Five Good Covers: “Psycho Killer” (Talking Heads)

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Jan 122024
 

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

“Hi. I got a tape I wanna play.”

David Byrne begins the concert film Stop Making Sense with those words. He then begins the show doing a solo acoustic “Psycho Killer,” backed only by a boombox rhythm track. It’s the capital letter of one incredible sentence of a film, and last year it stepped forward once again into America’s collective consciousness as the documentary’s anniversary rerelease swept Talking Heads into the spotlight one (more? last?) time.

“Psycho Killer” was the first song the band ever worked on – Byrne wrote the first verse, Chris Frantz the second, and Tina Weymouth came up with the bridge’s French lyrics. From small beginnings come great things; for all the success the band had afterward, this remains their signature track.
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Hear Robyn Adele Anderson’s Bluegrass-Jazz Version of “Seven Nation Army”

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Oct 192022
 
Robyn Adele Anderson

At this point, “Seven Nation Army” is much bigger than the White Stripes – watching the baseball playoffs last week, I heard the crowd chanting the bassline. It feels like if you ever watch a baseball game, you’ll hear the crowd chanting the bassline. (It was my hometown team’s 8th inning rally song for years.) It has moved into a realm few songs reach, where it is played constantly at sports events all over North America. This makes it a hard song to love even if, once upon a time, many of us did indeed love it.

Robyn Adele Anderson, of Postmodern Jukebox fame, and her friends are here to save us from the sports arena ubiquity of Jack and Meg’s most famous song. Advertised as a bluegrass cover, her version of “Seven Nation Army” flirts with some of the retro jazz shtick of Postmodern Jukebox as well, given the very non-bluegrass rhythm section of a standup bass and full drum kit. Continue reading »

In the Spotlight: Timbaland’s Songs

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Apr 092020
 

In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!

Yesterday we heard covers of songs where Timbaland is front and center. Today we learn which of our favorite tunes were co-written and molded by Timbaland’s signature production style. Again, there are too many hits to enumerate all of the songs he was involved in here, but feel free to explore further and trace Timbaland’s fingerprint through songs from the ’90s to the present.

Timbaland has been recognized for his behind the scenes work including three years’ worth of Songwriter of the Year awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, a Producer of the Year award from the BET Hip Hop Awards, and nominations for two of the five spots for Album of the Year in 2004.

We’ll see that Timbaland was extremely influential in launching new artists onto the music scene and helping pre-established artists change course in their musical style. Tomorrow we’ll see how Pharrell Williams and Timbaland worked together to create the ultimate re-branding…

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The Best Cover Songs of March

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Mar 312020
 

Check out the best covers of past months here.

best cover songs march 2020
Adam Green – All Hell Breaks Loose (Misfits cover)

Misfits go mariachi! Adam Green, best known as one half of the Moldy Peaches, plays “All Hell Breaks Loose” like it was “Ring of Fire.” He writes: “In The Misfits and in his glorious solo work, Danzig bridged punk and metal with the blue-eyed soul music of the mid-1960’s like The Righteous Brothers and The Walker Brothers. I’d had an idea for a while to do a Scott Walker / John Franz style production at punk speeds, and the Misfits song ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’ seemed like the perfect vessel for the experiment.” Continue reading »

Postmodern Jukebox Gives Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” a 1920s Jazz Twist

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Mar 192015
 

In 1995, it seemed like you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”.  I know this because I was working at a Top 40 radio station at the time and nine out of every ten phone calls I answered were a request for this song.  (The other one was for “anything by Boyz II Men”.) Continue reading »