You guys are the best! I'll not be tallying votes on this week because as far as I can tell there has been zero overlap! But I will be posting a comprehensive list and of course, the ever available spreadsheet. For those that might be lurking reading the thread, please PM me if you want some of the spreadsheets with the playlists. I have a complete lack of imagination when it comes to thinking through a new arrangement of a song, so it's been great to be surrounded by people who obviously have a much wider music taste and more imagination. It's so hard to imagine a guy singing some female songs - even with inverting the character point of view, and of course, a lot of them need to be transposed to make it work in Iva's vocal range. That being said, there's been some terrific suggestions put forth so far. @StefanWq - I'm simply going to have to petition the Governor-General in Australia to make you an Australian Citizen. Your knowledge of Australian music is wide and comprehensive. That was a stellar job on your covers list. I know a lot of these artists but not these songs. Thanks for the introduction. @HitAndRun thanks for your insight into Japanese music. Again, a great tour guide to some really interesting music (I gotta remember to tell my son about some of this stuff - he's very interested in Japanese popular culture). Also great pick to put in Joan Armatrading in your 2nd list and Peter Tosh in the 1st list. Maybe the interesting part of speculating on cover songs, is that Iva has such a good range to his voice and has covered a decent range of genres that almost anything is possible. Although I have to admit to trying to figure out if Iva could do a rendition of "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin and couldn't quite get there! Maybe I was selling him short...after all he did a very good rendition of Pretty Vacant and honestly I would never have thought that possible either.
Thank you @HitAndRun for this! I have made a Spotify playlist with these songs. Some of them I know very well, but several of them were new to me and I think you have put together a very strong selection. I could certainly imagine Iva would make a great covers album featuring the songs you have chosen. Obviously, I like that it starts with a Split Enz song (one that should have been a huge hit in its day). I've read an interview in which Iva said he was in the audience when Split Enz did their very first gig in Sydney in 1975 and I've read various other articles in which he has mentioned them. As the original version is a duet, do you think Icehouse should do it that way too on this hypothetical covers album and if so, who should the other singer be? I really like "More Than This" by Roxy Music. I have to admit I haven't that heard much of their classic '70s albums, but it's something I've been meaning to explore and this song was a good reminder to do that. Which Roxy Music album do you think I should listen to first? Interesting that you included songs by Hunters & Collectors and Midnight Oil, two bands I love. I considered a few H&C songs for my own hypothetical covers album, in particular "Hear No Evil" (from the same album as "Head Above Water") and "Betrayer" (from Demon Flower; I imagined that it could be fabulous if Icehouse would do with just Iva plus a cello and a violin, but ultimately it didn't make it onto my hypothetical album - perhaps it could be a hypothetical bonus track for a hypothetical single off this album). I also considered the Midnight Oil song "Under The Overpass" and the song "The World Is Almost At Peace" by Midnight Oil offshoot Ghostwriters, but they too will have to be hypothetical B sides... I know you have great knowledge of Japanese music, which I do not (apart from having heard a bit of Yellow Magic Orchestra) so it was very interesting to hear both the Unicorn song and the METAFIVE one. Obviously, I don't understand the lyrics of the Unicorn song so for that one the vocals are like an extra instrument which is not a bad thing (I like Sigur Ros' records and the same thing applies for them). I will explore Unicorn and METAFIVE further, I thought the chosen songs here were really good! I think it was an inspired choice of Bowie song to include, a song that is really good and not that well known compared to his many other classics and a song that has scope for Iva to put his own slant on it. I haven't listened that much to Iggy Pop and Brian Eno, but I can totally imagine that Icehouse would do these songs justice. Nice to see a Peter Tosh song included. As I mentioned when we were discussing DubHOUSE, my brother is a big fan of roots reggae music and Peter Tosh is one of his all-time favourites so I heard a lot of his music when I grew up. Iva obviously loves roots reggae too so it'd be fascinating to hear him/them do their version of this song. The song by Depeche Mode is great, as is "Reload". I haven't really heard much of Depeche Mode beyond the hits, but this inspired me to explore their music more (a bit of a daunting task though, given their extensive back catalogue!) "Sounds of Then" is a real Australian classic, good choice! I'm a big fan of GANGgajang and have all their albums. One song that I think everyone should listen to at least once is a song called "The Rise and the Rise of the Reverend Bobby's Buskers" which is unique musically and has an unforgettable (and funny) narrative in its lyrics. They also have a rather special song called "Anodyne Dream" in which the lyrics consists entirely of titles of well-known other songs. As you included "Sounds of Then" on your hypothetical covers album and I included a song by Sarah Blasko on mine, it seems appropriate that Sarah Blasko has done a cover of "Sounds of Then": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dW_ezxLr70 I have the Where Do They Go? album by Mi-Sex which features "Blue Day", but haven't heard any of their other albums and hadn't listened to that album for a very long while. Thank you for reminding me of this great song and very good group! Interesting that both you and Jeff chose a Peter Gabriel song for the final song on the hypothetical covers album. As with Jeff's album, I think you have chosen an excellent closing song. "Here Comes The Flood" is very rich in texture and atmosphere and will leave the listener wanting to hear the album again. I'm looking forward to also listening to your second hypothetical covers album, I have made a Spotify playlist with those songs and will listen to it soon.
Love that you feature two Depeche Mode related songs! “Walking In My Shoes” was considered by Robert Smith for The Cure’s contribution to For The Masses tribute and I think both The Cure and Icehouse could produce excellent interpretations. The Cure wound up covering “World In My Eyes” and it is good (but not great).
Thanks @KangaMom, @JeffMo and @StefanWq. I did actually take the task of creating the cover album(s) seriously. I didn't want them to be just a random collection of good songs from everywhere. So, for every song (32 of them in total) I tried to imagine how they would sound as Icehouse songs. I feel that the Enz's 'Whats The Matter With You' has a great deal of primitive charm, but I would still like to hear it re-done in a modern way. In the same way that Icehouse significantly updated Lennon's 'How Do You Sleep?'. Not that I prefer the Icehouse version; I think both the original and the Icehouse version are excellent in their own ways and the world is a better place for having both. I imagined WTMWY as sung solo by Iva, not as a duet. I considered having Tosh's 'Don't Look Back' as a duet with Tony Kopa, and maybe it would be better as such. It seemed advisable to include some Bowie, Eno, and Roxy Music songs as Icehouse covered them a lot early on and on live and studio albums However, as I like Bowie, Eno, and Roxy Music a lot, that wasn't a problem. For the 1970s album, my favourite is Country Life. But, this may be because I owned a copy of it as a teen, while I didn't have many of the other albums. Stefan - it's interesting that we were both looking at the same two Hunters and Collectors albums for an Icehouse cover - I was considering Demon Flower songs as well. 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' seemed too obvious a choice. Blue Day by Mi-Sex was actually a swap as my first draft of the covers album was too one-dimension rock. Originally I had 'But You Don't Care' instead. I think that many Peter Gabriel songs are good to end albums with. I personally think PG goes a bit over the top on Here Comes The Flood, and think that Iva would tone it down a bit and give an interesting take on the song. @JeffMo - you mentioned Robert Smith. The JunkieXL album that includes the song 'Reload' that I included in the male hypothetical covers album also has a song with Robert Smith as vocalist, 'Perfect Blue Sky'. It's very poppy, easily as poppy as 'Friday On My Mind' I think. I think it's interesting that we've all approached this from different directions - e.g. I'm listening to a lot of artists, particularly Australian artists that I didn't know well already. There were a few typos in my original posts and a meaning-changing half complete sentence - but I'll leave them
Bravo @HitAndRun for your cover albums. It's always really interesting to read what people are influenced by and, of course, it opens up a portal for others to access some of those artists. Always good to get recommendations*. On the surface, it looks a lot like we have all just submitted a random selection of songs, but as far as I can tell, all of us have really tried to consider whether Icehouse/Iva Davies could actually do a creditable version of the song. It probably says more about his talent and skill level that we are able to cover a lot of territory with these covers. On the weekend I'll post a full list of the covers suggested and make available the spreadsheet. I'm really going to have to get cracking at creating playlists - so far I haven't set up any of them. Actually I've mainly been lying at home with no music on every night because frankly, I'm completely wiped out from work and just need space. A reminder that starting on Sunday we will be ranking the Icehouse/Iva Davies albums covered in this thread. So @JeffMo you better use those last few days in the rental car driving through flat landscape to listen up to Code Blue and Big Wheel! * Did I mention that the other day, I was idly flicking through my CDs and I suddenly came across Violator by Depeche Mode. No idea how it arrived in my house - maybe my stepdaughter. I know I didn't buy it. In any case, after all the recommends from folks in this thread, I now realize that I should probably give it a listen...
I think the choice of What's the Matter With You is pretty inspired. I'm kind of hearing it in the style of Big Wheel/Bipolar Poems albums myself. Originally I thought it would be more brooding synths like on Icehouse, but now I'm liking the idea of the keys from the later albums. Agree that the Tosh song done with Tony Kopa would be brilliant. I did wonder on my own selection of "Running up that Hill" whether Michael Paynter would need to do some of the atmospheric backing vocals on that (even with transposing to a lower key for Iva to sing it). If so, then it would be kind of retaining a shadow of the soprano stylings of Kate Bush which would be kind of cool.
Will do. Hoping to give it a listen this weekend along with some return listens on some Icehouse albums...
Short of a "best of" comp, this is probably the best place for a newbie to start. It was their commercial peak in the US. I had one girlfriend back in college that didn't understand my huge fandom until "Enjoy The Silence" came out and zoomed up the Billboard charts (I think it went to #8). Even she loved that tune!
I'm thinking it must have been my stepdaughter - although it's amusing to think that there might be Synth-Pop elves around. (I wonder if they wear extremely sharp suits and exquisite hairstyles?) I also found several other CDs that I definitely would not have bought (Evanescence for instance). It's the detritus of having kids who leave traces of their lives behind... We also still have her 2 horse saddles and a guitar - so perhaps I shouldn't complain that I have a Depeche Mode CD as well
First listen through on Violator - a rare quiet moment this evening with zero people in the house - I'm very impressed with it. I realized that I already knew Personal Jesus (since my sister was very in to Depeche Mode). However, I do believe my favorite songs my well be World in My Eyes and Policy of Truth (good selection @HitAndRun for the cover!). Will continue to listen, but consider me hooked into at least this DM album. Currently listening to Sidewalk and realized I may have been too hard on Taking the Town. It's a pretty infectious track.
More Covers of Others: 1. Precious (Depeche Mode) 2. Come To Me (Bjork) 3. Moving In Stereo (The Cars) 4. No Sign of Yesterday (Men At Work) 5. October (U2) 6. Lonely Days (Bee Gees, live Melbourne 1989 arrangement) 1. To Look At You (INXS) 2. Caramel (Suzanne Vega) 3. Pilot (The Notwist) 4. Milk (Garbage, Massive Attack remix) 5. Tomorrows Started (Talk Talk) 6. Lazarus (Bowie) A mix of Aussie groups, females, and relatively dark tracks that could work for Iva during Bipolar era.
Thanks @JeffMo - an ineresting list there. It's interesting the variation in Bowie covers that we're coming up with. I thought I'd look on Second Hand Songs for covers of Icehouse songs. The cover of Don't Believe Anymore by Missy Higgins, already mentioned by @KangaMom earlier in the thread is interesting. I couldn't find the cover by goth band Ikon. EDIT: Found it: https://youtu.be/pc9IGyP3Yr4 It does sound goth. EDIT: Oh, this has been mentioned before by @StefanWq. Sorry. The jazzy cover of Electric Blue by Katie Noonan sounds interesting and hasn't been mentioned yet as far as search reveals. Here's Great Southern Land, again jazzy, by the James Valentine Quartet. https://youtu.be/Qv8AZkfP7Mk More traditional rock/pop though perhaps slightly country-rock-ish, here is Lee Kernaghan & James Blundell with the same song. https://youtu.be/VI7dhZv4_oA Hey Little Girl has been covered by six artists according to Second Hand Songs. According to my ear, with greater or lesser degrees of success. As a selection, here's a cover by Sven Schumacher. https://youtu.be/rZlw-EEB5ok And a metal-ish version by Atrocity. https://youtu.be/-mURDIdXLlo For Man of Colours, here is a cover by Australian classical cross-over artist Grace Bawden. https://youtu.be/_edMrnWIRFk And another version by Katie Noonan, this time with Karen Schaupp. The album cover lists Iva Davies as a guest artist, and he duets on this and I would guess plays the oboe. https://youtu.be/4jOMlND9gm0 A more straightforward cover of Walls by The Screaming Jets. https://youtu.be/1z2uQieyZa4 And, again, a straightforward cover of We Can Get Together by Your Roses. With the main variation being the (very fitting) female vocal. https://youtu.be/8ocEYA0BN6w When I looked at Second Hand Songs I wondered if there would be hundreds of covers and I thought of suggesting we have a week of posting favourite cover versions/album thereof. However, unless there's a mother lode of covers of Icehouse songs I didn't find, there may be a shortage. Hence, I'll rudely post this single post. There are other versions of a few of the songs that I haven't posted. But, not many.
Again, some sterling work there @HitAndRun! It never really occurred to me to compile a list of Icehouse songs covered by other people. It's been a bit surprising to me that more bands don't do covers of Icehouse songs. They have a pretty rich back catalog but it does seem like the obvious choices get covered. There's been a bunch of different people who have covered Don't Believe Anymore (The Whitlams for instance) and of course, The Killers posted a version of Electric Blue within the last year. I do think it's interesting that a few jazz artists have tackled the songs. This, to my mind, might be more interesting. It's very easy for pop/rock bands to just do a straight cover in their live sets. What's more interesting is to hear a re-interpretation.
Many thanks @JeffMo for posting your list. It is very interesting indeed. I'll get it into the spreadsheet! Zoom called with my Australian Family last night. Talked to my sister about our selections of covers for Icehouse - when I mentioned it was in a spreadsheet she burst out laughing and then quickly said, "Well, that's what I would do as well..." The geekiness in our family is strong!
I've been listening to the songs on @JeffMo's cover album. Some very interesting choices there. I thought about Bjork for a cover, but couldn't choose a song that I thought would fit. "Come to Me" would work perfectly just switching an Iva vocal for Bjork's vocal. Of course more could be done. Returning to covers in the reverse direction, here is 'Indie-folk' Little May with 'Great Southern Land'. Perhaps some of the vocals are shaky, but it's an interesting version. With a wider search, I found The Killers covering Electric Blue. Again I'm not sure it's a wonderful version with the vocal not quite matching up to Iva's. But, here it is: https://youtu.be/ey_j7-wIo4U Though, it seems that Iva himself really likes this version: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheKillers/comments/j7jig1/icehouse_frontman_iva_davies_says_the_killers/ (KangaMom has just mentioned this cover as I was writing this post.) James Last does a very odd, to my ears, cover of Hey Little Girl as part of a medley including 'Moonlight Shadow' and 'Comment Ça Va'. https://youtu.be/QgALGiTdi_A?t=103 And, here is a version in French (I presume) Hey Petit Cœur by Éric Lanz . https://youtu.be/9IY8XEHlfwI And a rather faithful version in German by Waterloo. https://youtu.be/aRVY8wAw-WY Here's a very acoustic and perhaps slightly bluegrassy (at least: folky) cover of Hey Little Girl by The Cherrypickers. https://youtu.be/SenGnywZUs8 Don't Believe Anymore was covered by The Whitlams in perhaps a more electronic style. https://youtu.be/wkFNLbfivyQ EDIT: I was beaten to this one too An almost unrecognisable version of We Can Get Together by Futureretro. We Can Get Together (Flowers), by Futureretro A cover of WCGT in a soul style by Daryl Aberheart. https://youtu.be/s2z3aEiypQQ
I’m a huge Bjork fan and love her use of beats plus strings. You’re right that many of her songs are female centric and/or high register vocals and wouldn’t work for Iva to cover. Funny thing about The Killers - I know Brandon was a huge fan of 80s music but I don’t typically like his original material too much. Yet I enjoy his covers of Icehouse, U2, Joy Division, etc
It occurs to me that I would like to hear an album of people reinterpreting Icehouse songs. Very similar to what happened with the Finn Brothers (She will have her way - all female, He will have has way - all male). Not all of those versions fired for me with some of them very straight cover versions which didn't really add much, but when you get someone really adding their own interpretation you can get something great. I'd love to hear some of the album tracks done by other people - as an example, I love "When the River Meets the Sea" and would love to hear this reinterpreted maybe as a jazz track by someone like either Katie Noonan or Kate Ceberano. As we have determined with our Best of the Rest listings, there's a real treasure trove of lesser known songs that would be awesome. I personally don't really need to hear another version of Great Southern Land or Don't Believe Anymore - the originals (and remixes) are already great and unless someone comes up with a real out of the box version it's going to be a hard comparison. I'm kind of surprised this vein hasn't been mined - I think they have done very similar albums for Cold Chisel (again, some good songwriting there by Don Walker and the late Steve Prestwich) and possibly some other popular bands. Just seems like Icehouse would be a pretty great choice.
Ok, that's extremely cool. Soul is not a style I would necessarily put for Iva (although several Icehouse songs probably lend themselves to this treatment). I do like this groove. If only he had put a little breakdown/spoken word style in there. Even so, it remains me a lot of George Benson. The question of the hypothetical reverse covers (Icehouse songs we would want other people to cover) - do we think this is too difficult? Others with a wider music taste may have a better idea of this than me. It's not just naming a song we want covered but a style and artist. Happy to postpone the album ranking if we want to have a longer discussion of such a thing...otherwise it's due to be album ranking week starting tomorrow!
Thank you @KangaMom for this great hypothetical covers album! I've made a playlist on Spotify for this and have listened several times to it. Some of the songs were familiar to me and some I hadn't heard before. "Suffragette City" and "Ashes To Ashes" are excellent choices of Bowie songs to cover. I can totally imagine that Iva and Icehouse would do brilliant versions of these songs. I have to admit to never having heard Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain" before, in fact I have heard almost nothing by '70s Roxy Music but after having heard this song I will definitely start exploring those albums. Violent Femmes and The Honeydrippers are also new to me. Both very good songs. "Sea of Love" is such a magnificent, romantic song, I fully understand why you and your husband chose it for your wedding dance. I think it would be very interesting to hear what it would sound like if done by Iva/Icehouse. I really like My Friend The Chocolate Cake's version of Magazine's "A Song From Under The Floorboards". Such a good song. I have heard the original version too, but I got to know this song through an excellent cover in the late '80s by Swedish group Lolita Pop. Well worth checking out! Nice to see a Richard Pleasance song included. I have his first two solo albums "Galleon" and "Colour Blind" and when I visited Melbourne I did have lunch at the Galleon Café in the St Kilda area. I have lost track of his career after "Colour Blind", do you know if there are more solo albums by him? Nice too to see a Stephen Cummings song on your hypothetical covers album. For my own, I considered another Stephen Cummings song, "Fell From A Great Height", but I think your choice would work better. Cold Chisel is an Australian group I'm well aware of but haven't heard very much of their music. I'm very familiar with "When the War Is Over", but primarily with Little River Band's version on their 1986 album "No Reins" with John Farnham on lead vocals (I'm not sure if their version can be classified as a cover as Steve Prestwich, the writer, was a member of Little River Band at the time). John Farnham also re-recorded the song as a bonus track on the CD edition of his 1988 album "Age of Reason" (which also included the song "Don't Tell Me It Can't Be Done" co-written by Andy Qunta). Full marks for including Tim Finn's "Persuasion". Such a brilliant song and it would be intriguing to hear what Iva would do to Icehouse-ify the song. I hadn't heard Pete Shelley or Visage before, but loved both songs you included. As you included a Kate Bush song and both @JeffMo and I included songs by The Church, I'll mention that The Church recorded a cover of Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" and released it as a single. It can be heard on YouTube. Thanks again @KangaMom for your superb hypothetical covers album!
Visage was one of the bands I discovered during lockdown, having missed them in early 80s. I knew "Fade To Grey" but nothing else, and Rubellan Remasters reissued their first two albums and a dance remix comp so I grabbed all three cds last year!
That's super interesting - I only know Fade To Grey. I'd forgotten it until quite recently, but it was super popular in Australia when it was released and I remember hearing it a lot. It's just such a great and atmospheric track, the only reason to not include it was that I felt like it didn't give enough for Iva to do vocally (although musically it could have been quite interesting to see what Icehouse would have done). I haven't watched any of the interviews Midge Ure has done where he discusses writing that song. I think it must have been a last minute in the studio job but don't quote me on that.
Many thanks for the kind words about my very mainstream set of covers! So the only Roxy Music CD I have is Street Life which is a compilation. But the thing is, I like all the earlier stuff on that album rather than the more popular, smooth stuff later in their career. In large part, it's because early Roxy Music reminds me of early Split Enz. It's easy to see why Phil Manzanera was interested in the Enz. If I had to recommend an early Roxy Music album (other than the compilation) I'd probably go with Country Life. At least that's the one I'm planning to buy fairly soon myself. I'm fairly sure Virginia Plain may have just been a single and is not on their debut album. Thanks for mentioning A Song from Under the Floorboards - I'm going to check out the Lolita Pop version! I think the Magazine version was great, but love what My Friend the Chocolate Cake did with it. It's interesting that your introduction was also via a cover version! I only have Galleon. I remember when it was first released I thought it was brilliant. I still listen to it fairly frequently and it never ages. The lyrics were really powerful and I was really excited to see what else he produced, but then I lost track. My understanding is that there may only be those 2 solo albums but then he went on to compose music for TV series and films (notably Wentworth). Stephen Cummings - a real favorite of mine from The Sports right on to his solo career. He has such a distinctive voice it was challenging to figure out if there was an Iva appropriate song in there. He really should be more popular than he is. When the War is Over has been covered a lot. It's interesting because it is so contrary to the image most casual listeners have of Cold Chisel (which is very pub rock). They really had an advantage in having 2 really stellar songwriters (Don Walker and Steve Prestwich). It's amazing when you also consider that Ian Moss and Jimmy Barnes aren't exactly slouches at writing a song either... I've always liked this song, and I think that Ian Moss has a very similar vocal tone to Iva so I think this is a song where Iva could easily make his own. (As a side note, I've always found it very amusing that the Little River Band was named after the town of Little River, which is about 30 minutes away from where I grew up. At the time it was mostly farms and paddocks, and 1 pub. Now it's kind of the edge of Melbourne. If you have ever watched the original Mad Max/Road Warrior movie, it was mostly filmed near Little River and some industrial estates near Melbourne)
