Songs That Shouldn't Be Covered

[James_Potter]

I was just listening to Bohemian Rhapsody, and remembered someone singing it on American Idol once and wishing he hadn't done that because it's IMPOSSIBLE to come close to how good the original is...some songs should be classified as untouchable, that no one should ever attempt to do a cover of, and Bohemian Rhapsody is one of them.
What are some others?
I'm thinking a lot of Bob Dylan songs...Beatles too.

[DK]

I was just listening to Bohemian Rhapsody, and remembered someone singing it on American Idol once and wishing he hadn't done that because it's IMPOSSIBLE to come close to how good the original is...some songs should be classified as untouchable, that no one should ever attempt to do a cover of, and Bohemian Rhapsody is one of them.
What are some others?
I'm thinking a lot of Bob Dylan songs...Beatles too.

No songs should be covered, IMO.

[James_Potter]

Why do you say that?

[DK]

Why do you say that?
Its not creative really, and I've never heard a cover that was on par with the original. When you play someone else's song you dont have the same passion, emotion, etc that the original artist had. I do agree that some things are harder/worse to cover than others though.

[zfreak220]

no girl should ever cover a nirvana song.

[JJuggle]

No songs should be covered, IMO.
I will disagree and say that there are no songs that shouldn't be covered. For some songs the likelihood is low that any given cover will be sufficiently well done and original to overcome the established expectations of the original. Nevertheless no song is above a new interpretation.

[JJuggle]

When you play someone else's song you dont have the same passion, emotion, etc that the original artist had.
Bullshit. Songs can and do affect listeners strongly enough to make them passionate about them. Passionate enough to want to create a new version.

Every classical performance is essentially a cover.

[zfreak220]

Every classical performance is essentially a cover.

been playing in orchestra for 4 years now, and i never thought of it that way.

[James_Potter]

no girl should ever cover a nirvana song.
Hahah, true that. Obviously referring to Tori Amos doing Smells Like Teen Spirit....
to DK: think about the fact that The Beatles didn't write Twist and Shout, but its one of their most famous, or at least well known songs. It was written by the Isley Brothers, but the Beatles covered it and it was so freakin' awesome that everyone forgets the Isley Brothers version....

[Unitik908]

no girl should ever cover a nirvana song.

x 10000

Chase

[JJuggle]

Hahah, true that. Obviously referring to Tori Amos doing Smells Like Teen Spirit....
Well notwithstanding that Tori Amos is a bit annoying, it wasn't bad.

Here's a couple of "girls" doing a really nice Battle of Evermore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oxcC18xE4Y) by Led Zeppelin.

[domesticated ape]

I agree with JJugle, there's nothing that shouldn't be covered. Distinctive songs like Bohemian Rhapsody may be difficult to cover well, but for a band to reinvent the song in their own style still takes originality and talent.

[Chexjc]

sometimes you can put a twist on a song..play it in a different genre or something..sometimes thats interesting

[JJuggle]

Here is a very nice album of covers of songs from the 60s called Bleecker Street (http://www.amazon.com/Bleecker-Street-Greenwich-Village-60s/dp/B00000IQMK/sr=1-1/qid=1163894070/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8599984-8198340?ie=UTF8&s=music).

There's even one by John Gorka which is good. ;)

[harper]

I have heard (and collected) many covers of songs that are as good as if not better than the original. Raphael is right, all songs should be covered. You never know when an artist's interpretation will strike a note (bad pun intended) with you.

There is a thread whose topic is covers of songs. (http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25070)

I found this thread with a little used trick known as the "SEARCH" function.

[bcwheelriderguyhehehehehe]

Oh I know! I hate what lenny kravitz did to american woman or what rascal flats did to life is a highway, some bastard coverd white room and I was soooo mad cause that's like my favorite song.

[john_childs]

No songs should be covered, IMO.
None of my favorite songs should be covered poorly. :D

Sometimes you hear a cover and you just sit back and say "yeah, that was good". Sometime someone or a band will have a new interpretation that makes the song interesting again. Sometimes someone will just do the song really well. That's all good.

If there were no covers then we would never have Johnny Cash's version of Hurt (originally by Nine Inch Nails).

I used to consider Pink Floyd songs off limits to covers. Then I heard the Australian Pink Floyd Show (http://www.aussiefloyd.com/) (and saw them live) and I changed my mind. They didn't reinterpret the songs or play them differently. They just played them very well. It was as if Pink Floyd was performing. It was good.

When Queen did the reunion tour with Paul Rodgers doing the singing I didn't go. I didn't buy the album and not sure that I want to listen to it. I'm not saying that the tour should not have been done. The reviews said it was all done very well and Paul Rodgers did an excellent job. But I didn't want to see the tour. Plus the show was in Key Arena in Seattle and the thought of the acoustics in there makes me cringe.

[leo]

- Sinead O'Connor - Troy
- Eric Clapton - Circus leaves town / Heaven
are songs not to be covered!

But the best cover I heared is Johnny Cash doing U2's "One (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=115410558&s=143452&i=115410661)". I did'nt know his history. But from his voice I clearly extracted that he hitted his wife, while when I hear U2 singing it I never have the feeling Bono hits his wife.

[Mikefule]

The idea of "ownership" of a song is a fairly new one. At one time, there were songs and there were performers. The good songs became "standards" and lots of the performers did them - sometimes well, sometimes badly.

Chuck Berry was/is one of the greatest lyricists of the rock era, a great "performer" but a fairly mediocre "technician" on the guitar. At one time, everyone did Chuck Berry's songs, and most of them did them as well as or better than the man himself. Status Quo did a great version of Bye Bye Johnny; The Rolling Stones did a great version of Carol.

Eddie Cochran was one of the greatest of the early rock and roll singer songwriters - a great singer and talented blues guitarist. Sid Vicious, who had rather limited technical ability, did iconic versions of Cochran's C'mon Everybody and Somethin' Else. (Ironically, as Sid's stage persona was based on nihilism, whereas Somethin' Else may be the most aspirational rock and roll song ever written.

Elvis Presley did a passable version of Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes. There are plenty of people who think of it as an Elvis song. Motorhead did a reasonable version of Dion and the Belmonts' The Wanderer and of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' Please Don't Touch.

However, there are certain songs that I can't help feeling should be sacrosanct. I remember cringing then walking out of a shop where they were playing an easy listening muzak version of Freebird. Elton John's version of Honky Tonk Women is similarly unconvincing for a number of reasons.

[Naomi]

. However, there are certain songs that I can't help feeling should be sacrosanct. I remember cringing then walking out of a shop where they were playing an easy listening muzak version of Freebird. Elton John's version of Honky Tonk Women is similarly unconvincing for a number of reasons.


That I entirely agree with. Some major "classics" should really be untouchable. I was horrified when a couple of my all time favourite songs were covered, and made the top ten. The cover versions had been tweaked, and "updated" to a shudderingly dreadful degree. That said, this will always be subjective, and anyone who had not heard the originals, or who did not hold them as special would have been fairly well impressed by the covers.( in my view because the songs were so damn good to begin with.)
Covers can improve on the original, but probably do so less often than they fail.

I certainly don't understand why Elton J needed to cover anyone's music.

Nao

[JJuggle]

The idea of "ownership" of a song is a fairly new one.
Are you talking about when Greensleeves was written or the at the birth of rock and roll? It's not clear from what you've written which you mean. Here's the history of ASCAP (http://www.ascap.com/about/history/), for example. (From it's own point of view.)

[domesticated ape]

However, there are certain songs that I can't help feeling should be sacrosanct. I remember cringing then walking out of a shop where they were playing an easy listening muzak version of Freebird. Elton John's version of Honky Tonk Women is similarly unconvincing for a number of reasons.

Someone else could probably do a good cover of one of those songs. Britney Spears did an awful version of Satisfaction, but Otis Redding's version is great. If a song was never covered how would anyone know whether a cover would be good or not?

[monkeyman]

I think that all songs should be covered...for example, I learned guitar by learning how to play other songs that I liked.

Some songs, though, are extremely hard to pull off...mostly because the artist has a very distinctive voice.

[treepotato]

any Beatles song because their musical genius cannot possibly be matched by anyone else ever (well bob marley but he just wouldn't suit a beatles song anyway!)

[GILD]

I'm with John.

I used to be firmly in the 'No Covers' camp (unless you could've talked Einsturzende Neubauten into doing a cover of Battle of Evermore with Cindy Lauper, I would've bought that).

Then I saw/heard Cash do Hurt.
I used to be a fan.
Now I worship.

And I don't dismiss covers out of hand.

I'm waiting for Pink to do Joplin.

[pinefresh]

Quote:
Originally Posted by zfreak220
no girl should ever cover a nirvana song.
Hahah, true that. Obviously referring to Tori Amos doing Smells Like Teen Spirit....
to DK: think about the fact that The Beatles didn't write Twist and Shout, but its one of their most famous, or at least well known songs. It was written by the Isley Brothers, but the Beatles covered it and it was so freakin' awesome that everyone forgets the Isley Brothers version....

hows this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXVdNKciP94) for a nirvana cover?

[monkeyman]

hows this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXVdNKciP94) for a nirvana cover?

I'd rate it between "Tomcats fighting" and "I want to gouge out my eardrums"

[BluntRM]

Art imitating art: Bands playing covers based on Phish songs that were only covers.


Wasn't rock and roll a ripoff of American blues music? Can you "cover" a style?

[BluntRM]

Digital music, recorded music, creates a hermetically sealed environment; art is seperated from the contextual reality that forged it and what does it become? Shouldn't everything be disassembled? Lived in? "Human. All too human."?

[john_childs]

Can you "cover" a style?
Ask Weird Al. :D

Covers can change the style and arrangement of a song. For example turning a ballad into a grungy or metal song. I have heard covers of rock songs done reggae style. There is room for creativity and complete rearrangement when doing a cover.

[tobbogonist]

There is quite a substansial chunk of pop/RnB/Rap/Dance songs today which are covers. We run a segment at radio where we play an song that has been covered and is currently in the charts, the listeners have to ring up and correctly answer which top 40 song it is.

My favourite cover of all time is a live recording of Matchbox Twenty doing time after time, the next would be John Butler Trio - Message in a bottle and to finish it off would be salmonella Dub with there version of Bob marleys get up stand up. getting carried away: Grindspoon - drugs dont work. the White Stripes - I just dont know what to do with myself. Love outside Andromenda - Andy Warhol. Gyroscope - Monument. 67 Special - Scar. Spoon - upwards at 45 degrees. The panda Band - that was my mistake and i could just go on listing forever.

In my view covers are great and make up a vital part of the evolution of music. It is always interesting to see how certain artists perform a song compared to the original and although some may be terrible (limp Bizkt - Bittersweet symphony) others are an improvement(Ramones (johnny Ramone) - What a Beautiful World). It is feedback for an artist when another band covers their song, If it is thought worthy to cover is that not a compliment?
and also why let all these wonderfull songs die with age? Why not have a new band bring it back into the limelight.

Although i do agree, girls should not cover Nirvana.
The same as boys should never cover Madonna.

(BCwheelridermanfacepersonguy, who was it that covered white room?)

[toddw9]

Oh I know! I hate what lenny kravitz did to american woman or what rascal flats did to life is a highway, some bastard coverd white room and I was soooo mad cause that's like my favorite song.

What Rascal Flatts did to Life is a Highway actually is what made me like that song. I can't stand Tom Cochrane.

[toddw9]

If there were no covers then we would never have Johnny Cash's version of Hurt (originally by Nine Inch Nails).


yet another song where I wasn't a fan of the original, but really enjoyed the cover.

[BluntRM]

There is quite a substansial chunk of pop/RnB/Rap/Dance songs today which are covers.


Like that time when Puff Daddy looped the riff off of Led Zep's "Cashmere" for the soundtrack to the re-make of Godzilla. You can only stack shit so high...

[tobbogonist]

exactly, there are old riffs re-emerging all over the place. The worst would be that rouge traders one but if you listen closely most pop songs have at least one riff taken from another song.

Any of the Idol TV shows are murder on old songs.

[GILD]

I'm a maniacal Doors fan and still enjoy Will Young's version of Light My Fire.
A song is a living, breathing entity and deserves to have some fun as well and not just stay cling-wrapped 'the way we remember it'.

[Jerrick]

I have not heard one rap song that didnt sound like another one. Same mechanic beats, no vocal talent, rapping about the same stuff.

Its really sad.

I say all song can and should be covered. Ive done cover songs of Queensryche, Led zeppelin, metallica, theme songs from tv shows, and lots of other ones. If you can pull it off well, it sounds fantastic.

Here the link to the Queensryche one. The others never got recorded.

Silent Lucidity (http://www.daretosing.com/attachment_view_popup.php?id=70162).

[tobbogonist]

Jerrick i must agree with about the rap songs, although some Australian Hip Hop artists eg: The Herd, Hilltop Hoods have a way in making it enjoyable for me and as a bonus their
songs means something.

Ironically, being a covers thread, The Herd cover an Australian war song/poem I was only nineteen which i must admit is great live, its unusual for a rap/hip hop song to actual move me.

[Zzagg]

I haven't read the whole thread (:o ) but I'm with Jjuggle: there are songs that got covered and became "different":
-The beatles: "With a little help from my friend" covered by Joe cocker (at woodstock)
-Bob Marley: "I shot the sherif" covered by Eric Clapton
-Bob Dylan: "All along the watchtower" covered by Jimy Hendrix
... the original singers admitted that the covered version were "better" than the original version (I heard that Bob Marley first wasn't pleased to have one of his song covered but finally thought it wasn't bad at all)

...sorry if this has already been posted;)

[harper]

I have not heard one rap song that didnt sound like another one. Same mechanic beats, no vocal talent, rapping about the same stuff.



But we were discussing music, not spoken word "art."

[leo]

But we were discussing music, not spoken word "art."
Wait a minute... your English is probably better than mine;
but I though music had no words, and songs have
(and the title of this thread was "Songs That Shouldn't Be Covered").

[Mikefule]

Wasn't rock and roll a ripoff of American blues music? Can you "cover" a style?

No to the first question; yes to the second.

The blues is a complex mixture of forms including various versions of the famous 12 bar sequence, and other forms that are 8 or 16 bars long. There are influences of gospel music, and some crossover with Cajun and country styles, and a lot of corssover and feedback with jazz. Early blues was acoustic and free form. Later Chicago blues was more like what we would recognise as rock - or at least the faster stuff was.

Rock and roll in one form used the simple 12 bar blues format, simplified, and not using all the "blue notes". However, not all rock and roll was (is) based on the blues format. Very little of Buddy Holly's output, for example.

But the big difference is the content. As a friend once said, "I thought I'd been living the rock and roll lifestyle until one day I recognised myself in a blues song. When did that happen?"

Rock and roll is about boys meeting girls (and vice versa). Blues is about women leaving men (and vice versa).

[johnfoss]

any Beatles song because their musical genius cannot possibly be matched by anyone else ever
What about all the Beatles hits that were covers? Were they being unfair to the original artists? Should you even *like* the Beatles' versions of those songs (such as Twist and Shout, Good Golly Miss Molly, among very many others)?

Elton John covered Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in the early 70s. I think both versions are good, and very different (though I prefer the original).

Other covers that are better than the originals:
Kiss by Tom Jones/Art of Noise (original by Prince)
I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston (original by Dolly Parton)
Workin' in a Coal Mine by Devo (original by ?)

Among other things, covers often represent "easy money" for artists, if done well. What bothers me is a seeming lack of new content out there, and what seems to be an increasing use of pre-existing material, all the way down to classic rock riffs as someone mentioned earlier. But any song can be covered. How does a cover hurt the original? It'll always be there. If the cover isn't good, don't listen to (or buy) it.

[BluntRM]

I have not heard one rap song that didnt sound like another one. Same mechanic beats, no vocal talent, rapping about the same stuff.
[/URL].

GZA, Liquid Swords?!? The Beastie Boys and Q-tip?!

[Jerrick]

I was mainly refering to the newer stuff that I hear on the radios.

I love the beatie boys, specially there older albums.

Havent heard of the other 3 you posted. =p

[BluntRM]

I was mainly refering to the newer stuff that I hear on the radios.

I love the beatie boys, specially there older albums.

Havent heard of the other 3 you posted. =p

Q-tip rapped with the B-Boys on Ill-Communication--"Timbers on my toes and this is how it goes". He was part of A Tribe Called Quest. And the GZA is the only part of Wu-tang Clan I can hang with...

[GILD]

Rock and roll is about boys meeting girls (and vice versa). Blues is about women leaving men (and vice versa).

That has got to be the most eloquent and most accurate definition of the genres I've ever heard.

[domesticated ape]

I'm a maniacal Doors fan and still enjoy Will Young's version of Light My Fire.
A song is a living, breathing entity and deserves to have some fun as well and not just stay cling-wrapped 'the way we remember it'.

I thought Will Young's version of that song was really boring! IMO Massive Attack, Shirley Bassey and Al Green's versions are much better:)

I'm currently listening to Morrissey's cover of The Jam's "That's Entertainment", definitely an improvement on the original despite being near enough the same.

[GILD]

Al Green did a version?

Le me go to download.

[tomblackwood]

There's even one by John Gorka which is good. ;)
Let's not jump to any hasty conclusions...


But back to topic:

I agree with JJuggle on the "no song shouldn't be covered" concept. I'm a big fan of bluegrass and traditional American music (often rooted in traditional Irish music), and it's much about covers. The creativity comes (in part) by what you do during the fiddle break.

But if I was absolutely forced to name a song that shouldn't be covered, I'd probably have to go with Don McLean's "American Pie".

I'm a maniacal Doors fan and still enjoy Will Young's version of Light My Fire.
I'm a maniacal Doors fan and still enjoy Jose Feliciano's version of Light My Fire.

[JJuggle]

I'm a maniacal Doors fan and still enjoy Jose Feliciano's version of Light My Fire.
I like the Doors first record but never quite got beyond that. I never understood the whole Morrison mythology thing.