basejumper
TK Veteran
Cameo - Word Up 2009
Gun - Word Up 2014
Gun - Word Up 2014
Covers better than originals- Black Betty Spiderbait for starters any more?
- Thread starter basejumper
- Start date
pabloescaban
VIP Member
Edited.
Double post
Double post
Last edited:
teddybloat
TK Veteran
a good cover should bring something new to the artistic table, give a new reading to the song or a new dynamic at least.
the following three will demonstrate that.
1 Beatles - Twist and Shout
british recording studios in the 1950s were very staid affairs
session bands in bow-ties and pressed suits would give 'proper' backing to crooners in comfy jumpers singing soft generic songs to sooth middle aged parents whilst the kids slept.
the music was to be on beat, strictly performed to the fashion of the time
enter the beatles.
four scousers who had the temerity to write their own material, play their own instruments and had a left handed drummer who splashed around in the off beat. scandalous.
the recording of twist and shout must have been a terrible shock to every sound engineer present.
imagine for a few minutes that you are that engineer:
the band are at the end of a marathon recording session. their singer, john lennon, has give his all. the band are flagging. they want to record one more number : twist and shout. an upbeat number. you feel john's voice is about to give, that the band can't give any more.
but the beatles are about to turn in a beatlemania bravura turn that will shock you to your core.
john downs a pint of milk, his throat is red raw and he has only one take left in him.
the band are now shirtless, sweating and slapping each other on the back hyping themselves into a frenzy. you've never seen anything like it in a recording studio.
you count them in and then this happens:
the band are tight as any you've heard, the drums get wild and a you can hear the pain as john rides his voice too the absolute edge - something that is forever preserved in the recording. the drums build, the harmonies layer the band are wooing and screaming encouragement and as the last cymbals crash the recording clearly captures mccartney shouting "YEAHHHH!" he knows the band have utterly nailed it.
you've never seen or heard anything like it and you have just witness the start of a musical, cultural and political powerhouse in full, glorious flow.
and your recording captures it beautifully.
2 Johnny Cash - Hurt
Trent Reznor wrote hurt. and he would finish his bands set with the song. it's a mea culpa exploration of self loathing, addiction and pain. a deeply personal song that surely could only ever be sung with any conviction or credance by it's creator. So when he was asked if an aging country star, johnny cash, could cover the song on an album he was rightly sceptical. he gave permission and what it produced was an artistic master piece.
i cant separate the cover from video. in the video cash is clearly failing. he is actually weeks away from dying. he doesnt so much sing the song as live it. his life rolls before our eyes, his wife looks on apparently knowing this is the end, and cash lays his failing bare for all of us to see. it's an incredibly moving piece of art and i rarely fail to be moved by it.
when the video is finished, cash is gone. a copy is sent to his family and one of his children warns his mother not to watch the video as its so powerful.
reznor watches the video with his band mates and gives a now famous quote:
"i feel like i've lost a girlfriend, that songs not mine anymore"
compliments don't come more heartfelt than that.
3 jose gonzales - hand on your heart.
unlike the other two picks i don't think this song is culturally important or musically spectacular. but gonzales pulls of a very clever trick here.
he takes a jaunty stock, aiken and waterman hit factory number performed by kylie in the height of her post aussie soap opera girl-next door blandness, and he brings out a new reading of the song.
he puts his guitar into a very unusual tuning DADDAB where 5 of the six strings are tuned way down, and he uses suspended chords to bring out the rather melancholic lyrics. it gives the song a new atmosphere and a completely different reading. which is what good covers should do.
the following three will demonstrate that.
1 Beatles - Twist and Shout
british recording studios in the 1950s were very staid affairs
session bands in bow-ties and pressed suits would give 'proper' backing to crooners in comfy jumpers singing soft generic songs to sooth middle aged parents whilst the kids slept.
the music was to be on beat, strictly performed to the fashion of the time
enter the beatles.
four scousers who had the temerity to write their own material, play their own instruments and had a left handed drummer who splashed around in the off beat. scandalous.
the recording of twist and shout must have been a terrible shock to every sound engineer present.
imagine for a few minutes that you are that engineer:
the band are at the end of a marathon recording session. their singer, john lennon, has give his all. the band are flagging. they want to record one more number : twist and shout. an upbeat number. you feel john's voice is about to give, that the band can't give any more.
but the beatles are about to turn in a beatlemania bravura turn that will shock you to your core.
john downs a pint of milk, his throat is red raw and he has only one take left in him.
the band are now shirtless, sweating and slapping each other on the back hyping themselves into a frenzy. you've never seen anything like it in a recording studio.
you count them in and then this happens:
the band are tight as any you've heard, the drums get wild and a you can hear the pain as john rides his voice too the absolute edge - something that is forever preserved in the recording. the drums build, the harmonies layer the band are wooing and screaming encouragement and as the last cymbals crash the recording clearly captures mccartney shouting "YEAHHHH!" he knows the band have utterly nailed it.
you've never seen or heard anything like it and you have just witness the start of a musical, cultural and political powerhouse in full, glorious flow.
and your recording captures it beautifully.
2 Johnny Cash - Hurt
Trent Reznor wrote hurt. and he would finish his bands set with the song. it's a mea culpa exploration of self loathing, addiction and pain. a deeply personal song that surely could only ever be sung with any conviction or credance by it's creator. So when he was asked if an aging country star, johnny cash, could cover the song on an album he was rightly sceptical. he gave permission and what it produced was an artistic master piece.
i cant separate the cover from video. in the video cash is clearly failing. he is actually weeks away from dying. he doesnt so much sing the song as live it. his life rolls before our eyes, his wife looks on apparently knowing this is the end, and cash lays his failing bare for all of us to see. it's an incredibly moving piece of art and i rarely fail to be moved by it.
when the video is finished, cash is gone. a copy is sent to his family and one of his children warns his mother not to watch the video as its so powerful.
reznor watches the video with his band mates and gives a now famous quote:
"i feel like i've lost a girlfriend, that songs not mine anymore"
compliments don't come more heartfelt than that.
3 jose gonzales - hand on your heart.
unlike the other two picks i don't think this song is culturally important or musically spectacular. but gonzales pulls of a very clever trick here.
he takes a jaunty stock, aiken and waterman hit factory number performed by kylie in the height of her post aussie soap opera girl-next door blandness, and he brings out a new reading of the song.
he puts his guitar into a very unusual tuning DADDAB where 5 of the six strings are tuned way down, and he uses suspended chords to bring out the rather melancholic lyrics. it gives the song a new atmosphere and a completely different reading. which is what good covers should do.
