Secretly or not so secretly, I think everyone loves a good cover band. They are a staple of local bars and are just generally fun. But when it comes to popular bands covering the music of other famous musicians, fans are divided. This Top Five is dedicated to covers I think are worth listening to.
I approached this one with some ground rules. Anything that falls more under the category of sampling - taking parts of a popular song then adding your own material - didn't make the list for what I hope are obvious reasons. Also, a decade or so ago, it was pretty common for a song to be done by both a country and a pop artist at roughly the same time. I didn’t include those songs. Mainly because how do you determine who is truly the originally artist? Especially, when so often neither artist wrote the song. So, I nixed all of those. I tried to keep my selections to big deal bands covering other big deal bands. At least big deal at some point. For the most part, the covering bands style is significantly different than the original artist. To me that is part of what makes a good cover. It's not enough to just play the song well, I wanted the covering band to add something to the original song. Otherwise, why cover the song if it's already been done?
Seether covering "Careless Whispers" by Wham!
This one makes it because of the humor factor. I don’t think there are two artists on the list further apart than Seether and Wham. Well maybe one other selection, we'll get to that one later. While many covers are a bit of a surprise, on some level, most make sense. Either the original artist is influential in their genre of music or they are an obvious inspiration to the covering band. I don't think either is really the case here. Wham managed to rise above the "one hit wonder" status that plagued 80's music, but I wouldn't call them particularly influential. The unpredictability of this cover makes it unique. But beyond that, it's a well done cover. Seether adds a hard edge to the song but manages to remain respectful to the original version. It's not as sad and sappy as the Wham version but Seether conveys the emotion of the song, the finality of the moment being sung about. With this one, you start out laughing but by the end you're into it.
Smashing Pumpkins covering "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac
This will almost certainly be an unpopular choice. Lots of people don't like Billy Corgan's voice paired with this song. To me that is what makes it such a great cover. The Smashing Pumpkins take a classic song and make it there own. This song also introduced a generation of kids to Fleetwood Mac. While there are always exceptions of course, most 90's teenagers wouldn't have known a thing about Fleetwood Mac without this cover. I think that is the real importance of this particular cover and many covers in general, they introduce a new artist or genre of music to people who wouldn't have otherwise gone looking for it.
Alien Ant Farm covering "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson
In my opinion, it takes a serious set of stones to cover The King Of Pop. Regardless of how you feel about him personally, Michael Jackson is about as musical legend as it gets. He's perhaps bested only by Elvis Presley and The Beatles. That's some serious clout. So when anyone decides to cover The King Of Pop, it better be damn good. Alien Ant Farm deserves a listen because they not only had the guts to cover Michael Jackson, they made him punk and actually did a pretty good job at it. They managed to make the song appealing to their core fan base without changing the essence of the song. Hardcore Michael Jackson fans probably hate it, but I would wager they'd hate nearly any cover.
Tina Turner covering "Proud Mary" by Credence Clearwater Revival
In all honesty, does this song need to be justified as a Top Five Cover? No but as that is the format, I'll do it anyway. It doesn't happen often but Tina Turner's version of "Proud Mary" is an entity all it's own. There are people out there who wouldn't believe you if you told them she isn't the original artist on this song. That alone should make it a pretty outstanding cover. It's hard to even compare the two versions. Like all her songs Tina Turner adds an intangible quality to this song. Perhaps it's her life story and what she's overcome. Perhaps it's that she just oozes talent. Whatever it is, she brings it to everything she performs. It's hard to say if Turner's version of this song eclipsed the original but it's certainly possible.
Disturbed covering "Land Of Confusion" by Genesis
The Genesis version rocked pretty hard, but Disturbed takes it to a whole new level. Not better or worse but definitely different. David Draiman's voice adds an anger and a rawness that Phil Collins doesn't have. Despite that anger, Draiman manages to keep the underlying hope for a different future of the song. The song seems even more poignant now than it did in the late 80's. "Land Of Confusion" also fits remarkably well with the rest of the songs on Ten Thousand Fists. The whole album has a "What the hell is going on here and how to do we fix it?" attitude. But to my knowledge there is no video of the Disturbed version featuring hilarious caricature puppets of current political leaders. So, Genesis wins the video round hands down.
In retrospect, this was actually a tougher Top Five than I'd originally imagined. It turns out there are a lot of great covers out there, and I'm sure I missed a ton of good ones. Below are a few that just barely didn't make the cut and feel free to leave your favorite in the comments section!
Songs that just barely didn't make the cut:
Mary J. Blige covers "One" by U2
Brain Vander Ark covers "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" by The Beatles
Metallica covers "Turn The Page" by Bob Seger
Nirvana covers "The Man Who Sold The World" by David Bowie
No comments:
Post a Comment