelin song, it's a cover (as opposed to a song they...borrowed...)

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - Led Zeppelin (1969, off Led Zeppelin)

Original written by Anne Bredon, first recorded by Joan Baez on Joan Baez In Concert Part I (1962)

There's apparently a bit of an interesting history surrounding this song. It came out of the folk movement in Berkeley. The original artist (Bredon) played it on a live radio show where Janet Smith, another folk singer picked up on it, moved to Oberlin college in Ohio and played it at a show that Baez attended. Baez picked it up from there and gave no songwriting attribution, so when Led Zeppelin originally recorded it, they listed it as "traditional". The Baez attribution was fixed within a few years but amazingly the Zeppelin version survived over a decade and who knows how many million copies into the 1980s with apparently nobody realizing that the songwriting attribution was incorrect until Smith happened to hear her son play the Zeppelin version. Different worlds!

To be frank, Baez's original version is awful. It's everything that is terrible about folk music. I won't embed it, but here's a link that you can click on, if you dare! (Don't click on this link! Don't do it!!) I mean, it's amazing that Zeppelin found a great song hidden in there, because it's hidden really, really deep.

Doh! Had this on tap for my next pick!

Zeppelin was forced to credit the original author much later in this case. They still have "cover" songs in their catalog credited to the members of Led Zeppelin with no mention of the original artists. They were sneaky like that.

 

[GoGoGadget]

The Clash - Police and Thieves

Son of a monkey.

 

[El Paljasso]

I hope this one counts as cover, but I don't know what else to call it. Lyrics by Paul Anka and music based on a French song called Comme d'habitude

My way - Frank Sinatra

 

[Dime Dropper]

Ohh, may be some controversy here. I won't contest it, but I definitely would have taken it earlier had I known it was a cover. Then again, maybe it is technically a cover and I just didn't realise it.