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Cover yourself

Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 01:38AM
Breno's "No respect under the covers" thread somehow led to:

People who cover their own songs and manage to improve on them.

At the moment, Springsteen's Seeger Sessions (live) version of "Open All Night" (from Nebraska) leaps to mind...methinks Christgau may have made it "Springsteen track of the year from a live double Sony didn't bother to send me" last year, but methinks me not so sure.
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 02:14AM
springsteen immeditely comes to mind as someone who does very different versions of his songs live and often they are better.
a few songs have nils lofgren solos which somewhat reinvents the song as well.
any of the songs on nebraska that he does live stand out .
mike ness solo made many of his social d songs country which lyrically isnt that far of a stretch and works well.

i just recently heard a live version the beatles did of yesterday with your basic 2 guitars bass by mccartney and drums and it sounded great to me cause i was so used to hearing the same version all the time so just a departure to me sounds good.
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 02:20AM
Gang of Four's entire album worth - Return the Gift was totally worth the exercise. Even if most of the remix disc was to be avoided, it further emphasized how much more class and talent Go4 has over their contemporaries.

Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 04:05PM
I'm sure not much TP love for him, but Bruce Hornsby teamed up with Ricky Skaggs to produce an outstanding reworking of his "Mandolin Rain."

Also, Paddy McAloon reworked much of Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen album as (much overdubbed) solo acoustic guitar music. I'm not sure it's an improvement, but it probably takes those songs--which I think are both far and away his best and some of the best of the decade as a collection--and makes them sound a bit more timeless.
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 05:06PM
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 09:04PM
Somehow that Phantom Tollbooth album with Pollard seemed about 1/10 as good as the original (which, along with Bug, was on my turntable just about every day for 3 months straight in 1988 or so).
Re: Cover yourself
September 20, 2008 04:09AM
That's brilliant. My estimation of YLT has increased five-fold!
Re: Cover yourself
September 20, 2008 04:29AM
Hilarious! My first YouTube "favorite". (was never willing to register before)

Is Jefferson Airplane considered superior to Black Flag at Rock School? That doesnt sound right...
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 06:22PM
"I'm sure not much TP love for him, but Bruce Hornsby teamed up with Ricky Skaggs to produce an outstanding reworking of his "Mandolin Rain."

Hornsby also did a cover of his "Valley Road" with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on one of their Will the Circle Be Unbroken albums that was a definite improvement.
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 04:39PM
Yo
La
Tengo !

They should definitely do an entire album of career-spanning self-covers!

Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 05:00PM
> They should definitely do an entire album of career-spanning self-covers!

In the old days, that was called a live album, wasn't it?
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 05:55PM


Sparks - Plagiarism

Although I don't really consider any of the versions on it to be improvements on the originals.

Which makes me wonder - during their marathon performances of all their albums I mentioned in another thread today, did Sparks perform Plagiarism?



Post Edited (09-19-08 14:56)
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 06:58PM
In that vein, I love the live versions of "I May Hate You Sometimes" and "Believe in Something Other (Than Yourself)" on the Posies' In Case You Didn't Feel Like Plugging In far better than the studio versions on their first album.
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 07:01PM
"In the old days, that was called a live album, wasn't it?"


Live album?! Get out of the past, Granddad. The Foghat Principle has long since been discredited.



Post Edited (09-19-08 16:01)
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 08:20PM
Never heard of "the Foghat Principle," sonny.
Re: Cover yourself
September 19, 2008 09:48PM
No Foghat principle? Sounds like someone needs to go to rock school!

Re: Cover yourself
September 28, 2008 07:46AM
The Banshees 'The Thorn' EP are 4 preexisting tracks totally redone with an orchestra.

Juliana Hatfield gave "Nirvana", originally a Blake Babies acoustic song, the full band treatment on her debut solo album.

Modern English pointlessly released a new version of "I Melt With You" in '90/'91.

Babes In Toyland gave "He's My Thing", a song originally found on their '89 debut, a bit more punch for an EP that came out in '93.
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