Sep 232019
 

‘The Best Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

bruce springsteen covers

To quote a Bruce song, this list has been a long time comin’. After all, twelve years ago we borrowed one of his song titles to name this site (a song that, surprisingly, doesn’t actually get covered very often). And over those twelve years, we’ve posted hundreds, maybe thousands, of Bruce covers: “Full Albums” tributes to Born in the U.S.A., Darkness at the Edge of Town, and Tunnel of Love; tributes to the tributes, honoring several classic Boss tribute records; a spotlight on the best “Born to Run” covers; and a million news posts. It’s time to pull it all together.

Appropriately enough for a man whose concerts routinely top three hours, this list is long. Fifty covers long, and even then we still found ourselves left with dozens of killer bonus tracks for our Patreon supporters. The hits are all here, of course, but Bruce’s catalog runs deep. This list includes many covers of lesser-known cuts and more recent songs – even one from his just-released solo album Western Stars. Though he turns 70 today, the man is not slowing down, and neither are the artists paying tribute to him. As Bruce famously sang, he learned more from a three-minute record than ever learned in school. Well, here are fifty artists who learned something from his three-minute records.

The list starts on Page 2.

Dec 022011
 

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

There is in every madman a misunderstood genius whose idea, shining in his head, frightened people, and for whom delirium was the only solution to the strangulation that life had prepared for him. – Antonin Artaud

You can’t talk about Daniel Johnston’s art without talking about Daniel Johnston, and about the demons and angels he brings to the table. His mental illness, his obsessions, his rudimentary playing and recording abilities – all become assets, and all contribute to the creation of his drawings and his music, which serve as both his refuge from the world and his passageway into it. Johnston has walked along (and fallen off) the edge for an exhaustingly long time; it’s his art, as much as anything else, that’s kept him tethered to life and allowed him to express what he sees in the benign and malignant hellions he faces every day. Continue reading »