David Sadof
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I was beginning to add a comment to drewfonts mog about cover songs, when I realized I had written so much that it should probably be a new mog entirely:
There are some covers that I like better than the original. Here's a quick Top Ten of some of my favorites:
10) The Larry Williams classic "Slow Down" has been covered by a lot of artists including The Beatles. I've always been partial to The Jam's version from the album, In The City. It has great energy.
9) Billy Bragg covering The Left Banke's "Walk Away Renee". He plays the melody on the guitar, but tells a compelling story instead of singing the song.
8) The Candyskins with their version of "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield with an added sample from The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil". Luckily for them, they got permission and were not sued by The Stones like The Verve were for sampling a small part of a symphony's recording of "The Last Time" on their hit, "Bittersweet Symphony". Jagger/Richards received sole songwriting credit on the song.
7) The Red House Painters have done many covers, but my favorite is their interpretation of the KISS/Ace Frehley song, "Shock Me". I'd like it even more if they had changed the line "put on your black leather" to "take off your blue sweater".
6) Nick Cave & PJ Harvey covering a traditional folk song known as "Henry Lee". The original version can be found on the 6 disc boxset in the big red box called Anthology Of American Folk Music. The original is a surprisingly dark song.
5) Concrete Blonde's take on "Tomorrow, Wendy" by Andy Prieboy. Johnnette Napolitano's vocal is chilling and packed with emotion. Both versions were released at roughly the same time.
4) Throwing Muses "Cry Baby Cry". Of course, I love the original by The Beatles, but Kristen Hersh's voice is amazing on this song.
3) Camper Van Beethoven covering Status Quo's "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" - I love the way they use the violin.
2) The Clash playing "Brand New Cadillac" by Vince Taylor & The Play-Boys. This song sounds so natural, I originally thought it was a Clash original that just sounded like a cover. David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" character was based on Vince Taylor.
1) At the time that Talking Heads put out their version of "Take Me To The River", I was not aware of the original by Al Green. The Talking Heads version remains my favorite and is an excellent example of an artist making a song their own.
This is my first Mog. I'm kinda new around here and just finished setting up my page. I've invited a few of my friends to come check this site out, so hopefully some of them will join me here. It seems appropriate to use this song for my first Mog. There are quite a few great tracks on the album including "Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello".
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You roped me in by mentioning The Jam. Larry Williams was an excellent songwriter, and I think most of his best songs are better known from cover versions. As I'd have to look that up to verify, just take my word for it for now. Boney Maronie, etc. (Oh, I think he wrote Dizzy Miss Lizzy too, and the Beatles did a killer version of that.)
This is an endless conversation because there are so many great covers out there and I don't know the post this one came from, won't bother bringing em up except I'll throw one out there - Hey Ya by the Supersuckers, a fucking blast.
And way back when, I bought tickets to see the Talking Heads when they were touring behind their second album, playing some tiny college hall in San Diego. Somewhere between the time I bought tickets and the time of the show, Take Me To The River hit the charts. I think it was such a sudden thing that there weren't even hordes of scalpers outside, there were just tons of people crammed into this tiny hall who'd paid 5 bucks a ticket to see a band that now had a song on am radio. Not sure anyone involved got it, except it was great. I do prefer Al Green's version of Take Me To The River, though. No one sings like the Rev.
I have not heard any of those covers, and they all sound awesome. Kristin Hersh, always ace, and I did not know that 'Heads tid bit either. I can't think of too many covers off the top of my head that make it better, but I can say that I haven't yet gotten sick of Chan Marshall's Everly Bros. cover.
OK, Audrey, that's a fucking tease. Don't know that one, what's the song? (Oh, and have you seen her on Austin City Limits with Flamin Lips doing War Pigs? THAT is fuckin cool - don't know if it's released anywhere, though.)