Wednesday, March 16, 2011: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

For me, a good cover version takes the song into a new direction, or even a new dimension.

Honestly, what is the point of doing a cover of something and have it sound exactly like the original?  I mean, really.

A good cover should make you look at the song differently, maybe even show you different meanings, or see new ideas.

Yes, sometimes an artist can take the creative train way all the way into Dagenham* (I'm looking at you, Flying Lizards), but generally it works.  And it rarely worked better than our first song up for today, Devo's New Wave take on the stone cold classic Satisfaction.

Almost getting into Flying Lizards territory is this lovely gem from The Cardigans.  Yes, the Swedish group known mostly for the Fluffy Cotton Candy Pop of "Lovefool" dares take on the hallowed ground of classic Heavy Metal band Black Sabbath.

But what at first seems like a joke, a playful lite-jazz counter-point to the dark, weighty crunch of the original song, soon gives way to oodles of subtle irony (natch), and even open mocking (cue the breathless fawning voices crying "Oh Iron Man"). This is an outstanding effort, a truly knowing and thought out take on a not so obvious target. Very well done.



And now for our last Mad selection. Which, ironically enough isn't Gary Jules thoughtful version of Mad World. No, it's Paul Anka's all killer version of Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun.

I'm a huge fan of jazzed up versions of popular songs, I especially like the work of Richard Cheese and Lounge Against The Machine. In fact, his take on Gun's And Roses Welcome To The Jungle needs to be mentioned in any discussion of cool covers.

The downside, however, with Richard Cheese is that he knows he is being clever and ironic. So, while his stuff is funny and provides a very well needed stab at the pretentiousness of today's music, I just end up feeling that he never really connects with his material. I realize that sounds like a typical "critic" thing to say, but compare Mr Cheese's Welcome To The Jungle with Mr Anka's version of Black Hole Sun, and you'll see what I mean.

Paul Anka makes you believe that he believes in the material. I have no idea if he is actually being clever and ironic, he may well be, but he never lets the listener in on the joke. And that's the trick, that's where the magic happens. This song is (almost) as straight as Put Your Head On My Shoulder.

And, friend, THAT is glorious.




* Dagenham is three stops past Barking. Barking Mad, you see. . . .oh, never mind.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011: TWOfer Tuesday - The "Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, Play A Song For Me" Edition

Bob Dylan: Probably one of the greatest songwriters ever, with one of the most disagreeable voices ever.

Which is a perfect recipe for a slew of brilliant cover versions.

Yesterday I crowned Hendrix's cover of Dylan's All Along The Watchtower the greatest cover ever.

But that only scratches the surface of what artists have done with Mr Zimmerman's back catalog.

We've started with, as you may know, gentle reader, one of my favourite bands of all time, doing an absolute killer version of "Tangled Up In Blue". The Girls really explore this song, putting it through its paces to bring out as much colour, light and shade as they can. It's a genius track, and one of my favourite all time covers.

From that rawkus start, we downshift to a more introspective acoustic number from the always wonderful Shawn Colvin. And some fingerpicking skills that makes me want to put away the acoustic guitar forever and take up needlepoint.



Lastly, I know it's usually only a TWOfer Tuesday, but what say we kick this up a notch with a third Dylan selection which, unless you've been living under a rock, needs no introduction.

Monday, March 14, 2011: Ike & Tina Turner - Proud Mary

It's COVERS WEEK here on CSOTD!

Finally!

 As I mentioned way back in September of last year, my first themed week was supposed to be Covers Week, but I got cold feet and did Cool Song Goes To The Movies. Which actually turned out really great, if I do say so myself, with the Tangerine Dream TWOfer Tuesday still remaining one of my favourite blogs I've ever written.

Since then we've explored the Golden State during California Week, but it has been quite on the Theme Week front ever since.

I do apologize, and thanks to some recent inspiration (you guys and gals know who you are), I will hopefully make things right with a week chock full of totally cool covers.

First, let me tell you what this week will NOT be about: It will not be about the BEST covers.  This week will not be some prolonged exploration of the high (or low) art of making a killer cover eventually leading to some lame listing of what I think are the top cover versions ever made.  What the hell do I know.

If you want the greatest cover version of all time, please listen to Jimi Hendrix's version of Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower. Done, there's the top of the list for you.

It's all downhill from here. And that's nice, frankly, it releases a lot of the pressure.  Which is why I bailed on the first chance to do Covers Week, the pressure.  Don't you know there are millions of covers out there?

So, to kick things off, let us start with something something nice and easy.

Or, you know, something that at least starts nice.  And easy.

Believe me, I'm a huge CCR fan, but Proud Mary was always a lackluster effort from them.  I know many people think it's a classic, but it bores me to tears.

Ike & Tina truly made a silk purse out of that sow's ear.

Enjoy

Sunday, March 13, 2011

No blogging on a Sunday.

See you Monday!

Saturday, March 12, 2011: Pearl Jam - Alive (from MTV's Unplugged)

If you didn't know, I tend to write CSOTD weeks in advance. For the most part, it works.

But this weekend, because of the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, it didn't quite work.

Friday was supposed to be Beautiful Life by Ace of Base. I felt that, in the light of todays events, that was inappropriate, and substituted Samuel Barber's haunting Adagio for Strings instead.

Today was supposed to be Alive from Pearl Jam. It still is.

Friday, March 11, 2011: Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings

for Japan

Thursday, March 10, 2011: Dean Martin - Mambo Italiano

I really wish I could do Cool Song Of The Week as a full time.

This would be my dream job: choosing cool songs and writing about them.

I have so many plans for this blog, too. Because of time restrictions, I haven't had nearly as many "theme" weeks as I would have liked, only two so far. I've got 10 solid ideas ready to go, about a hundred more just bouncing around.

One of those ten will come to fruition next week, I promise. Its been too long.

I can't tell you what it will be, you'll just have to wait on that. I can tell you, however, what it won't be: The Rat Pack Week.

In my second post at the very beginning of this blog, I said this: "If someone wanted me to define cool, I would first point them to Miles Davis."

I then said a close second would be Otis Redding. Probably rounding out the holy trinity of cool, then, would be this assemblage of artists, musicians, actors, swordsmen and ne'er-do-well's.

What a week: a song a day from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and to round out the week, Shirley Maclaine, the "honorary mascot and Girl Friday", though she had just a good chops, acting AND singing, as any of those blokes.

Killer, killer week.  Maybe it will happen someday.

But, the longer I procrastinate, the longer you go, gentle reader, without hearing any of the World Class, Epoch Defining coolness that is from The Pack. Let's remedy that then, shall we?

So, let's drink: to times gone by, times that will never return, and possibly to times that never really were in the first place.

Let's drink - then let's dance.

If you're gonna be a square you ain't-a gonna go anywhere!