Someone sent me this video earlier.
It’s two young kids playing Smells Like Teen Spirit in a garage. They’re not that bad, all things (e.g. the absence of bass) considered, but (unsurprisingly) their version is about a million miles away from the tumbling molten ferocity of the real thing.
It got me reflecting on something we touched on briefly last week; tunes that should not be covered. There are some songs that are so perfectly nailed by their originators that there’s really no room for a re-imagining, no space for tribute. You don’t want to hear anyone else’s “take”, you just want them to back up and respect the real deal enough to leave it alone.
Partly, this can be a function of performance; it doesn’t matter who you are, you aren’t going to be able to perform God Save The Queen with the nerveless vim and absolute clarity of purpose that John Lydon brought to proceedings.
Partly, it can be to do with virtuosity – ain’t nobody ever going to play Voodoo Child (Slight Return) like Jimi.
And partly, it can be down to timing. A Change Is Gonna Come, in addition to being the greatest song ever recorded, is perfectly and absolutely of its moment, a perfect instant in history that cannot be reworked or repackaged without losing at least some of its original moral authority. Otis freaking Redding couldn’t lay a glove on it, so you really shouldn’t even try.
To be clear, I’m not talking here about songs that HAVE no good covers. I’m talking about songs for which there should NEVER be a cover. Songs so perfect that human beings should simply admire them from a distance.
I’m sure there are others. So are you. So name them below.
O, I don’t know, there are a few good covers of SLTS. I have about 7 from the Ukrainians to Patti Smith, Mary Lou Lord to Richard Cheese. Here’s one. Tori Amos
(Wonder who I’ll upset this time?)
And here’s an instrumental cover from jazz piano trio The Bad Plus.
And, indeed, No.
This was a favourite at a club I used to visit about 15 years ago:
A straight cover of SLTS seems a bit pointless. But if someone takes it somewhere completely different I can’t see the harm.
I like that. I will add to my DJ box.
No.
I’m nominating Same White Bitch Got You Strung Out On Cane by Schoolly D.
I’m not saying Alfie Boe didn’t try, but the song was too big for him, and maybe anyone.
I think it’s brave to give Kurt a shot.
That’s no way to talk about the Prince of Hearts.
Re: the Van thread. I think it’s telling that the only serious cover of Tupelo Honey is by Dusty Springfield. I suspect Cassandra Wilson’s is mmm-nice but mmm-toojazzy and well Murder By Death may just not be up to Van’s orginal. Contrast that with the number of covers of Moondance say – everyone from Nana Mouskouri to Ute Lemper has had a go.
And on the OP s:ongs so perfect that human beings should simply admire them from a distance.
In the spirit of the post I’m going to however not post the Blink-182 cover of Another Girl…. or The Replacements, Babyshambles or The Mighty Lemon Drops or no hang on this is just so awful it can’t not post it. Ian Broadie sounds like a tired commuter on a bus to the Wirral talking to the person next to him about his relationship problems. Hurray saved from the Lightning Seeds by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain:
Point proved.
I might get hated for this, but IMO, after the truly astounding intro “Another Girl, Another Planet” goes a bit “meh..” pretty quickly.
There’s another thread in that: classic tracks that you only need to hear the first minute or so. I’d put Voodoo Child (Slight Return) into that category – the essential stuff is all in the first couple of minutes.
The Band’s Chest Fever.
Vote Garth!
Live the intro became longer and longer until it became its own song called The Genetic Method
I love his hair waving about in The Last Waltz like a fuzzy antenna.
I really like Aaron Neville’s cover of A Change Is Gonna Come. I’m less fond of Take That’s cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit. I nominate Laurie Anderson’s O Superman as a song it would be pointless trying to cover. And yet…
I have a nasty feeling this may be your slow jam, Gary.
Nah, that’s ‘orrid. Thisun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_LK9XyWFX8
Yeah, but no.
Aaron Neville’s highly-melismatic style of singing doesn’t suit the song as well as Sam Cooke’s, so it’s a not really from me too.
I used to think Spirits version of Like a Rolling Stone was one of the best reinventions ever and years later it still sends a shiver down the spine when I put the headphones on and heard the whispered vocals…
Sounds like a secondary school music class that got badly out of hand.
One if the reasons I love Spirit is the fact that they refused to acknowledge that the 60s was over, well into the next decade.
Wait … what?
Crabsodey in Blue from AC/DC’s let there be rock album.
A song even the band themselves pulled from the CD release.
My, how times have changed.
I think what Smells Like Teen Spirit needs is to be slowed right down by a breathy female singer with an acoustic guitar*, to bring out the superior qualities of the song. And perferably used on a Christmas TV advert.
*Takes cover at a safe distance, dons tin hat, waits for Bob to blow a gasket*
(*) Or played in an ironic style by a bloke wearing a beret.
If only someone would cleverly reveal its medieval chord structure, we could finally all enjoy it properly.
I wish someone would get Emily Maitlis to misquote the lyrics on her to-the-credits link at the end of a television programme. That’d really bring it to life for me.
“I read the news today, oh girl”
…..switchboard ablaze!
BERRRRRYLLLLLLL!
or done as a harp-y jazzy style
I’m goin’ to town with Nelson Riddle and Frank Sinatra at the moment so I may be a little prejudiced but…
No one should go near “More Than A Feeling” by Boston. That riff should just be left alone……
Smells Like Teen Spirit?
(it’s close enough)
Most Beach Boys?
Wichita Lineman, I’d definately say leave that alone.
You’re probably right, Gangle, but I am very fond of Villagers so I’d acknowledge their version as worthwhile…
Never heard a top cover version of Faces – Stay With Me
Def Leppard tried, but it aint got the swagger, sound is to full and messily distorted – Faces original has a full-on bombast with a brittle bar room blues underpinning ithave I passed the “journo-b*llocks writing audition for Mojo?
Stay With Me is a very good shout.
My nomination is a song that came up on shuffle this morning while I was walking the dog. “Life Is A Minestrone”. I can’t imagine any rearrangement that would improve it and the perfect production (42 yrs ago!) makes it sound like it was recorded yesterday. I suspect the same could be said of many other 10cc songs…
Hullo Pluto!
I was listening to an album last week, thinking this artist is impossible to cover, the songs are so peculiar to them. Can I remember who it was? Can I feck.
Was it Chicory Tip?
I think the majority of songs I know and like shouldn’t be covered actually. Only a very few at most. I just feel that pop and rock music as we know it since the sixties, has been as much about sounds and noises created in the studio in the moment as it has been about songwriting in the sense of Cole Porter and the like. Sometimes more so. We don’t need virtuoso musicians and trained singers to do it right!
Anyway, Heroes by Bowie should absolutely not be touched. That particular Fripp guitar and the heartfelt vocal are definitive. Unfortunately the demand for tunes to soundtrack the celebration of the achievements, sporting or otherwise, of certain people on TV shows is great and this masterwork gets co-opted into such endeavours from time to time.
Heroes is spot on. Something about the *sound* of the thing is just completely intrinsic to the song. In someone else’s hands, it would almost certainly have been greatly diminished.
As it was by Oasis – sludged to death.
Blondie can provide evidence of how Heroes is best left uncovered. I love Debs and the boys, but it stinks.
Can´s Halleluhwah. Or anything by Can, for that matter. But imagine, say, Stereophonics trying to give Halleluhwah a go. Though I find it hard to imagine Stereophonics trying to give anyting a go.
There you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33bz84Y3f48
Will. I .Am should have just walked away……….