Actor Michael Shannon and musician Jason Narducy took to the stage of The Tonight Show to perform a cover of R.E.M.’s “Driver 8,” in advance of their upcoming tour, covering the group’s 3rd album, Fables of the Reconstruction in full. Continue reading »
Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!
Warren Zevon was quite an excitable boy himself, it seems, if not necessarily in the league of the character described in the song of that name, a highpoint in his third album release. A maverick individual with a bag of demons, he cast a spiky flame across the AOR uplands of the ’70s and ’80s, falling in and out of favor, exasperating and alienating friends, family and fans alike. A couple late career upturns brought him back into focus as the century turned, before lung cancer scythed a swath through his renaissance. It also supplied him the means for some exceptional last gasp, literally, material, releasing The Wind just one month before his 2003 death.
Like many of that era, Zevon’s career began as a songwriter for hire/jingle composer. The Turtles were early recipients of his style. His 1970 debut Wanted Dead or Alive sank with little trace, sending him back to supper clubs and session work. Jackson Browne gave him a huge break, producing and promoting his second disc before taking him out on tour, as his support and gig-buddy. The Browne connection, and the prestigious Asylum label, contrived to bring attention earlier lacking, his quirky songs now available to a much larger audience. This eponymous 1976 album was duly hailed “a masterpiece” by Rolling Stone.
Bolstered by recognition, two years later saw the release of Excitable Boy, again helmed by Browne, together with guitarist Waddy Wachtel. This saw Zevon’s career-best sales, going platinum and attaining a Billboard Top 10 placing. Furthermore, the single from the album, “Werewolves Of London,” #21 on the US chart, prove also an unlikely critical hit in the U.K., at a time when punk rock was more the emergent flavor of the day, alerting this writer to his oeuvre, a love maintained immediately and thereafter.
So let’s see how it and rest of Excitable Boy has lasted, as inspiration and influence for the covers work of others.
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You’ve definitely heard the song before, but you have never heard it quite like this. The Kansas City, Missouri electronicore (electronic+metalcore) band The Browning have just released their take on Eiffel 65’s hit song, “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” in advance of their upcoming tour of the US. Continue reading »
Twin Shadow recently asked himself…”What if “Birds of a Feather” had a winter treatment?”
The end result is a cozy retro version, which is a combination of pulsing, fresh synthesizer lines, with deep and affecting vocals. The introductory drumbeat is quick-paced and upbeat. Then guitars enter: strummy and enlivening. The double hit of the kick drum combines with the snowflake glitter of the chimes—the instrumentation results in an unexpected musical synergy. Continue reading »
It’s been a holiday tradition for over 10 years and yet again, Sondre Lerche has released his annual holiday cover.
As Lerche wrote with the release of this year’s cover, “we pick the huge hit we feel most compelled to cover at the end of each year, and record and mix it in one day.” The following day, the song is released. This year he decided to tackle Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”
“’Good Luck, Babe,’ is a punch in the gut for the way it calls out, not just the object of desire for not daring to live truthfully, but also society for making it so damn hard to be who you really are, and love who you really love,” Lerche added. He also added that he approached the song by asking, ‘what if “Good Luck, Babe” was arraigned by Ryuichi Sakamoto?’
Lerche’s version slows down Roan’s original version, allowing the listener to really hear the message the song imparts. And while you could argue that slowing down any song can add unwanted importance to sometimes banal lyrics, the closing repetition of “you’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling,’ rings out after the song is finished.
Lerche’s first 10 years of covers were released on the 2023 album, Understudy. He suggested a follow-up compilation coming out in 2033.
Lerche has two performances schedule for 2025, both at the Oslo Opera next week. After that, Lerche says he is leaving his calendar clear. And as he ended his note, “I’m wishing you and yours love, compassing and music, always.”
Rarely Covered looks at who’s mining the darkest, dustiest corners of iconic catalogs.
What a great year 2024 was for The Police!
No, they didn’t reform. And no, we’re not talking about yet another cover of “Every Breath You Take,” to add to the 358 already made by the likes of Andy Williams, Sacha Distel, Shirley Bassey, and Dolly Parton. We’re not even talking about the 137th cover of “Roxanne,” to complement those by George Michael, Aswad, and terrible a cappella group The Flying Pickets. Instead, we’re talking about all three ex-members of the mighty new-wave band having been out on the road and performing live sets sprinkled with revitalized versions of Police tracks, to remind us of the remarkable range of their iconic catalog.
That man Sting? The ex singer, bassist, and chief songwriter of the group, who went on to occasional–shall we say?–po-faced solo stardom in his liking for lutes, madrigals, and live albums from his Italian villa? He performed Police songs, at places like the Wiltern in LA, with just one killer guitarist (Dominic Miller) and one killer drummer (Chris Maas), and sounded more urgent and more rock than he had in ages. He tore into era-defining favorites like “Can’t Stand Losing You” and “Message in a Bottle,” but also “Driven to Tears” and “Reggatta de Blanc”!
Guitarist Andy Summers? He performed intimate solo gigs at venues like Le Poisson Rouge in New York, armed with “Roxanne” and “Spirits in the Material World,” but also “Tea in the Sahara” and “Bring on the Night.” And drummer Stewart Copeland? He put on “Police Deranged for Orchestra” shows at such opera houses as Teatro degli Arcimboli in Milan, with renditions of “Walking on the Moon” and “King of Pain,” but also “Murder by Numbers” and “Walking in Your Footsteps.”
So, no, we’re not here today to discuss a country legend putting her spin on a song about sexual possessiveness and stalking, which is seemingly up there with “Happy Birthday to You” in terms of social ubiquity and popularity (as fun as that may be). We’re here, instead, to reflect Sting and co.’s own dusting down of some lesser known–yet still essential–Police tunes by concentrating on the acts that have dug deep into their catalog to bring us compelling covers of tracks from “O My God” to “Once Upon a Daydream” and “Behind My Camel.” We’re all about the artists who’ve reinterpreted the instrumentals, the early songs, the deep cuts, and the B-sides, in celebration of the punk- and reggae-inspired power-trio brilliance of the band in their blond-haired 1977-83 pomp.
Come, then, on an alternative journey though Policedom that takes in Seattle rock legends, a German dub act, ex-thrash-metal heads, ex-Lemonheads, and, actually, an a cappella group. A good one!
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