I said I wouldn’t do it. I was called out, however, and if there’s one thing I’m not, that’s a punk. All my neon green hair fell out a long time ago. —Dw.
Ben Lee – Catch My Disease from Awake Is the New Sleep
Bleu – Could Be Worse from Redhead
Calexico – Ballad of Cable Hogue from Hot Rail
Devo – Devo Has Feelings Too from Smooth Noodle Maps
Fischerspooner – Never Win from Odyssey
Jethro Tull – Wond’ring Aloud from Aqualung
Kino – Holding On from Picture
Otis Redding – My Girl from Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul
Robert Vaughn & the Shadows – Love Came Falling from Love and War
RPWL featuring Ray Wilson – Roses from Live: Start the Fire
Sean Watkins – Summer’s Coming from Blinders On
Spoon – The Fitted Shirt from Girls Can Tell
Super Furry Animals – Lazer Beam from Love Kraft
Tammy Faye Bakker – The Ballad of Jim and Tammy from the 12-inch single (1987)
Terry Scott Taylor – Writer’s Block from John Wayne
Vanden Plas – Phoenix from Beyond Daylight
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Have you read the entertainment news today? Oh boy. A particularly dreadful tune is set to break some major records for sales, this week’s new movies arriving under a mantle of critical kudos have been trounced at the box office by The Dark Knight, a four-week winner no less, and the spate of mind-numbing reality TV shows, once considered dead in the water by pundits, are not only thriving but multiplying for the 2008/2009 season. It is, as the critics have feared, the grim realization that they have zero effect on the zeitgeist. But then again, we always knew that.
A word of note to anyone who is not a music nerd accidentally finding themselves at this site: a cover song is when an artist records another artist’s song, hence covering it. The term ‘remake’ fits as well. The term ’smart-ass’, at least relative to this article, refers to those who decide to go all hipster and record something that bears no relevance, charm or wit toward their own sensibility. I’m thinking of Madonna’s cover of “American Pie” or that godawful A Perfect Circle CD where the songs weren’t just reworked, they were worked over, until all that was left was roadkill disguised as tribute. Then there’s the Bluegrass Tribute to Pink Floyd’s The Wall. More notoriously, I’m thinking of the late-’50s pop songs from black artists covered by teen idol white artists because, you know, if it comes from a white guy in a sweater, the subtext can’t be about sex. Right? Pat Boone? Tutti Frutti?
After suffering many years with major ailments, Larry Norman died on Sunday. As a member of People in the late ’60s, he introduced the world to the concept of Christian rock under the guise of the band’s psych and prog rock. On his seminal solo release, Only Visiting This Planet (1972), he presented a song whose title became his career-long motto: “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?”