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Cover versions that improved on the original.


Guest Max Stafford

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Guest Max Stafford

I should perhaps mention Marilyn Manson's dirty, nasty cover of 'Personal Jesus'. Not everyone's cup of tea but damn good!

 

A good call for the man from the Peak District this time.

To be honest, I haven't heard a bad version of 'Personal Jesus'.

 

No I hope I'm not insulting my own Mod sensibilities by offering Bryan Ferry's take on the Dobie Gray classic, but it's got to be as good in a '70s art rock cool' sort of way...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTJ1OMZWNLU

 

 

Dave.

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Some late 70s Stiff Records incestuousness:

 

Elvis Costello's cover of Nick Lowe's "What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding" is definitely the definitive version;

Dave Edmunds' cover of Elvis Costello's "Girls' Talk" is measurably better than the original..

 

Meanwhile, in Asbury Park NJ, Mr Springsteen sometimes wrote things which were outwith his ideal vocal range. Many of these were "donated" to his old mate John Lyon, better known as Southside Johnny, who has THE most amazingly powerful and moving soul voice. Songs like "Hearts of Stone", "The Fever", "All the way home" and others wereat their best when performed by the Asbury Jukes,not the E Street Band.

 

Other notable beneficiaries of Springsteen's pen have included Manfred Mann ("Blinded by the Light", "For You"), Patti Smith (the incomparable version of "Because the Night"), Gary 'US' Bonds ("This Little Girl"), Natalie Cole ("Pink Cadillac"), the Pointer Sisters ("Fire").

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OK it's another one of those 'is it really a cover or not' versions, but Janis Joplin's take on 'Me and Bobby McGee' is so much better than Kris Kristofferson's IMHO:-

 

Just the opposite for me smile3.gif

Also another vote for Cash's 'Hurt'.

 

And to add another to the list, Kirsty Maccoll's version of 'A New England' to me is much better than Bragg's original.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fwtFSEovro

 

Also 'Days'

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOKWqtocXWs&feature=related

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John Bs beat me to my all time favourite cover - Patti Smith doing The Boss's "Because the Night" But then I recall this classic first time i heard it was Knebworth 1978, the Tubes were on just before the sublime Mr Frank Zappa:

 

I hated the Beatles with a passion and still do to some extent but this version of "I saw her standing there" brought punk credibility to them :yahoo:

 

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I hated the Beatles with a passion and still do to some extent but this version of "I saw her standing there" brought punk credibility to them :yahoo:

 

 

The Pink Fairies did it even better on their "What A Bunch of Sweeties" LP

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Delilah? See also John Otway. And whilst your at it check out his version of 'House Of The Rising Sun'.

OK I've "seen" John Otway, what can I say? Ok it's different, but improvement? I don't think so. Obviously inspired by SAHB but somewhat off the mark, IMHO. House of the rising sun was no better, for that the cover version by the Animals is the definitive version.

 

 

 

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…one of my favourites is the incomparable Sensational Alex Harvey Band…

What a band! What a sad loss when Alex died… and now Zal Cleminson is a flippin' cabbie I believe! :(

Jacques Brel's 'Au suivant' (Next) gets a wonderful SAHB treatment, although having just watched Brel's live performance of the original I'm not sure that SAHB's version is better… just very different.

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A couple from me.

 

This version of 'Inside and Out' by Feist takes a sloppy BeeGee's lurve song and turns it into a bit of a mad woman threat/rant song.

 

 

And if it hasn't been mentioned before, surely Dizzy by Vic Reeves and the Wonderstuff works?

 

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I remember an amazing 90mph punk version of the Moodies' "Nights In White Satin" - was it The Dickies?

 

Also Nightwish's superbly metallic take on "Walking In The Air" (from The Snowman)

 

Oh, and George Thorogood & The Destroyers' great storming live versions of rock n roll/R n B classics, too many to mention.

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Tainted Love by Soft Cell - so different from the older Gloria Jones version..

 

Money by the Flying Lizards - again a complete rework that left me a bit stunned the first time I heard it, it was so different to anything I'd previously heard.

Summertime Blues would have had the same effect if it had come first - as it was it was more of the same.

 

And a couple that should never have been let out of the recording studio

 

That awful cover of Comfortably Numb by I forget who

and

Stairway to Heaven - can you tell what it is yet?

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  • 7 years later...
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 Well this thread took a bit of finding after all these years .   :excl:

 

 I recently came across this group from Russia who who do a covers of

songs from the group Chicago , I was completely blown away by how good they are ,

they have even been to the USA and performed and received rave reviews , it seems that

they reproduce studio quality performances on stage that even Chicago could'nt do .

 

 Here are a couple of there numbers , if you like Chicago it is well worth listening to some of

their other work .

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Sidecar Racer
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