I've never been completely sure how I feel about the cover version as a valid medium of expression in popular music. One's early experiences of cover versions are usually provided by the local rock band playing an under-18's club night. Busting out a Green Day facsimile or a version of Marilyn Manson covering Eurythmics ("...because the Eurythmics suck!"*) was usually a sure-fire crowd pleaser and a great way for a band to hide their anaemic song writing talents. Or it was just me playing some songs because I thought they were cool. In those teenage years cover versions were no more than repertoire; a louder, longer haired version of a pianist and his études. Here's where we can detect a whiff of the cover version trying to establish a historical canon in popular music. Venerating the great composers just like in the realm of classical music. Just substitute Mozart and Beethoven for McCartney and Lennon. It's pop music proving it is just as "serious" as the other musical genres. "Hey, look those classical guys are just playing the same old tunes over and over again and they're making, like, really important art!" Popular music should not be a history culture (even though it is) and should always pushing towards making future generations of parents grumble and moan.
*an actual quote from the, hopefully defunct, Darlington-based band Incarnation.
So there's that side and then there's this:
Yes we live in a universe where that happened. No wonder the idea of cover songs leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
But while compiling this playlist I discovered there was another way. Cover versions don't have to be pandering to the "greats" or a tedious joke. They can be anarchic, satirical, iconoclastic, all those things a truly rebellious art form should be. Basically, you can leave your Unchained Melody's at home unless its being performed by three transvestites singing it in Mandarin.
This playlist is by no way definitive, it's just a collection of interesting tracks which I've discovered over a two year period. So without further ado here it is (oh and there's more waffle after the break in case that's what you'd like):
So what constitutes a good cover song. Well here are the 4 trends I've noticed that seem to be the most effective.
1. I Like The Lyrics, I Like The Tune But Let's Do Things MY way
When we most often get cover versions what we are treated to is the same lyrics and pretty much the same melody/harmony but slightly re-tooled to fit within the comfort zone of a band that's usually trying to syphon off reputation or gain hipster-cred off the back of another artist. Once the band starts to adapt the song into their own style then we start to get something interesting. The original song is hacked to pieces, twisted and deformed. And that's the way it should be, there should be nothing sacred in music. I think Mr Vicious sums it up quite nicely, his punky sneer just about saving the My Way cover from drowning in bland production.
There's not much art here but damn it if it isn't fun. When else are you going to hear Flash Gordon in 56 seconds, The Who as inventors of glitch music or someone gibbering along to The Godfather theme.
2. Keep the Words, Sod the Tunes
Possibly the rarest form of cover is the one which keeps the lyrics but completely discards the original tune. It's an interesting proposition in which the lyrics are seen as irreducible poetry and the music a disposable afterthought. Many people hold lyrics in high esteem but (as I'll probably discuss in a future blog) I am not one of those people. I'm firmly of the opinion that lyrics support the music otherwise well, it's not really music is it... Sound poetry? Still I'm open minded enough to give this approach a try, especially when it's Tori Amos covering Slayer. Yes that's right. Miss Amos was obviously so smitten with the idea of the Heavens opening and blood pouring from the skies that she wanted to put her own spin on it. I'm not sure whether this move casts Slayer's evocative but hasty thrash lyrics in a positive light or exposes their grandeurs for mockery but hey it actually works. Mainly because the music is so incredibly brooding and atmospheric.
3. The Tune Was Banging But Those Lyrics Sucked!
In this bracket one can put possibly one of the most iconic "covers" of all time. Jimi Hendrix's legendary rendition of Star-Spangled Banner created an anthem for a hippie America that was shorn of all the ponderous and jingoistic lyrics that spoil all national anthems (bar the ones that enough sense not to have any words in them at all). However, keeping the lyrics seems to a common theme for cover versions so I guess this a rare example. Under this loose theme I've also thrown in Jackie-O Motherfucker improvising around Amazing Grace and Mouse On Mars retooling some of their loops as backing for Mark E Smith, just because I can.
3. Uh, that's not what I meant AT ALL!
Similar to before, this is really just another version of applying a bands own style to an existing set of melodies and lyrics but the end goal is something much more playful, satirical or sinister. This is where the truly great covers lie! For example, nothing really tickles me more than the idea of a seminal straight-edge hardcore punk song being re-tooled in the style of sexy, ecstatic House music; and that's what we get from The Soft Pink Truth. Another fun genre-twisting example presents the ultimate antithesis to the clinical electronic man machine sounds of Kraftwerk with a colourful, light-hearted Samba band (Señor Coconut). I don't think the intention here is really to mock Kraftwerk, I imagine there is genuine affection from Mr Coconut, but the opening salvo of a car failing to start is certainly a humorous jab.
If you want your satirical intentions to be blindly obvious then you need look no further then Laibach's bombastic cover of Queen's One Vision. By turning up the military pomp, barking out the lyrics like an angry drill sergeant and (in perhaps a somewhat un-PC move) translating the lyrics to German; this optimistic, crowd-pleasing tune is transformed into a loving ode to Fascism. Sorry Freddy!
Furthermore, as someone who doesn't care much for lyrics, cover versions can really come into there own by exposing the vapidity, self-defeating and misogynistic lyrical content which courses through pretty much all popular culture of the moment. Sex Worker's pained vocals and ghostly rhythms turn a 90's club classic into a requiem for victims of sexual violence. Similarly, Kevin Blechdom's sleazy, over-the-top version of Tina Turner's Private Dancer makes you wonder how a pop song about prostitution can make any kind of serious comment when the marketing around the music itself seems to be glamorizing the concept of women as sex objects.
4. You Lying Rat! That Wasn't Even A Real Song In The First Place!
Probably my favourite kind of cover, is one for which the original song and band are completely made up. I'm sure there are quite a few good songs of this ilk but I have no idea what they are off the top of my head and as I've said before this blog is always very badly researched! So I'm sticking with one my favourite albums from last year, Prince Rama's Top Ten Hits Of The End Of The World. On that album the band constructed a number of fictional 80's bands and attempted to cover their hit songs after the seemingly inevitable 2012 apocalypse. It's the kind of bat-shit crazy idea which results in what sounds like a power-ballad being played by the biker gangs from Mad Max, which is a proposition that's tough to argue with.
