Covers

[Lemur]

Let us praise the humble cover song. I love these little fellas; the further they wander away from the source material, the better. Please post any examples of this under-appreciated art form that you can lay your greasy mitts on ...

[pevergreen]

What a coincidence, I read this an hour ago.



My favourite cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_4abCWw-w

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Haha, there are so many ska covers of different pop songs - where should I start?

[Lemur]

As much as I appreciate T-Rex's perspective, the out-of-genre cover is not always a mere novelty. Heck, the latter part of Johnny Cash's career showed that. Examples:

[Husar]

Like this?



or this(warning, bad language)?

[Raz]

Sonic Youth's cover of Superstar (The Carpenters).
Lyric:

Loneliness -

It's such a sad affair.

[Secura]

Some of my favourite covers off the top of my head:

It's My Life - No Doubt (TalkTalk)
A Little Respect - Wheatus (Erasure)
It's Not Over Yet - The Klaxons (Gloria)
You've Got The Love - Florence & The Machine (The Source/Candi Staton)
My Hero - Paramore (Foo Fighters)
Use Somebody - Paramore (Kings of Leon)
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (Leonard Cohen)
Hounds of Love - The Futureheads (Kate Bush)

[Subotan]

The Bad Plus are a jazz trio who exclusively do covers. And they're awesome:


Take about a minute and a half to pick up steam, but when it does wowwwwww.


Same again, takes about a minute. (5:00 and beyond is a must listen for any Radio-head)


This one doesn't, it rushes straight into Rush.

[Pannonian]

William Shatner - Common People
- originally by Pulp
Reel Big Fish - Take On Me
- originally by a-ha

And one that I actually like:
Hayley Westenra - Cosmos
- originally by Momoe Yamaguchi

[A Nerd]

I personally don't like covers. I listened to a few Syd Barrett covers and they seemed not to fit his original artistic inspirations. Though I guess covers are others interpretations.

[Ser Clegane]

This one was certainly an improvement:



Old and not really a serious cover:




Ok ... I'm getting old.

[Ser Clegane]

Two more:

[Raz]

Okay, I know no one will watch this, but this is quite possibly the farthest you'll get from the original genre: The Beatles - I Am the Walrus (psychedelic rock) done by Merzbow (japanoise, experimental, noise) and Boris (drone, sludge metal, noise rock). It's surprisingly good, don't let my classifications throw you off - honestly.

[drone]

I love the Cash version of Hurt, almost as much as the Kermit version.

Some of my favorites, not out-of-genre though...
1000 Homo DJs (Jourgensen and Reznor, et al) doing Black Sabbath's Supernaut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjho-zVgDXo

Tool doing Led Zep's No Quarter kicks an vast quantity of butt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA7sHz2m_Cs

Sepultura doing Motorhead's Orgasmatron - can't find a decent vid unfortunately.

Out-of-genre, I guess this is a good one, Dynamite Hack's take on Easy-E's Boyz In the Hood (some language)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsqONjjMDfw

Anthrax's version of the Venture's Pipeline is rolling...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l18cy8S8WZU

The String Quartet Tribute groups have done a ton of stuff, Slayer's Raining Blood may be even creepier with the acoustics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGVNAdgLTCg

[Lemur]

The Beatles - I Am the Walrus (psychedelic rock) done by Merzbow (japanoise, experimental, noise) and Boris (drone, sludge metal, noise rock).

That's kinda hypnotic. I couldn't tell for the longest time if they were doing it in English or not ...

[Myrddraal]

Smooth Criminal by Jackson, covered by Alien Ant Farm. This is a song which was asking to be made heavier.


Another example of song which benefitted from a heavier cover is Whiskey in the Jar. First an Irish traditional, brought to fame by the Dubliners, then by Thin Lizzy, then by Metallica.

[A Nerd]

In the smooth criminal cover, didn't MJs chimp 'bubbles' make an apperance? Or was that an annonomys chimp?