The Dropkick Murphys have released their cover of The Pogues‘ “The Body of an American,” for the the upcoming tribute album released in lead singer/songwriter Shane MacGowan‘s memory. We’ve previously covered the release of the Bruce Springsteen song that will be on the record, and the Murphys have released a lyric video to mark this release. Continue reading »
The Tom Waits fanbase is not entirely starved for news lately, but most of it is about Waits’s acting career. On the music side, the news is small change: something about singing on a new Pogues tribute, and similar tidbits.
Then came the announcement of Where the Willow and the Dogwood Grow, a star-studded tribute to the music of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. OK, it’s not new original music (we’ve waited 15 years for a new Waits album) but whatever it is, we’ll take it!
The excitement gives way, on closer inspection, to disappointment: there’s nothing actually new in this new release. (“The large print giveth and the small print taketh away,” to borrow a classic Waits-as-huckster phrase.)
Each cover has been available for years–in many cases, for three or four decades. So this is material we have heard before, and written about before–see our 2023 feature The 50 Best Tom Waits Covers Ever. The most recent of the tracks on hand is “Hold On” by Madison Cunningham, but even that one dates back six years. It’s a killer version, by the way, a clear highlight of this compilation.
Still, having these covers compiled in one place serves a purpose, if only to help reassess the song catalog. And realistically, the number of Waits devotees who have actually listened to all these songs is miniscule; they could fit in a single booth at an all-night diner. If a song is new to you, then it’s new music, regardless of its original release date.
The very title of the album suggests a new framing, a fresh lens: the notion that Waits’s song-writing changed when he partnered with Brennan, and their extensive and lengthy collaboration deserves its own celebration.
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You might think that Springsteen’s first Top 5 was “Born to Run,” especially if you weren’t alive in 1975 like me. After all, it’s a Top 5 most streamed song of his. However, it took The Boss another five years after “Born to Run” – which only made #23 – to make the Top 5. He did it with “Hungry Heart,” the lead single and biggest song from The River, his fifth album and first double album. Apparently originally written for the Ramones, Springsteen recorded it himself because his manager was tired of him giving away his upbeat songs to other artists. Continue reading »
Another track from the upcoming Shane MacGowan tribute album, 20th Century Paddy – The Songs of Shane MacGowan, has been released and this one features a duet between Johnny Depp & Imelda May. (We covered the Springsteen song a few weeks ago.) Continue reading »
The talk of Coachella this year was Justin Bieber—specifically, his controversial headlining set that featured, in part, him singing along karaoke-style to videos of himself he pulled up on YouTube. Plus, Geese debuted their old “Baby” cover live (while Sabrina Carpenter watched sidestage no less). But maybe the best Bieber happening this month was this great lo-fi cover by Arlo Parks.
Merle Haggard’s birthday saw two new covers drop. One’s in the next section. This first one’s even better though. Country singer Jamey Johnson dug deep—and late—for this pick. The song comes off one of Haggard’s final albums, 2010’s I Am What I Am. This is the same album that included “Bad Actor,” which Bob Dylan covered in concert a couple years ago. The album’s seemingly on its way to be the country version of Blackstar or You Want It Darker, a late-in-life masterpiece for the true heads. Continue reading »