Day 184: So, I wonder what would happen if you were to combine the sounds of 1970s Motown funk and 1990's post punk alternative? Well, the answer would be the super-high energy tour-de-force that is the Red Hot Chili Pepper's cover of the 1973 Stevie Wonder classic "Higher Ground." This version of this song flat. out. rocks. I don't know what else to say, just stop everything you are doing and go dance in your living room for a few minutes. "Preachers, keep on preaching'!"
04/03/2015
Day 185: At some point in 1992, I saw a very simple video for a song that I kind of liked. I remembers that the name of the song was "Blue Flower," but the name of the band didn't really stick with me. I added the video to my VHS library, but I didn't think much more about it. But, over the years, the tune and lyrics still stuck with me. A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to try out the CD, so I pulled out my old list of music videos and found out the video was from the band "The Pale Saints," and I placed the CD "In Ribbons" on my Xmas list. When I received the disc, I was a little surprised to see that this particular track was apparently not on all versions of the CDs, perhaps due to the fact that it is a cover of a song from the early 90s shoegazer act Mazzie Star. Fortunately, a little scouring of the internet eventually led to a download of the song. The song itself is an understated little gem with that hallmark sheogazer wall of sound and lovely, light female vocals. I particularly like the line, "Superstar in your own private movie. I wanted just a minor part. But I'm no fool, I know you're cool. I never really wanted your heart."
04/04/2015
Day 186: As I mentioned a few months ago, I have never been a huge fan of The Smashing Pumpkins, but I have also discussed at some length my soft spot for Fleetwood Mac. So, when I heard that the Pumpkins did a cover of the song "Landslide," on their 1994 album Pisces Iscariot, I was a bit intrigued. Although I still like the original version better, Billy Corgan's voice sits nicely on the track, and you just have to love the chorus, "Well, I've been afraid of changing 'cause I've built my life around you. But time makes you bolder, even children get older, And I'm getting older too." Aren't we all?
04/05/2015
Day 187: I have probably given the impression throughout this project that I feel that I am often the first person to discover a new band or new song, but that is certainly not the case. In fact, there are some cases where I have been dreadfully late to the party. A prime example of this is the stunningly beautiful "Hallelujah," by Jeff Buckley, which also seems appropriate for this lovely Easter morning. It is odd, in a way, because I remember when his 1994 debut album "Grace" hit the airwaves in 1994. I really liked the first single "Last Goodbye." But, for whatever reason, I never probed any deeper than that and never purchased the album. Buckley's life was cut tragically short by a swimming accident in 1997, and Grace was the only studio album he ever recorded. I then became reacquainted with today's song many years later during my "Toyota Renaissance," and I was shocked that somehow missed this truly brilliant song for so many years. In the spirit of the current chapter, the song is actually the cover of a Leonard Cohen song, but I think that there is no doubt who recorded the best version. So even if you "don't really care for music," I think that you might like today's selection.
04/06/2015
Day 188: It has been a while since I have featured R.E.M. in this project and I would guess that most of you are unaware that they ever recorded any covers. Well, that is sort of true. But, on their 1987 collection of B-sides known as "Dead Letter Office," the opening track is a little number called "Crazy," that apparently was the B-side for the song "Driver 8" (see Day 6), but was also a cover from another Athens, GA band called Pylon. I have never actually heard the original version of the song, but the R.E.M. version has that awesome early R.E.M. combination of Peter Buck's subtle, yet rocking guitar and Michael Stipe's almost completely unintelligible (dare I say, dreamlike?) vocals. I have always thought the song was crazy good.
04/07/2015
Day 189: Sometimes, you discover that I song is a cover in a fairly embarrassing manner. At some point in college, I bought another B-sides and rarities album, only this time it was from the British band Catherine Wheel. My personal favorite song on the album with this great little song called "Wish You Were Here" At some point, I must have been talking to Jen about the album and the song, and she likely said, "you mean the famous Pink Floyd song?" I most likely answered by saying something like, "No, it's a song by Catherine Wheel... the album just came out." Sometimes I am a bit slow... But no matter who originally wrote today's song, you just have to love the slow-burn intensity and passion of the lyrics. (Oh, and for the record, I still like the Catherine Wheel version best... don't tell Jen.)
04/08/2015
Day 190: Today's message is two-fold. The song, "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by Camper Van Beethoven is objectively a fun little romp of a song that I remember fondly from my early High School days. Like some of the other songs in this chapter, I never realized it was a cover until several years later when I heard the original version from 1968 from the band Status Quo on an oldies station. It took a few bars for me to realize what was happening, but then it kind of made sense, because I really don't like too many of CVB's other songs.
But, the main memory that I associate with this song is a bit more somber, because I associate it with my friend Laurie Boos, who was tragically killed in a car accident during my Junior year of High School. It seems like some sort of law of probability that almost ever High School class winds up going through some sort of tragedy, and for the Class of 1994, it was ours. Like many of my circle of friends, Laurie was involved in Band, Academic Games, and Science Olympiad and her death was really the first time in many of our lives that we had to deal with something like that. I still remember taking the call from Rich that night that she died, and I still remember going to a previously scheduled National Honors Society Meeting at the High School that night that turned into a grief session. I still remember meeting Ishina in the parking lot that night and realizing she had not yet heard the news. It was tough on all of us in different ways and for different reasons, and as kids we really didn't know what to do or how to respond to each other or even to ourselves. It was life-changing. But, getting back to today's song, the CVB version begins with a fun little violin riff that lasts for a few seconds before a blast of heavy guitar. One day my friends and I (most likely Leo, Alvan, Eric, and Bob) were sitting in the Stockbridge band room planning this song on a boom box when Laurie walked by. She heard the violin intro and said something like, "nice song guys," in a somewhat playful manner. We all knew what was coming, so we all just sat there and watched her walk away. Once the loud guitar riff cut in, Laurie jumped, slightly startled, and then just looked back over her shoulder and simply smiled. I won't forget that smile for as long as I live.
04/09/2015
Day 191: A few months ago I mentioned how the 1991 Pixies album "Trompe Le Monde" was the first album of theirs to really catch my interest. While the previously featured song "Alec Eiffel" remains my favorite song from that album, it was actually the first single from that album, today's selection "Head On," that first piqued my interest with the album and the band. As it turns out, the song is actually a cover from the Scottish Alternative post-punk glam rockers known as The Jesus and Mary Chain from just 2 years before. But, the Pixies version puts a kick-ass, surf rock spin on the number that just hits you "Head On" and doesn't let go. Oh yeaaaaah!
04/10/2015
Day 192: Today's selection is a bit of an ironic one. It's the Cover that is not actually a Cover. You may be familiar with the song "There She Goes," as a song made famous in 1999 by the pseudo Christian alternative band known as Six Pence None The Richer. However, the original song was actually written and performed by the British band The La's in 1991. Sadly, The La's fall solidly into the category of One-Hit-Wonders, but this simple, beautiful song is one of those almost perfect alternative pop songs. It has a great a great acoustic guitar line, contains about 2 dozen words only, and lasts less than three minutes for those people with short attention spans. In this case, the original is better than the Cover.
04/11/2015
Day 193: One weekend evening a few years back, Jen and I were at home with I believe the Grammys playing in the background. During one of the commercial breaks, a certain ad appeared that neither of us had ever seen before. The soundtrack to the ad was a song that was strangely familiar being sung by a voice that was also familiar, but the combination was new, fresh, and in all honesty, amazing. The ad itself turned out to be an ad for the restaurant chain Chipotle which highlights the companies (apparent) focus sustainable agriculture using super, super cute animation. But, the song was a cover of the Coldplay tune "The Scientist" as sung by Willie Nelson. Now, we were both fairly familiar with the original track, but there was just something about the stripped down, raw, melancholy Willie Nelson version that simply made us stop in our tracks until the ad was over and then run to our PC to download the track on iTunes. Immediately. Most likely with some tears in the corners of our eyes.
So with that, I would like to close this chapter on band's musical homage to other bands. But today's song got me to thinking: there are an awful lot of songs that I have come to appreciate in part or in whole due to their appearance on TV or in Movies. That sounds like a good topic for a new chapter, doesn't it?
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