![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogRe: “dEFROG On 45 #77”, in which I noted that the film version of “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” bore no real resemblance to the story told in the song on which it was allegedly based:
The film used a different version of the song, sung by Tanya Tucker, with the lyrics almost completely rewritten to fit the movie’s storyline.
The music is pretty much the same (albeit with a more countrified arrangement) – just the words are different.
Which got me to thinking: how often does that happen, where someone does a cover song but with totally different lyrics?
I know it happens in the case of songs translated into other languages, where the lyrics don't translate well so they just write all new ones. And certainly there are cases where artists drop certain lines or change select words (often in the name of either FCC guidelines or gender correction, though sometimes the latter can effectively change the whole meaning and point of the song).
But I’m having trouble thinking of other examples of total rewrites (apart from Weird Al parodies, which don’t count). Probably the closest example is Peggy Lee’s version of Little Willie John’s “Fever”, where she kept the first couple of verses then added her own lyrics for the rest of the song.
And I guess maybe certain Led Zeppelin songs might count, depending on who you ask.
Otherwise, I’m drawing a blank. Maybe you lot have some ideas.
Meanwhile, there’s at least one other cover version of the song – Reba McIntire had a hit single with it in the early 90s. While she kept the original lyrics intact, she did make this odd music video to go with it that basically changes the story where the brother not only knows who killed Andy, but deliberately pled guilty to protect the shooter.
Which isn’t nearly as good.
Anyway, it’s one of those videos I always liked to keep in mind whenever music censorship groups complained that rock music videos should be censored because they had too much sex and violence in them. Somehow Reba McIntire never came up in that discussion – cos she’s not rock, so it’s okay?
Do the twist,
This is dF
The film used a different version of the song, sung by Tanya Tucker, with the lyrics almost completely rewritten to fit the movie’s storyline.
The music is pretty much the same (albeit with a more countrified arrangement) – just the words are different.
Which got me to thinking: how often does that happen, where someone does a cover song but with totally different lyrics?
I know it happens in the case of songs translated into other languages, where the lyrics don't translate well so they just write all new ones. And certainly there are cases where artists drop certain lines or change select words (often in the name of either FCC guidelines or gender correction, though sometimes the latter can effectively change the whole meaning and point of the song).
But I’m having trouble thinking of other examples of total rewrites (apart from Weird Al parodies, which don’t count). Probably the closest example is Peggy Lee’s version of Little Willie John’s “Fever”, where she kept the first couple of verses then added her own lyrics for the rest of the song.
And I guess maybe certain Led Zeppelin songs might count, depending on who you ask.
Otherwise, I’m drawing a blank. Maybe you lot have some ideas.
Meanwhile, there’s at least one other cover version of the song – Reba McIntire had a hit single with it in the early 90s. While she kept the original lyrics intact, she did make this odd music video to go with it that basically changes the story where the brother not only knows who killed Andy, but deliberately pled guilty to protect the shooter.
Which isn’t nearly as good.
Anyway, it’s one of those videos I always liked to keep in mind whenever music censorship groups complained that rock music videos should be censored because they had too much sex and violence in them. Somehow Reba McIntire never came up in that discussion – cos she’s not rock, so it’s okay?
Do the twist,
This is dF
