Got It Covered: the blog goes live - again!
BY SIMON SWEETMANYou'll remember in late June I hosted the first Blog On The Tracks: Live Listening Session. The theme for that evening was great live tracks from great live albums. The blog was going live - beyond going live on the internet; live in the very real sense. I was hosting a get-together on behalf of Blog On The Tracks.
Well, I'm doing it again...
Thanks to those that popped in last time. This time it's a new day of the week, a new theme, but same Bat(s)-Time and same Bat(s)-Channel, as it were. Or rather: Next Wednesday, August 4, 8.30pm FREE Entry at The Pit Bar, BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Terrace, Wellington. (You can click here to read about The Pit Bar).
As I said last time - the Live Listening Session is a chance for people to get together and listen to some tunes, have a drink, have a chat. I guess you'd call it a very relaxed DJ set/iPod playlist. Well, that's what I'm calling it. Actually, I'm calling it a Live Listening Session, but anyway...
I really enjoyed the first one last month - and as I said when previewing the first one the plan was always for these to be monthly events; each one having its own flavour. I don't sit and lecture you; I don't encourage debate or pick people to speak. It's just like being in a bar, having a drink and (hopefully) enjoying the tunes. But if you want to chat to me - well, I'm there. That's definitely part of the point of it. That and you getting to chat to each other...
The reason I like the idea of the Live Listening Session is because I want Blog On The Tracks to exist, in some form, away from being a place on the internet for people to bitch and moan about me bitching and moaning. I want it to have a place, albeit temporarily, in the real world. I want to answer the detractors that think I hate music (an utterly absurd idea, but one that gets mentioned more often than Cyndi Lauper here at Blog On The Tracks; well, nearly...) And I guess, more positively, a lot of people visit this blog that care about music. And the idea to get some of those people in a space, enjoying a drink, a chat and some good tunes is definitely appealing.
That's the plan - nothing more sinister than that. I won't be locking the doors and forcing you to listen to She's So Unusual or the best of Lionel Richie. 
So, you'll see from the title of this post that the theme for the second Live Listening Session is Got It Covered - or, put simply: covers. A range - possibly the good, the bad and the ugly, although I like to hope that these are all good covers...but what makes a good cover?
This is a topic that has been discussed a few times on Blog On The Tracks - and if you have read this far but don't live in Wellington, so won't be coming to the live session, then you can take solace in the fact that you can discuss aspects of that topic again now.
What do you think makes a good cover? Or maybe you don't like covers at all? I don't see any issue with covers. Not if they're done well. There are certainly a lot of superfluous covers - but I'd rather hear someone interpret a song, offering something of themselves in the performance, than hearing a sub-standard original song. I believe there's a real knack to choosing the right song to cover too. It's not enough to pick a song that suits your voice - that will oftentimes result in a poor man's carbon copy; a cheap facsimile of the original.
I like Warren Zevon's cover of Steve Winwood's Back In The High Life Again because it doesn't sound a thing like the original; because Zevon knew he was dying when he recorded it, so it has that wry/black humour of his informing it.
I like some of Johnny Cash's covers from the last phase of his career (The American Recordings series) but not all.
And (just) because I mentioned her earlier (and need to give Tim Possible a reason to comment today) I like Cyndi Lauper's cover of Prince's When U Were Mine.
What covers do you like? If you were creating a playlist for a Live Listening Session featuring covers what three would you feel had to be included? And who do you think does, consistently, the best covers? (Joe Cocker is excluded, given he doesn't write his own material)
Blog On The Tracks: Live Listening Session 2 - Got It Covered; Pit Bar, BATS Theatre, Wednesday, August 4. 8.30pm. FREE Entry
Hope to see some of you there. Who knows, maybe Obzen will show up...
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I love the version of Sonic Youth's Tuff Gnarl (my favourite song of all time) on Mike Watt's Ball-Hog or Tugboat? album. Sonic Youth play instruments in the track, but it is sung by Carla Bozulich, has Nels Cline playing guitar and Pat Smear playing drums. I don't know if I like it better than the original, but it still rules.
I have heard some great covers, and some not so great. But sometimes a band knowing what songs are great can make me interested. What i like about them, is that it is possible i would never have been turned onto Motown and Buddy Holly if it wasn't for the Beatles covering their songs. Or at least, it may have taken me longer to discover them. With The Beatles had some great covers. So from that perspective, I like the fact the Red Hot Chilli Peppers recorded "Higher Ground", if for no other reason than it may have turned people onto Stevie Wonder, in the way the Beatles turned me on to Motown and Buddy Holly. Maybe Robbie Williams doing "She's The One" made people go back and listen to World Party's original version? Maybe Simon Sweetman doing "Toxic" made people go back and listen to Britney?
Wondering if attending commenters should identify themselves :) real name or handle? I attended a real life forum meet once and it was all a bit spy vs spy when it came to introductions.
Some of the covers I like (and can remember off hand): The Twilight Singers version of 'Hyperballad' (one of the few instances where I like both original and cover; usually its one or the other), Foo Fighter's version of 'Baker Street', Pearl Jam's versions of 'I won't back down' and 'Reign o'er me', Smashing Pumpkins/Billy Corgans version of 'Landslide', Dead Kennedys version of 'I fought the Law' for starters.
Covers I don't like: Anything by DJ Sammi, or any just-add-water pop act for that matter, Meatloaf's diabolically bad cover of 'Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through', and The Feelers equally appalling version of 'Right Here Right Now'.
I love Golden Smog's take on 'Cowboy Song'...
also the Supersuckers version of 'Heavy Heart'...
Coil – Tainted Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo3TUtRnZi4
Jeffrey Lewis - I Ain't Thick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11TxgnvStVk
Frente - Not given lightly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y65puNIOBKk
Faith No More - Easy
end of.
will u sign my cricket bat?
What? .. no review of Memphis Blues yet!? Cyndi and the other three people in her worldwide fanclub will be gutted (not literally, unfortunately). She was counting on at least one guaranteed positive review to kick things off. My three fave covers: The Bauhaus version of (801’s?) Third Uncle. I was also pretty impressed David Kilgour’s take on Chris Knox’s Nothing’s Going To Happen off the ‘Stroke’ album. And in keeping with the less obvious, how about Blam Blam Blam’s Theme from Dr Who?
Can't resist:
Nina Gordon "Straight Outta Compton" Cake "I Will Survive" Creedence Clearwater Revival "Heard it Through the Grapevine" - the FULL version.
I'll nominate the Replacements as the ultimate covers act. They'd do Kiss, Zep, "Oklahoma!", "Another Girl Another Planet", anything. It was part situationalism, part conceptual art, part actual music, all genius.
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My three favourite covers (if I have to choose three - and this list would change every half hour depending on my mood):
1) Powderfinger - Cowboy Junkies 2) Not Fade Away - Rolling Stones 3) Hurt - Johnny Cash
And I also like Ozzy's Under Cover album, Across the Universe the soundtrack and Dream Theater and I point this out because I KNOW you don't like Ozzy's Under Cover album, Across the Universe or Dream Theater. I plan on talking incessently about all three next Wednesday just to piss you off.
Special bonus track - Airbourne - Whole Lotta Rosie because I am happy Airbourne are coming back to Bodega. YAY!