Cover Me Monday #18: Night Fever

In tribute to Martin's excellent series Cover Charge, which reach its impressive fiftieth edition late last week, I am reviving one of my old series... for one day only.

Here's an original tune by the peerless Gibb brothers, which I'm sure you're all familiar with...

And here's a cover which sounds nothing like the original, but does sound very much like a Jonathan Richman song. This is taken from JR's new album, Only Frozen Sky Anyway, which comes out to buy in October, but it's available digitally now. You know you want to...

Cover Me Monday #17: Downer

Old blog series don't ever die...they just hibernate until I have a reason to bring them back.

I don't think American/Armenian heavy metal band System of a Down have ever featured on this blog before, but there's a first time for everything, and I've always been rather enamoured by their "comedy" hit Chop Suey! (Well, it makes me laugh, whether it was intended to or not.)

That may well be TOO DAMNED LOUD for you on a Bank Holiday Monday though... so why not try the Bluegrass version by my old pals The Dead South (who also haven't ever featured here before: a fact I find quite staggering to comprehend). 

Flaming banjos at the ready!

This is taken from The Dead South's latest collection, Easy Listening For Jers, Pt. 2, which also features glorious banjo-pickin' covers of tracks by The Doors, Ween, The Misfits and others. It's getting quite a lot of plays here at Top Ten Towers.

And you thought you were going to have a nice quiet day off.

Uncover Me Monday #1: Just Don't Want To Be Lonely

Last week's post about Midnight Train To Georgia ended up with me going both backwards and forwards from the most famous version of the song to track down both the original and more recent covers. This led me to thinking about songs I didn't know were cover versions when I first heard them, which brings us to "Uncover Me Monday", a feature that may or may not rotate with "Cover Me Monday", but at least gives me more options to write about.

Case in point, Freddie McGregor's 80s reggae hit, Just Don't Want To Be Lonely, a top ten hit in the UK when I was 15. It wasn't particularly a favourite at the time, but like most songs from that year, I now feel a great nostalgic warmth towards it. But I had no idea, until very recently, that it was a cover.

The song was originally recorded by Ronnie Dyson, who looks about 12, but was apparently 23 when he scraped the US charts with this trumpet-tastic version...

However, the most famous version (to American ears, if not to mine), was recorded by The Main Ingredient, led by Cuba Gooding Jr.'s dad (guess what he was called?). A top ten US hit in 1974, and definitely the best version I've heard. If only because it opens with the question "Hey, where you going with that suitcase?", which immediately sets it ahead of the pack.

Cover Me Monday #16: Midnight Trains

Songwriter Jim Weatherly passed away earlier this month, aged 77. Having written songs for Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney, he worked predominantly in country music... yet his three biggest hits came in the soul arena, via Gladys Knight & The Pips: You're The Best Thing (That Ever Happened To Me), Neither One Of Us Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye... and this, undoubtedly his most famous composition...

A genuine soul classic.

The song was, however, originally recorded by Weatherly himself... with a different title... a different destination... and a different mode of transport.

Many years later, Jim would take a crack at the more famous version. Careful though, there are a couple of versions out there, and with all due respect, one of them sounds like bad karaoke. This would be the one to listen to.

For a proper re-interpretation, more true to Weatherly's original vision, here's Neil Diamond. 

Yes, it's everything you'd expect from a Neil Diamond cover, but stripped back with that voice to the forefront. No, it's nowhere as good as Gladys... but you can't improve on perfection.

 

Cover Me Monday #15: Here We Go Again...

Here's a cover I unearthed on an old mixtape CD I found kicking around. I didn't know anything about the artist, so I suspect this originated as a blog download somewhere in the dim and distant past.

The song is Here I Go Again, originally a Top Ten hit from my teenage years. I'm pretty sure I bought the 7 inch, and I have no shame over that. It's the ultimate poodle rock anthem, and David Coverdale's hairdo is easily as impressive in the video as the girl dancing on the car. It also has a killer riff and a lyric about being a lonely outsider which appealed to my 15 year old self... and still does, if I'm honest.

Twenty-some years later, the song was covered by Audra Mae, apparently for the soundtrack of The Good Wife, another show Louise watched but I never had time to (probably because I was blogging). 

As I said, I didn't know much about Audra Mae, but she appears to have had a pretty crazy career, having worked with The All-American Rejects, Avicii, Flo Rida, Frank Turner and Celine Dion, while she's written songs that have been covered by Miranda Lambert, German Eurovision entrants and Susan Boyle. 

I've not heard anything else she's done, but I have a fondness for her Whitesnake cover... especially as she keeps the killer riff.

Cover Me Monday #14 - Corrosive Lambchop

Cover Me Monday was a regular feature on this blog, pre-lockdown... and then the world fell apart, and so did most of my regular features. Late last week, I stumbled across a classic forgotten cover version that made me want to resurrect the feature... particularly as it had stopped at #13, and I'm a bit superstitious that way. What if I caused the world to fall apart, just by stopping this feature at #13? (I realise that's a rather egocentric view of the world, but I have limited contact with anyone else at the moment... I'm starting to wonder if you're all just figments of my imagination.)

Anyway: Lambchop covering The Sisters of Mercy. From the bonus disc of their 2002 album Is A Woman. I'm sorry, this record can not be almost 20 years old. Where has my life gone?

First, here's the original, because I adore it. (Though I'm betting a few of you don't.)

The Sisters of Mercy produced by Jim Steinman. Like trying to put out a fire by pouring petrol in it. According to Andrew Eldritch, "I called Steinman and explained that we needed something that sounded like a disco party run by the Borgias. And that’s what we got."

Strip away that "disco party run by the Borgias" though, and you're still left with a top song. As Kurt Wagner reveals here...

And while we're on the subject, I'd be remiss if I didn't post this. It's as different from the two tracks above as can possibly be, but together they make up three sides of one very interesting triangle.

They don't throw him a parade

He just comes in on a train

One suitcase in his hand

And an old army backpack

From the second world war

From a Leipzig secondhand store

Pick the keys up from the agent

Everything's been taken care of

No big changes in the roadways

Since you've left that I'm aware of

A few old buildings gone to dust

And some new ones in the way

They'll look just like the old ones

When the winds have had their say

I do take issue with the "No big changes in the roadways" line though, since back in the late 80s, early 90s, I found it pretty easy to get around Leeds in a car. The inner loop is a Kafka-esque nightmare now though.

Cover Me Monday #13: I Will Survive

Gloria Gaynor's disco hit I Will Survive was originally seen as a female empowerment anthem, although in recent years it has also been embraced by the LGBT community for its message of not giving up even when it seems like the whole world's against you. Apparently the American Library of Congress selected it to be included in the National Re cording Registry as a track that is "culturally, historically, or artistically significant". And who am I to argue with any of that? It's a fine song...

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

There are plenty of interesting cover version around though, which take the song way beyond its disco roots. For example, there's the country version...

Billie Jo Spears - I Will Survive

The jazz version...

Postmodern Jukebox - I Will Survive

The R.E.M. version...

R.E.M. - I Will Survive

The John Otway pretending to be Bob Dylan version...

John Otway - I Will Survive

The Nigel The Cockatoo version (aka Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords)...

Nigel The Cockatoo - I Will Survive

And this, which is apparently Gloria Gaynor's least favourite version, because it's a bit too sweary (edited here to make it more radio friendly). I was always very fond of this cover though...

Cover Me Monday #12: Jump!

Jump is one of the most ubiquitous pop/rock singles of the 80s, and as such it is loathed by many. It's the moment where Van Halen embraced synths and downplayed heavy rock in favour of superstardom, so you can imagine how well that went down with certain parts of their fandom. It also (allegedly, according to Daryl Hall, who says he's "all right with it) steals its synth line from Hall & Oates' Kiss On My List, which must have had even more Van Halen fans tearing out their poodle-length hair.

It's worth saying that, like it or not, Jump! must be one of the most iconic pop videos of the MTV era, and David Lee Roth proves with worth as a Mick Jagger-esque frontman right here...


They don't make pop stars - or pop videos - like that anymore, and the world is a darker place without them.

Eddie Van Halen apparently wrote the lyrics to Jump! after watching a news report of a man threatening to commit suicide wherein one of the onlookers exhorted him to "go ahead and jump!", although Eddie intended the lyric to be more about jumping into a relationship than throwing yourself off a building.

Enter Roddy Frame, who slowed the song down and returned it to its suicide-inducing roots as the b-side of Aztec Camera's All I Need Is Everything less than a year after Van Halen's original had left the charts.

Ah, you might as well jump

Well, you might as well jump

Go ahead and jump

You might as well jump

Seems appropriate for a Monday morning...

Cover Me Monday #11: People Just Ain't No Good

PJANG was a comic I wrote, maybe about 15 or so years ago, and the title - while meant to sound like a classic piece of comic book onomatopoeia - stood for People Just Ain't No Good.

This title was stolen from the song of (virtually) the same name from my favourite Nick Cave album, The Boatman's Call. Actually, if I ever got round to doing a Top Ten Nick Cave Songs, People Ain't No Good (he adds the Just when he sings it) would probably be Number One.



Because I'm always late to every party, I only really discovered the song... and in due course, a great love of Nick Cave... through the cover recorded back in 2003 for what is probably my favourite Lloyd Cole album, Music In A Foreign Language. (Is it better than Rattlesnakes...? Eek.) I think I was mildly into Nick Cave before then - I'd had a copy of his Greatest Hits since it came out in 1998 - but People Ain't No Good wasn't included in that collection, and Lloyd's cover brought me back to it... and soon led me much further down that dark avenue.

The thing about this song is that while it's obviously a Nick Cave song, its lyrics are also very Lloyd Cole. Particularly the verse below...

The sun would stream on the sheets

Awoken by the morning bird

We'd buy the Sunday newspapers

And never read a single word

It's obvious why Lloyd chose to cover it. He could have written those words himself.

As to why I chose to call my comic People Just Ain't No Good... well, as Stan Lee used to say: 'Nuff Said.

It ain't that in their hearts they're bad

They can comfort you, some even try

They nurse you when you're ill of health

They bury you when you go and die

It ain't that in their hearts they're bad

They'd stick by you if they could

But that's just bullshit baby

People just ain't no good

Apologies to any People reading this. I don't mean you, obviously.

Cover Me Monday #10: Back In The High Life

I make no apologies for featuring Warren Zevon again today because this one was suggested by a couple of people in response to last week's ICA over at The Vinyl Villain.

Back In The High Life Again was the title track (minus its last word) of Steve Winwood's biggest hit album, from 1986 - the same one that gave us Higher Love. As with most of Winwood's 80s output, it's extremely polished AOR, and while I've always liked the track, I never paid much attention to the lyrics. It's great radio pop - it washes over you and leaves you feeling good, but it's hardly going to make you sit down and invest yourself in its story.

Steve Winwood - Back In The High Life Again

Until that is, Warren Zevon gets a hold of it. In 2000, Zevon recorded a slowed down, stripped back over of the song on his album Life'll Kill Ya that peeled off the gloss and recast the lyrics with heartbreak and regret. His voice cracks with emotion as he sings it... I can almost see him biting his lip, trying to hold back the tears, as though he knows the hope he's singing about will never be fulfilled. The song becomes an elegy, which I don't think is how Winwood wrote it, but god, is it powerful.

It really is a gorgeous performance.

Cover Me Monday #9: Indelicate Covers

 

The best present I received this Christmas did not come from family or friends (note: the few friends I still possess do not trade Christmas presents with me, we understand that the sharing of gifts only leads to inevitable disappointment, so don't bother). It came instead from Simon & Julia Indelicate.

The crowd-funding campaign for their last album (the excellent Juniverbrechter, my favourite album of 2017) came with an option to choose your own song for Simon & Julia to cover. Being perpetually skint, I couldn't afford that option myself, but plenty of fans did, and the results were mailed out to us all on Christmas Eve.

27 tracks in total, and no rushed, half-arsed covers to be found here... Julia and Simon have taken their time with each of these, drawing on their full range of influences: from indie guitar pop to Betrolt Brecht, classic Country & Western to electro-pop, Jim Steinman to music hall. The choice of covers is equally eclectic, from Altered Images to Iron Maiden, George Strait to Carter USM, the Kinks to the Buffy musical episode soundtrack.

The album is a heap of fun, and not just for hardcore Indelicates fans like myself. Some of the covers are surprisingly faithful (their version of Little Baby Nothing by the Manics reminded me how much I loved the original) while others veer off on crazy tangents (their sleazy, double bass reading of EMF's Unbelievable is a hoot... and helped me hear the lyrics of that tune for the first time ever). Even the selections Simon & Julia weren't particularly fond of (Muse, The Libertines) are treated with surprising respect, and the collection also introduced me to at least one band I'd never heard of before, Young Galaxy: further investigation required.

The great thing is, because the whole album was recorded as a not-for-profit reward, the band are happy for me to share it with you. Here's Julia to explain...

We hope you enjoy these records. Obviously, we don’t own any of the copyrights so we can’t really upload them anywhere else – but do feel free to do whatever you want in terms of sharing them. 

Also, if you enjoy these recordings, we’d love it if you could let us and the world know on your social media platform of choice.

Happy to oblige.

Follow this link to download the album and enjoy. 

Full track-listing below. It's hard for me to pick a favourite, but their version of Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter has me grinning from ear to ear.

1. Introduction

2. Little Baby Nothing (Manic Street Preachers)

3. Red Right Hand (Nick Cave)

4. Youth Is Wasted On The Young (Young Galaxy)

5. England (Carter USM)

6. Amarillo By Morning (George Strait)

7. Girlfriend Is Better (Talking Heads)

8. A Book Of The Seven Seals (The Indelicates)

9. The Guns Of Brixton (The Clash)

10. Complexity (Sparkwood and 21)

11. Pinky Blue (Altered Images)

12. England Swings (Roger Miller)

13. Unbelievable (E.M.F.)

14. Tonight The Streets Are Ours (Richard Hawley)

15. Dead Man’s Gun (Ashtar Command – Red Dead Redemption soundtrack)

16. O Song (Augie March)

17. Climbing Up To The Moon (Eels)

18. Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell)

19. Alcohol (The Kinks)

20. Up The Wolves (The Mountain Goats)

21. She Thinks His Name Was John (Reba McEntire)

22. Walk Through The Fire (The Buffy Soundtrack)

23. Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter (Iron Maiden)

24. Time For Heroes (The Libertines)

25. Starlight (Muse)

+

26. Little Baby Nothing (live bonus track)
27. Amarillo By Morning (live bonus track)

If you like what you hear, you can find much more from The Indelicates at their website.

Cover Me Monday #6: Guitar Man

I didn't discover that Jerry Reed wrote Guitar Man until recently. Before I became a fan of his back catalogue, I only really knew Reed from his role as Cledus "Snowman" Snow in Smokey & The Bandit (for which he also wrote and sung the theme tune, East Bound & Down). As well as being an actor, Reed was a successful singer and guitarist, but he arguably found the most mainstream success as a songwriter, scoring hits for Elvis and Johnny Cash, among others. Let's face it, once Elvis has had hits with a couple of your tunes. life probably becomes a lot easier.

Here's Jerry's original version of Guitar Man.

And here's Elvis's version, the one most people recognise.

My first exposure to the song was in the early 90s though, when it was included on a charity compilation of Elvis covers released by the NME, called The Last Temptation of Elvis. There are some mighty fine covers on this two disc set, including The Pogues doing Got A Lot O'Livin' To Do, Fuzzbox with Trouble and You're So Square by The Primitives. The set leads off with Bruce's version of Viva Las Vegas, which is OK... but I always preferred the ZZ Top cover.

However, my favourite track on that compilation was the Jesus & Mary Chain doing Guitar Man. An unusual choice for the band in question, since it's such an upbeat song with a real pop tune... unlike most of their own material. They make it typically JAMC though - lots of feedback! - and while I'm not saying it's better than Elvis or Jerry... it's definitely a contender.

Cover Me Christmas - Do They Know...?

No Hot 100 this week, I'm afraid. Firstly, I've been busy trying to compile my Top 19 Albums of 2019; secondly because I was in bed with a stomach bug all yesterday. Feeling heaps better today, but still taking it easy.

Here's another Christmas cover for those of you who are sick of the original version featuring Bono, Sting and Sir Thumbs Aloft... or the Band Aid II version featuring Bros and Sonia... or the 2004 version featuring Chris Martin, Bono and Robbie Williams (which I don't think I've ever heard)... or the 2014 version featuring Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora and Bono (which I definitely haven't ever heard). Wonder what Bono was doing in 1989?

Whenever I think of all those famous people stuck in a recording studio with Bono's ego, I always think: "Tonight, thank God it's them instead of you."

Anyway, this version always makes me smile... and it's only one minute 26 seconds long!

Cover Me Monday #3: Hold On

Hard as it may be to believe, I know that there are some people reading this who just can't get on board the Tom Waits rollercoaster. It's the voice, I know. All those years gargling with whiskey and razor-blades takes its toll. That voice is Marmite - you either love it or hate it. (I have a Billy Bragg sticker on the noticeboard in front of me in which Billy compares himself to Marmite. But Billy is Blueberry Jam compared to Tom Waits.)

Curiously, I'm rather ambivalent about Marmite myself. I don't really care for it on toast, but I do like Marmite flavoured cashew nuts - very more-ish.

Anyway, whether you like Tom's voice or not (I do), you must surely agree that he's written some fine songs. Many of them are collected on this new covers album, Women Sing Waits, and I think it's fair to say that all of the ladies present have more mellifluous voices than old Tom... although that doesn't mean their covers are better than the originals. Strange world isn't it? Still, with Phoebe Bridgers, Roseanne Cash, Iris DeMent, Corinne Bailey-Rae and Courtney Marie Andrews among the sirens gathered to pay tribute to Tom, you're guaranteed some quality renditions, whatever your views on Marmite.

Special mention to Allison Moorer & Shelby Lynne's cover of Ol' 55, a song English teachers everywhere admire because it's where Tom invents the adverb "lickety-splitly": undeniable genius.

The highlight of this collection for me though is the Aimee Mann cover of Hold On. Here's Tom with the original...



Tom turned 70 last week, by the way. You may find that hard to believe as he's sounded 90 for most of his life...

They hung a sign up in our town

"If you live it up, you won't live it down"

Well, go ahead and call the cops

You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops

And now, here's Aimee...

Cover Me Monday #2: Different Drum

Different Drum was written by Mike Nesmith, and we really can stop any discussion about how great it is right there because: it written by Mike Nesmith. Apparently Nesmith tried to get the tune onto the Monkees soundtrack but it was rejected by the idiots in charge, for idiots they must have been.

Apparently the song was first recorded by The Greenbriar Boys in 1966, a version I'm hearing for the first time as I write this, and I like it a lot. Maybe because it's just such a great song that a bad version isn't really possible. (I'm sure George will try to find one though.)

The version that most people are familiar with is this one...



...although I struggle with that version myself. It starts out a bit too jangly-60s for my tastes, although it does redeem itself as soon as Linda Ronstadt starts singing. (By the way: Ronstadt... hardest pop star name to spell in the history of pop star names? Answers on a postcard if you can think of any that are harder to spell.)

I'd still argue that Nesmith's own version, released a few years later, is better. You may, of course, choose to disagree.

However, I first heard this song back in the early 90s, back before I knew The Stone Poneys or anything about Michael Nesmith's involvement. And it's this version, my first love, which will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Take it away, The Slacker King himself...

Cover Me Monday #1

Here's a new feature which I hope will act as a bit of a palate cleanser after a full weekend of Saturday Snapshotting. Especially needed after this weekend's accidental double bubble.

Simply put, a classic tune...



...followed by an interesting cover version.



At risk of stealing one of Charity Chic's old ideas, feel free to tell me which you prefer... though I doubt anyone will deny the original is best in the case. I hope you enjoy the cover though. I found it rather refreshing.