| Duke of Vandals |
 Posted: February 19, 2009 - 4:12pm |
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Joined: 13 May 2008
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Not to take anything away from the previous Good Music entries, but this is easily the most "relevant" to AI. It's always difficult for me to imagine most of the AI contestants as musicians/singers in any forum other than karaoke, because that's essentially what they're doing. The only possiblity they have to impress people like me (& I suspect most Worsters) is to do a good cover of a song in the ways you've suggested, Laura.
Big-head Cook was thought of as the tits because he did different arrangements of popular songs. It would have worked if he had come up with those arrangements himself instead of ripping off someone else's cover.
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When You Curse Others Those Curse Will Go Back To You , Itty It.
--Marlea, mailbag 5/29/08
As you can already tell, I am a very good insulter so I suggest leaving now before you get hurt and ashamed by my words.
--Haleigh, mailbag 4/8/09
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| Sex_Chess_And_B... |
| Posted: February 19, 2009 - 4:38pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2009
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Kudos to whoever mentioned Ben Folds' "Bitches Ain't Shit". I LOVE that cover.
Also notable - Nickel Creek's "Toxic" (originally by Britney Spears) and Obadiah Parker's "Hey Ya" (originally by OutKast).
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| Sex_Chess_And_B... |
| Posted: February 19, 2009 - 4:38pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2009
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deleted due to double post
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| bringbackthe90s |
| Posted: February 19, 2009 - 6:35pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2009
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For good covers, check out the CD "Songs for a Blue Guitar" by Red House Painters. It contains the cover of the Cars "All Mixed Up" which was kind of popular for a while. Great version. It also has an awesome redoing of Yes's Long Distance Runaround, and perhaps killing two birds with one stone, does Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" to the tune of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" and it works.
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If Otis Redding were to try out for American Idol he wouldn't even make it to Hollywood. Sad.
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| Akira_247 |
| Posted: February 19, 2009 - 7:33pm |
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Joined: 20 Mar 2007
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wow I can't believe VTFW forgot this one. Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt". Johnny Cash took a great song by the industrial-metal band and turned it into a slow rock/country song. He also did it a couple months after his wife die and a couple months before he died. He took the song and made it about his life, it made me cry the first time. especially watch the video.
Another good cover is Paramores cover of "Hero" by the Foo Fighters. The foo fighters was originally this big rock ballad about a hero (it was written for a spiderman movie) and when paramore did it it became a slow love song. Completely different feel to it which I love.
Another good cover is SOmething I Can Never Have by Flyleaf, originally by Nine Inch Nails, they dont change the meaning of the song but definately make it more rock, cause the original is a little boring haha
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Fallen AI Angel here. Show is beyond repair, lets have fun while its alive!
Oh, and please take out CarlyPlant, KKKristy Lee Cook and Michael Johns
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| Starbuck |
| Posted: February 19, 2009 - 9:38pm |
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Joined: 07 Jul 2008
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| hookhoax |
| Posted: February 19, 2009 - 9:55pm |
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Joined: 17 Feb 2009
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All good choices... However this pertains to AI awfulness...
If you can, find and listen to Ted Leo's acoustic cover of Kelly Clarksons "Since You Been Gone." In the middle of it, he seamlessly switches over to the Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Maps" , thus showing everyone that the bridge riff in both songs is exactly the same(YYY's came first).
It's pure mockery gold and would be hysterical if wasn't actually so damn good.
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| Ravenbomb |
| Posted: February 20, 2009 - 12:39am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2007
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Other great covers:
"Baby Got Back" by Jonathan Coulton
the album "12 Crass Songs" by Jeffrey Lewis
"Beautiful" by Elvis Costello (covering Christina Agulera's song)
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"Humanity- you never had it to begin with."
-Bukowski
http://www.youtube.com/cmxpictures
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| Psycwarrior |
| Posted: February 20, 2009 - 6:25am |
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Joined: 20 Feb 2009
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| the-nova-cat |
| Posted: February 21, 2009 - 2:49pm |
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Joined: 24 Mar 2008
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The defining element of a truly great song is whether it can be performed in a variety of styles & still remain a great song.
Here are a few covers people may have forgotten.
Nirvana covering Dutch band Shocking Blue's song Love Buzz - and their unplugged version of Bowie's Man Who Sold The World.
Santana covering Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac's Black Magic Woman.
Hendrix's famous live version of the Troggs' Wild Thing - which itself was a cover.
Otis Redding covering The Stones' Satisfaction.
Elvis Presley covering Big Mama Thornton's original version of Hound Dog - (written by Leiber & Stoller).
British prog band The Nice covering Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story evergreen, America, and turning into a crazy instrumental freak out.
Soft Cell covering Gloria Jones's Tainted Love.
Joe Cocker turning the Beatles' throwaway With A Little Help From My Friends into an anguished tour de force.
and even Frank Sinatra's (or Sid Vicious') My Way was originally based on a French song but with new English language lyrics.
Sadly I don't think anyone appearing on AI will ever have the artistry to create anything quite so memorable.
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Re-arrange the letters in the name Daniel Gokey and you'll find the phrase "keen gay idol"
Coincidence... or God's plan? You decide.
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But what makes a good cover song?
First and foremost: it has to stack up to the original, and unless you are covering Britney Spears this can be a formidable task. Posers are lame, so the second rule of a good cover song: put your own spin on it. If we wanted to hear an exact mimic of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses," we'd listen to the original. Good covers switch up genres, strip away instruments or utilize a singer of a different gender.
The following are just a few examples of excellent contemporary covers. Idols, pay attention! This is how it's done!
When Jello Biafra belts out the lyrics of "Too Drunk to F**k," it is a gritty, slapdash melee about rowdy punk drunkendom. But when the sexy French girls of Nouvelle Vague coo "Went to a party, I danced all night / I drank sixteen beers and started up a fight!" this song takes on a whole new meaning.
With theatrical live shows and sensuous singing Parisian filles, this is not your standard cover band. Nouvelle Vague performs 80s New Wave songs with a Brazilian Bossa Nova twist. You probably heard their cover of "Heart of Glass" tinkering in the background at your local Urban Outfitters... however, Nouvelle Vague is too cool to be relegated to ambience. Buy the album.
"The Last Beat of My Heart" by DeVotchKa
Most covers strip away instruments in an effort to pump more emotion into a song. The problem with "The Last Beat of My Heart" is you don't get much more stripped down than Siouxsie & the Banshees' original.
So DevotchKa, perhaps one of the best live bands in the U.S.A. today, took this cover suggestion from The Arcade Fire and vamped up their instrumentation. DeVotchKa brilliantly blends violins, accordians, drums and Nick Urata's soaring Mariachi vocals to turn what was an achingly sorrowful ode to heartbreak into a powerful anthem about undying love.
"Troubled So Hard" by Paolo Nutini
Paolo Nutini is one of those rare modern musicians who sounds a hundred times better live. Nutini's over-produced studio album just doesn't capture his appeal, an appeal rooted in his hunchbacked stage presence and churned-asphalt, gravelly voice.
In his live show, Nutini performs this cover of Moby's "Natural Blues," which in turn was a sample of Vera Hall and Dock Reed's little-known, super duper rare "Trouble So Hard." I'm sure Vera and Dock would be all a-twitter-pated if they saw their modest blues number being performed all over the world in front of thousands upon thousands of fans.
"Common People" by William Shatner
I've mentioned this song before, but it is so fan-friggin-tastic it gets an encore. Indie rock band Pulp performs the more-than-awesome original, yet somehow (inexplicably) Shatner's spoken-word version rocks even MORE. ?!?!?!?!?!
To be fair, Captain Kirk had some help. Ben Folds arranged the music, and Joe Jackson sings the rocked out chorus. The lyrics themselves are delectable, about a rich girl who slums it with the "common people," only to be torn down for being "a tourist" who thinks "poor is cool." *Writer's note: of my four suggestions, this is the only one I haven't seen performed live, ruining my music geek streak... damn you Shatner!
The Good Music Corner began after VFTW's infallible Dave noticed an inundation of pretentious music geeks visiting his site. This blog, in addition to countering the poor quality music marketed on American Idol, serves as a soapbox for self-proclaimed musicologists.
If you have a submission for the Suggestion Box, would like to talk music, or feel a need to complain about the likeness of the caricatured Idols adorning the banner of this site, you may email Laura at CaricaturesByLaura at Yahoo.com.
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