There is a new British TV series called The Hack about the hacking scandal that led to the downfall of the tabloid The News of the World and for music fans, the opening credits feature Pulp with a new cover. The show’s credit sequence is scored by Pulp’s newly recorded cover of Johnny Cash‘s “The Man Comes Around.” Continue reading »
Though Johnny Cash was nicknamed The Man in Black due to his distinctive look, and everyone knows who you are talking about if you reference that nickname, the song he wrote to explain his getup was not one of his biggest hits. Nor is it among his very best remembered songs: it is barely in the Top 25 in streams and it has something like one tenth the covers “Walk the Line” has. Though “Man in Black” is a protest song, it is obviously so associated with Cash the man that the lack of covers makes sense, even for a song that was once a #3 Country hit. Continue reading »
Latvian heavy metal band Iron Wings has released a new cover of the Nine Inch Nails song, “Hurt,” as a stand-alone single.
The song balances itself between the NIN original and the probably better known Johnny Cash cover version. Starting slow, like both versions, this take starting slower and atmospheric before transforming into something more in keeping with Iron Wings’ sound at the end of the first verse. They also decided to use the Cash version of the lyrics (Johnny going for an “crown of thorns,” instead of Trent Reznor’s “crown of shit”). This version also amps up the tempo as the song moves along.
The band also released a lyric video, which relies mostly on still photographs and some video of the band working in the studio as well as performing live.
In releasing the song, the band said, “The song was originally written by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. One of the most famous covers of the song “Hurt” is performed by musician Johnny Cash. We, the band Iron Wings, want to present this song as a reminder that each of us has gone through or is going through our own struggles and this song will mean something different to each of us.”
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, courtesy of staffer Hope Silverman:
What is your favorite cover of a deep cut?
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 a cover that hits differently when the covering artist keeps the original lyrics?
