Good Covers

I dunno how many of you guys are music buffs. Hell, for all I know, most of you listen to classical music, and all of what I'm gonna say is worthless. Well, read it anyway, cause I wrote it, bitches.

Anyway, for any of you familiar with the various popular music genres, you have to also be familiar with the practice of covers. Generally, a cover is something a band will do when they run out of good ideas of their own, so instead decide to cover someone else's hit song to try and make money. I rather dislike most covers, as much on principle as for the fact that generally most covers either totally destroy the original song, or don't have enough of the new band's flavor added in to make it new and exciting.

Here though, I will discuss some of my favorite covers by bands I like, as well as one or two covers I completely detest. Starting us off:

Shout 2000 by Disturbed, off of the Sickness. This song, from people I've discussed it with, tends to be a cover people either love or hate. I myself love it. Anyone that has heard the original Shout by some 80s band I can't be bothered to look up, will know that while the track was decent, it was never angsty enough. It lacked passion. Maybe that's just me of course, but if you listen to the Disturbed's cover, you feel some extra angst thrown in, plus a little humor. These guys know their covering an 80s track, and are gonna have fun with it. This track has the passion the original lacked.

Eleanor Rigby by Godhead, off of... something dealing with the world ending. (checks MP3) Damn, don't have it in there... oh well. You can look it up if you really want. As it is, this track was originally done by the Beatles. I hate the Beatles, and yes, I know, for shame of me. I do though. I think, much like Pink Floyd and the Doors, while they were groundbreaking in their time, that doesn't mean I have to love them now. That said, this cover rocks. The version I have blends in a goth-y techno feel to the track and.. I dunno, conveys an eeriness I dig. There is a second version of the track (ironically, both were released at different times on their album), and it has a more rock feel, as well as being remixed. My call is to try and find both versions and see which you like better.

Whiskey in the Jar by Metallica, off of Garage, Inc. (as well as elsewhere). I hate Metallica more than I hate the Beatles. They are a bunch of whiners. They are all "we want our music protected," when they haven't released anything worth stealing since the "Black" album. Of course, a decent track can get crapped out by even the worst bands (Limp Bizkit somehow or another is able to make one good track an album... generally... and still has a career). Metallica did this with a cover of a track by Thin Lizzy (from Ireland, I believe), which amusingly was a cover/rewrite or an Irish drinking song. You can find a decent version of the original drinking song by the Dubliners. Listening to the drinking song and Metallica back to back is amusing. As it is, Metallica's track rocks, being a great example of hard rock in general, and a good cover specifically. Avoid the Thin Lizzy track. It's boring and only worth listening to for true hardcore music aficionados.

99 Red Balloons by Goldfinger... of... Stomping Ground I think. This is a fun cover that doesn't stray far from the original. It's got enough punk thrown in to be fun and different... plus the fact that the lead singer does half the lyrics in German as a nod to the English and German releases of the track is rocking.

Dream On by Aerosmith. A cover of... their same track. This one is more funny than good. It's rare for a band to cover their own track. Vanilla Ice has done it like, 8 times so far, every time he decides to try out a career again. But this one, the story is that simply Aerosmith decided that Steve Tyler's voice changed so much from back in the day, a cover of the song would be cool and fun. Worth a listen.

As for bad covers, one of the most detested in my book is Tainted Love by Marylin Manson. I mean, listen to the two tracks back to back, his and the original. Did he actually do anything to the track, or just simply add his voice to it. So like the original it aint even funny.

Limp Bizkit also put out a pretty awful cover... although in my opinion pretty well everything by that band, barring a song here or there, is complete and utter dreck. Their cover of George Michael's Faith rates among the worst covers by bands that have some form of musical talent.

I could go on... and on... and on... but eh, I made my point, and it leaves me more stuff to cover (ha ha) later.