Genre-Bending Covers
August 23, 2013 11:26 AM   Subscribe

From the music website, Cover Me, Five Good Covers: five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song. Why not enjoy all new versions of Cars, Milkshake, Can't Help Falling In Love, The Sound Of Silence, Life In A Northern Town, Modern Love, You Shook Me All Night Long, Age Of Consent, Don't Fear The Reaper, Be My Baby, and much, much more. ( Cover Me previously)
posted by The Whelk (40 comments total) 81 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is great! I've found three new artists to look into and that is just from the Bowie covers.
posted by jeffamaphone at 11:31 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


The banjo-y-folk-y shook me all night long put me in a very good genre-blending place, as did the old timey 20s version of Milkshake. It was like all the musical forms that branched out of the music of the old rural/andor southern America went back to their origin points.
posted by The Whelk at 11:34 AM on August 23, 2013


Well, my swap mix is completed.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:44 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Odd that they consistently call it "The Sound of Silence," and even the lone commenter repeats the mistake.
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:45 AM on August 23, 2013


Nice stuff!

Not genre-bending but since Sound of Silence covers are linked in the FPP... here's one of my favorite bare-bones live versions of the song by Jenny & Tyler that I stumbled across by chance a little while ago.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:49 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Rope-a-dope!
posted by box at 11:52 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh, I see now. The name was later changed! I did not know that. Thank god for wikipedia.
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:53 AM on August 23, 2013


I am deeply fond of La Santa Cecilia's norteño cover of "One" by U2. They also do a slightly more faithful version of "Tainted Love".
posted by pxe2000 at 12:01 PM on August 23, 2013 [5 favorites]


The Johnny G version of King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man is genre-bending to a degree I never thought possible. It's just brilliant.
posted by rocket88 at 12:33 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


ARGH. Of course I don't have headphones with me at work today. This would have been perfect music to write up results to.
posted by maryr at 12:40 PM on August 23, 2013


It is confirmed that this is the best cover of (Don't Fear the) Reaper. Those other five are pretty good, though.
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:44 PM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


I like this cover of Born to Run.
posted by jeffamaphone at 12:48 PM on August 23, 2013


Africa (Toto)(7th favourite version) - The original is #2
posted by titus-g at 12:52 PM on August 23, 2013


Very nice! I love covers and reinterpretations and remixes; sometimes the original artist pales in comparison to a later reinterpretation (Joe Cocker finds depths of yearning in With A Little Help From My Friends and Darling Be Home Soon that Ringo Starr and John Sebastian never suspected). Occasionally there are songs that have not yet found their true singer: I think neither Thelma Houston nor the Communards seem to have entirely filled up the space that is Don't Leave Me This Way. However, at least one song here (from what I hear) seems to be immune to this: to my ears, any version of Life In A Northern Town apart from the original seems to be a step away from what the song wants.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:58 PM on August 23, 2013


So I've been a tad obsessed with Alt-J lately and part of the reason is this mashup/cover of Slow (Kylie Minogue) & Still DRE.
posted by gwint at 1:09 PM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


pxe2000: "I am deeply fond of La Santa Cecilia's norteño cover of "One" [pop] by U2."

Cool stuff.
That reminded of me of the Mariachi Mexteca/Hugh Cornwell version of Golden Brown
posted by Hairy Lobster at 1:11 PM on August 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


On a bit of a tangent here...

(but it is related, or at least #inspiredby)

Is there a mefi soundrop room?

If so, can I join and not be looked down on for following

http://open.spotify.com/track/29lX64thMDL3JwbVFIChGv

with

http://open.spotify.com/track/0IMsXGOeNxBG4f1zjHp3Yh
posted by titus-g at 1:18 PM on August 23, 2013


Obligatory post: WMFU's absolutely epic compilation Stairways to Heaven. Direct MP3 link to Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Chorus singing it (wait for the Red Army Chorus to pipe in, it is the definition of glorious).
posted by mcstayinskool at 1:36 PM on August 23, 2013 [4 favorites]


I love covers and was a bit confused when some of the ones I checked out weren't gender bending.

Cool.
posted by jclarkin at 1:46 PM on August 23, 2013


Oh, The Coral Sea's version of Where Is My Mind is unexpectedly great, and I'm still working through the rest.
posted by maudlin at 1:50 PM on August 23, 2013


A further tangent (and a recursive one) it turns out my favourite band (in the genre of: that may or may not be a cult) covered this song: here

Which, for a time, was the most awesome some I heard as kid

Which is in turn a favourite, due to to the summer school I went to stupidly long ago with a soundtrack that sounded like this

There was actual tin foil on the spacecraft.
posted by titus-g at 1:58 PM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


If that We Are Scientists version of Be My Baby isn't used as a first kiss song for some "Hey remember the 00s!" teen comedy then I may have to go out and will it into being.
posted by The Whelk at 2:30 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


(also the bluegrassy Slang Chicken's version of Age Of Consent is totally a mid-life crisis movie where a prissy IT dork is is fired when his firm implodes and he has to go live with his Aunts on an organic goat farm and there is a clash of culture between his fussy, yuppified attitude and the small farming town they live in)
posted by The Whelk at 2:33 PM on August 23, 2013


oh man, the howe gelb version of "can't help falling in love" might have just broken my brain.
posted by dubold at 2:43 PM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


dubold -- Sound's like a Leonard Cohen song.
posted by jclarkin at 2:55 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


The quickest way to make me lose my cool is to play Xiu Xiu's cover of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car. Whaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
posted by spamandkimchi at 4:05 PM on August 23, 2013


This post is making me regret I already have a theme for my swap mix and that I already did genre-bending covers as a mix theme a couple of years ago.
posted by immlass at 4:10 PM on August 23, 2013


pxe2000, thank you. That just made my day.
posted by spamandkimchi at 4:12 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


If we're talking covers, allow me to direct your attention to Thomas Zwijsen's Iron Maiden covers on classical guitar, aka Nylon Maiden. (previously) I also like Thomas Zwijsen & Tineke Roseboom performing Dream Theater's Through Her Eyes.
posted by brokkr at 4:53 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Ugh, that Sugarland version of "Life in a Northern Town" makes me hurt at a profound level. Guess I gotta go back to the GIF DANCE PARTY!
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:05 PM on August 23, 2013


mcstayinskool: "Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Chorus singing it (wait for the Red Army Chorus to pipe in, it is the definition of glorious)."
I watched - from the front row - the Leningrad Cowboys' Total Balalaika Show* as the closing act of the 1997 Roskilde Festival. There was a complete downpour all through the concert and I didn't care one bit.

Glorious doesn't begin to describe it.


*) if nothing else, check out the version of Gimme' All Your Lovin' around the 1 hour mark.
posted by brokkr at 5:43 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


planetesimal: “Flamenco Hotel California always wins. ”
Mariachi "Crazy Train", "Sweet Child o' Mine", and "Bad Romance" would like a word with Flamenco "Hotel California".
posted by ob1quixote at 7:10 PM on August 23, 2013


Also, thank God I didn't have anything else to do tonight. This site is amazing.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:12 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Thought of one more of my cross-genre favorites: "Come On Eileen"—Save Ferris
posted by ob1quixote at 7:53 PM on August 23, 2013


Last One: "Hot & Cold"—Los Colorados
posted by ob1quixote at 8:28 PM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


That Save Ferris cover is brilliant (and what an amazing voice!), but it isn't cross-genre.

Ozzy Osbourne doing disco ("Stayin' Alive") or Depeche Mode doing NIN ("Head like a Hole"), that's cross-genre. Or maybe the punk cover of "Barbie Girl", though that was just begging to be punked. I collect transformative covers (some cross-genre, some just substantially reinterpreting the song). I already did a CD exchange of covers a couple of years ago.

But I am totally bookmarking this site.
posted by jb at 8:42 PM on August 23, 2013


I have a fondness for Jammy bluegrass covers like Back Forty - Gimme Shelter, and Railroad Earth - Roadhouse Blues.

And then there are covers that stretch and bend the original until it snaps, in this case going from a pleasant soul tune to an epic house jam.
posted by euphorb at 9:28 PM on August 23, 2013


One of my favorite-ever covers is The Space Lady's version of Major Tom. Totally synth-tastic.
posted by kaibutsu at 1:18 AM on August 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


That Little Wing cover by Nigel Kennedy is absolutely amazing and I can't believe I've never heard it before.

If I didn't already love the original so much it might have put it at #1, instead it's a very very close second.
posted by lizarrd at 10:12 AM on August 31, 2013


That Little Wing cover by Nigel Kennedy is absolutely amazing and I can't believe I've never heard it before.

I was at a St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concert in St. Paul's UCC where he performed this related piece. It was amazing.
posted by Mental Wimp at 8:40 AM on September 3, 2013


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