Saturday, 29 March 2014

UNDER THE COVERS (SUPPLEMENTAL)


Last week I promised to add an extra piece to my three-part look at cover songs.

Here it is.

Rather rashly, I'd decided to produce a Top 20 listing of my favourite cover songs, comparing them to the *originals* courtesy of judicious use of You Tube clips. It's been an impossible task to do in any truly meaningful way: some songs just aren't on You Tube, some I don't have in my mighty Musical Box database - and (critically), my selections are so fluid as to be more changeable than David Bowie's dress sense. But, I have collected together a Top 20 which I think is representative of what I think makes a good cover song. I've resisted the temptation to include a token *bad* cover song and have also not repeated numbers I've used as examples in the series thus far. That aside, I hope that the choices will provoke comment and debate - and, with any luck, delight and admiration for uncovering (do you see what I did there?) numbers which will give a little bit of credibility to this much misunderstood genre.

 I should add - for clarity's sake - that I'm not suggesting the covers are better than the originals, rather that they bring something different to them, a little twist if you like.

You can check out the the three previous episodes right here:

So, from the tens of thousands and more borrowed numbers around, here are some which should be so much more than a guilty pleasure. 

Prepare to be entertained.

BORROWED SONGS - A TOP 20 


This is a personal selection and, of course, there are bound to be many other borrowed songs that I could have included, but on the day - today! - this is what I felt represented a good starting point. Each song is represented with both the original and the cover together with a quick line or two noting why I chose it. They're not in any particular order: that was just a step too far, trying to rank them. If pushed for my all-time top-favourite borrowed song, I could be persuaded to choose one - and may very well do so at the end of the listing.

 THE FIRST

Mott - Mott The Hoople's
final album with Mick Ralphs
Maria McKee - 1993 Single B Side


The Mott The Hoople album is, possibly the best of their career - a high to go out on prior to the departure of lead guitarist Mick Ralphs for new band Bad Company. Maria McKee is a much overlooked singer-songwriter and her version with some really heart-felt vocals appears as the "B-Side" to her 1993 single, I Can't Make It Alone.
THE SECOND

Judee Sill's second album
Heart Food (1972)
Shawn Colvin - Her version on
Cover Girl (1994)

















Judee Sill was a sad loss to the world of music: she was a singer-songwriter who only produced two album sin her short life, but she certainly had a real ability for creating fine songs with smart lyrics. Shawn Colvin's version - from her 1994 covers release Cover Girl - brings a real sensitivity and feel for the music and lyrics: not better, but definitely worthy.



THE THIRD 

Eddie Cochrane
A hit single in 1958

T Rex - B-Side to the hit single
Ride a White Swan (1970)






Both Eddie Cochran and T.Rex's Marc Bolan died young in car crashes here in the UK. Cochran created some of the most forceful rock and roll numbers around -and Bolan, brought up on such music, took the opportunity to include the band's version of Summertime Blues on the B-Side of their breakthrough hit single Ride A White Swan in 1970. Complete with Mickey Finn on bongos, Bolan transformed the song - but still remained faithful to its heart and soul.
THE FOURTH 

Harry Nilsson - His second album
Aerial Bullet (1968)
Aimee Mann - Wrote or performed
most  of the songs for the 1999
film soundtrack to Magnolia 
















 Harry Nilsson had quite a difficult life, but still managed to create a wealth of great songs. An early success was One which can be found on his second studio release, 1968's Aerial Bullet. Some thirty years later, singer-songwriter - and sometime member of Til Tuesday - Aimee Mann chose it as one of the few songs that she didn't write for the soundtrack to the 1999 film, Magnolia. Her performance puts a bit of rock guitar into it, and in many ways, I prefer it to the original.
THE FIFTH

The Kinks Are The
Village Green Preservation Society
(1968)
Kate Rusby's 2007 album
Awkward Annie featured her
version of Village Green 















The Kinks' Ray Davies has been one of the best songwriters of the past 50 years - and he's never better than when looking inwardly at his native land and everyday life. The band's 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society was a whole suite of such music, a refreshing change in the late 60s from everything "summer of love". Kate Rusby, a superb folk singer-songwriter, reprised the title track for her 2007 album Awkward Annie - and with her Yorkshire accent bringing something new to the song, it is deserving of its place in this Top 20.  


THE SIXTH

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Ohio - 1970
Dala - Canadian folk duo 















Neil Young remains one of the most accomplished singer-songwriters that Canada has produced. Here is a classic early number he penned for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, a reaction to the Kent State shootings  in 1970. It was initially the B-Side to the band's single Find The Cost Of Freedom and was an angry, rock-based number. It's been covered many times by many artists, but a completely different treatment was applied by fellow-Canadian duo, Dala. They stripped it right back and it became almost a folk-ballad. A live example from 2009 captures the delicate power they bring to it. 
THE SEVENTH


Eurythmics - The single sleeve for
Love Is a Stranger (1982)
Martha Wainwright
Love Is a Stranger (2008)













The Eurythmics' second album - 1982's Sweet Dreams - was packed full of fine songs, several of which were big hits - including Love Is a Stranger. Some years later in 2008, Martha Wainwright - daughter of Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright - recorded an excellent album called I Know You're Married, But I've Got Feelings Too. Here she takes Love Is A Stranger, adds acoustic guitar, strips away the synth - and creates a fascinating new variant of the song.
THE EIGHTH


Fred Neil - Self-titled second album
(1966) 
Beth Orton - Best Bit covers EP
(1997)

Fred Neil was one of those unsung heroes of the folk-music scene: he didn't record many albums in his long career - and didn't like touring, so his name doesn't normally register with the general public. His songs do, though - many have been covered and especially Dolphins which appeared on his 1966 self-titled album. In 1997, Beth Orton - renowned for adding dub sounds to her folk music and thus creating trip-hop - teamed up with another folkie who had slipped under the radar, Terry Callier. The Covers EP Best Bit was the result, an EP which contained their superb version of Fred Neill's original. 
THE NINTH


Marvin Gaye
Ain't That Peculiar - a 1965 hit 
Fanny
There version on Fanny Hill (1972)














An early hit for soul legend Marvin Gaye was 1965's Ain't That Peculiar: it sold well over a million copies. Seven years later in 1972, one of the first all-girl rock groups was the excellent Fanny - and they did a rather fine rock version on their third album, perhaps their best, Fanny Hill. Sadly, they were another of those bands who should have been much better known than they were.
THE TENTH


Donovan at the height of his powers
Sunshine Superman (1966)
Julie Driscoll, Brian Augur &
The Trinity - Open (1967)













Donovan Leitch was very far from being a Dylan copyist as some had labelled him in the early 60s. He embraced psychedelia in the mid-period of that decade and created a suite of top quality songs - including Season of The Witch which appeared on his 1966 album, Sunshine Superman. A year later, Julie Driscoll, teamed up with Brian Augur and The Trinity, recorded a fine jazz-rock version for their 1967 album Open: it's got more of a live session feel to it and works very well indeed.
THE ELEVENTH

Bonnie Dobson - Her fine
single from 1964
The Grateful Dead
Self-titled debut (1967)















Bonnie Dobson is a Canadian folk-singer who started out in 1961 and enjoyed some success until the middle of that turbulent decade. Her most well-known song is Morning Dew, a post-apocolyptic song that was influenced by the film On The Beach. Her performance still stands up well today - and the song has been covered by many artists across the years. In 1967, The Grateful Dead, a band at the centre of the San Franciscan counter-culture did a version on their self-titled debut album. It works very well indeed, the psychedelic feel to their music and Jerry Garcia's plaintive vocals making it a band classic.
THE TWELFTH  

The Small Faces
Song Of A Baker appeared
on their 1968 magnum opus
Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
Screaming Trees














Shortly before The Small Faces splintered in 1968, their "magnum opus" Ogden's Nut Gone Flake was released in its distinctive round, metal packaging. Part-concept album and part psychedelic rock, it's a fine collection of songs - including the organ-drenched Song Of A Baker. In 1992, US rock band Screaming Trees paid homage to The Small Faces with an excellent version of the song - it appeared as the B-Side to their Nearly Lost You single.
THE THIRTEENTH



Free - Hit single
Wishing Well (1972)
Maggie Bell in full flight
Her version appeared on
Suicide Sal in 1975




Free were a fine *classic* blues rock band, but a band that had a knack for adding a commercial edge to their songs and thus ensuring a supply of regular hit singles too. 1972 saw Wishing Well, a number with lead singer Paul Rodgers in fine form and a number that would appear on the band's final album Heartbreaker the following year. In 1975, Maggie Bell - one of the best blues rock singers this island has produced - had left her band Stone The Crows to go solo. In that year, her second album Suicide Sal was released - and on it, a superb version of Wishing Well. There's a bit more of a funky beat to it and her vocals have got a much-more shredded and lived-in feel to them.
THE FOURTEENTH

Tim Hardin
The Smoke Fairies
Fine folk-roots duo













Tim Hardin was another of that crop of early 60s folk musicians who died far too young; but, in the short time he had with us, he wrote a number of fine songs which are still remembered and covered today. If I Were A Carpenter was one of them. It was released on his second album Tim Hardin 2 in 1967 and our cover version is by a Sussex-based duo, The Smoke Fairies, a band that can do smooth and mellow folk music as well as folk-rock at the louder end of the scale. Their version was a contribution to Reason To Believe, a tribute album to Tim Hardin released in 2012.
THE FIFTEENTH

Joni Mitchell - Blue (1971)
Nazareth - Loud 'N Proud (1973)














Quite possibly one of the best cover versions of a song that I can think of: it takes the original, changes the whole vibe and feel of it - and yet, clearly it's still the same song. This Flight Tonight was written by Joni Mitchell and it appears on her 1971 landmark release Blue. On here, it's almost a folk number- albeit with Mitchell's expert vocals taking it well beyond such a thing. In 1973, Glaswegian rockers Nazareth covered it for their album Loud 'N Proud. They grabbed it right from the off with guitar riffs and a driving beat; Dan McCafferty's gruff vocals work well - and the effects on the radio sequences are really effective. A classic of its kind.


THE SIXTEENTH


The Youngbloods
Self-titled debut (1967)
The Kingston Trio
Their version released in 1964













This song was originally written in 1962 by Chet Powers - who later reverted to his given name Dino Valenti when he joined psychedelic rockers Quicksilver Messenger Service. In the early 60s, he was a struggling singer-songwriter, but Get Together was picked up by The Kingston Trio as Let's Get Together and the song assumed a life of its own. In 1967,The Youngbloods recorded a rock version for their self-titled debut and, following TV exposure, the song hit the "Summer Of Love" zeigeist. The Kingston Trio version here is a live recording.
THE SEVENTEENTH

The Everly Brothers
Gone Gone Gone (1964)
Alison Krauss & Robert Plant
Live in 2007












The Everly Brothers released an album called Gone Gone Gone in 1964 and the title track - our selection here - had much more of a rock feel to it than the rock and roll numbers they'd become known for. Maybe this was because of the growing impact of the British rock and pop invasion, who can say: but it is a spendid number. When one-time Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant teamed up with bluegrass virtuoso fiddle player and singer Alison Krauss, Gone Gone Gone was the first single from their 2007 album Raising Sand. It was an extended version - true to the original, but also adding something new with the power, strength and feeling that they both brought to it.
THE EIGHTEENTH

The Byrds
Ballad Of Easy Rider (1969)
Fairport Convention
Heyday (BBC Radio Sessions)
(1968/1969)
















 One of the big alternative films of 1969 was Easy Rider, a counter-culture classic with its title song penned by Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. The Byrds recorded it for their album in November of that year, it also taking the name The Ballad Of Easy Rider. It's a fine song and so suited to the naescent country rock that The Byrds were about to embrace. A rare - but haunting - cover was recorded by British folk-rockers Fairport Convention in the same year, although despite being aired in live sessions for BBC Radio 1, the recorded version wasn't officially released until 2003 as a bonus track on the reissue of Unhalfbricking. Sandy Denny's vocals are sublime - and the band slow the song down slightly and make it (I think) even more poignant.
THE NINETEENTH

The Arctic Monkeys
From Suck It And See (2011)
Caitlin Rose
Her version for Record Store Day 2012 
















Here's a fine song from The Arctic Monkeys, a number penned by Alex Turner and appearing on their 2011 album Suck It And See. It's called Piledriver Waltz, but from such an odd title comes a lyrically wonderful song that was grabbed by US singer-songwriter Caitlin Rose for a Record Store Day release in 2012. Her version is simply beautiful: a rock song becomes a kind of country/Americana cross-over and her crystal clear vocals are a delight. 


THE TWENTIETH
Billy Bragg
Life's A Riot With
With Spy Versus Spy
(1983) 
Kirsty MacColl
Hit single with her version of
A New England in 1984


  















Two excellent singer-songwriters with very different approaches to a fine song. Billy Bragg wrote New England in 1983, it appearing on his album Life's A Riot With Spy Versus Spy. The song - just Bragg singing and playing an amped-up guitar - wasn't released as a single, but it remains a classic of its type. A year later, the much-missed Kirsty MacColl recorded a poppier and brighter version of it, released it as a single and enjoyed chart success. The approach she took still honours the song's lyrical content which is probably how a good cover song should  be.  

AND IN THE END....


And there we have it.

My run through of a current Top 20 chart of borrowed songs, although I'll be the first to admit that were I to repeat the exercise tomorrow, it may well be a little different. I'm sure there are plenty of omissions that you, dear readers, believe ought to have been included, so why not leave me a comment here and tell me? You never know - this supplement might yet have a supplement all of its own. 

Join me again next week when I start a new series that explores the theme music used for landmark TV programmes and movies. It's a massive subject, so we'll just dip into a few of the major strands and see where that takes us.

Thanks for reading - and listening!

Alan Dorey
31st March 2014
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