Jun 132025
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

This week brings the news that Sly Stone has passed away, leaving many anthems and antics to remember him by. His passing comes at a time when Sly is fresh in mind, though several decades past his productive years. That’s due in part to the release, just a few months ago, of Sly Lives!, Questlove’s documentary about the artist, and his earlier doc Summer of Soul, featuring Sly and the Family Stone at the Harlem Cultural Festival. In part it’s thanks to Sly himself, since his own long-awaited memoir came out in 2023 and is still being processed. And in part he’s fresh in mind because Sly’s music was just so timeless, his performances so indelible.

Even if you can’t name more than one or two of Sly Stone’s hits, his influence is inescapable. When you dance to the music–any music, particularly dance music of the last 30 years–it’s likely he’s in that music’s DNA. Sly directly shaped the sound and sensibility of performers like Michael Jackson and Prince who went on to eclipse Sly himself in popularity. (Prince acknowledged the debt in his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction speech.) It’s largely through Prince’s influence that the Sly vibe pulses through the music of today’s strongest performers. Sly’s mark wasn’t only on the dance-floor, either: he was also a huge influence on Miles Davis, and without Sly’s template there’d be no Bitches Brew, or jazz fusion as we know it.

The most enduring of Sly Stone’s hits for me is “Family Affair” from There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971). “Family Affair” is the most successful of all Sly’s singles, and yet artists haven’t covered it to death. In fact, it’s a little surprising that artists have covered it at all, because it’s that unique. One of the most genre-defying songs of its era, it’s at once a deeply personal snapshot–recorded as the Family Stone ensemble was unraveling–and a comment on societal decay, the generational and racial divides roiling the country as ’60s optimism gave way to despair. “Family Affair” signaled a new dark direction for Stone, with its stark sonic palette stripped of the exuberance and lush orchestration that defined his earlier recordings.

The song features the groundbreaking use of a drum machine. It highlights keyboard work by Sly’s good friend Billy Preston (who had a knack for stepping in when great bands were falling apart). There’s a vocal marked by a remarkably grainy texture and a confessional tone. (It ultimately admits to nothing, and Sly’s voice despite its intimacy has a cold and distant feel.) The refrain by Sly’s sister Rose is almost airy and light in comparison, as if the vocal styles reflect the two different children Sly sings about in the first verse (“One child grows up to be somebody who just loves to learn…”).

Subsequent verses describe emotional traps within and without the family:

You can’t leave, ’cause your heart is there
And you, you can’t stay, ’cause you been somewhere else

Sly’s words circle back on themselves and cancel out:

You can’t cry, ’cause you’ll look broke down
But you’re cryin’ anyway ’cause you’re all broke down

He’s caught up in contradictory desires; he could see the downfall coming, perhaps. These lines were weighty the day the record came out, and they only get heavier the more you know about the way Sly’s entrapment in addiction destroyed his circle, his family, and his career.

After this song, sadly, the story for Sly was mostly a story of chaos and breakdown. He made recoveries, yes, but never made a comeback. The irony is that he outlived so many of the artists who followed his model–Gil Scott-Heron, Michael Jackson, Prince–and still never found that second wind. But Questlove said it in his documentary, and the words stand true even with this week’s sad news: “Sly Lives.”
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Jun 062025
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

Arthur's Theme covers

A man with the voice of an angel sings of someone caught between the moon and New York City. It’s easy to imagine a liminal paradise between those two places; perhaps that’s where the angelic narrator resides, watching over the story he tells. He’s not just recounting events; he may be guiding them, placing redemption in the path of a lost soul, for potential entry into Heaven.
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May 232025
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

Ain't No Sunshine

Hard to believe we haven’t done this, given the myriad reprises and reinventions it has received over the years. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know*, you may think we have, but we haven’t, something to remedy right now. (*And in case you have never counted, the answer is 26 times…….)

The breakthrough hit for Bill Withers, “Ain’t No Sunshine” was originally the B-side of “Harlem,” the initial single drawn from his debut long player Just As I Am. DJs started playing the flip more; this led to a re-release and bingo, it hit #3 on the Billboard chart, in the summer of 1971. Quadruple platinum sales have accrued in the intervening years, in both the US and the UK, performing nearly as well in other markets, often getting a second surge of sales whenever some of the cover versions themselves cracked the charts, from Michael Jackson’s in 1972 to the one by American Idol‘s Kris Allen in 2009.
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May 092025
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

Dire Straits

Fact: “Sultans of Swing” is a musical manifesto par excellence. Dire Straits might have a reputation (unearned) for not taking risks, but in terms of a debut single, their willingness to go against fashion and to consider biting the hand of pop norms was a significant statement.

Dire Straits were one of the biggest acts of the ’80s. There is sometimes a sense that a talent as obvious as Mark Knopfler’s would inevitably find a way to be a success. Musical stardom is not like that. Sometimes the gap between a Mark Knopfler and a Vini Reilly is a small one, and the distance between either of them and someone who performs occasionally to a coterie of rapt fans even smaller. We all know of amazing guitarists who are not playing arenas for years on end and are giving lessons to budding future axe-wielders rather than wielding themselves.

There is also the issue of whether Dire Straits would have been the vehicle for that success, had it come at a different time or in a different way. With natural self-awareness augmented by decades of therapy, bassist John Illsley notes that the band members shaped Mark Knopfler’s vision, but it was nevertheless the band leader’s vision, and his songs. The outcome was massive success, and perhaps it would have been anyway. Or perhaps not. Perhaps the polishing and shaping from the different members of the group over the years fully enabled the outcome.

The band came together fortuitously. Mark’s younger brother David moved into a rundown apartment in a proleterian part of London, later followed by Mark, and eventually a four-piece band together came together. Of these, initially, only drummer Pick Withers was making a living from music, as a successful session musician and in-house drummer at Rockfield Studios, recent subject of a fascinating book by Tiffany Murray. The band could see that they had something special, but what band does not? They were willing to work hard, realizing that they might not get many more throws of the dice. What they did not have was a lot of road to take off or any means to turn their aptitude and endeavor into a record deal. Although they could live cheaply, by forsaking any sense of luxury or, indeed, hygiene, they could not do so forever.

As Illsley tells it a legacy from a grandmother, passed on to him by his parents, hoping it would cover rent for a period, was spent on a demo tape instead. The anchor of that tape was “Sultans of Swing,” and it was persistent radio play by a sympathetic believer in the band that eventually got the attention of the record companies, from which the band could choose a partnership. They chose that partnership on the basis of musical fit, rather than succumbing to the ministrations of Virgin, who assumed that indulgent female company might be the way to seal the deal!

As a choice to roll the dice on for the last time, it is a ballsy choice. Musical London in 1977 appealed to the emotions, and often the sartorial sense. Punk was taking it three chords and spittle-flecked frontmen to the irritated front pages of the newspapers and thus to the hearts of the young, disco was in the nightclubs appealing to lovers of all types, and rock was getting rockier and developing a subculture. Dire Straits was practicing, and proselytizing, none of these things. There was no fashion, fans did not form close-knit groups, and the music was not really danceable, nor did it have the rhythms for love.

The song specifically celebrate a form of music that, if it was ever fashionable in the UK at all, it was during a short-lived fad for ‘Trad Jazz’ in the ’60s, and which young people would largely not be aware of. The Sultans of Swing were a Dixieland Jazz band playing in a particularly hardscrabble bit of London, to an audience largely indifferent to their presence. Mark Knopfler found them fascinating. They made no concessions to fashion at all, and were happy with their choices. Partly because some of them had other (less enjoyable?) jobs to fall back on. Or because some of them, for instance the rhythm guitarist, seemed not to want too much success or adulation. They were happy with their lot, because they were playing the music they loved with people that they liked. They were not going to make any concessions for the sake of success. As manifesto and metaphor it was clear. Illsley and Withers provide expert, practiced and nuanced, rhythms to work with, David Knopfler does not make his guitar “cry or sing” but he provides a necessary backdrop. The choice to have Mark Knopfler’s legendary solo go on into the fade sent another message: I Can Do This All Day. 
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Apr 042025
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

Sexual Healing covers

The American, or Caribbean, musical expatriate in Europe has been a constant since travel between the continents has been easy. From the Jazz Age to the present day, some artists prefer to ply their trade on the European continent rather than the American one.

Each individual had their own reasons for their move. Pianist Hazel Scott was a huge success in the US, becoming the first Black American woman to host a network TV show, but the McCarthy witch hunts chased her out of America. Others were trying to escape drug or alcohol problems, or vindictive individual drug dealers, or, in the case of Chet Baker, were hoping that the authorities in Europe might take a more lenient view of their drug habits, which they had no intention of curbing.

A significant theme from many African American artists, from Josephine Baker onwards, was that the segregation policies and lack of appreciation of Jazz or Rhythm and Blues as art forms in their home country made Europe an enticing prospect. They could feel more appreciated in their art, and love who their heart wanted to love rather than who society was willing to let them love. This has been eloquently described by Sonny Rollins, and features in all the biographies of Miles Davis. Artists who had been to Europe fighting in the Second World War on behalf of their country, contrasted their acceptance as heroes in the lands they helped liberate, with their status back home.

This world is beautifully captured in one of the greatest movies about music ever made, Round Midnight. In the movie, saxophonist Dexter Gordon (who spent many years himself in Copenhagen) plays jazz musician Dale Turner. His alcohol problems have made him unwelcome in his favorite playing spots in the US, and so he takes a residency in Paris.  There he finds a supportive community of post-bop musical superstars, and people who lionize him as a person and support him in his craft. The story itself is based on the life of Bud Powell. Through love, nurturing and appreciation as an individual, Turner/Gordon refinds his muse and his mojo. The Oscar-winning soundtrack albums, curated by Herbie Hancock, are exquisite works of art.

Marvin Gaye’s time in Europe followed one of the tropes. Creatively, emotionally and financially broken by years of drug abuse, he had lost his marriage, record deal and reputation, and moved to Europe in the late ’70s. His relocation to the port town of Ostende, Belgium in 1981 was an attempt to get away from his problems. It seemed to work, and Gaye was able to start recording after curbing his drug use, and getting fit both physically (by running) and spiritually. Forced by circumstances to be innovative with his music, he learned how to use the Roland TR-808 and Jupiter 8 synthesizers (then mainly used as drum machines) to create a whole sound.  From that the album Midnight Love and its biggest hit, “Sexual Healing,” emerged.

Recovery from cocaine addiction can awaken all sorts of things in the addict. In Gaye’s case his libido returned.  He was still a young man. He used that energy and creativity to create one of the great songs about sex.  It also gave Gaye one of his biggest hits and led to receiving his only two Grammy Awards.

One of the biggest risks the expatriate faces is when he thinks he is over the worst and can return across the Atlantic to face his demons, with greater strength. It does not always work out as they hope.  In the same way that Dale Turner/Bud Powell struggled when they returned to the US, Gaye’s potentially triumphant return to musical stardom and his family home soon ended in disaster.

The universality of the message and success of the song has meant that there have been many covers over the years.  Here are five of the best.
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Mar 182025
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

The original 1980 movie Fame was a gritty affair. British director Alan Parker wanted to produce a piece which warned against the folly of seeking validation for yourself from others alone, and how that impulse could be exploited. Having taken control of the project, he hardened up the script and themes, to the extent that New York’s High School for the Performing Arts withdrew co-operation.  The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rating for the film is currently a “15” (equivalent to “R”) noting the use of strong language, nudity and drug use. Exploitative pornography, abortion, and repressed homosexuality are also themes. It is a warning as much as a celebration of Fame as a lifestyle choice.
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