Musical Monday #30

Folks who are regular readers way over at What Goes Up... will have caught the recent post on cover versions. It's come to a point where if I don't write my own post about covers then I'm just going to spend all day spamming the comments and eventually get myself blocked.

Covers can be amazing, or they can be awful. They can make an artist, or they can be a source of ridicule and derision. Radio 1's "Live Lounge" has whole albums of artists performing covers live, and they are surprising and addictive and inspiring and sometimes just plain awful. Arctic Monkeys covering Girls Aloud was described by Jo Whiley as "band on band action" and is reminiscent of the time Travis were live (and drunk) on Mark Radcliffe's show and played "Hit Me Baby, One More Time" -- following which they had to actually learn to play the song properly, since it became so hotly requested. To my mind, no later performance was ever as good -- the original was spontaneous and fun, later it just sounded whiny, like so much of Travis' work.

Jojo is an artist that for the most part I try to ignore. Her music is unremarkable and appeals to an audience the clearly isn't me. However, her unexpected cover of the Foo Fighters' "Times Like These" is fantastic, and she obviously has an incredible pair of lungs on her. And I don't mean in a pervy way.

Velvet Revolver are a great band for covers -- combining the talented ones out of Guns N' Roses with Scott Weiland means you get to hear old-school GNR songs sung by someone with a good voice, and old Stone Temple Pilot songs. In a similar manner, Audioslave became very controversial when they started playing Rage Against the Machine covers -- but for what it's worth, I thought Chris Cornell was able to more than do justice to songs like "Sleep Now In The Fire", as well as bringing his improved vocal talents to Soundgarden songs. As a solo artist, I don't know if it really counts as a cover version if he sings material from any of his old bands -- but it's a shame he doesn't do Rage covers any more.

With all this in mind, I thought should go all High Fidelity today and rate my top 5 covers. So, in reverse order, the best cover versions.

5. All Along the Watchtower -- Jimi Hendrix
I mentioned somewhere else recently that the funny thing about Bob Dylan is that almost any cover version of one of his songs will improve on the original -- this isn't to say that Dylan wasn't good to begin with, but his folk style meant there was a lot to build on. But there's good covers, and there is taking a song and completely revolutionising it -- and that's what Hendrix does here; he leaves a scorching trail right through the middle of the song.

4. Satisfaction -- Cat Power
If you're not very familiar with the original Rolling Stones song, you wouldn't realise this was a cover at all. The big memorable riff is gone, the chorus has been dropped altogether, and instead Cat Power sings it with what feels like genuine sadness. Matt once told me the song is about Mick Jagger wanting to sleep with a groupie, but it's the wrong time of the month -- she says "baby come back, baby next week, can't you see I'm on a losing streak?". I don't know if this is truly what's being expressed, but Cat Power sings it with such emotion and totally changes the whole song around.

3. Jolene -- The White Stripes
Taking an old Dolly Parton song, and once again making it almost unrecognisable -- Jack White swings between singing softly and almost screaming the words. The thing is though, you can tell he really loves the song, he gets so passionate about it -- and you can't help but feel a surge of passion yourself.

2. Hallelujah -- Jeff Buckley
Why are my favourite covers today nearly all sad songs? Taking the iconic Leonard Cohen song (now there's music to slit your wrists to) and covering it faithfully, Jeff Buckley has a quiet, slow burning intensity that suits the song so well.

1. Where Did You Sleep Last Night -- Nirvana
Although not the author of this song, Leadbelly is credited with making it widely popular when he recorded it back in the 50's. Leadbelly has to be one of the most-covered artists ever, and was certainly a major influence on many of the great artists of the 90's, including the likes of Nirvana, Screaming Trees and Pearl Jam. Kurt Cobain actually first played guitar on a Mark Lanegan cover of this song, which in some respects is quite similar -- something not uncommon with Nirvana -- but the acoustic performance better suits the style. Just the same, I don't include that version on the list. If/when there is an official recorded Twilight Singers with Mark Lanegan cover then I will reconsider my position on this being my favourite cover.

An old blues song, it always reminds me of the Hendrix song Hey Joe -- probably because both are about murder, and possibly infidelity, but it's also the traditional melancholy that goes with it -- something that Cobain manages to express beautifully with his own voice.

This performance starts very simply, with just a man, a voice and a guitar -- but as the song slowly builds, more instruments join in and become more noticeable, as Cobain himself gets louder and more passionate. The song builds to a dramatic crescendo (why is it songs like this sound like orgasms?) where Cobain -- like Langean before him -- screams the final verse.

As a completely unrelated aside, the song also reminds me of the Robert Frost poem Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening -- which I suppose is because of the shared theme of woods/death.

Update: A new contender for worst cover ever!