MORE SENSELESS ACTS OF BLOGGERY

I’ve always found it ironic that Tom Waits gets a lot of accolades as a songwriter, yet has never had a mainstream hit single. His albums generally do well, and his singles do pretty good on specialty-format charts like “Adult Alternative”. But he’s never cracked the Billboard 200.

Which just goes to show that “great songs” and “hit songs” aren’t always the same thing.

Then again, sometimes it’s more about the presentation than the song itself. As a performer, Waits has never been a commercial proposition, and he gets more respect from the hipster alt.crowd than from the mainstream. Which is why yr more likely to hear a Waits song on mainstream radio if someone else performs it.

Especially if that someone is Rod Stewart doing “Downtown Train”.

Actually, Waits does get covered a lot, but usually by artists who also have smaller “alternative” followings, rather than big-name stars. Sure, Springsteen has covered “Jersey Girl” onstage, and the Eagles did “Ol’ 55”, but none of them have been as successful as Stewart’s take on “Downtown Train”.

And the thing is, I never really liked Stewart’s version. The brilliance of the song shines through, but it’s too obviously Adult Contemporary for my taste. Moreover, he wasn’t even the first singer to release a cover version as a single. 

That would be Patty Smyth.



It didn’t do better than Stewart’s chartwise, but I like her version a lot more. It’s obviously a more amped up arrangement, but I think it does preserve some of the romance of the original, even if it relies on 80s synths to do it. And of course Smyth was a really good singer in her own right.

Still, there’s nothing quite like the original.



PRODUCTION NOTE: I should mention that Mary Chapin Carpenter recorded her own version of “Downtown Train” the same year Smyth did. But that wasn’t released as a single.

Also, while we’re at it, Bob Seger recorded a version the same year as Stewart, but decided not to release it at the time because Stewart’s version did so well. 

Shining like a new dime,

This is dF

This is a series about artists doing cover songs that may or may not be better than the originals to the point of being definitive. 

This episode concerns Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock N Roll”.

So you may be thinking I’ll be posting about some of the awful cover versions that have emerged in recent years by the likes of (say) Britney Spears or Hannah Montana or that horrible horrible dance version. 

You’d be wrong.

Because, as it turns out, Joan Jett’s version is the cover version.

THIS is the original version, from a band called The Arrows, who were a TV rock band in the UK in the late 70s.



FUN FACT: 24 hours ago, I had no idea this even existed. I knew Jett didn’t write the song, but I thought it was a song that maybe some people she knew wrote and gave to her to use or something.

My word. The things you learn on Facebook.

Meanwhile, here’s Jett’s version for reference/entertainment purposes.



Put another dime in the jukebox,

This is dF

The Stooges get covered a lot. 

But not like this.



Indeed. You can’t go wrong with John Zorn paired with the lead singer of Boredoms screaming his f***ing head off. 

FUN FACT: When I’ve had a bad day, I find this cheers me up immensely. It’s like scream therapy, I guess. Only, you know, musical.

WARNING: Not for everyone.

Scream for me,

This is dF

Speaking of Pat Benatar:

One thing I always found interesting about her is that she didn’t write much of her own material. Indeed, three songs on her first album were written Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, who used to write hits for Sweet, and there were also songs by John (Cougar) Mellencamp and Alan Parsons Project on there. Even by her third album, at least three songs were written by outsiders, and even the ones involving Benatar and her guitarist/husband Neil Giraldo sometimes had collaborators outside the band.

That said, Benatar is also one of those rare singers that can do wonders with other people’s songs. Her cover songs were usually quite good. If nothing else, few singers could get away with covering both The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” and Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”, much less make them sound good.




You may be a lover but you ain’t no dancer,

This is dF

One reason I started this series was to explore the idea that it’s not often that cover songs become the default standard over the original, and it’s rarer still that the cover becomes so huge that many people are unaware that it’s actually a cover song at all.

Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love”, for example (originally by Gloria Jones).

Or Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower” (originally a Bob Dylan song).

Or Harry Nilsson’s “Without You”. Which was actually originally written and recorded by Badfinger.



Which must be a double-edged sword for Badfinger. On the one hand, their song has been covered by over 180 artists, which means a hell of a lot of royalties, probably more than they ever would have made on their own steam. On the other hand, most of those artists think they’re covering Nilsson – and indeed most use Nilsson’s version as the starting point.

To include Chicago-based glam pixie Bobby Conn, who gets my vote for the most awesomely frightening version of “Without You” ever.



Admit it. You’ll be sleeping with the light on tonight.

VIEWING TIP: Try to hold on until around the 4:00 mark when the harmonies kick in.

FULL DISCLOSURE: For the record, I like the Badfinger version more than the Nilsson version, which is a little too overwrought for me. But then I’m emotionally available, so I would say that, wouldn’t I?

I can’t live,

This is dF

A long time ago I started a series of posts (continued by bedsitter23  for a period of time) that compared cover songs to the original versions with the thesis that it’s rare for newer versions to become the definitive version of that particular song.

One recurring theme of doing cover songs is that artists can approach them one of two ways: (1) stay true to the original as much as possible, or (2) deconstruct and reinvent the song in their own artistic vision.

Which brings us to Pat Boone.

Boone, as you probably know, established his singing career by making Fats Domino and Little Richard songs safe for white people to listen to without consigning their souls to that special Hell where the kids have premarital sex right in front of you, reefers are mandatory, and there are no separate washrooms for black people. Or something.

Anyway, Boone was so squeaky clean he made Justin Bieber look like Mötley Crüe, and while he launched a successful career as a result, when people think of “Ain’t That A Shame” today, none of them think of Boone’s version (apart from people who still watch the 700 Club, I mean). Put simply, Boone didn’t pwn any of those songs as his own.

In 1997, Boone surprised everyone – not least his own fans – by attempting to do for heavy metal what he did for 50s R&B. He did a whole album’s worth of hard-rock/metal classics – all arranged in a swinging Big Band style.

It was called In A Metal Mood: No More Mr Nice Guy. It sounded like this.



Obviously there was nothing “metal” about it (apart from the brass section, maybe – brass being technically a metal and all). At the time, people like me laughed and laughed and laughed. Although we cringed while we laughed. Some of us wept, even. Or shook our fists in anger. And not in a metal way.

Listening to it now, though, I can’t really decide whether it’s a work of clueless abomination or artistic genius. I mean, think of the work it must have taken by Boone (or whoever his music arranger was) to take these songs, disassemble them and rework them into something Billy May would be proud of, with Boone crooning Dio lyrics as though he’s singing about dancing in the moonlight or how swell Jesus is.

It’s not the stretch it might seem to be. Bobby Darin proved it was possible to set lyrics about gratuitous and graphic gangster violence to Big Band music (see: Darin’s “Mack The Knife”, also a cover song). And of course it’s always possible to make a metal song work in an entirely different musical genre (see: Johnny Cash’s cover of Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage”).

So in a twisted way, I can kind of appreciate what Boone did there.

At the same time, how many people prefer Boone’s version of any of these metal songs to the originals? About as many as the ones who prefer Boone’s version of Little Richard songs. Possibly less, since at the time many of Pat’s fellow born-again Christians were aghast that Boone would record Satan music (even if he did remove all the Diabolus chords and squiddly-doo solos and falsetto vocals and stuff).

Indeed, I fully admit I only like this in the same way that I like Dr Demento compilations and William Shatner records (and frankly, Shatner is better at this kind of thing).

Also, believe it or not, Ronnie James Dio is one of the backup singers on this version. So I guess it must be okay. Somehow.

No posers,

This is dF

I’ve talked before in this space about “Tainted Love”, and how it’s been covered by a surprising amount of people, most of whom take a cover version (Soft Cell) rather than the original (Gloria Jones) as a reference point.

Apparently, the same applies to 1920s German music hall revivalists.



[Glommed via drhoz ]

That’s Max Raabe , who has been making a living out of this sort of thing for awhile now. For me, it’s like Hayseed Dixie doing bluegrass AC/DC covers – it doesn’t always work, but when it does, it’s dead on.

Which is the case with Raabe’s take on “Tainted Love”. Even though it takes its cue from the Soft Cell version, it still works as a 1920s pastiche. That’s a compliment to both the original song and Almond/Ball’s arrangement.

Talent borrows, genius steals,

This is dF

I’m not reclaiming the Bad Cover Version series from bedsitter23 (though I’ve been coming across some great candidates lately, so there may be a co-op deal in the future), but his recent Beatles episode called my attention to VH1’s list of the ten worst Beatles covers ever.

And for the most part I can’t argue with it (though personally, I’m sure there must be much worse covers than Kylie’s take on “Help!”). But I’m going to make a case for William Shatner’s “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds”.

Why? Because (1) it always makes “Worst Beatles Covers” lists to the point where including it is borderline laziness and (2) it’s not nearly as bad as everyone says.

Obviously I can’t prove that, because all music is subjective. Even the Beatles had (and still have) their share of detractors.



But I think the redeeming quality of Shatner's version of “Lucy” is what everyone else seems to hate about it: that demented overacted loopiness that’s so over-the-top that I’m positive Shatner et al intended for it to be hilarious.

In fact, I’m reasonably sure they were taking a cue from Peter Sellers’ brilliant Shakespearian cover of “A Hard Day’s Night”.



It’s just that people don’t expect Shatner to do comedy, so they don’t know when he’s doing it. Maybe it would have helped if he’d had the right visuals to go with it.

Like this.



Admit it. That’s funny.

BONUS TRACK: For more Beatles cover commentary, feel free to visit the Bad Cover Version Archive (Episode 004).

Carry on.

Waiting to take you away,

This is dF

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this series, and one thing we’ve learned so far is that, more often than not, cover songs fail to trump the originals. Some do, and some at least rival the original versions, but out of 22 songs, the standings are:

Originals: 15
Covers: 6
Ties: 1

But that doesn’t mean covers are a pointless exercise. It does depend on what the point is to begin with – a tribute to the great songwriters who proceeded you, or a guaranteed #1 to sell records (Michael Bolton, I am looking at you). So we’ll close out this series with what some regard as the ultimate cover song, and one that was cut simply as recognition of the genius of its creator.

THE SONG: “All Along The Watchtower”

THE ORIGINAL: Bob Dylan


COMMENTS: Well, it’s Dylan, and for my money it’s one of the best songs he’s ever written – probably because of the sense of doom that hangs over the whole thing. However …

THE COVER: Jimi Hendrix Experience


COMMENTS: The story is that Hendrix got a copy of Dylan’s version a month after Dyman recorded it, and was so knocked out by it that he immediately started working on his own version. Typical of Hendrix, he always felt each take needed a little something more, and the song transformed from quiet acoustic ballad to the electric-guitar wet dream it is today. If anything, it sounds even more doom-laden than Dylan’s version, and sweet Jesus, it whips a panther’s ass.

WINNER: Hendrix. It’s not only one of the best things he ever recorded, it’s so good that even Dylan himself was impressed – so much so that to this day, when he plays it live, he does it Jimi’s way rather than the John Wesley Harding version. There is no higher praise.

Okay. That’s it for this series, at least for now. There’s plenty of material to keep it going for at least another two years, but not all of it is available on YouTube yet, and anyway, it gets hard to think up new angles every week. So we’ll end it here. I may revive it later, once I collect some more material. Or maybe bedsitter23 can take it over for awhile. He’d do a better job than me anyway.

The hour’s getting late,

This is dF

This week's episode is a classic case of two acts covering a song that was written and recorded but never released by another famous act: The Bruce.

THE SONG: “Because The Night”

THE ORIGINAL: Patti Smith Group


COMMENTS: The story is that Bruce Springsteen wrote and recorded the song for Darkness On The Edge Of Town, but it didn't fit the rest of the record, so he gave it to Patti Smith (who was recording next door at the time) and the rest is history. Patti's take bubbles over with desire without resorting to sexy breathy vocals, and it's got a strikingly dark edge, as if the main character knows she's playing with dynamite but doesn't care – we either do this now or we die. It's arguably the ultimate carpe diem song from a female POV.

THE COVER: 10,000 Maniacs


COMMENTS: 10KM basically play it straighter than straight for their version, which became a big hit for them on VH1. Oddly, it didn't strike me until I heard  this how similar Natalie Merchant's voice is to Patti's. That said, Natalie has always had more of a languid singing style. It doesn't work against her here, but somehow the dark edges that haunt the original version are gone.

WINNER: Patti Smith Group. It's probably because I spent most of 9th/10th grade playing the PSG version (off of a K-Tel comp, of all places) entranced by its menacing, lusty call to action, but the 10KM version, good as it is, doesn't add anything new, and even loses some of what made the song attractive to me in the first place.

Next week: The Supremes vs Vanilla Fudge and Kim Wilde!

The night belongs to lust,

This is dF