Peter Gabriel Archives - Page 3 of 7

The Best Neil Young Covers Ever

Posted by Staff at 2:00 pm 29 Responses »

Jan 312019

‘The Best Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

Neil Young released his self-titled debut solo album on January 22, 1969. Well, technically he re-released it that day. It had initially landed without much fanfare the previous November, only for Young to quickly pull it from shelves due to what he deemed a subpar mix. Even in his professional infancy, decades before Pono and the Neil Young Archives, he was a stickler for quality control.

We hope this list would pass muster with him. At 50 songs, it’s our longest to date (tied only with The Rolling Stones) and still barely scratches the surface. We could have quite easily listed the best 50 covers of “Heart of Gold” or “Like a Hurricane” alone. He gets covered about as much as any songwriter alive, and about as well too.

Neil hasn’t slowed down in his own age, and neither has the flow of new covers. Some of the covers below came out near 50 years ago themselves. Others only landed in the last year or two. No doubt another contender will arrive tomorrow. Neil never stops, and, thankfully, neither do covers of his songs. Continue reading »

Matt Pond PA Bandmates Apply Smooth Shimmer to Peter Gabriel and Led Zeppelin Covers

Posted by Ray Padgett at 11:00 am No Responses »

Jan 032019

When last we heard from Matt Pond PA, he was turning The Cars’ “Drive” into a lush folk-pop ballad. Now Pond and bandmate Chris Hansen are back with new covers applying a similar soft sheen to two very different artists: Peter Gabriel and Led Zeppelin.

They covered Gabriel’s “Mercy Street” to close out the year and to celebrate the final episode of a radio show they do in upstate New York. Here’s what Pond wrote about it: Continue reading »

Hear Two Very Different Peter Gabriel Covers by Vampire Weekend and Sugarland

Posted by Ray Padgett at 10:41 am No Responses »

Sep 132018

Not enough artists cover Peter Gabriel songs.

Well, let me amend that. Not enough artists cover Peter Gabriel songs other than “In Your Eyes” (which could stand a break, frankly). But in the past week, the tides have begun to turn with two new, and very different, takes on Gabriel solo hits.

First up, Vampire Weekend tackled “Solsbury Hill.” As a pop singer incorporating world-music influences, Gabriel might be second only to Paul Simon on the list of obvious Vampire Weekend influences. Perhaps as a result, they delivered a terrific live version at a British festival last week, augmented by an expanded live band. Watch it below, after their own world-pop song “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.” Continue reading »

Cover Me Q&A: What’s your favorite cover of your favorite song?

Posted by Staff at 12:00 pm 2 Responses »

Jul 112018

Welcome to Cover Me Q&A, where we take your questions about cover songs and answer them to the best of our ability.

Here at Cover Me Q&A, we’ll be taking questions about cover songs and giving as many different answers as we can. This will give us a chance to hold forth on covers we might not otherwise get to talk about, to give Cover Me readers a chance to learn more about individual staffers’ tastes and writing styles, and to provide an opportunity for some back-and-forth, as we’ll be taking requests (learn how to do so at feature’s end).

Today’s question: What’s your favorite cover of your favorite song?
Continue reading »

The Best Talking Heads Covers Ever

Posted by Staff at 8:00 am 8 Responses »

Mar 292018

‘The Best Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

Let’s start by defining our terms: This list concerns the best covers of the Talking Heads. Because the best covers by the Talking Heads is a very short list.

Here is that list, in its entirety: Continue reading »

Cover Classics: Peter Gabriel’s ‘Scratch My Back’

Posted by Seuras Og at 4:00 pm 2 Responses »

Mar 102017

Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.

Until 2010’s Scratch My Back appeared, Peter Gabriel had been an artist more covered than covering – arguably a pity, given the cracked wistfulness of his croaky beauty. But I guess if you can write material of the quality and diversity that he has, why bother with someone else’s material? The problem was, Gabriel hadn’t been writing that kind of material – this was his first album in eight years.

So was Scratch My Back just, as covers projects can so often be, a stopgap sales pitch to keep his brand alive during a creative lull? Who knows? I think not and hope not, feeling this a deliberate if somewhat failed experiment on two levels. Flawed, maybe, rather than failed.
Continue reading »