Cover versions we don’t need.

Trying to read thru the thread before adding - but well, alas the drive to reply is stronger...

My opinion - we don't need covers of any classic songs. Period. You can cover crappy songs, and if in the process you make them better, that's fine. OF COURSE what is a classic song that is untouchable? That is in the eye of the beholder. My untouchable classics might be other persons crappy song.

Example - I think "Always on my mind" - and I am not sure which one is the original, the Elvis version or Willie Nelson's - I think is a crappy crappy song - both versions are. Therefore when Pet Shop Boys covered it I wasn't bothered.

What is more, by turning it into a stomping dance song and adding the detachment that is the trademark of the PSB, they de-emphasized a lot of what made it crappy to my ears - the cover is kind of enjoyable.

I still hate the original(s) and the cover is great in trying to do something with that wretched thing.

However, no one should cover "Imagine", "Let it be", "Startway to heaven", "Superstition" and I could go on... your classics might vary, of course !


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I disagree. Everybody should experience that video. I saw it once -- then had to show it to other people, in that it was so monumentally horrifying. It had a profoundly negative impact upon my psyche.

I have feared, to this day, the prospect of my recollection of that video being my last cognitive moment on my addled, dementia-swamped, death bed. I mutter something cryptic to my daughter -- so she spends many weeks trying to decipher my "Rosebud" moment. She finally achieves forensic success -- watches the video -- pauses, stunned -- and mutters to herself: "that sick Son of a Bitch..."

This is the stuff that keeps me up at night.

(Having said all that: I highly encourage anybody that hasn't seen the video to track it down. You will not be disappointed, one way or another...)

 

Winger - Purple Haze.

 

Agree it’s crap, but nice abs on the Anastasia lady...

 

As soon as I saw your name, before I even glanced at the video window, I knew exactly what it was.

 

You have a very positive approach. Admirable. Meanwhile, I have PTSD.

 

Other than Little Willie John (and possibly Peggy Lee, due to the modified arrangement) nobody should cover Fever. Nobody. Not even Elvis.

 

It is a great cover. Snobbery is picking at it.

 

Sometimes we don’t get the covers we need but what we deserve.

 

They were probably selling way more records at the time than Harrison was. It is a fabulous cover.

 

As if the amount of records sold equates to the quality of an artist.

 

I don’t remember hearing George on the radio at all in the 80s and 90s so yeah.

 

Where did you get that idea?

 

I do. Handle with Care, She’s My Baby, If That’s What It Takes, Got my mind On You, When We Was Fab, among others...

Once again radio play and sales don’t always equate quality. Now, it just so happens I like GNR’s version but to make that equation is hyperbole.

 

But think of the children!

 

Motley Crue- Smokin' in the boys room...........
I listened to Theatre of Pain tonight and skipped "Home sweet home" and "Smokin", though I actually like the former.
Pretty good rock album that way.

The Crue routinely butcher covers with their disgraceful live version of "Rock n Roll". Helter Skelter though not too bad IMO was most certainly not needed.

 

If not mentioned.......Metallica doing "Turn the Page"...

 

When I heard it, I cried inside.

 

Just to clarify, Tommy was 19 (i.e. an actual teenager) when I Think We're Alone Now came out.

 

Aw, I thought that was nice.

 

I became aware of the existence of the song due to GN'R when I was 9. Use Your Illusion hadn't been released yet, but my brother (who was the one that informed me that it was actually a Dylan number) had a live recording of the band playing at (I believe) The Ritz and I loved the tune.
Times change. I haven't listened to Guns N' Roses since 1993, but I can't deny their cover of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" was part of my musical education.

 

R.E.M's "First we Take Manhattan".

 

August And Everything After is one of my favorite albums from the 90s. It holds up well IMO. That said, I have always given most of the credit for that album to T Bone Burnett.

 

I won’t say “no one should ever cover a song by X artist...” but I have little to no interest in hearing someone else’s take on Kate Bush’s music.

I heard an indie rock cover of “Hounds Of Love” that made me think, I’d rather just be listening to the original.