In anticipation of live performances in the New England area, Boston indie rock royalty Tanya Donelly and Bill Janovitz re-released their recording of the Kinks’ classic “Better Things.” The duo originally issued the cover in 2015 on Bandcamp, which was quickly pulled down. This is the first wider release of the song. The two played shows in Maine and Rhode Island earlier this month. Continue reading »
Given that Robyn Hitchcock hails from a day where content may not always match the label, his succinctness of title is here pitch perfect. 1967: Vacations in the Past is a set of songs, all of which came to fruition during the (first) summer of love. Hitchcock formulated the selection to bookend his memoir 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left. The jacket copy states, “In January 1966, Robyn Hitchcock is still a boy pining for his green Dalek sponge and his family’s comforting au pair, Teresa. By December 1967, he’s mutated into a 6 ft 2-inch rabid Bob Dylan fan, whose two ambitions in life are to get really stoned and move to Nashville.”
Along the subsequent way, he has become an individual and idiosyncratic voice, as near instantly recognizable for his quirky worldview as for his never more English vocals, despite spending much of his career, and much his success, in the US. (And yes, he subsequently lives in East Nashville, answering on of his ambitions.) Starting off with college radio favorites, the Soft Boys, and then moving forward through and into Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, he now has a solo career, lasting throughout most of this century. He’s never shy of performing cover versions, especially in a live setting, complementing his own prodigious output. Why, not two weeks ago we were considering his Dylan set, Robyn Sings.
The joy of 1967 is that you don’t have to be familiar with Hitchcock’s memoir (although you might wish to be, I recommend it). It stands perfectly as a stand alone, a snapshot of what the 14 year old boy might have been daydreaming to, on the radio. And you don’t really have to have been there yourself either, the selection, by and large, tendis more toward the big hitters of the year, most of which left a long and illustrious footprint. But I bet you never heard ’em much like this!
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‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
If The Kinks had stopped after their first year, they’d still be legends. “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night,” two of the all-time-great sixties rock singles, were both released in 1964. That’s more classics in one year than most bands have in decades (and their year gets even better if you slide in January 1965’s “Tired of Waiting for You,” recorded before “All Day Etc”).
But if The Kinks had stopped after their first year, this list certainly wouldn’t run 50 covers deep. Because, of course, they didn’t stop. They kept releasing hits, including Top 10s in both the ’70s (“Lola,” “Apeman”) and ’80s (“Come Dancing”). Maybe even more importantly, they kept creating, kept innovating, kept pushing forward, not settling into retreading their early garage-rock sound. That wide breadth gets reflected in the Kinks songs that artists covered. The big hits, of course, are well represented. But so are plenty of album cuts and singles that “flopped” at the time but were rediscovered years later.
Ray Davies turns 80 today. So today, we celebrate his birthday—and his ability to withstand decades of interviews about whether he and brother Dave will ever reunite—with our countdown of the 50 Best Kinks Covers Ever.
In Memoriam pays tribute to those who have left this world, and the songs they left us to remember them by.
When news spread on September 2nd that Jimmy Buffett had passed away at age 76, Parrotheads everywhere were consoled by Radio Margaritaville, the popular SiriusXM channel created by Buffett 18 years ago. Caller tributes and recent live concerts continued through Labor Day weekend to celebrate the remarkable career of the Son of a Son of a Sailor who left port for the last time to parts unknown.
Buffett leaves behind a legacy that began as a vibe and evolved into a billion-dollar entertainment and business empire built over five decades. The legendary songwriting-singer and tireless concert performer created an amazing body of work blessed with commercial success. Over 30 studio albums (17 going gold, platinum, or multiplatinum) were produced, along with another 30 compilation, live, or specialty albums, and 67 singles. Covers, in their various forms, were a significant part of Buffett’s repertoire; nearly 100 of them are listed on SecondHandSongs.com, the popular website that keeps track of such things.
Buffett, along with his Coral Reefer Band, successfully developed the “Gulf & Western” island-influenced musical genre into its own casual lifestyle brand. While not always critically admired, the music’s popularity is undeniable.
Let’s raise a mast and look out over the horizon at Buffett’s most interesting cover choices from his storied career…
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You’re going to notice a theme here. We have the usual grab-bag included below (see “Best of the Rest”), but, for our featured covers up top, it’s all Sinéad. There were so many wonderful tributes performed, often in concert and always powerful and moving. Many did “Nothing Compares 2 U,” technically a Prince cover but really a Sinéad song now and forever, but others selected from elsewhere in her catalog. Of this one, which just came out Tuesday, Amanda Palmer wrote, “This song means a great deal to me, as does the artist who penned it, along with everything she still stands for.” A portion of the money from sales will be donated to The Irish Women’s Survivor Support Network. Continue reading »
“Dancing With the Stars” is an international cultural phenomenon. In the UK, where the show originated, it is known as “Strictly Come Dancing”, as it is based on a program called “Come Dancing”. The original show was not a reality pro-am format, but a competition between established couples and teams. It ran for decades into the ’90s. So when The Kinks released “Come Dancing” in the UK in 1982 everyone would know what the song referred to, just from the title. Tireless tourers and Cover Me favorites Less than Jake have now released their version as part of a Dead Formats EP from Pure Noise Records.
The Davies brothers from The Kinks had six older sisters. Ray wrote this song in tribute to them, particularly Rene, who Ray was close to and who gave him his first guitar. She and her sisters “would dress up in their glad rags and their dates would take them out dancing to the local Palais”, often a converted theatre. By the time of the song this culture had disappeared and the Palais themselves were either gone, or had continued their evolution to something else again. Rene, unfortunately, died young, on a dancefloor, so never got to experience being the mother waiting up for her daughters to come home. Ray Davies has developed the song and concept over the years, and it remains close to his heart.
Less than Jake, here accompanied by their Florida buddies the Sooza Brass Band, immediately up the BPM from the original, raising it into Jive speed from the rather than the mid-tempo of the original. The main purpose here is to get the house dancing, and they succeed. Less than Jake’s characteristic ska style is very much enhanced by the Sooza Brass line, including a horn break. The tone is less of nostalgia, retrospection and much more of the “here and now,” the title a call to arms, or feet.