Run for
April 17, 2006
I've been thinking about covers lately. Not, you know, the kind you find on your bed, but song covers.
Once upon a time I had two roommates who really hated covers. Both big Beatles fans, the topic came up one afternoon when we stumbled across the movieI Am Sam on television, the soundtrack for which happens to be all Beatles covers. My two roomies were appalled first of all by the idea of cover songs, and also by the fact that someone (or in this case, several someones) would dare cover THE BEATLES. That�s how I remember it anyway. Maybe they weren�t actually appalled, but there was definitely a lot of scoffing.
In any case�though I hadn�t thought of it much before then�I realized that I really LIKE covers. I mean, so many times I�ve heard a song and thought, �Man, I wish I�d thought of that first,� and I see covers as a way to pay tribute to the great thoughts and talents of others, while adding one�s own interpretation or twist. Incidentally, I also generally like movie spoofs and remakes. Oh, I also (and here�s where things start to get controversial) like music sampling, as popularized in hip hop and rap {ducking}. But seriously, the way I see it, that sort of thing doesn�t bury or bastardize the original, but actually serves to keep the original alive. I know that generally people tend to hate that sort of thing, but this is how I feel�covers, samples, spoofs, remakes, they�re all a sort of cultural shout-out, a way to connect the past with the present.
I�ve been thinking about covers lately though because of various behind-the-music type shows I�ve happened to see lately. As Kurt Cobain�s suicide was commemorated earlier this month (incidentally, my musings on the topic is one of my favorite early entries), I saw several shows discussing his life and death, and of course one of the greatest covers of all time (in my and several other people�s opinions) with Nirvana�s �The man who stole the world�. I�ve also been on a Dixie Chicks kick lately (yeah, don�t snicker. When you can harmonize and play the mandolin, dobro, and fiddle that beautifully, then we can talk), and the thing that got me into the Dixie Chicks in the first place was �Goodbye Earl�, but their cover of Fleetwood Mac�s �Landslide� a few years later sealed the deal for me.
So anyway, I was going to make a list of my top ten favorite covers, but that�s boring, and aside from the two mentioned above, the other eight can mostly be found on this list of 100 greatest covers. If you�re really bored you can guess at the other eight.
No, instead I�m going to make a list of the top ten songs I would like to cover, if, you know, I had any musical talent and/or anyone other than me cared to listen to these covers.
Top ten songs I would cover if I had any musical talent:
White Wedding, Billy Idol
Love is a battlefield, Pat Benatar
Head over Heals, The Go-Go�s
Walk like an Egyptian, The Bangles (seriously, who better than me?)
Drain you, Nirvana
Something�s always wrong, Toad the wet sprocket
Raoui, Souad Massi
Crawling back to you, Tom Petty
The very thought of you , Billy Holiday
Be my baby, The Ronettes
Oo. Looking at this list I realize there are many, many more songs I�d like to put on the list. Hmm. Maybe it�s more that I�d like to karaoke these songs rather than cover them.
Got covers?