Jan 072022
 

Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!

buffalo springfield covers

Retrospective saw Buffalo Springfield’s record company out to catch a final buck or two, their cash cow having imploded ahead of quite how much of a cash cow it could or should have been. The band had been on the decidedly no-frills ATCO label, an offshoot of Atlantic for acts that failed to fit their then template of blues, jazz, r’n’b and soul, along with other square pegs of the day, like Dr. John. I say no frills, as their cover art was always of the decidedly cheap and shoddy nature: Retrospective has a cover that cannot have taxed too many creative brains, the “rips” in the background paper, to allow inserts and a makeshift collage, are all clearly visible.

Retrospective, which is actually subtitled “The Best of Buffalo Springfield,” actually performed as well as their final album, Last Time Around, and surpassed the sales of both Buffalo Springfield and Buffalo Springfield Again. It’s an artistic success, too; it contains many songs which have a greater quality, with the hindsight of time, than perhaps was fully appreciated at the time. Stills’ “For What It’s Worth,” their biggest hit, has repaid itself time after time after time, becoming a soundtrack shorthand for setting a time and place during the US civil rights years. That has to appease him a little, surely, against his always apparent second pegging against his Canadian nemesis.

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Jakob Dylan and Jade Castrinos Team Up for Mamas and the Papas Cover

 Posted by at 1:33 pm  Comments Off on Jakob Dylan and Jade Castrinos Team Up for Mamas and the Papas Cover
Apr 292019
 
jakob dylan jade castrinos

Even though it was never a single, the Mamas and the Papas’ 1966 breakup anthem “Go Where You Wanna Go” has found a place on numerous greatest hits compilations. The track’s catchy chorus embodies how we imagine the free-loving spirit of the ‘60s: “You gotta go where you wanna go / Do what you wanna do / With whoever you wanna do it with.” Shortly after its release, the track became an actual hit for the 5th Dimension (who are getting covered a lot this month). Continue reading »

Aug 252013
 

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with other people singing his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

Forty-six years old. In some ways, it’s hard to believe that Jeff Tweedy, the songwriting genius behind Wilco, has hit his late forties. On the other hand, think back, way back through his recorded output. When Wilco released their first album 18 years ago, Tweedy was already a groundbreaker, having co-founded Uncle Tupelo with Jay Farrar eight years earlier. Together, they practically invented the genre of alt-country before their acrimonious split, when Tweedy was just 26 years old.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Tweedy assembled Wilco out of the ashes of Tupelo’s touring band and slowly built a following. The band teetered on the edge of disaster when they presented their masterpiece Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to their label, only to have it rejected. Instead of going back into the studio to record a boy-band album or whatever the hell the label wanted, they bought the master tapes back and walked. Eventually they signed to a subsidiary of the same company (go figure), and the album came out and went gold. From there on, Tweedy & Company have continued to push the sonic envelope and remain just as vital as ever.
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May 132011
 

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is honoring reggae legend Bob Marley this week to mark the 30th anniversary of his death, bringing on Chris Cornell, Ziggy Marley (both here), Jennifer Hudson, and Jakob Dylan (both below) earlier in the week to cover Marley classics. Keeping it going last night was a rare televised performance from the legendary Lauryn Hill, who is currently touring around the West Coast. Hill and her band played the funky “Could You Be Loved” as well as the less-known, posthumously released ballad “Chances Are.” Continue reading »