The Beatles covered...in a good way
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Artist:
It ain't Sunday, but I've got a backlog of unposted material. So screw it! MOJO, the best Brit music mag, runs at least one Beatles issue per year. I love this, as they always find some way to dig out new nuggets of information or approach the subject from an interesting angle. They must sell well, because it happens over and over. They have also gotten into the habit of putting together the accompanying "free" CD by having other artists, mostly super-obscure, cover Beatles tracks, maybe an entire album. The CDs pale when compared to the articles, and are usually pretty bad. Covering the Beatles is tricky - all the songs are well known and steering the vehicle between slavish imitation and sacreligious re-imaginings or ruination is a task few are up to. Earth Wind and Fire did it. The Bobs did it. There are others whose names escape me at the moment.
Now, add Unkle Bob. Here's their version of "She's Leaving Home" from Sgt. Pepper. While staying true to the melody, they added some muscle instrumentally and..dropped the verses. All of them. I think this is a song that has never been sucessfully covered, and a song that has not aged as well as others, but I love what Unkle Bob has done here.
It also sent me to their website or MySpace page, which seems chock-full of other power pop goodies, so they are on my '09 must buy list. Have a listen.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (16)
You're not expecting feedback, are you? Hardly anyone comments anymore. And with covers like this.......
Hey, I comment, even tho you may wish it otherwise. I kind of consider it etiquette that, if I listen to a posted track, I say something. So, no likee? Oh, now I'm gonna pout and leave again....
Oh your comments are always welcome, please do not sulk. I just mean you have some questionable items in your collection.
C'mon, if I can't sulk or bitch, where's the joy in life?
Does it still fall under the heading of "cover" when so much is different? True, everything there is taken from the original, but it's almost more like a remix, if such a word could be used in a rock context and not an electronic sense.
I thought it was prett alright. Like you said, Beatles covers are hard to do. I almost never listen to them for the reasons you mentioned above. But this wasn't so bad.
Well I liked it quite a bit. I'll have to look into these guys more too.
That illustrates my point. Replicated the original, adding nothing except different musicians. It's a good song.
Interesting comment about the lack of comments deadman. And I agree dermahrk. It's good etiquette. Lots of looky loos? Bad writing on my part?
I feel a post coming on about the replacement of social mores (<== is that correct?) with virtual friendships. But that's only been done a bajillion times.
What the heck am I listening to!!??%$%#$#
I actually like the Unkle Bob version too.
This is great. A cover should be different than the original, in my book, and this one does have teeth. Share some more from those CDs, if any of the others stand up like this one.
Unkle Bob made it better in some ways, but made me like the original for new reasons. Re-imaginings don't have to worry about being sacreligious if they succeed musically. Maybe the problem is that acts pick Beatle tunes they like, which have the problem of being hard to top, whereas if they picked Beatle tunes they're ambivalent about, their task would be easier. Now that I think about it, maybe it's because it's easier to think of a few Beatles melodies that are not up to snuff, whereas it's harder to think of Beatles arrangements that aren't up to snuff, and generally a cover version changes the arrangement, not the melody. I'm just speed-theorizing, so I'm probably wrong.
Yeah, and I know I'm guilty of the poor etiquette more than I like to admit of late myself. And, yes, does seem commenting has becoming more and more of a lost art in general recently. Nice cover, this original was ripe for some more instrumental muscle
Damn, that's interesting! Like you, I think most of Mojo's cover CDs are crap. But this is the diamond that makes me go through them. If you didn't know the original you'd have no idea this was a cover song. I'm going to see and hear what else they do.
I am very guilty of ettiquette, and probably misspelled it as well.
But I appreciate al that has been said. I usually don't like remakes....well, actually its not that I don't like em...the songs and music are good, but once performed masterfully,it is tough to redo.
Of course I said that about "At Last" until I heard Cindy Lauper.
Now, I think a bit first. Maybe the sound will grow on me.
Leonard Bernstein redid Westside Story on a PBS special, and I thought the Master could not re-outdo himself. The sound was...lack of a better word exsquisite.
Dermahrk, you never cease to keep me thinking. With a joy.
Sword
I like this "cover".
With that said, that's probably one of my favorite Beatles albums.