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I've just been through one of my periodic MP3 player spring cleaning exercises. This is a slightly trickier business than it might first seem.
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On an organised trip to Egypt a few years back I managed to wire my MP3 player into the antiquated boom box that served as our boat's entertainment system then set-up a playlist that managed to satisfy both the Egyptian crew (Bob Marley) and our tour leader (Crowded House), even though I didn't share their tastes. The moral being that it always pays to keep some rubbish records on your player should you ever help with an impromptu disco somewhere in the 3rd World.
Anyway, I have traditionally used my periodic MP3 player tidy-ups as an excuse to mouth-off about iPods.
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On an organised trip to Egypt a few years back I managed to wire my MP3 player into the antiquated boom box that served as our boat's entertainment system then set-up a playlist that managed to satisfy both the Egyptian crew (Bob Marley) and our tour leader (Crowded House), even though I didn't share their tastes. The moral being that it always pays to keep some rubbish records on your player should you ever help with an impromptu disco somewhere in the 3rd World.
Anyway, I have traditionally used my periodic MP3 player tidy-ups as an excuse to mouth-off about iPods.
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I don't really have an axe to grind over iPods themselve per se, though there are better players around. Hey, some of my best friends use iPods and I once shared a flat with someone who was part iPod. No, it's the manipulative iPod marketing that really gets my goat. Particularly the image of 'fashionable' people jiggling around, completely cocooned from what's going on around them. Now there's a narcissistic icon for the 21st century. Stick a hood on the f*ckers and portray them jerking off and they'd have no need to interact with anyone else at all.
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Ooops, and there was me implying that I wasn't going to launch into iPods this time. Naughty me.
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No. This evening's spring clean left me pondering upon some of the more outre tracks on my player. So here is my top five recommended list of bizarre cover versions that shouldn't work but actually do, in a strange 'bad is good' kind of way
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Ooops, and there was me implying that I wasn't going to launch into iPods this time. Naughty me.
.
No. This evening's spring clean left me pondering upon some of the more outre tracks on my player. So here is my top five recommended list of bizarre cover versions that shouldn't work but actually do, in a strange 'bad is good' kind of way
- Common People, Pulp - covered by William Shatner and Joe Jackson on supporting vocals
. - Gin and Juice, Snoop Doggy Dog - covered by The Gourds, bluegrass style
. - Hey Joe/ Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix - covered by Marc Almond/ Soft Cell
. - Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin - covered by Rolf Harris
. - Don't You Want Somebody to Love, The Jefferson Airplane - covered by Jim Carey.
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Next time: Stef's list of covers, mostly by Johnny Cash, that sound better than the original versions, then Stef's top twenty five cover versions of Walking in Memphis complete with pictures of his other half, but no Muriel, sitting by a piano in the Hollywood Cafe on a Friday
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6 comments:
I would like to add anything by 'Hayseed Dixie" http://www.hayseed-dixie.com/mercantile.htm
l particuarly AC/AD's 'You Shook Me All Night Long'. But on covers that are actually wonderful Johnny Cash is hard to go past with tracks such as Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt' and Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus'. Johnny in his twilight is spectacular with a voice that sounds like each breath may be his last. He managed to wring out anohter 2 or 3 years somehow.
Mmmmm, Hayseed Dixie - the name sounds promising already ...
Re. Johnny Cash - first saw the video for Hurt only a few weeks ago. I almost cried for the first time in 15 years ...
Perhaps its a sign of my great age that 'Hounds of Love' by 'The Futureheads' sets my teeth on edge. That's another one for your list.
Haven't actually heard that Futureheads version ...
... until earlier this evening that is. By the sound of it they tried to do the cover in the style of Haircut 100. Dark and disturbing indeed.
Yes, definitely one for my list, thank you
Peter, you're cheating and took the easy way out - the only one I didn't know was the RHCP Ramones cover (and I've just listened to that)
All of these are good records. Disappointingly so.
Surely you've come across something in the much more challenging 'so bad that it's good category'?
Missing the point is half the fun of life and should be encouraged at all times
Just listened to 'So Happy Together' - you're right, bad, but not bad enough to achieve true greatness ...
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