Monday Music - Favorite covers

I love music, I lack the patience to play an instrument, and the creativity to write my own, but I can sing a bit and enjoy karaoke now and then. I also enjoy discovering when an artist does a good version of another artists song. This is tough to do well, anybody can copy another song, but actually making it your own while treating the original with respect is hard to do well. So in no particular order here are some of my favorite covers.

Gin and Juice - The Gourds

Original




If you are a hip hop fan, there is nothing wrong at all with Snoop's version, indeed it is pretty classic. But for me the Bluegrass version just pops more, I will entirely admit this might just be a personal taste thing, I don't listen to a lot of hip hop, and I have a weakness for frantically played banjos and country twang. From what I have read the band has on occasion been put out by the popularity of their cover, but appear to have made peace with it. Though currently on hiatus, the Gourds have been around for a couple decades and have a lot of other fun music of their own as well.


Suspicious Minds - Fine Young Cannibals

Original


Well, technically the original was done by songwriter Mark James, but Elvis made it a hit. I think that the original version lacks the energy of the Fine Young Cannibals, but again this is largely a matter of personal preference, I grew up listening to FYC at home, my parents had a couple tapes that were in the rotation a lot. These guys never saw a lot of play outside the 80s in the states, but you probably know them from "She Drives Me Crazy" and "Good Thing" which were their two charting hits in the US.

Speed of the Sound of Loneliness - Alabama 3 

Original

This is a country song in the traditional sense, lost, confused, a story about a person who knows they screwed up but just can't quite grasp how. This is the first cover on my list that I think is objectively better than the original, some small changes to the lyrics, but the switch to a slightly faster beat and the Acid House influences really make the song for me, driving home the sort of lonely desperation the song is supposed to evoke. Alabama 3 is best known for "Woke Up This Morning" the Sopranos theme song, and their catalog is pretty much right along those lines. I don't want to live in the world these guys sing about, but damn if it isn't interesting.

Behind Blue Eyes - Limp Bizkit

Original

Yeah I know, Limp Bizkit, I liked one or two of their songs back in high school, those were dark times indeed. This cover is not better than the original, but I included it because I actually was surprised how much I liked their take on it anyway. The Who still managed to express bitterness and anger better than Fred Durst on his best day ever even approached, but this song shows he actually has be ability to emote in the music, it makes me wonder what could have been if there was some songwriting talent in the band.

Hurt - Johnny Cash

Original

This is a pretty obvious choice but I am gonna include it anyway, obvious doesn't mean bad after all.
Nine Inch Nails were the quintessential band for tortured teens in the 90s, to be fair they did a really good job of it and Trent Reznor has made quite a career for himself since doing stuff all over the music industry, he seems cool. But even he admits Johnny Cash knocked it out of the park on this one, saying "Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore". The definition of making a cover version your own, his version makes the original, which pretty powerfully conveys it's themes of rage and frustration, look like self-indulgent whining. And the video, oh god. There was some brilliant work all around here, good source material from a good artist, a great artist covering it, and excellent video production, and an amazing way to round out a career for Cash.

There are of course literally millions of covers out there, and these are only the first 5 that come to mind for me as being a step above, I'll write about others next week, or perhaps something else music related.