Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
Nina Simone brought the haves and have-nots together in 1968 when she released a medley of two songs from the musical Hair on her album ‘Nuff Said!. “Ain’t Got No” and “I Got Life” weren’t paired up in the original stage show, but Simone makes the combination natural, necessary, and irresistible, celebrating the self over the superfluous. Continue reading »
Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
In the mid-’80s, a besotted Robert Smith decided to write a song about a trip he took to the seashore with his girlfriend. The girlfriend would later become his wife; the song would later become “Just Like Heaven” (hereinafter “JLH”), the Cure‘s signature song, the one that everybody knows and every band wants to play. The cascading guitar line, the ethereal synths, and the rush in Smith’s vocals, especially that opening “Show me show me show me,” combine to make the song as exciting and inevitable as a waterfall. It’s a remarkably malleable song as well, easily transformed to sound perfectly at home in any context – it’s as likely to show up on a metal tribute as it is to be redone as a lullaby for babies. The following five songs fall somewhere in between. Continue reading »
Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
Let’s Dance may suffer when compared to David Bowie’s ’70s catalog (this goes for thousands of other albums as well), but there are artists who have spent their entire careers unable to come up with three songs as good as the three that open the album. “Let’s Dance” was the #1 single, “China Girl” went top ten, but the leadoff track, “Modern Love,” just might be the one that’s captured the most hearts. It’s got energy, singalong lyrics that can’t quite bring themselves to sound mindless, and that “buuuuut IIIII try” hook could land a tiger shark. Continue reading »
Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
It’s hard to think about The Breakfast Club – perhaps the best thing to come out of the ’80s after parachute pants – without recalling one of Simple Minds’ biggest hits: “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” Who can forget the cult classic’s memorable closing scene, Judd Nelson’s triumphant fist-pump into the air? Although Simple Minds had already released a few popular tracks overseas, it wasn’t until 1985, when “Don’t You” appeared in The Breakfast Club, that the Scottish New Wave pop rock band finally entered America’s consciousness. Continue reading »
Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
There is in every madman a misunderstood genius whose idea, shining in his head, frightened people, and for whom delirium was the only solution to the strangulation that life had prepared for him. – Antonin Artaud
You can’t talk about Daniel Johnston’s art without talking about Daniel Johnston, and about the demons and angels he brings to the table. His mental illness, his obsessions, his rudimentary playing and recording abilities – all become assets, and all contribute to the creation of his drawings and his music, which serve as both his refuge from the world and his passageway into it. Johnston has walked along (and fallen off) the edge for an exhaustingly long time; it’s his art, as much as anything else, that’s kept him tethered to life and allowed him to express what he sees in the benign and malignant hellions he faces every day. Continue reading »
Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” is a three-and-a-half minute clarion call about the joy of sex. No “take my heart” sentiments, no “our love’s gonna last” – just one loud, raunchy, glorious celebration of a one-night stand, bypassing the brain and going directly to the gut (and points lower). There’s something primal about it – the simple beat, the easy to remember words, the sheer volume of the performances – that gives the listener a feeling both of power and control over that power. Little wonder that the song is de rigueur for pole dancers: it empowers both the men and the women; its instant familiarity makes hearing the opening notes like welcoming back an old friend; and by God, it’s fun. Continue reading »
Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
When Bruce Springsteen began to construct and record the songs that would make up his third album in early 1974, he knew the pressure was on. Following two critically-acclaimed but low-selling records, he had to produce a masterpiece or risk his career being over before he even got to make his impact on the world of pop music. Little did anyone, even Bruce himself, know at the time just what was stirring in his head, aching to get out: an 8-song magnum opus that stands almost unparalleled in the annals of rock. It’s one of the only records to earn a 10.0 rating from Pitchfork, and at least one critic has heralded its title track the greatest song ever written. We’re talking, of course, about Born to Run. Continue reading »
Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
The closing track of Bob Dylan‘s (greatest?) album Blood on the Tracks, “Buckets of Rain” has little of the invective that colored other songs on the album; it’s a long way from the “idiot babe” in “Idiot Wind” to the “honey baby” found here. Dylan’s saddened, but he’s also very tender to the one he’s addressing. They’ve swept up the ashes of their relationship, and now they’re looking at each other with rueful smiles, permitting themselves to feel both the love they still have and the pain it still brings. It’s no fun, but they do what they must do, and they do it well. Continue reading »
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